The use of video and stills when assessing the movement of horses has grown in recent years.
Video analysis is common in other sports and has been used to highlight weaknesses in technique and subsequently enhance performance in riders.
The way the rider sits on the horse will have a dramatic effect on its soundness, performance and development.
The human eye is slow and, on top of that, it often conveys only the data the brain thinks it wants to see. It can’t resolve the details of fast motion, like the motion of a horse and rider.
Have you ever seen a painting of a horse from the 18th century? Majestic galloping steeds were often depicted with both front and hind legs fully extended at the same time. People believed that was a correct gait, because that’s what they thought they saw, and all those paintings reinforced their false belief. It wasn’t until 1876 when Eadweard Muybridge captured the first moving shots of a racehorse that the gait debate was settled. That mere three seconds of motion picture changed how horse trainers and owners understood the sequence of a horse’s legs in motion.
Technology has continued to change equestrian sports in many ways since then. Today, cameras with video capabilities are as ubiquitous at a horse show as lead ropes. We can capture anything and everything. Still, tools like smart phones and iPads can do more than just plaster your latest ride all over the social media. They can actually transform your training sessions and make them more effective in the long run.
While next-day video review of the big game is the norm in sports like football, basketball, and baseball, it’s less common and certainly less talked about in equestrian sports. But make no mistake, it’s there, and it may just be the secret weapon of the rider who keeps edging you out in the final placings.
High Tech Training
Feedback methods are increasingly used in many sports to learn new skills or improve performance. Research shows that the more objective and quantitative the feedback, the more powerful it is. Watching video can meet those needs, and discussing it with a trainer, riding buddy, or family member can contribute the qualitative component needed to further your goals.
Video analysis of riding with trainer instruction can help equestrians understand the basic fundamentals of a specific movement. It also avoids the pitfalls of subjective observation—simply seeing what we think we want to see. Some trainers are using video review sessions to coach riders on how to approach various situations. When viewed, side-by-side, they can point out good techniques, identify weak spots, review skills, and critique body position. It’s a great opportunity to point out specifically where a hand sits, how a heel is being placed, and how the horse is reacting to the situation.
Taking it a step further, slow motion video playback facilitates detailed analysis of a rider’s techniques, frame by frame. Small adjustments of rider position, hoof trimming, shoes, saddles, pads, and even girths can help improve the movement of the horse or support the horse’s joints to prevent injury. Reviewing video from a show is immensely useful in identifying where problems are occurring in that environment. Watching the ride helps evaluate a rider’s mental attitude and focus. When a ride goes great, it can serve to motivate and remind riders of all the things they are doing right.
Once you have all that video, you don’t want it to languish on some hard drive or off in cyberspace. It has to be viewed in order to be useful. Immediate review and analysis with your trainer is the most valuable way to evaluate performance and plan future training. Ideally, you would want to do the review soon after the ride, while the muscle memory is still fresh and you have kinesthetic awareness to build on. You will be able to remember how you were feeling at the time and how your horse was reacting. Studies of team sports support a regime of practice or performance, followed by immediate video analysis, and then a return to practice as the most effective method of integrating what was learned. By returning to the arena right after video feedback, a rider can work on the exercises outlined by the trainer to improve the rough spots.
Using smartphone and iPad athletic apps like
PlotMyTrot facilitate immediate, precise video review with slow motion. The inclusion of audio features make it easy to add notes or commentary. It’s a great way to keep your trainer in your back pocket.
Get Your Head in the Game
Reviewing video of successful performances has been studied for how its motivational factor can increase confidence. It’s particularly effective when the video includes both practice and show footage. Seeing is believing. Seeing what has been accomplished is a wonderful way to recognize the hard work and dedication that has already gone into your riding.
Around the world, elite athletes dedicate a good chunk of training time visualizing their success. Generally speaking, visualization is the process of creating a mental image or intention of what you want to happen. Watching video of past performances can assist with fine tuning visualization for an upcoming competition. The technique has been around in sports for a long time. Tennis great Billy Jean King used it in the 1960s. In the run-up to the 1980 Winter Olympics, Soviet researchers followed the progress of four groups of athletes with training regimes that incorporated different levels of visualization. When the Olympics were over, the athletes who mentally rehearsed their sport experienced the highest positive impact on their performance. Since then, the area has been widely studied and the practice of mentally simulating competition has become increasingly sophisticated.
Other experiments have demonstrated that athletes who employ frequent imaging had superior results—and that was only visualizing for five minutes a day. It has also been shown that mental rehearsal triggers responses from the autonomic nervous system, which in turn boosts athletic performance. It seems to enhance intrinsic motivation as well. It works because you imagine yourself performing a specific task with perfect form.
Many professional horsemen and serious amateurs employ visualization to give themselves an advantage with mental imagery. Specifically, riders can mentally rehearse patterns, feel the transitions, and see themselves and their horse doing everything perfectly. The more detailed the visualization, the better it sticks. Try imagining the sounds, the smells, the feel of the saddle, and the bright lights of the arena.
How does that get us back to video? When on a horse, there is a lot going on that we just cannot see. Since we already know that the human eye is slow, even if you have a trainer or friend with you, they cannot spot everything needed to build the ideal visualization. Video comes to the rescue. Watching yourself go through a great ride can be the basis for your visualization. The video can cue you to the sights around the arena, the sounds, and remind you what that experience felt like.
With the advent of small, mountable and wearable video, such as
PlotMyTrot, riders can record video, hands-free, from their mounted perspective. Imagine the uses of that for a complete visualization experience. You could see yourself riding a pattern through your own eyes.
Thanks to video analysis, riders can gain a competitive edge, correct faults, maximize their strengths, and keep a positive focus during a horse show. Whether working with your trainer or with a mental skills coach, it’s a great tool to add to your tack box. When the margin between champion and the rest of the pack is frustratingly slim, perhaps it’s time to hit record, replay, and see where you can up your performance.
