Pegasus for Colleges

Teaching students how horses move and which factors affect stride characteristics is an important part of many equine courses. Until now this has been limited to simple video footage or computer/webbased simulations.

However, the disadvantages are that high speed video with slow motion capability and sophisticated gait analysis systems are expensive, technically demanding and often unsuited to teaching.

Pegasus offers a fresh approach:

• Accurate
• Easy to Use
• Affordable
• Versatile, can be used in the field or on the treadmill
• Lightweight, yet robust
• Suitable for teaching, student projects or staff research projects

The Pegasus system consists of a sensor module on the brushing boot, a GPS module on the rider’s cap and a laptop to analyse the data. It can record continuously for up to 6

hours, yet takes less than 2 minutes to set up. It is an excellent training and diagnostic tool for students, yet its robustness makes it suitable for use by students without supervision.

This range of Practicals gives some ideas of how the Pegasus System can help students study horse motion. We have given the methodology for one example but would be happy to

discuss with you more detailed instructions to carry out these tests. Our staff can provide technical support, but you will find that our system is very easy to use.

What is the effect of different surfaces on Stride Length and Stride Frequency?
Hypothesis: Stride Length will be longer and Stride Frequency will be shorter on soft surfaces.

What is the effect of exercise on flat and inclined surfaces?
Hypothesis: When a horse moves up an incline its Stride Frequency decreases compared with exercise on a flat surface.

Stride length of a large horse versus that of a small horse.
Hypothesis: The Stride Length of a horse should be in proportion to its leg length. The longer the leg—the longer the Stride Length.

Are horses symmetrical in their gait?
Hypothesis: Horses are frequently not symmetrical in the way they move.

What is the effect of working a horse in a straight line and on a circle on Stride Length, Stride Frequency and Speed?
Hypothesis: When turning on a circle, horses take shorter strides.

What is the effect of warm up on Stride Length?
Hypothesis: Horses will have a longer Stride Length at the same speed after warm-up.

Effect of Speed and Gait on Stride Length and Stride Frequency.
Hypothesis: Horses increase their speed by using a combination of increasing Stride Length and increasing Stride Frequency and this varies between gaits and between different horses.