Short-term effect of water height on back kinematics of sportshorses during water treadmill exercise

TL;DRAbstract

Introduction
\nThe aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of increasing water height on the range of movement (ROM) of the horses back, in particular axial rotation (AR), lateral bending (LB), and pelvic flexion (PF).
\nMaterials and methods
\nThe kinematics of the back of twelve sportshorses in use for daily riding and with no previous treadmill experience were studied at walk (0.8m/s) for 20 minutes on a water treadmill at different water heights (hoof, fetlock, carpal, elbow, and shoulder joint; one minute per height). White spherical skin markers (40 mm) were placed on the withers, tuber sacrale, left and right tuber coxae and at the tailbase. The AR, LB, and PF of the back were measured at each water height with two high-speed video cameras (300 Hz) in a perpendicular position to each other. Commercially available software was used for the statistical analysis at p<0.05.
\nResults
\nHorses showed a significant increase in AR compared to baseline at

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