Day 3

Another hectic day of presentations, not even time for breakfast! Paul McGreevy presented an interesting paper asking us to consider what activities occur when horses interact with horses, when horse interact with humans and when humans interact with horses. This is relevant when we are considering what is reasonable to expect of horses and how they react or respond to humans. How might these interactions be perceived by horses and should this shape what are acceptable interactions with horses? A big question but as public opinion on our handling and training of animals will influence our future opportunities to work with horses it is worth considering.
Another very interesting presentation was give by Barbara Murphy on the impact of time zone changes on the performance horse. This is becoming increasingly a consideration to horse welfare as more horses are flown to competitions.
Unlike any other animal so far tested horses can adjust their body clock within hours rather than the days it can take humans however the horses body temperature adjustment and metabolic performance can stay linked to the old time zone for longer. A recommendation to adjust feeding times to the new time zone some days before travel can help the body adjust. Did you know that the horse's body temperature reaches its maximum around 3hrs after night fall; we may need to leave off that top rug a little later so they don't overheat.
Next year the conference will be in Sydney (July) so keep checking the ISES website for updates. It will be a really worthwhile investment.

Day 2 prac

Demonstrations by Mary Wanless of how she breaks down the rider's position to ensure that the rider can sit in balance was way too short however we caould already see improvements in the short time available. A demonstration of myofascial massage techniques as well as an explanation of reflex responses of the horse's neck and back were used to explain some potential impacts on performance but the highlight for most people was the riding demponstration by the chech schoolgirl who only had 2 hours the previous day to introduce 2 unkown horses to her interpretation of natural horsemanship ideas. She rode a 7year old hunter without a bridle over fences and demonstrated some ground skills on a 3yo. It would have been great to see how she introduced her techniques to these horses but once again , time was against us.

Day 2 of ISES

Day 2 saw another round of presentations. Jack Murphy, convenor of this year's symposium kept up a cracking pace with 10 presentations followed by another practical demostration then even more presentations! Certainly value for money at this conference but it can be a bit hard to remember everything we saw and heard. There are a diverse group of people here-scientists, horse industry educators and equestrian participants which makes for a wide range of interests. It was great to have a member of the FEI veterinary panel here as well as the tremendous support of the Royal Dublin Society (who hosted the event in thier wonderful club and showgrounds).
Relevant to our NCAS elearning project was a presentaiton by K Morgan et all in conjunction with the Swedish National Equestrian Centre on goal seeting as a means of planning training session to improve a showjumping rider's skill development. The approach was to break down the skills required into 4 categories to spend around 2.5 weeks per step focusing on: 1. Rider's seat & balance 2. Rider's control and effecgiveness of the aids 3. Rythm and approach to the fence 4. jumping a course. Although this seems obvious and would not enable a beginner to become a polished performer, the reserachers found that by setting goals for each stage it was easier for the riders to develop a sense of satisfaction for each stage of skill development as well as a better comprehension of what is required to jump a course. it also gave the riders and coach a common basis for analysing performance. The researchers' website: www.stromsholm.com

Day 1 prac and other oral sessions

The pracs today showed a range of equipment used to lunge horses. We also had a demonstration of jumping schooling by the Irish Army equitation school who are using the Irish national coaching scheme.
Jodie Hartstone also demonstrated the method of training for a response using only one cue at a time. in this caae the aim was to improve the horse's acceptance of contact with the first step being the horse stepping back to rein pressure on the ground. Next step to stop on rein pressure under saddle. This horse tended to carry itself in a hollow frame and was more likely to brace against contact but Jodie did a wonderful job of quietly making a clear simple signal for the horse to learn. Hopefully I can load some video of this. I tried the live streaming from my mobile phone; there will be more of this today about 6 hrs from now and hopefully the link will work, otherwise go to qik.com then look at jac08 to see the collection of videos so far. Quality is not so good when trying to view the other end of the dressage arena but I think it still has some potential. The video shows one of the Irish paralympic riders who gave a demonstration of her Olympic kur which was followed by some Irish dancing!

Day 1 of ISES

We have just had the first morning of presentations with many interesting speakers on topics of particular interest to our elearning project. One speaker who is looking at asymmetry in riders with the next step (I hope) investigating ways to modify this or increase the rider's body awareness.
Have a look on the ISES website link and go to the confernece page to see the program.

We also had someone investigating the visual skills of elite vs amateur riders over jumps to see if we can eventually teach riders to judge take-off distance via a simulator. As Colleen told me when i suggested that this could be a great project earlier, the rider's head moves around a lot and they are still refining the mounting of the camera but it looks very interesting. They are using a similar technology to that used in market research where potential shoppers wear special glasses that register where their eyes look while they travel around a shop so the researchers can work out the best place to display their products so the customer will see them.
I'm off to a prac session now & hope to send some live video if not today them tomorrow.
Have a look at QIK.com my name for this site is jencar08. I will try to put a direct link to it here but try at this time tomorrow for some live feeds.
Jenny

Welcome

Hi elearners,
I am currently working on a project for equestrian coaches who are learning how elearning can be integrated into their business. As I will be attending the International Equitation Science Symposium in Dublin I thought it would be a good way of demonstrating the benefits of a blog as a record. Hope to get some pics and video up here in the next few days so stay tuned.
Jenny