Slides to accompany the Future of Fitness Monitoring in Racehorse Pre-Training presentation by Rob Curtis for KurtSystems UK). This presentation was delivered as a keynote at the inaugural HorseTech Conference on the 18th October 2017 hosted by the Royal Veterinary College London.

1. The Future of Fitness
Monitoring in Racehorse
Pre-Training
Dr Rob Curtis PhD SMIEEE
for KurtSystems (UK)
Horse Tech Conference 2017
Royal Veterinary College, London

2. Exercise and the Development of
a young horse

3. Overtraining – the losses
INJURY N % of total
Muscular Skeletal Injury 834 25%
Lameness 400
Shin Sore 207
Tendon/ligament 98
Laceration 56
Fractures 55
Respiratory problem 165 5%
Voluntary Retirement 360 11%
Other Causes 58 2%
Total Loss during
preparation
43%
In a study group of 1571 horses from 20 stables (Perkins et al 2004)
Of 3,333 training preparations the reported injury and retirement rate was:-

4. An alternative - Controlled exercise
environment for the Young horse

5. Aerobic exercise
• Strengthen the respiratory and cardiac muscles improving
air and blood transport efficiency
• Improve circulation efficiency
• Increase the number of red blood cells improving oxygen
transportation
• Neovascularization of the muscle sarcomeres increases
muscle blood flow
• Increase rate at which aerobic metabolism is activated
within muscles, allowing a greater portion of energy for
intense exercise to be generated aerobically
• Improve muscles use of fats during exercise, preserving
intramuscular glycogen for anaerobic activity
• Enhance muscle recovery rate

6. Track Surface
horse can withstand 80% more impact shocks (steps)
on a yielding surface than a firm one before cumulative muscular
skeletal stress may cause injury

7. What is Athletic Equine fitness?
Given good :-
• Athletic Genetics
• Nutrition
• Welfare
• Suitable Training
Performance is either determined OR limited by :-
• Cardio-vascular fitness
• Respiratory fitness
• Muscular-Skeletal fitness (Conformation )
• Behavioural fitness

8. KurtSystems Monorail
for pre-training young horses

10. • Step 1 [2-7 days] Young horse acclimates to the Track and
equipment ( standing and walking)
• Step 2 [start] 2 days per week walking / trotting / walking
• Step 3 [3 months]slowly increase number of days per week
AND distance AND speed
until 3 months goal of :-
1mile walk – 1 mile trot – 1 mile canter – 1 mile walk
(Canter from 20-35mph)
• Step 4 [3months] repeat step 3 BUT introduce a 20kg saddle
and slowly increase the saddle weight to 35kg
KurtSystems Pre-training Schedule

11. Safety Features

12. Measuring fitness
KurtSystems Monorail gives a controlled and safe
exercise load
• Measure and evaluate the young horses physiological
response to exercise ( day to day and over a period)
• Herd Management tool
• Proactive Welfare and health indicator
• Research tool to fine tune KurtSystems Pre-training
program
• Veterinary Research tool data to better understand a
young horse’s development and improve the
management of muscular – skeletal pulmonary and
cardio vascular problems.

13. The factors affecting performance
• Inherited factors
• Skeletal conformation, Cardio-vascular, Pulmonary, Musculature
and mix of fibre type, Metabolic efficiency, Temperament
• Environmental factors
• Temperature, Humidity, Pressure, Wind
• Training factors
• Training methods for Cardio- vascular, Pulmonary and Muscle
Strength and Recovery, Riders Skills, Track attitude
• Management factors
• Rider weight and skill, Track condition, Training slope,
Lameness (accidental / stress induced), Nutrition

14. Ambulatory Measurement of fitness
How do we get information on fitness from an exercising horse ?
• Non invasive sensors preferred
• Data gathering in Real time
• Wireless ( telemetry) for safe operation and simple use
• Semi-Automated identification of a horse
• Data Stored during exercise
• Real time data on parameters useful to exercise management (eg HR)
• Post event in depth analysis
• Automation of analysis & results where possible
• Long term database record keeping
Good management and training requires information

15. Cardiovascular Fitness
Heart rate
Velocity
Measure Heart rate change in response to work
Sensor Types
ECG , Pulse
Basic measurement of Heart Rate
Heart rate combined with Velocity expressed as VHRmax and VHR200
are very reliable measures of fitness

16. Respiratory Fitness
Respiratory
temperature
Velocity
Measure Respiratory change in response to work
Oxygen
CO2
Sensor Types
Flow Mask ( pitot, pressure drop , ultrasonic)
Gas sensors (IR, laser, Nernst etc )
Basic Measurement of Flow rates, Tidal Volume, Breath Frequency
Advanced Measure of VO2, VCO2, RQ
VO2max is max amount of oxygen an individual can consume/ min
And is the aerobic capacity

17. Respiratory Masks
Data demonstration

18. Respiratory Flow Rate, Tidal Volume
and Breath Frequency at 7m/s

19. s
Automated analysis of
2 breaths at 7m/s

20. Motion / Muscle Fitness
3D Leg movement sensors
Velocity
Measure Gait and Muscle response to work
3D Possible Whole body movement sensors
Sensor Types
Accelerometer, Gyro, Magnetometer, Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU)
Basic Measurements
Stride length, Stride rate, Symmetry, Stride pattern etc

21. Behavioural Fitness
Rein Tension
Heart Rate
 Nervous / startled horses have higher heart rate (flight response animal)
 Rein tension measures rider / horse interaction
 Head Position (Chin accelerometer) in the anterior-posterior axis measures
who is pulling the rein (rider or the horse)
 Chin accelerometer in the medio-lateral or dorso-ventral axis measures
head position which can effect gait
Head Position

22. Fitness Monitoring Technology
Why Now ?
• Large technology companies investing in extending
mobile phone technology with miniature sensors
• Big interest in human exercise monitoring ( Fitbits etc)
• Convergent functions – one handheld device to
communicate , sense and inform
What’s technologies are on Offer ?

23. • Microprocessors
• Smaller, low energy, cheaper, more functions
• Power Sources
• Batteries - Lighter, higher energy density, better charge control (eg
Lithium)
• Harvested Power – from movement, temperature / acidity
gradients
• Sensors
• MEMS * technology - Smaller, lower energy, cheaper, simpler
integration
• Functions – acceleration, gyro, magnetometer, pressure,
temperature, humidity, gas sensing, flow sensing
*Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems
Fitness Monitoring Technology
Acquire fitness data

24. Fitness Monitoring Technology
Transport and Storage of Fitness Data
• 3D Printing technology
• Allow component shapes for sensors not
previously easy to build
• Low energy wireless networks
• Bluetooth, BLE, Zigbee, Wifi, etc
• Network Control techniques
• Internet of Things (IOT)
• Database technology
• Lightweight on Computer power
• Fast and efficient ( to keep up with large data rates)
• Solid State Disk Drives
• Faster more robust storage

25. Fitness Monitoring Technology
Analysis/ Understanding fitness data
Analysis and Signal processing - what does the squiggly
line from the machine mean?
• Extraction of some indicators have been well studied (
Heart rates, respiratory function, gait)
• More Research Clinical and Engineering to further
develop useful methods to describe fitness
• Import methods include Digital signal processing (DSP),
classifiers , neural nets, big data, epidemiology

26. Thank you for your interest and attention
Questions ???

27. Acknowledgements
Mr Mehmet Kurt
for his insights and determination in improving
horse development and training
Mr Daniele Camuffo
trainer and manager at KurtSystems UK