Did anyone happen to notice what looked like a large bowling ball being dropped at points around the cross country course at Blenheim International Horse Trials this year? This video will explain why
Alison Northrop, Senior Lecturer, Nottingham Trent University is part of a team who visited various events in 2021, including Blenheim Palace International, to perform tests on their cross country tracks.
Using the Orono Biomechanical Tester, they can simulate the effect of a horse landing after jumping a fence at a gallop while the Vienna Surface Tester (the ‘Bowling Ball’) provides information on the hardness of the surface.
The various tests and ongoing analysis described by Alison in this video are contributing to research that will help improve the going on cross country, which in turn will be beneficial for the health and safety of our eventing horses.
We’ll be catching up with Alison soon for more information on the overall project and how it relates specifically to the discipline of eventing.
In the meantime, you might be interested in reading the current version of the Equine Surfaces White Paper produced by the team. This white paper has been drafted as a collection of published scientific papers and data. It is considered a work in progress and will be updated as new scientific studies and surface data become available
