Keeping your eye on the rail: gaze behaviour of horse riders approaching a jump.
Authors: Hall Carol, Varley Ian, Kay Rachel, Crundall David
Journal: PloS one
Summary
Hall and colleagues used mobile eye-tracking technology to examine how ten experienced (though non-elite) riders directed their gaze whilst approaching a course of three jumps, analysing both overall approach patterns and the critical final five strides before take-off. Riders demonstrated significant variations in visual attention between rounds and individual jumps: fixation time on the jump increased notably during the second round (p<0.05), whilst the first jump attracted earlier and more frequent visual focus than subsequent obstacles, despite the third jump generating significantly more errors (p=0.01). Higher-skilled riders exhibited a trend towards engaging their gaze on the jump at greater distances from the obstacle, maintaining longer initial fixations—patterns that approached statistical significance (p=0.07–0.09)—suggesting that anticipatory visual planning may differentiate performance levels. The findings indicate that visual strategy during the approach phase warrants greater attention within coaching and training contexts, particularly given that deliberate visual skill development has proven effective in other sports; however, replication with elite-level competitors is necessary to establish whether these gaze patterns reflect causative mechanisms underlying superior performance or merely correlate with it.
Read the full abstract on PubMed
Practical Takeaways
- •Train riders to establish early visual fixation on the jump from a greater distance—this correlates with better jumping performance
- •Be aware that gaze behaviour changes across multiple repetitions; riders should maintain consistent visual attention strategies across all jumps in a course to reduce errors on later jumps
- •Visual training protocols used successfully in other sports should be incorporated into equestrian coaching to develop and refine sport-specific visual skills
Key Findings
- •Riders fixated significantly longer on jumps during round 2 compared to other rounds (p<0.05)
- •Jump 1 was fixated on earlier and more frequently than jumps 2 or 3 (p<0.05)
- •More errors occurred at jump 3 than jump 1 (p=0.01), suggesting fatigue or adaptation effects
- •Higher-skilled riders tended to fixate on jumps earlier and with longer initial fixation duration, though not statistically significant