THE 2018 CAFRE Innovation Day brought a number of Irish and some international companies to their Enniskillen Campus on Tuesday. The day, which was open to CAFRE students and to the public, ran like clockwork and was filled with demonstrations and discussion.

There was a great range and variety among the exhibitors, some had been to the innovation day before, while it was new to others. In total there were 14 exhibitors. Three of these spoke as part of the technical talks in the afternoon session.

The three technical talks in the afternoon gave everyone attending the day a real insight into how the businesses came about, some of the problems they faced along the way and where they hope to go in the future.

Throughout the day there was a very high level of engagement. At the end of each of the technical talks there were questions from the floor.

EQUINE MEDIRECORD

The first of the speakers were Pierce Dargan and Simon Hillary from Equine Medirecord. Their business is based on a recording and storing all veterinary records on an app. The concept behind the app is that it is easier and safer to keep records on the app than on paper.

According to Dargan, Equine Medirecord is the only system of its kind on the market at the moment. He said: “We have the first and only system to be deemed compliant to replace the paper system by British and Irish regulators. We also developed this system with leading Irish trainers such as classic-winning trainer John Oxx and seven-time Irish champion [National Hunt] trainer Noel Meade.”

The app also gives other staff members, such as assistants or veterinary surgeons, access to enter information even when the trainer is not present.

The trainer can easily log on and see what is going on in the yard when they are offsite creating a much more transparent and reliable system.

“Five Irish trainers have either been banned or heavily fined for giving the wrong medications to their horses,” according to Dargan. He is very optimistic that this number can be reduced if records are stored digitally.

Equine Medirecord began by targeting the racing and thoroughbred industry but they are starting to see an uptake in their product from the sport horse sector as well.

When asked about the future plans for the company Dargan was hopeful that they would be able to benefit from Brexit and that the app will allow anyone travelling across a boarder with a horse to have all the relevant medical records with them.

The app also comes with additional features such as vaccination reminders and the option of downloading records and getting them as PDFs. There is no limit to how much information that can be stored on the app and Dargan envisions the apps replacing horse diaries.

One CAFRE student asked about production development. Dargan and Hillary explained that usability was key. They worked with trainers and showed them a number of prototypes as they developed the app. They believed this was an essential part of the process and recommended anyone thinking of developing a product with the equestrian industry to work closely with their intended customers.

IRISH EQUINE REHABILITATION AND FITNESS CENTRE

Fiona Fitzgibbon from the Irish Equine Rehabilitation and Fitness Centre was the second speaker. It was her first year participating in the Innovation Day. It had additional importance to her and the organisers as she is an Equine Studies graduate from CAFRE.

Fitzgibbon has only recently opened the centre and it is the first facility of its kind in Ireland. The centre has an ECB water treadmill. It is the only water treadmill in the Ireland which has an incline and is open to the public.

The water is at 6°C and the treadmill can go between one and 12 km/ph. The computer system on the treadmill records all of the horse information and their sessions on the treadmill.

The sides of the treadmill are clear and the water is heavily filtered and kept as clean as possible. This makes it significantly easier to make an assessment of how the horse is working while they are on the treadmill. The water also contains Epsom salts and sea salt.

Fitzgibbon has applied her own experience working in professional yards and running her own business to this new venture. The Irish Equine Rehabilitation and Fitness Centre offer a number of other services as well as the water treadmill.

The facility has been purpose built and includes a private with six stables. The entire yard is rubber matted and also includes a treatment where veterinary surgeons, farriers and physios can come to treat horses. There is also an arena, grass gallops and trot-up strip. Fitzgibbon has plans to expand the facility in the near future.

The rehabilitation facilities include a gradual individually tailored plan to bring horses from box rest to being back in work and able to be out at grass again. To cater for this, five of the six stables have small outdoor rehabilitation paddocks attached.

Horses can gradually progress from these paddocks to slightly bigger ones before being let out in a normal grass paddock. According to Fitzgibbon, this helps to reduce the risk of horses reinjuring themselves.

Fitzgibbon also offers a service to ride horses as part of their rehabilitation and she offers fitness programmes for competition horses and racehorses.

EQUILUME

Emma Taylor from Equilume completed the line-up of innovative speakers. She explained some of the science behind Equilume and the importance of both white and red light to help maximise breeding and performance by fine-tuning annual and 24-hour rhythms.

Taylor emphasised that all horses should be given undisturbed time and if horses are under lights for the majority of the year they should be given a period of time without lights in order to maintain their natural rhythms.

The Innovation Day gave Equilume a platform to launch their new Equilume stable light. Top trainer Jessica Harrington has been using the lights on some of her two-year-olds this year and has seen very positive results, according to Taylor.

As well as having a speaker at the day, Equilume had a stand. It is the third year they have been exhibiting at the Innovation Day. Over the years Equilume has experienced a lot of interest from the industry and from CAFRE students. Equilume’s Jacqueline Draper said: “The engagement from the seconds here is second to none.”

PRACTICAL DEMONSTRATIONS

Members of the student and staff body from CAFRE Enniskillen gave practical demonstrations. This not only gave those attending the day a chance to see the technologies used on campus but it also gave everyone a chance to have a look at the facilities on offer at the college.

CAFRE students have access to a number of new and exciting technologies which they can use as part of their learning or they can apply to any investigative or research work they are carrying out as part of their studies. Each of the demonstrations during the Innovation Day showed how the students use these technologies.

The demonstrations included using a dust monitor to examine and subsequently improve the stable yard environment and improve equine respiratory health. The dust monitor has been used by students for a variety of different projects, particularly in relation to how best to reduce spores and dust.

Different foaling alarms were also demonstrated. The breeding unit at the Enniskillen campus means both students and staff who were discussing the technologies had a very clear understanding of the products from their own experience.

This definitely added to the value from an outside perspective.

The practical demonstrations of the foaling alarms showed how each alarm fitted and the pros and cons they have found at CAFRE Enniskillen. This demonstration was followed by one on parasite control.

Different forms of parasite control and means of getting an accurate count on parasites were discussed.

Since they have been conducting more accurate worm counts and implementing testing at CAFRE Enniskillen they have seen a large decrease in the number of adult horses that require worming.

Resistance to wormers is a problem and the less horses need to be wormed the better the wormer will work. At CAFRE Enniskillen they now only have to worm 10% of their adult horses in the closed yard.

Equine weight management was another of the practical demonstrations. The demonstration included using equine weight tapes, equine weight bridges and fat scoring methods.

The final demonstration took place in the indoor arena where the Tekscan saddle pressure sensor system and the Simi Motion Capture.

Despite one or two technical difficulties everyone got a very clear idea how both pieces of technology worked and how they can help improve both horse and rider.

OTHER EXHIBITORS

Plusvital were among the exhibitors at the Innovation Day. The day coincided nicely with the launch of their new product EnerGene-Q10 which is the world’s first nutrigenomic supplement based on published scientific evidence. It links nutritional requirements of the horse to its genetic make-up.

Plusvital have exhibited at the Innovation Day before. Tuesday gave some of their laboratory technicians a chance to talk to CAFRE students considering their career options.

Dr Esther Skelly Smith exhibited at the Innovation Day for the first time. Skelly Smith is a veterinary surgeon and equine dentist. She runs Northern Ireland’s first integrated referral service.

At Shanaghan Veterinary Serives Skelly-Smith offers range of services including veterinary chiropractic, veterinary acupuncture, laser therapy and equine dentistry. Skelly-Smith told The Irish Field how she found the day: “It was very good speak to students, it’s so important to educate them.”

Bua Saddles is an Irish company based in Dublin that makes an innovative new design of saddle. The company has completely redesigned the traditional tree used in saddles. They use a cantilevered tree which offers greater comfort for both horse and rider.

Bua Saddles are modular and allow for much greater adjustment and change between horses and disciplines. This means riders can use one saddle on approximately 80% of the horses they are riding.

Jessie Smith of Bua Saddles explained how she has seen increased interest from veterinary surgeons and riders around the world who are looking to find more comfortable alternatives to traditional saddles.

Other exhibitors included Bluegrass Horse Feed (read about their upcoming trip to Kentucky below), HayLo Horse Feeder, Danske Bank, Invest NI, the Irish Equine Centre and PaceFeeder.

Training day

CAFRE Enniskillen are hosting ISH Young Breeders Training on Friday October 26th from 1pm until 4:30pm. The training is open to anyone interested in assessing, exhibiting and breeding performance horses. The day will focus on assessing for conformation and athleticism in both show jumping and eventing horses.

CAFRE are also in the process of hosting their Equine Health and Veterinary Series. There are three talks remaining in the series which will take place on the 5th, 15th and 29th of November at the Ballinderry Inn, Moira Road.