On the 5th and 6th of November QSTC members, (QSTC adjunct) Associate Professor Yuji Ohgi, Dr Ken Ohta, Mitch McCarthy, and Jim Lee attended with other colleagues from Ohgi-san’s student laboratory group the Japan Racing Association (JRA) research centre at Utsunomiya. The visit was to collect kinematic data via motion capture and high-speed video cameras. The visit was successful with quality data recorded. Horses were tested at walking, trotting, and canter gaits. As a display, one horse was taken to a gallop, which was very impressive on a treadmill.
Jim and Mitch were equally surprised at the easily identifiable differences in the various gaits measured. Both researchers express their gratitude to Ohgi-san for inviting them to attend. This also goes to Dr Toshiyuki Takahashi, Dr Kazutaka Mukai, Dr Hajime Ohmura and other staff at JRA for warmly welcoming them to their research centre and kindly allowing to post the video clip and picture here. The staff also treated everyone to an excellent restaurant where all the plentiful food was tasty from which, everyone came away happily filled.
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