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| Me and Pearl |
About this topic: My university sent an email around asking for Horse riding volunteers for third year Sports Science students doing their dissertation. I thought 'I would like to be tested to see if I'm still flexible at my age'. It proved very good results!
Getting to today has flown by, it feels like one minute I was talking about it, the next minute it has been and gone.
The purpose of the study: To test posture, flexibility, balance and grip strength of horse riders and identify abnormalities compared to the 'norm'.
It was all a pleasant experience, lovely young ladies, professionally organised with their welcoming, their paperwork and consent forms , as well as having step by step concise clear instructions of what was required of you.
After I signed away I was taken for my height and weight to be measured, I did think "don't look down at the high digits" lol. I was then taken to the posture table where I was asked to lay down , here, my leg measurements were taken, oh my gosh, you wouldn't believe it, but I was told I had the longest legs of the day so far! I have never been told that before, I had always thought I was a short arse.Moving to another area of the hall, I then had little imaging balls (3D - photo - video) placed on my body for posture profiling i.e. hips, cervical spine (C7), back and waist. After these were placed, I was asked to stand behind the posture profiling grid which looks like a silver galvanised large mesh screen with three plumb lines attached. I was asked for a forward ,side and rear posture image.
After this profiling, I was asked to sit on a leather riding saddle that was on top of a plastic saddle mate example below:
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| The leather saddle sat on this saddlemate (stand) for rider trunk flexibility |
It was quite a comfortable saddle so I asked If I could take the saddle home with me lol! At this area of the hall they took a general 3D posture analysis of how I would naturally sit in the saddle whilst riding, they then asked me to place a broom behind my head above my shoulders and asked me to rotate it from the left three times and to the right three times. This was a difficult manoever for me as I have very poor range of movement (ROM) in my shoulders. When I had finished this part, I said to them they will find me interesting to study in this area due to my very poor ROM in my shoulders, they said they would like to study my profile because it looked a good one.
I was then taken to the flexibility table so my shoulder, elbow, wrist, hip, knee and ankle joints in flexibility could be measured, here I was asked primarily to lay on my back then on my front. This was done using a goninometer see below for example:
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| Goninometer for measureing flexibility of joints |
I was asked to flex each leg individually, keeping them straight as far up towards my torso as possible, this was pimps for me, they said wow that went far. You were then asked to flex and extend these joints. I stood for the shoulder extension, in general it is having your arm beside you, then you reach for the stars as far back as you can. They were surprised at this result as I was very flexibile in this, she stated, what would it mean when you go over 180 as she was shocked at the results herself !! It states if you can reach 180 with no pain, you are in good shape! So that was good news for me.
I was then asked to do a grip strength test using each hand, three times each for averaging out the results, this is done using a Dynamometer see below for example:
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| Dynamometer used to measure grip strength |
My results in this were also the highest of the day with approx 34.4kg grip strength probably averaging 33.6kg which results in 'Above Average' for a female. This was good, what I learnt was I was stronger in my left hand!! I am right handed but according to the testing I'm stronger on average in my left. I bet that goes the same for all us horsey types, be interesting what they find out with this survey.
I was then asked to do the static and dynamic balance testing, this was done with a media balancing mat that the laptop took readings from. The mat was placed on top of a cross (axis) made out of masking tape on the floor with numbers on it for the tester to take paper readings too. Here, you stood with your hands on your hips and on alternative legs , left first, right second, did some static (still) balancing for 20 seconds on each leg. I was then asked to do some dynamic (moving) balancing, again with alternative legs, but this time I was asked to point my toe forward towards the axis of the maskin tape readings on the ground, I was then asked to point my toe to the far side then behind me. This was done numerous times on each leg. I did say "good job I wasn't asked to do yoga" lol, I thought this was going to be easy until I got on the mat lol. It was harder than I thought. I kept on getting readings of 60 - 65 so I'm not sure if that is good or not, may be I should take up ballet and really get a reading off the mat lol.
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| Me and Pearl |
I enjoyed it and came away thinking I was still quite flexible and above average in some areas, even though I do not do much exercise other than quite a lot of walking and cycling in the summer. Through this experiment I have come to the conclusion, that riding over the years has kept me supple and flexible even at my age which is nearly 39!! wow!! that looks old in writing lol.
our yard
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| Me and Pearl |
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