LINEAR KINEMATICS OF WATER JUMPING IN OLYMPIC SHOW JUMPERS

Sagittal plane 60 Hz video recordings were made of horses jumping a 4. 5 m wide water jump during the 1992 Olympic Games. The horizontal dist ance jumped, measured from the toe of the leading hind hoof at take of f to the toe of the trailing front hoof at landing, ranged from 4.76 m to 7.89 m. The total distance jumped was negatively correlated with t he take off distance (r=-0.46, p<0.001), positively correlated with th e flight distance (r=0.93, p<0.001) and positively correlated with the landing distance (r=0.63, p<0.001). The Right distance, which account ed for the majority (mean 63.9%) of the total distance jumped, was neg atively correlated with the height of the center of gravity at lift of f (r=-0.59, p=0.003), positively correlated with the vertical velocity at lift off (r=0.66, p<0.001), but was not correlated with horizontal velocity at lift off or the height of the center of gravity at landin g.