*2.2. Motor Fitness Test Batteries*

Motor fitness tests are comprised in the Eurofit and ALPHA test batteries that have been widely used throughout Europe with children and adolescents [29]. They have been developed as a standardised European fitness test battery used to assess the effectiveness of physical education and to measure the health-related fitness of schoolchildren [30]. The fitness test battery's inter-rater reliability and test-retest reliability are considered adequate to support their clinical use; indeed, they have been successfully used with primary, middle, and high school students, providing reference data bases [26,31]. The same test items have been used in the school districts of our children and adolescents, ensuring that subjects may have come from similar ethnic, cultural, socio-economic, and socio-demographic groups. Physical education schoolteachers provided the results of their last collection, which served as reference values for comparison with our subjects.

The sit-and-reach test was employed to assess hip mobility since it has been suggested that hip flexibility is the main determinant of the back-saver sit-and-reach test in adolescents, and no significant differences in inter-method agreement were observed between the back-saver sit-and-reach test and the sit-and-reach test, implying that they are comparable [32]. The flamingo test was demonstrated to be suitable for measuring youth aged 9 to 17 years [33]. Amongst the balance tests, the flamingo test results were mostly predicted by strength of the abdominal muscle in pre-adolescent girls [34]; therefore, it seemed to be the most suitable for horse riders that centre their motor control in the core area. Moreover, the flamingo test showed the highest associations with the other motor abilities and correlated the best with endurance running as compared to the one-leg stance on a low beam and the low-beam walking test. Amongst the three tests, it also showed the highest reliability score (0.910) in pre-adolescent children [35].

In the flamingo test for balance, participants stood upright on a special wooden beam (50 × 3 × 4 cm). The leg they stood on was fully extended, whilst the free leg was bent at the knee, and the foot of that leg was held with the hand on the same side of the body. The timekeeper helped the participant assume the correct position and started taking the time when the subject released the timekeeper's hand. The result was the maximum number of attempts in 1 min, which was limited to 30. If the subject exceeded this number 15 times in the first 30 s, the subject's result was recorded as 31 [35].

The sit-and-reach test required the use of the sit-and-reach standardized box; the participant was required to sit with their knees straight and legs together, and their feet placed against the box, then they slowly reached forwards as far as possible and the furthest position the participant could reach (in centimetres) was recorded [32].

Hand grip was tested for the dominant hand only using a digital hand dynamometer (TKK 5101 Grip-D, Takey, Tokyo, Japan). The subjects looked forwards with their feet shoulder-width apart and were instructed not to touch the dynamometer with any part of the body except for the hand being measured. During the test, subjects stood with their arm straight down at their side, their shoulder slightly abducted (approximately 10◦ ), their elbow in full extension, their forearm in a neutral position, and their wrist extended; the display of the dynamometer was aligned so it would face the examiner, providing blind measurements to the subject. Participants were instructed to squeeze gradually and continuously for at least 2 s and were encouraged to do their best when performing the tests [36].

For the standing broad jump for leg strength, the participant stood behind the starting line with their feet together and pushed vigorously in order to jump forwards as far as possible. The distance was measured with a 10 m line (echoENG, Cormano, Italy) from the take-off line to the point where the back of the heel was closest to the take-off line after landing on the mat or anti-slip floor [37,38].

Sit-ups were used to test abdominal strength and required the subjects to lie face-up on a mat in a supine position with their knees bent at 90-degree angles. The feet were placed flat on the mat and held in position by the examiner. The subjects' arms were crossed on their chest with the hands on the opposite shoulders. When the examiner signalled the start, a timer was started, and the subjects performed as many repetitions as they could within 30 s. To complete a full repetition, each subject flexed their trunk, allowing their lower back to come off the mat, until the subject's elbows contacted his or her thighs. This movement was reversed to the starting position, and the sequence was repeated until the 30 s had expired. The examiner counted the number of repetitions, and the passing of the 30 s was assessed with a stopwatch (Hanhart Delta E 200 1/100 sec., Hanhart, Gütenbach, Germany) [39,40].

For the flexed-arms hang tests that tested the arms' strength, participants were asked to hang for as long as possible on a horizontal bar with a flexed arm so that the chin was level with the horizontal bar [41]. The subject was assisted into position, and the bar was grasped using an overhand grip with the hands shoulder width apart; the timer started when the subject was released. The timer was stopped when the subject's chin fell below the level of the bar or the head tilted backwards to enable the chin to stay level with the bar. The time was recorded using a stopwatch (Hanhart Delta E 200 1/100 sec., Hanhart, Gütenbach, Germany).

In the 10 × 5 m shuttle test for speed and agility, marker cones were placed five metres apart, and participants were required to run back and forth between them for a total of 50 m. They started with a foot on one marker; when instructed by the timekeeper, the subject ran to the opposite marker, turned, and returned to the starting line. This was repeated five times without stopping. At each marker, both feet were required to fully cross the line, and the time it took to cover the 50 m was measured with a stopwatch (Hanhart Delta E 200 1/100 sec., Hanhart, Gütenbach, Germany) [42].

In the Cooper's 12-min run test for aerobic fitness, the distance travelled in this period was measured. The test was performed on an athletic track by counting the number of laps in the established perimeter with a known distance. The measurements of the perimeter and the distance of the incomplete turns were measured with a 50 m line (echoENG, Cormano, Italy) and the passing of the 12 min was assessed using a stopwatch (Hanhart Delta E 200 1/100 sec., Hanhart, Gütenbach, Germany) [43].

Tests were divided into two separate sessions. Session 1 comprised the Cooper's 12-min run, the sit-and-reach, the hand grip, and the standing broad jump tests. Session 2 comprised the 10 × 5 m shuttle, the flamingo, the sit-ups and the flexed-arms hang tests. The running test was completed at the end of the test session; the others were performed in a random order by each subject.

All tests were preceded by a 15 min warm-up consisting of running and stretching for both the upper and lower limbs as well as for core activation.

For each item, the best of 3 attempts was retained, except for the 10 × 5 m shuttle and the Cooper 12 min tests, which were performed once for the pre-test and once for the post-test. All the tests were administered by expert coach graduates in sports science; the same coach oversaw the tests both in the pre- and the post-pandemic periods.
