The Effect of Rider:Horse Bodyweight Ratio on the Superficial Body Temperature of Horse’s Thoracolumbar Region Evaluated by Advanced Thermal Image Processing

Abstract

Appropriate matching of rider–horse sizes is becoming an increasingly important issue of riding horses’ care, as the human population becomes heavier. Recently, infrared thermography (IRT) was considered to be effective in differing the effect of 10.6% and 21.3% of the rider:horse bodyweight ratio, but not 10.1% and 15.3%. As IRT images contain many pixels reflecting the complexity of the body’s surface, the pixel relations were assessed by image texture analysis using histogram statistics (HS), gray-level run-length matrix (GLRLM), and gray level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) approaches. The study aimed to determine differences in texture features of thermal images under the impact of 10–12%, >12 ≤15%, >15 <18% rider:horse bodyweight ratios, respectively. Twelve horses were ridden by each of six riders assigned to light (L), moderate (M), and heavy (H) groups. Thermal images were taken pre- and post-standard exercise and underwent conventional and texture analysis. Texture analysis required image decomposition into red, green, and blue components. Among 372 returned features, 95 HS features, 48 GLRLM features, and 96 GLCH features differed dependent on exercise; whereas 29 HS features, 16 GLRLM features, and 30 GLCH features differed dependent on bodyweight ratio. Contrary to conventional thermal features, the texture heterogeneity measures, InvDefMom, SumEntrp, Entropy, DifVarnc, and DifEntrp, expressed consistent measurable differences when the red component was considered.