I don't pretend to understand all this scientific stuff. I can only relate experiences. My horse is perfectly happy with his Equipedic pad. Also, my daughter wanted to ride Swanton Pacific 75 this year and asked if she could borrow my Equipedic pad for a few trial rides. Then she rode the 75 and was delighted when the vet examined her horse's back at the post-ride check and told her that the horse had no soreness AT ALL. This on a horse that has always been problematical for a sore back.
OK Folks. I am not a scientist and I don't even play one on TV. But I do have an advanced degree and know how to read research reports. The evidence is overwhelming that Phase Change Material (PCMs) does work. Initial studies were done by NASA, the Air Force, and Triangle Research Corp. David Covin was one of the primary inventors of this technology. You can review his work and products at www.deltathermal.com. He has published at least 21 papers on this subject since 1989. At www.coolvest.com/tech-info.shtml you will find studies done by NASA, the Air Force and OSHA. At http://www.firstlinetechnology.com/ you can read about their Swede vest and how the cooling effect lasts for as long as four hours. At http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/02/03/visualize0302.asp you can read an article
published by MIT on phase change materials. Of course you can always Google "phase change materials" and find many more references using your computer that utilizes phase change technology on it's heat sink.
This technology is not alchemy as some has suggested before. It is real. It works. It is used in clothing, home heating applications and even car seats from GM in addition to all the military and law enforcement applications. I am beginning to understand why Tom Ivers reacts the way he does. It seems that no matter how much research or scientific proof exists for a technology there is just a core group that has to insist that it doesn't work. Unfortunately, that is their lose, or I should say their horse's lose, in this case.
Again, for those who may have missed the point, the testing was done by an independent agency. I, nor my company, did the testing. My understanding is that they embedded the thermo-couplers in the bottom layer of the pads to determine what effect a constant heat had on the materials used in saddle pads. The results are what they are and what we have claimed from the beginning. There is a four to seven degree variable with regard to cooling when using phase change materials when compared to non phase change materials. We are still the only company to have released any testing data on saddle pads. We challenge any of the other manufacturers to do the same. Also if anyone has access to a controlled environmental chamber where we can test on live horses, so that all parameters are the same, we will be there with our products.
Our goal was to produce a product that addressed the five areas affected by a rider and saddle on a horse:
Congruence
Compliance
Temperature Management
Moisture Management
Blood Flow and Oxygenation Management
We believe that we have accomplished that and do it better than other products available on the market today. For those who have not used our pads or our other products, we invite you to try them out. We think you will find that they do everything that we say they do and nothing more.
