Gait and Stride Analysis

Abstract

This initial study was to investigate the effect of Cyclo-Ssage Equine Massage system on horses with injury or stiffness, and to show the benefits of using the Cyclo-Ssage System for warm up prior to training or performance, using a Legria HV40 video recorder and Dartfish analysis software. 3 Horses were filmed before and after application of the Cyclo-ssage rug. The video software captures the horses in walk, trot and canter then using the Dartfish software we were able to measure the stride length of each gait and identify any changes that the Cyclo-Ssage System has made to the horses gait and which represents increased or decreased movement in each stride. This study was done in a Dressage arena on rubber and silica sand surface. After application of the Cyclo-Ssage System the horses showed positive changes in their movement, each horse displayed increased extension in each gait

Introduction

The aim of this study was to measure the effectiveness of the Cyclo-ssage System on the bio-mechanics of the horse. Each horse had a previous injury affecting its way of going. The method of this study was to use a video camera to record each horse in the three gaits and Dartfish Analysis software to measure the stride after each recording.