Using the Team Satteltester’s Sensor Pad

WHAT IT TOOK TO GET HERE

After months of arranging, weeks of planning, days of attending to details, and hours (!!!!) of driving, we have arrived in Oregon eager to see what technology can add to the complex process of saddle fitting. While we’re here we will be using one of the most affordable systems: the Team Satteltester pad, from Germany. Two weeks from now we will be working with the most expensive system, the Novel Pliance pad (also from Germany). It will be fascinating to compare these two systems from one of the strongest manufacturing and engineering bases in the world, and we are keenly looking forward to this process.

OVERVIEW OF THE SYSTEM

Veterinarian Jennifer Stoffer of Gaston Oregon is the owner of the Team Satteltest sensor pad that we’ll be using in these testing sessions. She has been interested in the health and function of the horse’s back for some time, and learned about sensor pads while taking a saddle fitting and flocking course on the east coast. She’s had this sensor system for about six months and generously agreed to meet and work with us.

We began the day by watching Jennifer set up the sensor pad, driving the system from a standard notebook computer. The pad has telemetry in the form of a small transmitter that goes into a pocket of the pad. Once the transmitter is turned on, the pad can transmit quite a distance; the manufacturers say up to ¼ mile. The pad is put onto the horse’s back, and then the saddle is carefully placed on top and girthed. The system does not seem to be highly sensitive as it doesn’t register useful information until the rider is up, when it averages pressures among the 256 sensors in the pad. The system includes a video camera so that the results of the pressure test can be correlated to the visual footage.

TODAY’S MISSION

Local trainer, friend and RP advocate Janet Aungier arranged four horses for us to use in our study; these horses ranged from green to competitive second level dressage. We saw one intermediate rider, one advanced rider and two trainers. All horses were regularly ridden in conventional saddles. In each case we evaluated the horse and saddle using standard methods (observation and palpation). We then pressure tested the saddle and noted the results. Finally we put a ReactorPanel saddle on the horse and repeated the pressure test. We hoped to learn more about pressure testing in general, and also (pause for complete honesty) hoped to see ReactorPanel outperform the competition. Without making you wait for it, RP did better than each saddle it was up against. However – and this is a BIG however – none of the conventional saddles were custom made or even professionally fit for the horses wearing them. Although this is the norm in the real world, we need to evaluate RP next to the best fitting saddles we can find, which will be one of our next goals.


(next post: the nitty gritty of the pressure testing...with photos and screen shots!)

First Pressure Testing Session held 3/25: Report Soon!

Just a quick note to let you know that the session on Friday, March 25 was fascinating in many respects. It's taken some time to review the video, write up the notes and get images from the computerized testing (and permission from the veterinarian, Jennifer Stoffer of Gaston, OR to use the work). We're still fine-tuning, but will have a full report up within 24 hours - stay tuned!

On the Road to Find Out

Shades of Cat Stevens: "There's so much left to know, and I'm on the road to find out".
This lyric sums it up! I am on the quest to discover all I can about computer sensor technology, and at the same time, I am writing to you from my hotel room just inside the Oregon border as I travel to meet a veterinarian for pressure testing on Friday the 26th.

Who makes sensor pads? And who uses them anyhow? Should we?
When I first became SERIOUS about acquiring a computer sensor pad -- last December -- I started with an internet search, and then contacted anyone with good information about sensor pads, or who made sensor pads. I talked to many people and also to three companies - one in the U.S., one in Canada and one in Germany; each company markets an equine pressure pad for prices ranging from $7,000 to $25,000. All are medical companies who have taken the pressure sensor technology developed for patient applications (think: reducing bed sores, or creating wheel chairs that are ergonomic) and offered them for equine applications. The major value-add is in the software. The hardware (the pressure sensor pad and computer) aren't very different in human and equine environments. While pressure pads are catching on in parts of Europe, they are almost unheard of here in the U.S. I wonder: is this well overdue? Or could it be that we, as American consumers, don't embrace fact and science when it comes to our relationships with our horses?

What does the computer do and why is it important?
First of all, any tool is just that, and even the data yielded by the computer needs to be filtered by an expert. Here's what I'm talking about, in a very limited explanation. The sensor pad measures pressures underneath the saddle and displays them graphically and in some cases numerically. We have learned that pressures as low as 1.5 psi (pounds per square inch) can occlude blood flow - which depletes oxygenation of the muscle, which can lead to tissue degeneration or atrophy. The location of the pressure point is important though. The density and pliancy of the horse's muscles are important also. So too is the distance from the surface of the skin to blood vessels or to bone which of course differ under various areas of the back. This means that there is no absolute pressure point scale. The information (science) yielded by the computer must be intepreted by an expert in the (art) of saddle fit. See where I'm going? Combining science and art yields the best result.

Food for Thought
Two very thought-provoking questions were asked on Facebook yesterday, both from reputed experts in the equine field. One said essentially, "who needs a computer? the horse will tell you everything you need to know". I think this is true - except if the horse's owner cannot read the messages, or if the horse is so stoic that he won't express pain. I got involved in saddle fitting for a variety of reasons, but one of the most compelling was the woman who asked me to check her horse's back. He was tied to her trailer, saddled. She removed the saddle, exposing his bloody withers. Yes - she was concerned. But she wasn't lying on the ground nursing her injuries and wondering why the horse had thrown her...he was continuing to work for her.  Of course she didn't need a computer to tell her that she had a serious problem, but other owners of these sorts of horses might. The other question was from a highly regarded and skilled fitter who wondered why use a computer because you should be able to feel the problem with your hands, see it with your eyes, and design a saddle system to solve the problem. Perhaps this person doesn't need the computer. But many of us with lesser education or lesser abilities might need a tool that lets us know definitively that we have a problem. With this information, we can find experts (perhaps this saddle fitter) who can make our horses more comfortable.

What is the End Goal?
As the months have passed, I confess that my hopes for this technology are growing. I'm beginning to wonder about how it might be possible to take pressure pads out of the closet and into the mainstream. The cost of the pad is prohibitive, but the potential benefit to horses' comfort (and owner's wallets!) might be immeasurable. Although I started the process thinking I was shopping for a tool that would help me to train saddle fitters and do product development while it was earning its keep as a sales tool for RP saddles, I find myself beginning to think on the global (or at least national) plane. More on this later. For now, I'm out to acquire the basic information.

This Week's Mission
A series of contacts led me to a veterinarian outside Portland, Oregon. She purchased a sensor pad a few months ago, and is willing to work with me for most of one day to introduce me to this lower-end system. Local dressage trainer Janet Aungier agreed to host our testing session, and has lined up a series of horses for us that have supposedly well-fitting conventional saddles. On Friday morning, we'll assess each horse and saddle, scan the saddle as the horse is ridden, and the replace the conventional saddle with a ReactorPanel saddle (fit on the fly as there is a very limited amount of time for this exercise) and then repeat the scans of the same horse and rider in the different saddle. We're scheduled to visit Hilary Clayton's lab at Michigan State University and repeat these experiments in a few weeks with the highest-end system, the Novel-Pliance pad from Germany.

Here are some things I hope to learn this Friday (based on the results I may have a revised list for our sessions in Michigan):

• How easy it it to use the pad and computer? Does it seem robust?
• Do you need a background in physiology to understand what's happening or is it obvious and transparent to everyone?
• How long must we test to get a meaningful profile?
• How much difference is there between the best moment and the worst moment? And what is happening at best and worst - can we extrapolate that sitting trot is likely to be good and posting trot is bad, for instance?
• Is it possible to give a saddle a fixed score that tells you where that saddle sits relative to other saddles?
• Does RP test out exceedingly well? Of course I  hope it does as I have based the last decade of my life on this premise...but I vow to be a good scientist and conduct our experiments as accurately as we can do and live with the results.

I'm very much looking forward to the exchange of information on Friday, and will keep you posted about what happens.

Note to readers: 

I find I'm struggling a bit with what information to present here. If you're curious about something, please use the comments section to ask questions as I'm happy to go in whatever direction you need.

Next Topic: The pressure-testing session this Friday!

In Search of Truth (and pressure testing!)

About Desire
I've wanted a computerized pressure testing pad for a long time. A really long time. Ever since I saw the first one in Colorado around 1999, I've wanted a pressure testing pad. The problem has always been that the prices were way out of reach for a small saddle company with miniscule budgets (and a president whose pockets weren't much deeper). Now the prices have come down quite a bit, and around the start of the year I got seriously interested in getting a pad of our own.

Why bother with pressure tests?
Because they yield information that is absolute fact. After more than a decade of fitting and evaluating saddles (and 20 years of riding, training and teaching before that) I've gotten pretty good at assessing fit. The problem is this: I have not yet found a way to get my hand under the center of the saddle while the rider is up and the horse is cantering around. I think we'll all agree that this is the moment when the saddle must fit. So even though I'm a pretty good fitter, all my skills involve observation and palpation, and I freely admit this: I can't be right all the time because the saddle changes shape under the weight of the rider and the horse's back changes shape constantly while he is in motion. It seems to me that the only definitive test for pressure points is one that happens while the rider is up and the horse is moving, and it does not involve the saddle fitter's eyes or hands.

Seduced by the Computer
The more I travel around testing saddles, the more saddles I see with severe pressure points, almost always in the hands of owners with no idea that the saddles are causing a problem (then there are the ones who don't want to know...but we don't need to discuss them here). At the ReactorPanel Saddle Company, we use the Port Lewis Impression Pad regularly. It is a wonderful tool for revealing serious problems but it takes 30 minutes per test and isn't feasible to use when someone wants information on three or more saddles on the same horse. Nobody wants to ride for 2+ hours just to get fitting information, and I don't have the time to stretch each fitting session into a 3 hour marathon. So I find that I do less pressure testing than I would like to do. Now if I only had that computerized pad, I could get a glimpse of the saddle in seconds, and a thorough profile in just a few minutes. I imagine having access to real data in a matter of seconds. I think of all the horses who could benefit from this knowledge. I find myself on the internet, researching pads then calling the companies who make them and then...

Setting Up Testing Sessions
I'm starting to think seriously about buying a pad. I've been able to find a veterinarian in the Portland area who is willing to work with me for half a day. She has a pad made in Germany that is extremely affordable, and she impresses me on the telephone with her desire for accurate information and her independent quest for knowledge about the back and about saddle fitting. We struggle with our calendars; January is out and so is February. We find a March date that looks possible, and put it down: March 25. So, on Wednesday afternoon, I'll load the van with saddles and gear, add the man and the dogs, and prepare to hit the road for our first pressure testing session. I'll be updating this blog as the week progresses.

Next Up: Hilary Clayton's Lab!
Yes - this is coming up on April 5. Full details coming soon (yes, this is a blatant teaser: I hope you'll come back and follow this story!)