Fighter Jet Technology To Benefit Horse Transport

Fighter Jet Technology To Benefit Horse Transport

The British Equestrian Federation (BEF) have announced the development of an environmental monitoring unit for horse’s during transport.

The unit, named Equus-Sense, has been developed through a project partnership between BAE Systems and UK Sport. The unit has been built on the a concept used to monitor cockpit conditions and air quality and is found in combat aircraft, such as the Eurofighter Typhoon.

Equus-Sense seeks to ensure horses arrive at competition in peak states of health, fitness, and wellbeing. The development of the unit, incorporating additional sensors, has resulted in the high coverage of any parameters that may affect the horse during transport. Parameter’s include; sound, temperature, vibration, humidity, dust levels, and oxygen levels.

The essential information gathering is only powered by AA batteries. It is compact and can be housed in any travelling environment to monitor and record conditions.

Currently, the technology will only be used for BEF athletes, however it is predicted that in the future there will be expansion and incorporation of the unit to other sporting organisation’s travel essentials.

Discussing the benefit of Equus-Sense to elite competitors, Henry White, UK Sport Partnership Lead at BAE Systems said;

“When it comes to elite sport, marginal gains can help leverage a real competitive advantage – and that preparation begins before competitors reach their competition,” 

 “We develop aircraft and equipment monitoring technology which helps ensure our fighter pilots are as comfortable as possible to enable them to realise their incredible skills and there is no reason why horses cannot benefit from this.  Applying such technology to horse transportation had its challenges but our expert engineers have developed such a system allowing the equestrian competitors to benefit and help gain an advantage”.

Director of Equine Sports Science and Medicine for the BEF’s World Class Programme, John McEwen added;

“Small marginal gains are very important to us, to provide maximal performance, and the travel environment is critical to this. The improvements made will ensure the highest level of welfare for our elite horses and ensure that they travel first class.”

The development of Equus-Sense is resultant of BAE Systems and UK Sport’s four-year extension project, which was announced in 2017, to apply high-class engineering to aid the development of sport.

Engineers and sport scientist from BAE Systems and UK Sport have been working together since 2009 to develop the most advance technologies for Olympic and Paralympic Sport. Only recently BAE Systems’  became an official partner to UK Sport, investing £600,000 worth of expertise, materials and time toward British sport development.

The partnership hopes to see further progression of technologies to further aid British athletes, including the British Equestrian Teams.

[avatar user=”AbbyDickinson” size=”medium” align=”center” link=”file”]Everything Horse News Reporter, Abby Dickinson[/avatar]