Virginia Research Day 2022

Undergraduate Student Research Biomedical

01 The Biomechanics Of Head And Chest Impacts From Falls In Equestrian Sports

Lauren A. Duma Corresponding author: lauren@duma.us

Virginia Tech – Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science

was a total of 66 head impacts, with 31 impacts to the back, 24 impacts to the side, and 11 impacts to the front (Figure 1). There were no impacts to the top of the head. 34 of the recorded falls did not involve a head injury. For all fall events, 82% of the riders grabbed the horse’s neck and reduced the overall fall height. For all equestrian falls, impacts most often occur on the back and side for both head and chest regions. Another interesting observation was that the rider rarely falls from the full height of the horse. These data will be critically important when designing new standards for helmet and chest protection devices

events: cross country, show jumping, and dressage. For each fall, a still-frame image was taken of the beginning of each fall event, the actual drop height, and the impact location. Fall height was recorded in addition to body and head contact location with the ground. The impact was categorized as a body impact or a head impact. Body impacts were then designated as chest, side, back, or buttocks, and head impacts were designated as front, side, back, or top. Each of the 100 recorded falls involved a body impact, with 36 impacts to the back, 27 impacts to the side, 24 impacts to the buttocks, and 13 impacts to the chest (Figure 1). There

Equestrian sports are the greatest contributor of sports related traumatic brain injuries (45.2%). There are currently many different helmet and chest protection devices on the market for equestrian riders. However, more information is needed to evaluate these protective devices. The objective of this study was to quantify the biomechanics of equestrian riders as they fall, and to determine the most common impact locations. This data can be used to determine which impact locations to use when testing equestrian air jackets, vests, and helmets when designing new standards. A total of 100 videos of real-world equestrian falls were collected from the three equestrian

Figure 1: Number and type of body and head impacts in the 100 recorded equestrian falls

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