Research/Dissertation Boffins I need your ideas please!!!!

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ChocoCornflake

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Hey can pick your brains please! Im doing a masters degree in Osteopathy, and for part of it we have to complete a dissertation. I am having some trouble thinking of a title as unfortunately I am not particularly blessed in the research mindset!
Basically I have decided that I definately want to do it related to riding as I will do a post-grad course in animal Osteopathy once I have graduated next year, and have a particular interset in horse-rider biomechanics.
However, thinking of something that is easily to do as well as being interesting and hopefully beneficial to riders is proving difficult!
At the moment I want to look at asymmetry in the rider, as obviously this is going to affect the horses way of going (everyone has a good and bad side, right!!) and hopefully correcting this could improve performance.
However, Im not sure exactly how I could measure asymmetry?! Can anyone think of any ideas I can do, related to asymmetry or something completely different, as Im starting to rip my hair out already! So any help/advice would be greatly received!
 
hi, iv just finished my uni degree & i was a test subject for a fellow student. she did something which i think sounds similar to what you want to do. she was observing if a rider was wonky would it make the horse wonky (sorry not been technical as its been a long day). to do this she dotted up both horse & rider in key areas & recorded in walk, trot & sitting trot. this was then analysed on a very clever computer program (not sure of the name). not sure if iv been any help!
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Could you look into how right or left handedness can affect asymetry and its effects on the ridden horse, Body strength, left v right and reaction times could be measured, hmmmm i'm stuck now but could be a start.
 
I know this is not quite the boffin approach but I have a friend who has a very arthritic hip - she sits very squinty on her horse BUT her horse goes very straight - as if it compensates for her. Have always found that quite amazing - they can jump a decent height and do good lateral work. Perhaps RDA would have data you could use?
 
My old horse had arthritis in her pelvis which used to throw my back out
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It might be worth approaching chiropractors / mctimoney practioners / osteopaths and asking them to speak to any of their equestrian clients to find out if they would help your study?? If they are attending a clinic for their back they should be able to offer an interesting insight into their horses back issues too??
 
i didnt rely take all of your post in but i hope this helps, our local saddler and the owners of where i work are working together at the moment looking into if people are sitting wonky and what affect it has on them and the horse and if there saddle is uneven, they have a pad that goes under the saddle and is connected to a laptop, when the person is riding round it shows the pressre on each side and if the rider is sitting level. is facinating to watch!!
 
that current field is being covered by quite alot of people due to equinanalysis people, centaur bio mechanics etc... I think if you look around the literature and try and see what's not being done (rider asymmetry.....on the whole it's currently being covered...is there a small branch/subset of it that isn't?)...
sorry thats not particularly helpful, but you don't want to start re-inventing the wheel!
 
Do think about whether you want to use live data - for which you will need ethical approval from your Uni - of it you prefer to do a literature review.

When I did my LLM I really didn't want all the hasssle of research proposals, ethical boards etc and opted for a black law approach literature review. I don't know if that approach is available to you in what I assume is a more practically based subject. But if it is then it would be well worth consideration if only becuase there is so much material already out there.

Much easier, you can do it in the warm library. And you don't have to worry about the ethics panel. A freind of mine had her dissertation method rejected by them with only a few months to go. Devastating.
 
Thankyou guys got some great suggestions! I wasn't aware there was so much research going on on this field already - think I limited my reading to journals etc on Athens and obviously I dont want to reinvent the wheel Peacelily! Trouble is the staff at my Uni (particularly the research ones) aren't much use when it comes to horses so perhaps I would be silly to go down this route when I may get just as good a result doing a easier experiment or even a lit review. Hmm food for thought.
Back to the drawing board then! Thanks for your help everyone!!
 
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