Validation of a Low Cost Horse Saddle Stabilometric Platform to Analyze the Rider’s Balance

Summary

# Editorial Summary: Low-Cost Saddle Stabilometric Platform for Rider Balance Analysis Rider posture assessment has traditionally relied on subjective observation or expensive laboratory equipment, limiting its accessibility to most equestrian professionals. Prin-Conti and colleagues developed an affordable stabilometric platform integrated into the saddle itself, identifying four anatomical bone contact points that constitute the rider's base of support and embedding pressure sensors and stirrup dynamometers to quantify weight distribution and balance dynamics. Validation against a gold-standard OIML 6000 platform across 28 standardised measurements revealed excellent agreement, with a negligible bias of -0.4 ± 0.8 mm and acceptable limits of agreement suitable for clinical balance assessment. The platform demonstrated sufficient accuracy and reliability to distinguish meaningful changes in rider stability and pressure distribution—information directly relevant to addressing postural asymmetries that compromise performance and potentially contribute to musculoskeletal strain in the horse. For farriers, physiotherapists, and coaches, this tool offers a practical, economical means of objectively quantifying rider balance rather than relying on visual assessment alone, enabling evidence-based interventions to optimise saddle fit, rider position, and ultimately equine welfare.

Read the full abstract on the publisher's site

Key Findings

• •A low-cost saddle-mounted stabilometric platform was successfully validated against gold-standard OIML 6000 sensors with small bias of -0.4 ± 0.8mm
• •Four bone support points on the rider's base were identified to enable accurate posture diagnostics
• •Bland-Altman analysis confirmed acceptable limits of agreement for measuring center of pressure position in riders

Conditions Studied