Event Rider Research supported by British Eventing

[JOHJ2]

My name is Jenni-Louise Douglas and I am a doctoral research student in the Institute of Sport and Exercise Science at the University of Worcester. My research which is supported by British Eventing, investigates the effectiveness of sport specific strength & conditioning training interventions for the enhancement of rider fitness and performance in event riders. I am currently proceeding to start stage 2 studies which is entitled '‘Physiological and anthropometric profiles of Novice, Intermediate and Advanced Event riders'. Please see a short recruitment piece below and please let me know if you would be interested in participating in this trial. I will also include BE90 and BE100 riders.

ARE YOU, OR DO YOU COACH A FEMALE EVENT RIDER?
DO YOU WANT TO KNOW YOUR/THEIR INDIVIDUAL FITNESS LEVELS?
DO YOU WANT TO CONTRIBUTE TO RESEARCH CONDUCTED UPON EQUESTRIAN ATHLETES?

Exciting research on the physiological and anthropometric profiles of Novice, Intermediate and Advanced level riders is being conducted in the Institute of Sport & Exercise Science at the University of Worcester. The research is the first of its kind and will contribute to a three year PhD research programme.

The research team are looking for adult (over 18) female event riders competing at Novice, Intermediate or Advanced level Eventing to volunteer as research participants. If you are willing to be involved you would be invited to come to the University of Worcester to undertake a physical test battery where fitness parameters including as aerobic fitness, core stability, lower and upper body strength, balance and reaction time would be measured. The testing would be done by sports scientists in a research laboratory using state of the art equipment. Not only would you be helping shape the future of equestrian training, you would also get a detailed physical report which would help you and or/your trainer focus your on and off horse training.

The findings from the research will enhance our understanding of the physiological demands placed on female event riders. As such, the research will enable the more appropriate planning of eventing specific strength and conditioning programmes in order to enhance our understanding of sports specific training on fitness characteristics.

If you would like to be involved and are willing to travel to the University of Worcester, please contact Jenni at jenni-louise.johnson@worc.ac.uk or (01905) 855238 with the following details:

• Your name, and your preferred contact details (e.g. address, email address or phone number)
• Your highest current level of competition

YoYou can also follow me on Twitter 'ODEresearch' or on Facebook 'ODEResearch'

I would also ask you to extend the invitation of participation to any athletes you may coach that may be interested in volunteering for my research



Thank you for taking the time to read this , I look forwards to hearing from you soon.

Kind Regards,


Jenni-Louise Douglas

 

[SpottedCat]

I notice you've posted this several times before, which would suggest you are short of participants. Does your research budget cover reimbursing participant's travel expenses? Because I would be interested in coming and doing this - but there is no way I could justify the fuel costs from where I am to Worcester (65 miles) just to help out someone with their research!

Alternatively, is your equipment in any way portable? If it is, then have you considered contacting the people organising the Eventing Forum at Hartpury to see if you can set up, recruit and test people there? Hartpury may even have the kit you need on site?

 

[JOHJ2]

Hi SpottedCat,

Thanks for your post. No not short on numbers 30+ at present but i would like to ideally have 20 in each group, statistically the more numbers the better and more worthwhile they are to represent the athlete population. I have posted a few times as in these busy forums the post gets easily lost. British Eventing will soon be doing a recruitment drive so I wont need to try to contact people personally.

Unfortunaley at present no, we are not offering travel costs which I realise is a big ask for people. Participants will, however have access to state of the art sports science equipment with sports physiologists where you will recieve a full and thorough fitness report-not the kind you would get in a gym!!

I used to lead the equine HE department at Hartpury prior to this PhD and for a few reasons we cannot do it there. 1) we cannot rely the kit is caliberated effectively or the same and it would skew results 2) Hartpury do not have isokinetic dynamometers to test strength or a the matching oxygen consumption equipment so the test would not be a replicate and 3) there are all sorts of research/collaborative issues involved. I have strong links with Hartpury and have plans for future work together but unfortunatley not on this project.

Im glad your interested and if you have any questions or you know anyone else who may be interested I would love to hear from you. Unfortunatley recruitment is the hardest part of research.

Thanks again,

Jenni