Dr. Emmanuelle van Erck, veterinarian and European specialist in equine internal medicine.
ESMP – Equine Sports Medicine Practice, Arioneo partners, Belgium.
TECHNOLOGY TO HELP PERFORM
Sports performance is no coincidence. It is the result of optimal physical preparation and excellent health. The technological revolution of the last 20 years has changed our approach to sport, regardless of the athletic discipline. Connected objects allows athletes and their trainers to objectively measure the body’s response to physical effort, whether the athlete was doing too much or too little and to what extent training could be optimized, both to improve performance and to avoid injuries.
Arioneo has developed EQUIMETRE VET, a new system for measuring and monitoring the horse’s physical performance. Unlike other connected devices, EQUIMETRE VET allows the integration of many sporting parameters, while offering a simple understanding of the exercise. The trainer has, at his disposal, the ability to re-run trainings, the speed of the horse, and also, furlong by furlong, locomotion, and heart rate. The quality of the measurements is such that they can be used to establish a diagnosis of cardiac arrhythmia based on the recorded electrocardiogram.
The training strategy depends on the level of fitness and recovery after work and competition. EQUIMETRE makes it possible to evaluate recovery in the short and medium term, giving information on the horse’s state of fatigue and its ability to progress.The measured parameters can be compared from one training session to another, from week to week. The trainer therefore has the means to concretely evaluate a horse’s progress during training, to compare the individual horse to itself as well as to other horses on the yard.
Thousands of measurements acquired with horses of different profiles have made it possible to understand how each horse responds differently to its training. Therefore allowing the difficulty of the work of each athlete, to be adapted according to each individual’s capabilities. Thus, in a horse that responds easily and quickly to work, the trainer can safely choose to intensify the exercise and optimize the horse’s state of fitness.
True to its origins, EQUIMETRE VET is intended not only to be a training monitoring tool but also a tool in sports medicine, useful for monitoring the athlete’s health. The measurements make it possible to establish if the horse has worked within the limits of its physical abilities. If its capacities have been exceeded, is it the result of a lack of quality or a possible weakness related to a health problem that has evolved slowly?
The concept is to allow the trainer to react immediately and prevent problems and injuries before they occur. In a horse that has a proven injury or disease, EQUIMETRE VET is used to accompany the revalidation period, to determine if recovery times and recovery procedures are working. This avoids returning to work too early and stepping up training at the horse’s own pace.
Keywords : EQUIMETRE VET, embedded ECG, Emmanuelle van Erck, ESMP, veterinary technology, partners