Kathy I am in no way dissing your daughter or the efforts she made with her
project. I do know where you live (Winton, CA), which to us who live on the
coast of CA is the Sierra foothills. As you know I provided you daughter with
materials for her project (including a cross section of our pads). When I tried
to discuss your daughter's project with you in March to let her know about some
variables she might not have considered, you told me I was trying to stifle
her creative abilities. No need to be defensive. I am simply trying to point out
that there are many variables involved when testing for heat dissipation beyond
simply taking temperatures. There are other variables that will affect results
such as humidity, wind speed (wind chill factor), caloric capacity of an
individual horse, etc. Static testing at extreme temperatures (higher or lower
than normal) is used because they can be indicative of "real life"
results. Crash testing of cars is done on a limited number of cars with dummies
not live humans. I for one would not want the car I purchase to have been crash
tested and I certainly wouldn't volunteer to be the crash test dummy. I would
rather extrapolate from the test results what the effect would be in "real
life".
The testing done for us stands on it's own. It too is what it is. It is
simply a comparison of the effect of heat on a variety of materials used in
saddle pads. Although we expected our pads to perform as they did, there were
results that surprised us. One company that changed their construction from
bubble wrap to Styrofoam beads in an attempt to allow for more cooling may also
be surprised that their newer pad was hotter than their old pad. We
were also surprised to find that pads using an open weave non slip bottom were
actually hotter than a pad that uses closed cell neoprene.
The interesting thing about this is that our testing simply confirmed what
other companies and government agencies found when they did their own testing.
Phase change material will stabilize the surface temperature of a subject and
make them feel more comfortable. There are many ways to achieve cooling when
using textiles. Many riders have found this out when using Cool Medics
evaporative cooling products. I may want to use this type of approach on a very
hot day but I wouldn't want to use it on a cold day. The advantage of phase
change material is that it adapts to the environmental conditions and changes
how it attempts to regulate the individuals temperature based on those
conditions without outside intervention. This is what we wanted to bring to the
equine world. We felt that this approach should not be limited to military and
human athletic endeavors. We hope that we were able to accomplish this and that
those who have purchased our products are satisfied with them.
