{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,12]],"date-time":"2025-10-12T03:24:43Z","timestamp":1760239483183,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":28,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"22","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,21]],"date-time":"2020-11-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1605916800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJERPH"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The aim of the present study was to quantify the impact of training restrictions, due to COVID-19 sanitary emergency, on physical and emotional strain of horse-riding Eventing competitions before and after eight weeks of lockdown. Performance was assessed by the penalty points attained, anxiety by the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2, strain by the Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) method. Moreover, Heart Rate was continuously monitored for fifty-four female national level Eventing horse-riders. Lockdown decreased performance outcome of horse-riders in Eventing competitions up to six weeks, with the Dressage test being the most affected discipline. Performance in Dressage was strongly related to both anxiety and session-RPE. After lockdown, Show-Jumping and Cross-Country courses were shorter allowing RPE to remain stable, session-RPE to significantly decline and cardiovascular strain not to exceed pre-lockdown values. In conclusion, emotional stress in Dressage and workload in Cross-Country should be carefully managed by equestrian Eventing stakeholders when planning training and competitions after a period of lockdown. Moreover, sRPE appears to offer a practical method of monitoring riders load during training and competition and could also be of use for home-based training during any future sport activities restrictions.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijerph17228648","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,23]],"date-time":"2020-11-23T01:28:48Z","timestamp":1606094928000},"page":"8648","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":13,"title":["Horse-Riding Competitions Pre and Post COVID-19: Effect of Anxiety, sRPE and HR on Performance in Eventing"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"17","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2390-3192","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sabrina","family":"Demarie","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Movement, Human and Health Sciences, University of Rome \u201cForo Italico\u201d, Piazza de Bosis 6, 00135 Roma, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Christel","family":"Galvani","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Applied Exercise Physiology Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Universit\u00e0 Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Largo A. Gemelli, 1, 20123 Milano, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6085-998X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Veronique Louise","family":"Billat","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Unit of Integrative Biology of Adaptations to Exercise, EA 7362, Universit\u00e9 d\u2019Evry-Val d\u2019Essonne, Genopole, 91037 Evry, France"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1417","DOI":"10.1007\/s40279-020-01297-6","article-title":"Impact of potential physiological changes due to COVID-19 home confinement on athlete health protection in elite sports: A call for awareness in sports programming","volume":"50","author":"Sarto","year":"2020","journal-title":"Sports Med."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Stokes, K.A., Jones, B., Bennett, M., Close, G.L., Gill, N., Hull, J.H., Kasper, A.M., Kemp, S.P., Mellalieu, S.D., and Peirce, N. 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