Balance in stance
In order to perform and improve in sports a balanced trunk is important. The stability and the abillity to maintain control of the trunk is called postural balance or postural control. The level of postural control depends on the level of training. The article reviewed here takes a look at the difference in balance between female equestrians and non-athetes. They decided to focus on the postural control and their balance in stance.
One way to measure the posture balance is taking a test regarding the postural sway (movement) when a certain position has to be held. The greater the postural sway, the worse the postural balance. In horse riding we prefer to see a rider who sits quietly and in balance with his horse. The rider-horse combination has to form a unity.
This article didn't examine whether equestrians are comparable with other athletes, but rather whether there was a difference between equestrians and non-equestrians.
The examination with a balance bord that measured the postural sway examined the difference between female equestrian athletes and female non-equestrians. The researchers concluded in this article that equestrains were able to maintain a better postural control than the non-equestrians. They even suggested that horse riding may be of help in improving certain subdomains of balance.
Are you a balanced equestrian?
Expert opinion by Sophie Delemarre
When I started reading the abstract of this artice, I became very curious. As a physical therapist I often see patients with poor balance, equestrians included. The idea of this article is great, but the way it's done could be better.
In my opinion the examined group was too small, and the level of the equestrians wasn't described. What I did find odd is that the researchers failed to tell if, and if so, what kind of sport the non-equestrians participated in.
Despite the method of researching, I did find the results intriguing. Let's hope there comes a sequel to this research!
> From: Olivier et al., PloS One 14(2) (2019) 1-13. All rights reserved to Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 2.0 Licence. Click here for the online summary.
