Equestrian sports and the interest in horses have existed for hundreds of years. It is only in the last thirty years the technological development have enabled closer studies of equine locomotion. The production of both soft- and hardware that manages to capture and analyze the fast movement of the horse has resulted in a large increase in locomotion research. Even though the interest in horses and the different disciplines they compete in is great, there is a small understanding in how the rider influences the movement of the horse in different types of training. There are several studies available where horses moving freely without the influence of a rider have been studied. What happens with locomotion and ground reaction forces when a rider and equipment are added is not well studied. The objective of this study was to investigate if there are any differences in the ground reaction forces between sitting and rising trot. The study contained seven horses. Six Grand Prix dressage horses and one dressage horse competing at intermediate level.

The social elite on Öland and in Möre in the south east of Sweden during the Iron Age is described on the basis of the archaelogical record, such as graves, settlements and traces of pre-Christian central places. The material is discussed to see if traces of an elite are to be found. The power configuration between Öland and Möre is also discussed.

This paper used a qualitative technique from a social scientific perspective, a model based on Hewitt and his theory of the self-concept. The purpose of this study was to investigate why some elite athletes experience troublesome periods after their career ending. Interviews were performed with five elite athletes with varying experiences after career ending. The length of the elite athlete careers vary between 7 to 17 years. Two groups were made based upon experiences after career ending.

This study was a survey of how it is possible to create conditions for good elite environments in cities with elite universities. The purpose of the study was to create an understanding of how sports associations and National elit sportuniversities in Sweden can co-operate to create a good elite environments for people with dual careers. The study analyzed the current situation and what increased co-operation would do for the elitesports environments. To answer the purpose of the study interviews where conducted with leaders from sports associations and with a representative from the national sports university in Umeå. The result showed that in the current situation were was no cooperation to a significant degree.

The purpose of this study was to exam the possible differences in the experienced self-confidence and motivation among the elite players in bandy and amateur players in bandy. In addition, any differences between boys and girls within the same area to be studied. A total of 112 athletes participated of whom 52 of them classified as elite players and 60 amateur players, with 62 boys and 50 girls. The athletes filled at one point in the questionnaires The Sport Motivation Scale, Harter?s (1980) ?competence scale? and The Sport Confidence Inventory.

The purpose of this bachelor?s thesis is to examine whether there was an elite on Gotland during Roman Iron Age or not. To explain this focus has been put on the roman goods. The contexts in which the roman artifacts are found indicate that they can be tied to what might have been an elite on Gotland during Roman Iron Age. They might also have been used as means of expressing wealth and prestige.

This report describes how I worked with a spatial information problem, where the focus was to produce clearer barriers between horses and spectators at equestrian competitions. My background as a competition rider, combined with my knowledge of the spatial design, has caused me to react to how the information on riding and racing facilities deficiencies. Experienced people in the riding know how they should act with the horse. But novices who are unfamiliar with the situation is not aware of the risks it may pose to move among horses. The study was conducted on the national facility Strömsholm which both experienced and novice equestrian visits.

This quality study was carried out with seven semi-structured interviews and five of them were with elite women´s football coaches. What has been studied is how elite women?s football coaches are working with injury prevention training to their knees for the women?s football players. An anterior cruciate ligament injury in elite women?s football is both common and serious knee injury.

The horses? natural behaviour is easier to satisfy in a loose-housing system than housed in a traditional box. Law?s and science suggest that we should house horses in loose-housing, which improve the horse possibility to perform natural behaviours, to interact socially with other horses and to have more possibility to movement. It?s more timesaving in a working population aspect and a economic gain in materials. We noticed that it?s different opinions about what people in the horse society thinks about having youngsters housed in a loose-housing system.

Abstract: Elite soccer in combination with education is a unique and demanding task. The path towards a glory career in sports takes hard mental and physical training. The objectives in this study are 6 elite focused high school students studying high school education programs in combination with football profile. They are 3 of each gender. The purpose of the study was to find out more about their perspective of motivation and what makes them keep going towards a career in football in beside their education.The study is of empiric hermeneutic survey used qualitative method and interviewing to collect data.

Imagery is an individual and cognitive process (Morris, Spittle, & Watt, 2005). This study has therefore qualitatively examined following objectives: (1) elite powerlifters imagery experiences and (2) if elite powerlifters use imagery deliberately. Five elite powerlifters participated in the study (3 men, 2 women), they were 21-37 years old (M = 27.6; SD = 6.1). The Individual Profile of Imagery Experiences in Sport (IPIES; Weibull, 2008b) was modified and used to meet the objectives for the study. Imagery was used by all elite powerlifters.

The purpose of this essay is to examine how peace journalism was expressed in Swedish newspapers´ reporting on the war in Georgia 2008. We did this by analyzing whether the reporting was elite- or people-orientated depending on how suffering was expressed and how the war players were described.The method we used was Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). It was applied on news articles from four Swedish newspapers that covered three different happenings in the war in Georgia.We found out that the reporting was mainly elite-orientated, both when it comes to how suffering was expressed, as well as how the war players were described. The newspapers tended to focus on only one party?s suffering and one party as evil-doer, which is elite-orientated reporting and also an indication of war journalism rather than peace journalism..

This essay derives from the concern that horses ridden with a bit in their mouth can be subjected to strong pressure from the bit if the horse and rider do not understand each other. The horse's mucosa membrane and the tongue are very sensitive tissues (Cook, 1999; Manfredi, 2005; Oliveira, 2005; Terada, 2006) and the bit can then be a source of pain and discomfort. The training of the horse should therefore always be a step by step process and as the horse develops difficulties are increased. Oliveira (2005) suggested that high demands can be placed on the horse but to be successful in the training it is essential to be content with small progress and reward the slightest desired response from the horse. This corresponds with the principles of operant conditioning with negative reinforcement.

Instrumental conditioning, the use of reinforcement and punishment, is used when training horses and these procedures may have different consequences regarding animal welfare. The aim of this study was to investigate what kind of reinforcers that are used in training horses and when these reinforcers are used. This study has its focus on positive reinforcement and its advantages and disadvantages. Interviews of five A-level and B -level equestrian coaches about their training methods were conducted to complement the literature search and give a greater understanding to why certain methods are used or not in training horses. The results show that negative reinforcement seems to be the foundation of training horses whereas positive reinforcement is used but not to the same extent.

The overarching purpose is to describe how elite soccer clubs choose to structure their sport oriented organization. This purpose leads us to questions and areas involving sport managers, casting, operational directions, education and goal setting in sport.The results in this thesis are based upon a qualitative investigation of sport managers in Swedish elite soccer clubs. To strengthen the reliability in our choice of method we will fortify it with theories that reflect methodical choice.Our conclusions in this thesis is that one can see a clear difference in how the clubs choose to structure the casting and operational directions within their organization. We have also noted that there is a clear distinguish between the levels of education amongst sport managers in Swedish elite soccer clubs..