Dr. Anne Bondi BHSI, PGDip, PhD, Director, Saddle Research Trust In a 2-part article published in our newsletters last year, I described how, through a progressive series of 12 published research studies, the Ridden Horse Pain Ethogram (RHpE) was first developed and then successfully applied to assist pain recognition in clinical cases and in further
Understanding gait abnormalities and behaviour in the ridden horse Read More »
Following on from the summaries for Part 1 and Part 2 of the Rider Weight Study, Part 3 focuses on the changes seen in back dimensions, muscle tension and muscle pain after being ridden by riders of different sizes during the study. Potential factors for the changes were determined to include: the rider to horse
Rider weight continues to be a contentious subject, with passions often running high in online debates, but in the absence of definitive scientific evidence to provide guidelines as to what is an appropriate load for a horse to carry, it remains difficult to assess this. A recent study set out to investigate the effects of
Ridden Horse Pain Ethogram Part 2: Application of the Ridden Horse Pain Ethogram in the field The series of seven developmental studies produced a Ridden Horse Pain Ethogram (RHpE) that provided a useful tool for determining the presence of musculoskeletal pain in ridden horses performing poorly. The next step was to determine if it could
Dr. Sue Dyson led the study on tacking up behaviour in horses which involved a regular rider of each horse completing a questionnaire about the history of professional tack fitting, previous diagnosis of gastric ulceration, and their perception of the horse’s behaviour during tacking up and mounting. A similar questionnaire was completed by an experienced
In this podcast Sue Dyson discusses her recent article on application of a ridden horse ethogram to video recordings of horses before and after diagnostic analgesia and Stephen Purdy discusses small herd behaviour in domestic donkeys. Listen to the podcast here. View the full article here, which will be free to access until 26th October.
Dr Thilo Pfau is a computer scientist by training, who achieved his PhD in signal patterning and process recognition. Thilo moved from a postdoctoral research position at the International Computer Science Institute in Berkeley, California to the Royal Veterinary College Structure and Motion Lab in the area of biomechanics of quadrupedal movement. Through his exposure
Russell Mackechnie-Guire of Centaur Biomechanics discussed the prevalence and causes of rider asymmetry and the importance of the correct horse, rider and saddle combination at his presentation, given at the 3rd International Saddle Research Trust Conference in December 2018. It seems that riders have a poor perception of their weight distribution! Russell’s presentation is amongst others, such as
Is rider asymmetry affecting the welfare and performance of your horse? Read More »
