Equine light therapy device wins top innovation award
The New Year’s Day birthday makes horses born early in the year more valuable at the sales.
A January horse can run in a big race for three-year-olds, like the Epsom Derby in June, with a distinct disadvantage in terms of size, strength, and speed over three-year-olds born late in the year, which are up to 11 months younger.
As a result, managing the fertility of mares to ensure they have their foals at the right time can be worth millions of euro to racehorse breeders.
Researchers discovered that administering light therapy for 10 to 12 weeks, from the beginning of December, inhibits production of the melatonin hormone, and activates the mare’s reproductive system earlier.
“You have to expose the horses to light for 14 to 16 hours a day for up to 12 weeks to achieve this,” says Equilume founder Dr Murphy, who is also the animal science-equine programme option co-ordinator in the UCD School of Agriculture, Food Science and Veterinary Medicine.
Her breakthrough was to design a light-emitting device for horses to wear that doesn’t interfere with their normal behaviour, and will stand up to wear-and-tear while being worn for up to four months.
The result is her Equilume Light Mask, which has recently won a 2014 Irish Times InterTradeIreland Innovation Award. It delivers low intensity blue light to just one of the mare’s eyes for the required duration.
Several thousand units have been sold, including 500 in Australia within two weeks.
