Horse sense

Engineers from Cambridge Design Partnership spin-off GMax are developing a performance-measuring sensor system for horses that could bring success to equestrians the world over.

The system will be built into a sleeve that slides over a horse’s girth, providing real-time information about essential physical, physiological, and environmental information that is then transmitted wirelessly to a PDA, laptop or to the internet via mobile phone. The rider can then receive feedback to help control the horse’s progress via a wrist-worn device.

Immediate access to such information — which can also include the horse’s gait, temperature and breathing — allows training to be optimised when horse, trainer, vet and rider are in separate locations.

Will Bradley, a project leader at Cambridge Design Partnership (CDP) said the idea for the technology came after a meeting with leading endurance rider Dominique Freeman, who was working for one of CDP’s biggest medical devices clients.

California-based Freeman, who represents Great Britain, suggested that her performance could be improved if she had ’some sort of dashboard’ for her horse.