Hi All, couldn’t say anything about this but now I can.  Since April Willem and his team have completed two studies.  The first was on ten Fresian horses, where their gait patterns were objectively measured using Pegasus.  At the same time they were marked by a panel of judges.  In September the results will be presented to the Fresian Stud book commitee and then published.

The second trial was on six horses with stringhalt, where each horse was monitored using the Pegasus Hock Angle system.  Hock angles were successfully measured on all six horses, with both normal and modified shoes.  Sorry can’t tell you the results until they are published, keep watching.

On the 10th May I delivered a system to Louise Bloom in Harrogate. We tested her horse in the menage and checked that all the results were OK.  Then it was off to the pub for training and analysing the results.  That’s one of the benefits of a truly portable system, you can work on it anywhere!!  I am sure that Louise and her colleague, Vicky Spalding, will have many hours of of fun using the Pegasus system.

On the 8th May I headed off to the Moreton Morrell Centre in Warwick to carry out the first trial with Kate Lockwood and her horses.  Kate had lined up 5 horses that will follow 5 weeks of set exercises and four that are a control.  All nine were walked and trotted up with the brushing boots and hock straps.  Then we spent a couple of hours looking at all the results.  All in all a very successful day and now we just have to wait and see what happens after the exercises.

I visited Willem Back and two of his team again in the last two weeks.  We spent an enjoyable day testing a horse and then going through the results together.  I then left them with the system knowing that it was in capable hands.  Over the next few months I am looking forward to being able to tell you about the trials that they have done and hopefully some very interesting results.  Watch this space!

 On Thursday I traveled to a stables in Amsterdam.  The visit was booked after Tjerk had seen us at one of the conferences and read about how we can profile horses through training.  Tjerk has a 6 year old named Darkan, which he is producing to event.  We spent an afternoon testing Darkan on the lunge then ridden and then we did a trot up in hand.  After that we sat in their café and looked at the results with some of his colleagues.  Tjerk found the results most revealing and of course loved the system, well who wouldn’t!  I have already confirmed that I will be back there, testing lots more of their lovely horses.

 Finally, on Friday I went to a vet’s practice in Wolvega, which I visited on my last trip.  Watch out for more information on work with them.

On Wednesday I visited another vet’s practice in Roosendal.  After the presentation, we went down to test two horses in the indoor school and I even got a few photos.  First we tested a four year old and then an older horse.  During the discussions I mentioned that we can also measure people and one of the vets said she would like to know how symmetric her walking was.  So we measured here as well and guess what, she had a beautifully symmetric gait.  I wonder what she does on a horse, perhaps that’s something we will measure next time.

Anyway, I had a fascinating three days in Holland.  All the people that I met were charming, the horses were well behaved and I could see a real interest in these people to use technology to help them in their treatment and training of horses.  Hopefully I will be back there often and we will start to see more Pegasus users in Holland.

On Tuesday I visited a vet’s practice in Wolvega.  They first say and listened to my presentation and then we went out and tested one of the horses that they had in for investigation. We quickly put the brushing boots and tibia straps on and then walked and trotted the horse up indoors.  Then we moved outside and into the lunging rings, first the hard surface and then the soft surface.  After this we quickly downloaded the data and briefly discussed the results.  Then we set off to the trotter’s training track about a mile away.  The idea was to test one of the horses whilst in training.  Again we put the brushing boots on and off the horse and trainer on the sulky went.  It was a beautiful day and I even remembered to get the camera out.  They were out for nearly half an hour, which meant that we had a lot of data to look at after the trial with the vet.  The kit all worked beautifully and we were able to show the vet how the horse changed the way it moved as it went around the corners and when it went faster.  More on this later.  Then I went with my colleague to visit a breeder.  Not just any breeder, this one has the stallions that are champions in the KNHS Dressage in Holland.  Perhaps next time I visit I will be able to measure some of them.

Hi there, I have been on tour over in Holland last week, I will split these out into smaller blogs for you all to make it easier to read.  On Monday I visited Willem Back at Utrecht University.  We had a most enjoyable meeting, with 12 people, some from the University, others including trainers and breeders in Holland.  After presenting the system we went out to show how easy the Pegasus system is to use.  Willem had a horse ready, so all we had to do was put on the four brushing boots and the two tibia straps and we were ready to go.  The horse was first tested in the indoor school, and then we moved outside and repeated the test.  At first I thought that the straps were making the horse move differently, then I was told that it had an issue in the right hind.  We got some very interesting results, but unfortunately in the excitement I forgot to get any pictures.  Never mind, I hope to be back there soon, and I promise to take my camera with me next time.