Improving Equestrian Jump Safety

This project will evaluate jump designs for improved horse and rider safety. Our team will focus on in-field mechanical testing, analysis and design, materials evaluation and construction cost estimation. The Dec 2008 summary PowerPoint presentation provides information on progress to date, including the following: 1) Development of tools for testing the mechanical performance of installed jumps. A civil engineering testing method was modified to permit in-field testing ofjump safety features. Further work will allow us to make a better match between the force-time history ofimpacts with the tool, and the data from Bristol that shows actual force-time curves for horse impacts on jumps. Significance -A tool which can replicate the force-time performance typical of horse impacts can be used to test the safety ofhorse jumps in the field. 2) Evaluation ofthe safety performance of frangible pin technology with respect to seven key variables. Monte Carlo analysis was used to determine whether frangible pin jumps would fail under a set of random variables. Pin fracture was most sensitive to log weight and pin strength. Significance -A tool to evaluate the effects ofmultiple variables (horse speed, log weight, angle of impact,..) on pin fracture in any jump configuration will improve our understanding of the safety range ofthe jump. 3) Survey of material testing standards for future tests offoam logs and other novel materials for strength, exposure and appearance, Significance -A methodology for quickly evaluating materials (old and novel alike) for safer horse jumps will improve materials selection. 4) Estimation ofconstruction costs of a post-and-rail jump, with and without frangible pins, as a baseline for comparison with new designs. Signficance -a uniform method to estimate jump costs for rapid screening of alternative jump designs will improve the screening ofnovel technologies.