 A group
at Hartpury College, Gloucestershire are currently investigating
the stride characteristics of different breeds of native ponies.
Liz Launder; equine osteopath and herself a breeder of producer
of native working hunter ponies is looking into differences between
breeds in order to provide information for coursebuilders and
judges at the working hunter pony conference on November 24th
at the East of England Showground.
For the purpose of this study Hartpury College wish to trial
as many native pony breeds as possible. The trial involves the
ponies being ridden at walk, trot and canter, from collected
to extended paces. Measurements are then taken of the pnies stride
using the recently launched Pegasus system (www.etb-pegasus.org). This system, which
has one sensor unit mounted on the withers and a second on the
skull cap, enables data to be collected continuously whilst the
pony is ridden around the school. After the test the data is
downloaded onto a PC in order to produce graphs of stride length
and stride frequency plotted either against time or speed.
Anyone who owns or shows a native pony and who is interested
in taking part in this research should contact Kathryn Nankervis
for more details on (01452) 702123 or by e-mail kathryn.nankervis@hartpury.ac.uk |
