Hi, I'm Lauren Birkbeck.
I'm the course leader for the Equine Sports Science course
and today we're going to take a look at the facilities
you'd be using if you came to study on our equine courses.
So now we're in our outdoor arena
and behind me you can see a horse and rider
riding in front of our Qualisys motion capture kit.
This is the gold standard in motion capture
and by wearing anatomical landmarks
it allows us to capture motion in all three dimensions.
Right now, we're in the labs here at Brackenhurst,
and these facilities are vast and wide ranging.
We use these embedded in teaching where you might be doing
anything from faecal egg count to genetic sequencing of fungi
and in a wide variety of research, which we do in collaboration
with international leading facilities and bodies.
Here, we're down on the yard at Brackenhurst Campus
and we're seeing how our state-of-the-art research
really informs the facilities here on campus.
We're in a well-ventilated stable,
testing the air quality to really inform us on how
we can improve the health, welfare and performance of horses.
We also have heart rate monitoring equipment here
that not only allows us to look at heart rate
of equine and human athletes,
but it also allows us to measure
heart rate variability.
Heart rate variability is a much more advanced
measure of what's going on in the body.
And it allows us to assess
the stress that might be being experienced
by our equine or human athletes.
This is excellent, especially for our equine-based welfare research.
I'm currently stood in one of our three riding arenas.
This is our indoor arena,
which, as you can see is nice and light and airy
allowing us to ride whatever the weather.
And just like all our arenas
we are regularly testing our surfaces
with the latest standard of equipment.
We also have our outdoor arena
where jumping or flatwork lessons can take place.
As well as a cross-country course.
And our research arena,
which is a more enclosed space
ideal for groundwork sessions
such as long lining
or any research
that needs to be free from distraction.
So my particular area of interest is actually
looking at how the horse interacts with surfaces.
One of the ways that we can actually assess the surface
is using a number of mechanical pieces of equipment
that actually allow us to understand
a bit more about what's going on.
So for instance, things
like showjumping arenas, dressage arenas, training tracks
and also cross-country courses
and looking at the ground condition at those sorts of events.
Students often get involved in some of these types of projects
so it allows them to understand
a bit more about things like spatial variation,
how environmental factors
affect the surface,
and also different types of management.
Hi, my name's Sarah Hallam.
I'm course leader for Equine Behaviour
Health and Welfare degree.
This is the performance analysis room
and we use this alongside
the amazing mechanical horse
to do lots of research
and practical sessions with our students.
We can use kit such as the rein gauge,
the Tekscan saddle pressure pad to look at how riders sit
and develop ways in which we can improve performance
for both horse and rider.
We also have surround cameras
so that the rider can instantly access the data that they need
to be able to make changes to their riding position
and to look at how they can improve their performance throughout.
We use the mechanical horse a lot with our students.
It's a fantastic tool for developing their riding skills.
It also works very well with building confidence
as as they can improve their technique on the horse
they can then take this onto a real horse.
We also use it for research
especially industry relevant topics
such as stirrup length, saddle design etc.
We also use it for rider fitness
in relation with heart rate monitors
and we can also use the Wattbike that we have here
because this looks at loading patterns of legs,
which is obviously directly related to how a rider sits in the saddle.
One of the things we are most proud of here at NTU
is our welfare friendly housing
and this extends to our livery horses
who are housed in these loose stables with chat hatches
so they can display social behaviours
as well as daily turn out.
And that goes for all of our horses.
Turn out in groups is a regular part of their routine.
They're housed in social housing
where they're able to display tactile, as well as visual behaviours,
housed in groups
and even they can choose
whether they want to be inside or outside,
such as in the case of our combi barns.
Thank you ever so much for watching.
We hope to see you at an open day soon.