New Research Makes Strides in Eventing Safety

Safety levels in Eventing could be boosted by advanced simulations designed to reduce the risk of rotational falls.

The United States Eventing Association (USEA) and University of Kentucky collaborated on a recent study with the goal of developing simulations to find new insights into the prevention of rotational falls – whereby horses somersault. They hope to eventually provide the data for use by course and safety device designers.

The results of the study, Safety Concepts for Every Ride, were presented at the 2018 USEA convention by Dr. Suzanne Weaver Smith, PhD, head of the research team, and Shannon Wood.

We spoke with both to learn about the results and what’s next for the study…

According to Smith and Wood, the study’s objective was to develop simulation capabilities to look at a range of situations, look at the results for safety devices, and identify physical characteristics behind rotational falls for device designers.

Wood, whose role was to develop the ‘horse and rider shape’ survey and incorporate it into the model, added that designers were uncertain which forces devices should be tested that would resemble a horse having a rotational fall. She said: “What our model did was identify the physics, forces, and directions that caused the falls in different situations.”

Many older testing models were representative of maybe one horse size, speed, or jumping distance, whereas the new survey represents different sizes, areas of forearm contact, or jumping speeds, she explained. “Our model provides a clear, full view of rotational falls.”

Forearm contact was previously identified as the critical contact area in rotational falls, and is defined as when the horse’s upper foreleg hits the jump. For those interested in participating, Shannon Wood’s survey can be found here.

Smith emphasised the importance of studying rotational falls because they’re a “high-risk situation,” and the rarity, pointing out that information on them is scarce. FEI statistics show there were just 36 rotational falls throughout all of 2017.

Smith believes prevention and mitigation are key to risk reduction, and that Eventing has done much in both areas: improved course design, better personal safety equipment and new safety devices all help to reduce risk.

“Any reduction in reaction between the fence and horse lowers the risk of a rotational fall,” said Smith.

“If friction is reduced, if a frangible device is incorporated, if the surface is slippery so there’s less force interaction, if the geometry is good, anything reducing that interaction, helps.

“The simulation showed for one speed that 64.2% of forearm contact scenarios were ‘pass’ scenarios where the jump was cleared, 34.6% resulted in rotational falls, and 1.2% were ‘irrecoverable.’

“However, the simulation showed many rotational falls can be turned into ‘pass’ scenarios through improved safety devices or better course design.”

Smith added: “The purpose of the study is to give safety device designers and course designers new information about different situations and questions to incorporate into their thinking and use to determine new designs and methods.

“Many safety device designers have wanted to know how strong or fast-reacting their devices should be, and this provides information for them.”

She added: “The focus was on understanding the physics and establishing requirements for safety device design, so more options would be available to builders and course designers.

“Knowing that currently-approved devices work was useful for us as we validated our model. Now, with our results, different devices can be imagined and realised, increasing safety in settings where currently-available devices don’t apply.

“There were also specific value recommendations from this study that engineers can use when thinking about designs. Overall, we feel there’s no one-size-fits-all safety solution that works for every fence, every time, at every speed.

“Course and safety device designers will have to think about the questions and maybe categorise them down to, ‘this device goes with this question,’ there’ll be many conversations with course designers as this evolves, but now, we have a great tool that can be used and looked at.”

As for what’s next, the goal is to package the data for use by course and safety device designers. The current focus is incorporating comments and questions from the presentation into a final report for the USEA, then publishing papers with a veterinarian to make the results widely available to equestrians and engineers and help encourage new safety device designs.

Researchers have also met and will continue meeting with course designers and builders, so both can use the results.

Words by Noelle Maxwell