Human kinematic responses to walking and riding camels and horses.

Abstract

Hippotherapy is a novel and promising therapeutic method. The prevailing rationale for hippotherapy is that the motion of a horse can provide movement patterns that mimic those of walking. The purpose of this study is to measure and compare human pelvic kinematics during natural walking, horse riding, and camel riding. Motion capture of three human subjects walking, riding on three horses, and riding on two camels was recorded. Pelvic trajectories exhibit many similar features between walking, horse-riding, and camel-riding, including distorted infinity-shape patterns in the transverse and frontal planes. In the sagittal plane, pelvic trajectories display an oval pattern during walking and camel-riding and a more diagonal pattern during horse riding. This study shows that many features of human pelvic kinematics during walking can be reproduced when riding on a horse or camel. To date, this is the first and only study that compared pelvic movement during camel-riding to walking.