The inaugural HorseTech Conference was hosted by The Royal Veterinary College on Wednesday the 18th October 2017 at their historic Central London Campus (the site of the autopsy of the legendary Eclipse Racehorse in 1792 that established the College & started the Veterinary Profession in the English Language).
The event was live streamed and you can now watch and share HD video recordings of all the talks by simply scrolling down on this page. The slides and transcripts of talks are also available (making the lectures accessible to non-English speaking audiences etc). Please contact us if you would like to access this content, if you would like to register these lectures as part of your CPD accreditation requirements or if you would like to license them for commercial use.
The Irish Field (Ireland’s leading Racing and Equestrian Newspaper) and The Webinar Vet (the veterinary education webinar service that educates vets from the comfort of their own home via webinars) were official media partners.
On Thursday 19th October 2017 delegates joined the HorseTech Tour and took the opportunity to experience HorseTech in action with exclusive pre-launch access to the world’s most technologically advanced racehorse pre-training facility at the Kingwood Stud in Lambourn.
Full agenda for the day:
Chair Phoebe Bright, Horse Technologist (Ireland) opens the inaugural HorseTech Conference:
Opening keynote: Cardiovascular Analysis by Jeff Seder, Founder, EQB.com (USA):
Gait Analysis by Jay Kilgore, Director of Operations, DataTrack International (USA):
Biomechanics by Robert Fierro, Managing Director, DataTrack International (USA):
Big Data, Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence by Philippe Kahn, CEO & Founder, FullPower.com:
The Future of Fitness Monitoring in Racehorse Training by Robert Curtis, Consultant, Kurtsystems UK (Australia).
Wearables by Thilo Pfau, Senior Lecturer in Bio-Engineering, Royal Veterinary College (UK)
Awaiting video to be uploaded
Breeding by Dr Mandi de Mestre BVSc PhD MRCVS,
Senior Lecturer in Reproductive Immunology, Royal Veterinary College (UK):
“How tech can make life easier for Horse & Rider” by Tom MacGuinness, Founder & CEO, Horseware Ireland (Ireland) fired everyone up for the lunch networking break:
Better Breathing by Dr David Marlin, Scientific & Equine Consultant (UK):
Stable-side Diagnostics by Kieran Walshe, Founder, Accuplex Diagnostics (Ireland):
Optimising the Stable Environment by Sam Murphy, Founder, Equilux Performance Lighting (Ireland):
Genomics: shaping the future from the past by Prof Emmeline Hill, Associate Professor or Equine Science at UCD and Chief Scientific Officer, Plusvital (Ireland):
Equine Salt Therapy by Richard Butterworth, Founder, Equine Salt Therapy (Australia):
Regenerative Medicine by Andy Fiske-Jackson BVSc MVetMed FHEA Dipl.ECVS MRCVS, Senior Lecturer in Equine Surgery, Royal Veterinary College (UK):
Equinosis Q with Lameness Detector by Christina Frigast, , Manager, Eickemeyer (Denmark):
The key to successful innovation: Optimising you by Prof Sam Lingam MD, Consultant Paediatrician, Medical Express Clinic Harley Street (UK):
Closing message from the RVC by Tas Gohir, Head of Knowledge Transfer & Impact, Royal Veterinary College (UK):
Some photos from the event:
The livestream and film crew from Switch New Media have taken away all the headache of live-streaming, video recording and interviews with delegates. Complete professionals, cannot recommend them highly enough.
But the location for this inaugural conference is out of this world: the very spot on which the autopsy of the Eclipse (the undefeated racehorse that appears today in the pedigree of most modern thoroughbreds) took place in 1789 founding the Royal College and the Veterinary Profession in the English language…
Richard Butterworth, inventor of Equine Salt Therapy, arriving at the Royal Veterinary College London from down-under and looking as fresh as the champion racehorses that get spoiled in the state of the art salt spas he installs around the world.
Jay Kilgore (AKA “the Stride guy”) arrives directly from the sales to present at the Royal Veterinary College.
We were honoured to have had the renowned Consultant Professor Sam Lingam MD join us to present (and for his Medical Express Clinic Harley Street as a sponsor of the conference) but he also took it upon himself to arrive early to meet and greet every delegate and speaker so that he could connect with the audience and make his unforgettable closing speech.
Jeff Seder, Founder of EQB.com, opens the first HorseTech Conference by sharing what he’s learnt from investing millions of dollars over three decades refining what is now a proven data driven scientific approach to picking champion racehorses…
Click here to watch the video again as this Harvard educated lawyer makes some stunning reveals about his unique approach to calculating the dozens of factors that they compute to reliably identify the future potential of a triple crown champion racehorse…
I think Malcolm Galdwells’ 10,000 hours rule applies to a lot of opportunities in the HorseTech Market which is why it’s so valuable to create solutions by bringing senior leaders together with technologists who have much less experience.
Jay Kilgore, Director of Operations at DataTrack International, gives a masterclass in gait analysis and explains the process of stride analysis and BreezeFigs.
Robert Fierro explained the background on the detailed reports that his company produce. Bob has a great gift for language and I loved the simplicity with which he described what the algorithm derived report offers to their clients: ‘the report will tell you what kind of automobile you have and whether the engine it’s got is suitable for that automobile”.
Robert Curtis, Consultant to Kurtsystems flew in from Australia for the meeting to present on the ‘Future of Fitness Monitoring in Racehorse Training’ and explain the thinking behind the brand new £20million Kurtsystem at Kingswood Stud in Lambourn that delegates got to experience on the HorseTech Tour the following day.
In 1-2-1 workshops we ran after the conference Robert’s talk was consistently the most challenging for established equestrians to accept. Not only is this a hallmark of a disruptive innovation that could change how we go about training preparations but it’s also a sign of industry acceptance of the losses (perhaps as high as 50% of all horses!).
Delegates were left in no doubt that if a data science company was to enter the Equestrian industry and start training and racing horses it’s likely they’d build a Kurtsystem before they bought any horses!
If you’re from a sensor industry the KurtSystem is without doubt the most exciting innovation in the world of racehorse training so get in touch with us if you’d like an introduction or advice on collaborating with the team behind this state of the art HorseTech innovation.
Introducing Philippe Kahn on a video link from Silicon Valley to the audience was no easy job because his list of inventions and patents is unrivalled (everything from the Cameraphone to the Spreadsheet, Programming Tools to Nike Wearables and the world’s leading Sleeptracker) and he’s also got some incredible athletic achievements as an offshore sailor (in addition to over ten transpacific crossings he holds a current world record after his double handed crossing from LA to Hawaii in less than 8 days!).
I think it was all summed up by my closure though: “it’s interesting to note that on this very spot 227 years ago another French genius ‘Charles Benoit Vial de St Bel’ was on this very spot conducting the autopsy of the legendary Eclipse racehorse. He became the first principle of the Royal Veterinary College and that day is recognised as the creation of the Veterinary Profession in the English language. I have no doubt we’re witnessing a moment in history that will prove as equally as memorable as we see Veterinary Medicine converge with sensors, data science and machine learning…”
Dr Thilo Pfau, Senior Lecturer in Bio-Engineering at the RVC London, presented on the work being done using inertia sensors (unfortunately there was info inadvertantly revealed in this talk that was not meant to be shared publicly so we’ve not yet been given permission to share the video recording). Check back again as when it’s published we should get approval.
Dr Mandi de Mestre BVSc PhD MRCVS, Senior Lecturer in Reproductive Immunology, Royal Veterinary College discussing the topic of breeding and the opportunities emerging from advances in tech and research.
An invaluable lecture.
The Irish Charm of Horseware founder/CEO Tom MacGuinness took the conference to lunch. Known as the Georgio Armani of the Horse world (as he dresses the world’s best horses) it was a masterclass in the value of technology and the opportunities it has to improve life for horses and riders.
It has become so easy to copy innovations so it’s when you hear Tom MacGuinness explain the depth of technological knowledge and the real world experience that has been applied to the design and manufacture of every product that Horseware have produced that you begin to understand what underpins the loyalty that equestrians show to innovative pioneering brands.
Wrapping up Tom shared his vision for how wearable sensors will connect our Horses to the internet and help equestrians to better manage their welfare needs via simple to use apps.
For anyone unconvinced that this was going to be possible Tom demonstrated how a Horseware sensor and HorsePal app is putting the live data from Tom’s own horses in the USA, Argentina, Spain and Ireland at his fingertips together with their medical and vaccine histories and other important information.
Day 2 and the HorseTech Tour got started early with delegates having breakfast at the Kingswood Stud in Lambourn:
…before walking up to the Kurtsystem from the gate house past Mr Mehmet Kurt’s beautiful home…
Everyone was smiling when they realised the young racehorses were being spared from the weather by the Kurtsystem’s 1.5km canopy. During the tour I heard more than one delegate comment that ‘if reincarnation exists I want to come back as one of Mr Mehmet’s Racehorses!’
We launched the HorseTech Conference to bring together equestrians like this: here are the entrepreneurs that invented and built the world’s most advanced and proven biomechanical and cardiovascular tools for predicting the future value of racehorses meeting the inventor of the world’s most advanced racehorse pretraining system…
Meeting the original entrepreneur behind this innovation and the incredible team he’s put together and I was left sharing their dream and thinking of just how long it will be until a Kurtsystem graduate wins the Melbourne Cup…
Kurtsystems General Manager Daniele Camuffo introduces the formula 1 inspired design elements in the system before heading off to load it with horses and show the delegates the future of Racehorse pre-training.
You could hear a pin drop as the herd of high value racehorses in the electrically powered train rolled past at about 20 mph almost silently… a stunning sight to behold and the opinions that were formed in the delegates about the behaviour and herd dynamics being exhibited by the young horses were fascinating.
Charlotte Ricca-Smith, Reporter, Horse & Country TV interviews Tom MacGuinness, founder, Horseware Ireland on his views about Horses & Technology at the inaugural HorseTech Conference:
Charlotte Ricca-Smith, Reporter, Horse & Country TV interviews Professor Emmeline Hill, Associate Professor or Equine Science at UCD and Chief Scientific Officer, Plusvital (Ireland) on the potential applications of Genetic Testing technology at the inaugural HorseTech Conference:
HorseTech Conference 