Three-dimensional analysis of horse and human gaits in therapeutic riding

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Abstract

Therapeutic horse riding or hippotherapy is used as an intervention for treating individuals with mental and physical disabilities. Equine-assisted interventions are based on the hypothesis that the movement of the horse's pelvis during horseback riding resembles human ambulation, and thus provides motor and sensory inputs similar to those received during human walking. However, this hypothesis has not been investigated quantitatively and qualitatively. This study aimed to verify the hypothesis by conducting a three-dimensional analysis of the horse's movements while walking and human ambulation. Using four sets of equipments, we analysed the acceleration patterns of walking in 50 healthy humans and 11 horses. In addition, we analysed the exercise intensity by comparing the heart rate, breathing rate, and blood pressure of 127 healthy individuals before and after walking and horse riding. The acceleration data series of the stride phase of horse walking were compared with those of human walking, and the frequencies (in Hz) were analysed by Fast Fourier transform.

The acceleration curves of human walking overlapped with those of horse walking, with the frequency band of human walking corresponding with that of horse walking. Exercise intensity, as measured by the heart rate and breathing rate, was not significantly different between horse riding and human walking. The levels of diastolic blood pressure were slightly higher during horse riding than during walking, but were lower during both conditions compared with those in normal conditions (P < 0.01). The present study shows that, although not completely matched, the accelerations of the horse and human walking are comparable quantitatively and qualitatively. Horse riding at a walking gait could generate motor and sensory inputs similar to those produced by human walking, and thus could provide optimum benefits to persons with ambulatory difficulties.

Introduction

Equine-assisted therapeutic interventions are used in many institutions worldwide for the treatment of individuals with mental and physical disabilities. Therapeutic horse riding or hippotherapy is often employed in the physiotherapy of children with cerebral palsy (Shurtleff et al., 2009, Sterba, 2007) and patients with spinal cord injury (Lechner et al., 2003) and multiple sclerosis (Hammer et al., 2005). Although many reports have demonstrated the therapeutic benefits of horse riding, the underlying mechanisms have not been elucidated. The lack of scientific approaches in the study of therapeutic riding may be a major obstacle to the development of hippotherapy and/or therapeutic horse riding (Potter et al., 1994).

The movement of the horse's pelvis during horseback riding provides motor and sensory inputs to the human body. The reciprocal movement of the walking horse produces pelvic movement in the rider's body that closely resembles human ambulation (Bertoti, 1988, Fleck, 1992, Potter et al., 1994). This implies that the horse's pelvic movement is similar to the human pelvic movement while walking. Later studies that investigated the therapeutic effects of horseback riding on children with cerebral palsy were premised on the same hypothesis (McGibbon et al., 1998, Sterba et al., 2002). However, this hypothesis has not been verified by quantitative and qualitative analyses.

This study aimed to investigate the hypothesis that the stimulation received from the horse's gait resembles the stimulation produced by human walking. Accelerometry offers a practical method to objectively monitor movements in humans (Mathie et al., 2004) and animals (Robert et al., 2009, Scheibe and Gromann, 2006), including horses (Barrey, 1999, Matsuura et al., 2008). We used this method to analyse the three-dimensional acceleration of horse and human gaits. Acceleration results in changes in gravity, generating physical stimuli to the rider's body. The similarity between the accelerations of the horse and human gaits indicates that horse riding could provide the motor input received from walking, and thus can be used as a treatment intervention for persons with ambulatory difficulties.

Section snippets

Materials and methods

All the experiments in this study were approved by the Animal Experiment Ethics Committee of Azabu University (080618-1).

Fifty healthy individuals (21 men and 29 women; age, 20–24 years) participated in this study. We used 11 horses (age, 10–24 years) of the following breeds: thoroughbred (TH; n = 3, all geldings), Kiso (n = 1, gelding), Hokkaido (HK; n = 1, gelding), Selle Francais (SF; n = 1, mare), criollos (CRI; n = 2, both geldings), and half-breed (HB; n = 3, all mares) (Table 1). The horses were

Acceleration analysis

Fig. 1 shows the representative stride-phase acceleration data series for the participants (men and women) and TH 3, HK, KISO, SF, and CRI 1 horses. Marked differences were observed among the participants as well as among the horses. The results of ANOVA followed by Tukey's post hoc test showed significant differences between men and women in the X axis at 30–40% (men: 0.28 ± 1.22 m/s2, women: −0.49 ± 1.27 m/s2, P < 0.05) and 80–90% (men: −0.29 ± 1.17 m/s2, women: 0.5 ± 1.14 m/s2, P < 0.05) of stride phase.

Discussion

In this study, we characterised the movement of the horse while walking and human ambulation, analysing the three-dimensional accelerations and evaluating the similarity in the movement patterns of human walking and horse walking. The gait movements showed continuous three-dimensional gravitational variations in acceleration (m/s2) and frequency (Hz), quantitatively and qualitatively.

The frequency peaks of horse walking corresponded with those of human walking (Fig. 2). Although the

Conclusions

The present study shows that horse riding provides motor and sensory inputs through variations in gravity, and that the acceleration of the horse while walking was comparable with that of human walking quantitatively and qualitatively. Our results indicate that horse riding at a walking gait provides stimulation (i.e. acceleration) highly similar to that generated by human walking, and thus provides optimum treatment benefits to individuals with ambulatory difficulties.

References (20)

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