Muscle modes of the equestrian rider at walk, rising trot and canter

Equestrian sports have been a source of numerous studies throughout the past two decades, however, few scientists have focused on the biomechanical effects, including muscle activation, that the horse has on the rider. Because equitation is a sport of two (the horse-human dyad), we believe there is a need to fill in the knowledge gap in human biomechanics during riding. To investigate the differences between novice and advanced riders at a neuromuscular level we characterized the motor output of a set of riders’ key muscles during horse riding. Six recreational riders (24 ± 7 years) and nine professional riders (31 ± 5 years) from the Spanish Classical School of Riding (Lipica) volunteered to take part in this study. Riders’ upper body, core and lower limb muscles were monitored and synchronized with inertial data from the left horse’s leg at walk, rising trot and canter. We used principal component analysis to extract muscle modes. Three modes were identified in the advanced group whereas five modes were identified in the novice group. From the novice group, one mode united dorsal and ventral muscles of the body (reciprocal mode). Advanced riders showed higher core muscles engagement and better intermuscular coordination. We concluded that advanced horse riding is characterized by an ability to activate muscles contralaterally but not reciprocally (dorsal-ventral contraction). In addition, activating each muscle independently with different levels of activation, and the ability to quickly decrease overall muscle activity is distinctive of advanced riders.