It's all about the timing - teaching equestrian feel in practice

The study included ten adult riders at intermediate level and four riding teachers. Five riders and two teachers were from Sweden, the remaining from Norway. The riders were students at the riding teacher educational programs at Strömsholm, Sweden and Starum, Norway. The riding teachers worked as instructors at the respective program.

The riders rode lessons with both riding teachers from the same country, but on different days (one week apart in Sweden, two days apart in Norway). Each rider rode two horses each day (40 lessons in total in the study), one horse they usually ride and one horse that they had ridden once or twice at the most. The unfamiliar horse was ridden regularly by one of the other riders. Hence, the design was a partial crossover with one arm for each country. During each riding lesson, the riders were asked to perform transitions between walk and trot, and between trot and canter. The teachers were asked to instruct the riders as they would during any normal lesson. The lessons were audio and video-recorded (using two cameras, one at the long side capturing a side view and at the corner capturing a frontal/rear view). Synchronised measurements of horse and rider movements were obtained using an inertial measurement unit (IMU) system, (EquiMoves, sampling rate 200 Hz), and rein tension were obtained using calibrated rein tension meters (with Forsentek FSSM-500N load cells, measuring range 0-500 N, sampling rate 100 Hz).