A systematic review of physical fitness, physiological demands and biomechanical performance in equestrian athletes

This article presents a systematic review of the literature investigating physical fitness, physiological demands and biomechanical performance in equestrian athletes. Three databases (SportsDiscus, CAB abstracts and PubMed) were searched to identify the literature. The main search term of ‘horse-riding’ was combined with eleven specific keywords (‘fitness’, ‘physiology’, ‘biomechanics’, ‘equestrian’, ‘athlete’, ‘co-ordination’, ‘heart rate’, ‘oxygen consumption’ ‘kinematic’ ‘EMG’ and ‘skill’). Exclusion criteria were: conference proceedings, abstracts, theses, and non-peer reviewed articles. Subsequently, 15 peer-reviewed papers were identified and included within this review. The main re…