INDIVIDUALITY OF CENTRE OF BODY MOVEMENT AT WALK AND TROT WITHIN THE HAFLINGER BREED

Abstract

Kinematic measurements of fourteen Haflinger horses without lameness, walking and trotting on a treadmill were taken to document the location of the centre of the body (CB), defined as the centre between markers on the head, on the withers, on the sacral bone and on the lateral wall of all four hooves in relation to the sacral bone marker. During walk and trot, there are three dimensional CB position (x: forward-backward, y: side-to-side, and z: up and down). For each horse minimum of eight motion cycles were considered in walk as well as in trot. For all three axes, mean CB location, its standard deviation and its 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated. For statistical analysis, Shapiro-Wilk test and Spearman’s correlation test were carried out. Mean body mass was 463±42 kg, CI (439, 487); mean height at the withers was 131±5 cm, CI (128, 134); mean height at the sacrum was 128 ± 2 cm, CI (127, 130). Mean CBx was in front of the sacrum (walk 74±2 cm, CI (72, 75); trot 73±2 cm, CI (72, 74); walk vs trot p=0.008). Mean CBz was below the sacrum (-71±2 cm, CI (-73, -70) in walk; -69 ± 2 cm, CI (-70, -68) in trot; walk vs trot p=0.001). Positive correlations were found between MeanCBx and trunk length in walk and trot, which could highlight the biomechanical importance of the trunk as it plays a crucial role in deceleration and acceleration. The analysis of the body location centre may be used to identify differences between horses of the same breed, and thus support evaluation of the quality of the horse during locomotion.

Keywords

• motion analysis
• conformation
• centre of body
• walk
• trot
• Haflinger horses