Author: David Marlin

On Sunday morning at 7am I’ll be heading down to Heathrow to hopefully catch a flight over to Stockholm and then a short train journey North to Uppsala to attend the 11th International Conference on Equine Exercise Physiology (ICEEP). This conference has run every four years since 1982 when the first one was held in Oxford. I was still an undergraduate at University then but I did attend the 2nd conference in San Diego in 1986 and have made it to all others with the exception of Australia in 1994 (when I was in Atlanta with horses doing research for…

❓ Are you struggling getting to grips with Body Condition Scoring?❓ Can you tell if your horse or pony is carrying too much fat?❓ Are you not sure what’s muscle and what’s fat? Fat scoring: are you confident assessing condition against the shape of the horse underneath?This practical, interactive workshop will have us working together to condition score members’ horses, using different body types (including natives) to learn. Dr Tamzin FurtadoDr Tamzin Furtado is a social scientist at the University of Liverpool, where she studies equine welfare. Her PhD was around equine weight management, with a focus on positive welfare…

For many reasons, its almost certain that horses see things very differently to us. Horses’ eyes are one of the largest of vertebrates living on land. With a single eye horses can see around 228° compared with only around 155° in people.Binocular vision in horses is only around 60° in horses compared with 120° in people.Horses have poor visual acuity (ability to distinguish shape and detail) compared with other land-living mammals.Horses can perceive depth and three-dimensional structure but only in the binocular vision field which likely explains why they are able to jump well.The equine retina has no central fovea…

Dr David Marlin went LIVE on facebook to explain the science behind heat and how to care for your horse in the abnormal hot weather. David answers lots and lots of questions and the information provided is valuable to all those caring for horses in hot weather. https://vimeo.com/721684649/13b9db7283 More Information: Article – Health Warning! Advice to keep you and your horse safe in warm or hot weatherArticle – Horses, Heat, Sweating, Cold-Water, Cooling & ScrapingArticle – What’s the Best Method to Cool a Hot Horse?Video – Cooling and scraping and its effect on a horse’s surface temperatureNews Video – Training For Tokyo – Cooling…

At the risk of preaching to the converted, as a few people are still sending me articles, often written by lay people, sometimes from vets, and telling me how wrong I am, I thought I’d try a pictorial approach. Per litre, Ice-Cold water (0-5°C) removes heat faster than evaporation of 1 litre of water or sweat. Per litre, the complete evaporation of 1 litre of sweat or water removes 13x more heat than 1 litre of ice-water BUT evaporation takes 10-15x longer to remove the heat. Cold water = quick cooling, but wasteful or water (inefficient) – use for rapid…

Dr David Marlin’s top tips to help you manage your dog in the heat – a few simple principles can help you keep your pet/s comfortable and safe in the hottest summer months. AVOIDING the heat is the best approach. Some basics are: Walk in the early morning or late eveningReduce activity e.g. keep dogs on leads or avoid ball games, etcIf your dog is outside it must have access to shadeKeep dogs inside during the hottest part of the day in a ventilated room (but with the windows shut), with curtains or blinds pulled and ideally with a stone…

If the weather changes suddenly your horse/pony will not be acclimatised and can be at greater risk of heat exhaustion/heat stroke. Training and Competing Advice If your horse/pony has to compete in the hottest part of the day, you need to train for around 2 weeks in the hottest part of the day to acclimatise them. If you are travelling in a period of hot weather, leave very early in the cooler part of the day or late evening as in stationary traffic the inside of a horsebox can become unbearable in a very short time. Provide water at all…

Reducing livery stress – for both yard managers and clients What do you think of, when you think of livery yards? Livery yards can have quite negative connotations, and people often talk about cliquey owners, difficult yard managers, and crazy rules. Why is this, and what can be done by both yard managers and their clients, to maximise both horse and human happiness on livery yards? This talk will give the results of a two-year in depth study of livery yard management, and invite your experiences too.  LOG IN TO WATCH THE FULL WEBINAR BELOW:

On Wednesday I was at Loughborough University (where my PhD is from) to help Tracy Bye with her doctoral research in the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences at Loughborough University on the biomechanics of horse riders with relation to posture, balance and asymmetry. Tracy has previously published a number of papers on saddle and stirrup forces and postural asymmetry. Tracy also coaches in rider biomechanics. The research she is carrying out uses the CAREN Lab at Loughborough which incorporates a programmable moving platform which can simulate real horse movements along with a 360° VICON image analysis system. I…

Research Paper PrePrint – A comparison of the metabolic cost of the three phases of the one-day event in female collegiate riders  Authors: Marcus Roberts 1 , Jeremy Shearman 2# and David Marlin 3 *Affiliations: Writtle College, Writtle, Essex, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Essex, Colchester, UK. Hartpury College, Hartpury, Gloucester, UK. Animal Web Ltd, Cambridge, UK Abstract Few studies exist regarding the physiological responses of equestrian riders during actual or simulated competition. Interest has proliferated in recent years into the responses of riders which is mainly due to the fatal tragedies that occurred in eventing in the late 1990’s. More…