They may be short, but never accuse jockeys of laziness. Rather than merely hang on for the ride, professional horse racers enhance their steeds鈥� every stride; sending their own heart rates soaring, yet allowing horses to gallop more quickly.
Race times got 5 to 7 per cent faster in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when riders in the US eschewed an upright riding posture for the angled 鈥淢artini glass鈥� style now practiced universally.
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鈥淲hy do those people sit on those horses in such a funny way,鈥� says , a bioengineer at the Royal Veterinary College in London, who took up that question in a new study. 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 look very stable, it doesn鈥檛 look very comfortable. It must have some advantage.鈥�
Measured stride
To find out, he and colleague strapped inertial sensors to race horses and jockeys during training sessions in which horses averaged 11 metres per second.
Though horses run remarkably efficiently, they aren鈥檛 perfect, Pfau says. 鈥淭hey have to accelerate and decelerate, they have to jump up and down through each stride,鈥� consuming precious energy. 鈥淏ut the jockey doesn鈥檛, the jockey can compensate through each stride.鈥�
By actively keeping their bodies stable through the gallop, jockeys unburden their horses from accelerating and decelerating their human passengers, thus saving energy, the team found.
Horse enhancement
Intriguingly, Pfau and Wilson found that the jockeys鈥� adjustments are larger than they need to be, suggesting that they might help horses race more efficiently than they would unsaddled.
Such biomechanical tweaks might mark one difference between average and elite jockeys. 鈥淕ood jockeys earn a lot of money because they鈥檙e perceived to win races,鈥� Wilson says.
He and Pfau have filed a patent to monitor jockeys and horses with inertial sensors in hopes of improving a jockey鈥檚 form.
Journal reference: (DOI: 10.1126/science.1174605)
