Did you know that your CEEFIT by Seaver measures the cadence and bounce of your horse at work ? But what exactly do these terms mean? In this article, we give you the keys to understanding these two features and their relevance to your horse's daily work.

What is the cadence of my horse?

The cadence is the number of strides taken per minuteA stride is the set of movements between two successive poses of the same limb at a given pace. A stride is the set of movements between two successive poses of the same limb at a given pace. It is a sort of rhythm of the horse.

Changing the cadence means taking more or fewer strides in a given time. Having a A regular cadence allows the horse to balance and bounce in its gaits. This will allow the horse to engage better and therefore respond better to your demands.

The interest for the riders: working on the regularity of their horse

In order to evaluate the regularity of your horse, your CEEFIT gives you theevolution of the cadenceIn order to evaluate the regularity of your horse, your CEEFIT gives you the number of strides per minute during your session, distinguishing by colours the passages at each gait: blue for walk, orange for trot and green for canter.

We note that the horse slightly accelerates his canter before returning to trot, perhaps due to opposition or loss of balance. A phenomenon to watch out for and work on if it occurs systematically.

The average horse takes between 35 and 60 strides per minute at the walk, between 55 and 100 strides per minute at the trot and between 80 and 130 strides per minute at the canter. These are, of course, averages. Some horses may be above or below these ranges. For example, a trotter in full race may easily exceed 120 trotting strides per minute.

The application also gives you an indication of how this session compares with the last.

In the example above, the regularity of trotting cadence is perfect. However, the horse has taken 5 fewer strides per minute at the canter than at the previous session. It's not much, but it gives us an indication. Theaim of this session was to work on the canter-step, which tells us that the rider tended to slow her horse down rather than move forward. braking her horse rather than gathering him (which is what we're looking for when working on the canter-step). This information points to areas for improvement in future sessions.

Namely:

Lateral and longitudinal tillage (lengthening, gathering) can reduce evenness, as well as a change of ground outdoors.

A few tips to apply:

When you take a class with your coach, it can be interesting to observe the cadence data obtained for a given pace or exercise. Then, when you are working on your own at home, the aim should be to find the same values.

Cadence data can also help you to validate extensions. To do this, you will need to check that the cadence does not vary much and does not increase during your lengthening, as is often the case for horses or riders in the early stages of learning.

Does my horse have a good bounce?

The rebound is theamplitude of your horse's vertical movement. It allows you to work on the verticality of the gaits: the more the gaits will have some bounce and the more your horse will be propelled upwards.

In order to evaluate your horse's bounce, we give you the evolution of the dorso-ventral displacement in centimetres, In order to evaluate your horse's bounce, we give you a list of the gaits during your session, distinguishing by colours the passages at each of the gaits: blue for the walk, orange for the trot and green for the canter. You will also find an average for walk, trot and canter.

A horse has an average bounce of between 1 and 5 cm at the walk, between 5 and 15 cm at the trot and between 10 and 25 cm at the canter. Again, these are averages. Variations in bounce may be observed depending on the breed, conformation or size of the horse. Some horses may have a bounce that is lower or higher than these values without worrying.

It is worth noting that if a dressage rider dressage rider will seek to increase these values through workother disciplines, such as endurance (to limit fatigue) or western pleasure, require a "razor-sharp" horse with a low bounce.

Comparing the bounce in your different exercises is useful to understand what will help you improve it. It is important to remember that the Bounce tends to increase with work on floor bars or cavaletti..

Above, we can see the evolution of the rebound during the passage of a cavaletti followed by a downward transition from bars to floor. We can clearly see the increase in rebound on the cavaletti.

It's up to you now 😉

The Seaver Team