Development and physical training evaluation of horseback riding therapeutic equipment

This paper describes the development of the horseback riding therapeutic equipment that has the trainee induce muscular discharge effectively for his/her trunk and provide the feeling of horse-riding. During trials, long-term usage of the developed equipment results in an increase in the muscular strength on the extension/flexion of trunk/knee joint for healthy individuals and an improvement in the insulin sensitivity for obese patients with Type 2 diabetes. The characteristic of the developed equipment is a simple movement which is enough to experience the feeling of horse-riding and also is possible to muscular discharge. This has been extracted from our system which can reproduce saddle movement by using data collected three dimensional from living horse.