Effect of retraining racehorses on gait

(c) Donald Blais  Dreamstime.com

 Retraining of Thoroughbred racehorses for use as saddle horses results in changes in gait more
suited to their new career, according to a study in Korea.

 The research, by Taewoon Jung and Hyoungjin Park, examined the effects of 12-week saddle horse conversion training on Thoroughbred gait.

 Twelve horses, six geldings and six mares, were involved in the study. Their gaits, at walk and canter, were motion-captured before and after saddle horse conversion training. 

 Describing their findings in Applied Sciences, the authors report:

 “The retraining program applied to the Thoroughbreds in this study induced significant changes in the kinematic parameters. After training, retired Thoroughbred racehorses had shorter stride lengths and a reduced center of mass displacement, center of head displacement, displacement between the center of the head and the center of the neck, and head–neck angles, bearing in mind that no significant differences in the duration of gaits and the center of mass and head velocities were observed.”

 “Although the effect of retraining was not statistically significant in the stride lengths, all stride lengths were reduced in both walk and canter.” Changes were more marked in the right fore and hind limbs than in the left limbs.

 All races on Korean tracks run in a counterclockwise direction. The authors suggest that the resulting asymmetry explains the greater changes in the stride lengths of the right compared with the left. “These changes mean that the retraining positively affected the imbalance of the horse’s body”

 They conclude: “Through saddle horse conversion training, the horse’s movement changes may be considered as the habitual movements in the life of a racehorse being gradually transformed into ideal movements for a saddle horse.”

           

For more details, see:

The Effect of 12 Weeks of Saddle Horse Conversion Training on Thoroughbred Horse Gait
Taewoon Jung and Hyoungjin Park
 Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(13), 6411;
https://doi.org/10.3390/app12136411