How much do you walk, trot and canter your horse during a training session? How is your horse’s rhythm and push-off in each gait? Observing and assessing equine gaits is a difficult task for the human eye. A gait analysis app lets you know exactly if your horse’s movements are balanced. Curious about how it works? Read more here.
What does an equine gait analysis app measure?
Gait analysis for runners or rehabilitation is nothing new. They have been used for years to analyse and improve sport performance in humans. But did you know that there’s also an app for horse gait analysis? An equine gait analysis app will let you measure the duration, rhythm and push-off of your horse’s strides in walk, trot, and canter. Are your horse’s strides constant? Or do they speed up and slow down? How constant is your horse’s rhythm? An equine gait analysis app measures the following:
- Elapsed time in each gait (halt, walk, trot, and canter)
- Rhythm in each gait
- Push-off (push-off power) in walk, trot, and canter
- Progress over time
- Comparison to the average (benchmark)
Measure rhythm in each gait
Each horse has its own optimal rhythm. The gaits of a young horse that has just been broken will probably have less constant rhythms than those of an adult horse. A young horse won’t have the collection of an experienced horse. As the level of training increases, you train on getting the rhythm more and more constant. The Equestic SaddleClip measures and analyses rhythm in BPM (beats per minute).
- Measure and see the differences in the rhythm of each gait at a walk, trot, and canter
- Analyse your progress over time and don’t forget to give your horse (and yourself) a reward as you improve 😉
The narrower the peak, the more constant your horse’s rhythm
Measure your horse’s push-off
Your horse’s push-off is the power with which he propels himself forward. We prefer to see the hindquarters well under the horse’s body. And that takes power. This can be trained through different exercises, like riding lots of transitions (from walk directly to canter, for example). If you want to know more about your horse’s push-off in walk, trot, and canter, you can accurately analyse and measure this with an equine gait analysis app.
- The higher the line, the more powerful your horse’s push-off. Your horse will then have a greater suspension phase and a nice upward movement.
- The wider light green line shows the difference between minimum and maximum push-off. The thinner this line is, the more consistent your horse’s push-off.
- The orange dotted line is the benchmark. This allows you to compare your progress with others.
What does equine gait analysis bring?
It’s important to understand the gaits and development of your horse. Horse gait analysis ensures a more balanced training and the opportunity to make adjustments if necessary. Even pleasure riders can improve through data analysis. Horse gait analysis from your workouts is not only valuable for you – it also gives your instructor more insight into your work. Seeing the results of past schooling sessions can help your instructor to train you more effectively.
Horse gait analysis with the Equestic SaddleClip
The first ‘aha’ moments most riders have when first using the Equestic SaddleClip are for the time ridden on each hand and the time spent per gait. We all try to balance this out, but a handy horse training app can help you. The Equestic SaddleClip lets you measure and analyse your horse’s gaits and progress. The SaddleClip lets you see if your intuition is right. Ready to measure your workouts?
