Equine Behaviour during Show Jumping Competitions

Description

Recently, the concept of social license to operate has reached the equestrian sports. The loss of trust from the public has been met with new rules and practices to increase equine welfare in competitions. In show jumping, courses are extremely fast, lasting around 60 seconds, meaning judges need to recognized and act fast when conflict behaviours are endangering the horse's wellbeing. Based on the observation of jumping courses and the horse's behavior, it can help further understand the reaction of the horses in a competition environment and how to better their wellbeing. Judges and other officials also benefit from this increase in knowledge, as it helps them to know when to act to protect the horse.

Steps to reproduce

First, the behaviours for analysis must be chosen, and an ethogram established as a guideline of observation. Next, the competitions that will be analyzed must be chosen from available footage on the Youtube platform, on pages such as HorsePix. All footages must be viewed at a reduced speed of x0.25, allowing the viewer to analyze carefully the selected behaviours. Each instance a behavior happens should be recorded in a specific ethogram control spreadsheet. Extra information, such as results, rider's category, materials used, etc can also be recorded. After collection of data, it can be used for statistical analysis as needed by the research.

Institutions

• Universidade Federal Fluminense

  Rio de Janeiro, Niterói

Categories

Funders

• Coordenação de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior

  Ministry of Education

  Brasília

  Grant ID: 14628311765

Licence