A NEW SIMPLE BIOMECHANICAL METHOD FOR INVESTIGATING HORSES JUMPING KINEMATICS

Abstract

The purpose of present study was to use a simple mathematical model to investigate horses’ kinematical parameters such as initial CG angle and velocity components, horizontal distance to fence and to leading hind limb at take-off and jump height during jumping a spread fences of 100 and 140 cm high. A digital cam- coder was used (25 Hz) along with Ulead Studio program in order to get time and related distance data. The total jump distance and time of flight for each horse were measured to 10-2m and 10-2s respectively. Biomechanical formulae have been established in order to evaluate the kinematic parameters. The results obtained by this simple method agreed well with the results obtained by other researchers with sofisticated method. The simplicity of the method may permit the riders and trainers to to improve fast the jumping techniques for successful jumping.