The challenge was to detect the early stages of this pathology and so intervene to save the horse’s life.

 

Traditional levels of care had failed in this regard. Every horse which has suffered a fatal injury has been examined by a veterinarian the day it ran. There are no easily visible external signs and the horse is sound at the trot.

 

StrideSAFE reasoned that it was necessary to collect data from the horse itself when it was running at high speed during a race. Only then would the forces be so great as to trigger discomfort in the bones and therefore changes in the horses biomechanics.

 

StrideSAFE sensors can measure and record the forces in all three directions, that is dorso-ventral i.e. up and down, longitudinal i.e. forwards and backwards, and medio-lateral i.e. side to side. And with the recent addition of a magnetometer, new measurements refine results further utilizing pitch and yaw.  As a result, the sensors collect data 7200 times every second!

 

Each horse has a unique way of moving, at StrideSAFE we liken it to a “fingerprint”. It is when this style changes that we know something is bothering the horse.

 

The changes which occur take place over as little as 1/100th of a second, easy for a sensor to pick up and measure but impossible for humans to recognize. StrideSAFE has available a database of over 50,000 individual horse files and so its veterinarians and engineers have been able to create models which predict injury, unsoundness, and the risk of fatal injury. The results are first presented in a numeric category format (similar to hurricane-strength models) and are provided confidentially to the trainer and those concerned with the horse’s welfare. At a deeper level all the data is displayed graphically for the veterinary team to review. StrideSAFE’s own veterinarians are also available for consultation should that be necessary in complex cases.

 

This is but the beginning. The engineering and computer science components are complete and software for automation in place. If necessary results can be available just minutes after a race. StrideSAFE veterinarians have worked in equine biomechanics for over 25 years and the models of risk are clear and consistent. Over time, the data will accumulate at a rapid pace so that before too long Artificial Intelligence methodologies will be employed to further improve the predictability of the models.

 

The stage is set for many of the catastrophic injury cases to disappear from our sport.