**3. Results**

Height, BMI, flamingo test, abdominal strength, 5 × 10 m shuttle, and hip mobility presented a normal distribution of data, while age, riding experience, weight, hand grip, leg strength, arm strength, and the Copper 12 min test did not.

The comparison between pre and post anthropometrical measures revealed that the mean body weight and BMI significantly increased during the twelve weeks of training restrictions, by 3.9% and 8.5%, respectively, as shown in Table 1.


**Table 1.** Anthropometric measures collected before (pre-test) and after (post-test) the twelve weeks of training restrictions.

\* Significant differences between pre- and post-test results, *p* < 0.05.

As reported in Table 2, hand grip, abdominal strength, and hip mobility results significantly reduced after the training restrictions period—by −15.4%, −6.9%, and 82.9%, respectively. Furthermore, the 5 × 10 m shuttle, and Cooper 12 min test results also appeared significantly diminished in the post-test—by −3.5% and −11.5%, respectively.


**Table 2.** Motor fitness test battery results collected before (pre-test) and after (post-test) the twelve weeks of training restrictions.

\* Significant differences between pre and post-tests results, *p* < 0.05.

In Table 3, riders' results collected in the pre-tests are confronted with age- and sexmatched reference values obtained by a report on 1687 female middle and high school students (age: 11–18 years) of the same school district. Riders' body weight results were significantly lower (−5.6%) than age-matched non-athletes'. Pre-test fitness measurements were significantly lower except for handgrip, which was significantly higher (17%).

**Table 3.** Comparison of the fitness pre-test horse riders' results with reference values.


\* Significant differences between horse riders' results and age-matched reference values *p* < 0.05.

Riders of each discipline did not present significant differences in anthropometrical characteristics. The subjects were 14.3 ± 2.9, 13.2 ± 2.1, and 14.1 ± 3.0 years old; their heights (cm) were 161.1 ± 8.5, 155.3 ± 9.3, and 162.0 ± 8.1; their weights were (kg) 50.6 ± 9.3, 46.0 ± 7.0, and 50.8 ± 6.7; and their BMIs were 19.4 ± 2.5, 18.5 ± 2.2, and 19.3 ± 1.6 for endurance, pony games and show jumping, respectively.

Differences amongst equestrian disciplines highlighted that the endurance group (Table 4) presented the statistically lowest abdominal strength and the show jumping group showed the strongest hand grip values and the statistically highest arm strength in comparison to the other two disciplines.

**Table 4.** Fitness values of riders for each equestrian discipline.


\* Significant differences amongst the riders' results of three equestrian disciplines, *p* < 0.05.

Correlation analysis revealed that riders' experience was significantly correlated with hand grip, leg strength, hip mobility, and with the 5 × 10 m shuttle and the Cooper 12 min test results, as reported in Table 5.


**Table 5.** Correlation coefficients of fitness values with months of equitation experience.

Age in years, Exp. (riding experience in months), Weight (in kilograms), Height (in centimetres), BMI, Handg. (hand grip in kg), Flamingo (balance test in seconds), Abd. Str. (abdominal strength test as number of repetitions), 5 × 10 m (10 × 5 m shuttle test in seconds), Hip (hip mobility tests in centimetres), Legs (legs strength in centimetres), Arms Str. (arm strength in seconds), Cooper (Cooper 12 min test in metres). \* *p* < 0.05; \*\* *p* < 0.01.
