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CO T H . CO M | M A R C H /A P R I L 2 0 2 0    83 and flexible hands, so you can follow the movement of the horse. Making a false connection will immediately give you high pressure. When a horse is collecting and engaging its hind legs and working on the bit in true lightness, the maximum pressure [spikes] go down, but as soon as the horse loses engagement behind, the pressure spikes come back." Previous versions of the sensors were given to universities and select professionals, mainly for research purposes. Steenbergen has received feedback from professional bit fitters, race horse trainers and riders across disciplines, including top Dutch dressage rider Imke Schellekens- Bartels, who all use the sensors to look at different aspects of their training methods—backing up their feelings with data. "A lot of research has been done [on the effects of rein pressure] already, but it's hard to get that data into the ring with the riders," Steenbergen says. "I hope our technology can bridge that gap and make it really accessible and make the interpretations simple." The IPOS Rein Sensor retails for 595 euros (about $663), with shipping available to the United States, and the app is available on the Google Play and iOS stores. Learn more at ipostechnology.com. from a rider can lead a horse to develop soundness or performance issues. Steenbergen says the sensors can detect asymmetries in the horse that may be caused by an injury before it shows up as lameness. "I'm a veterinarian, and I know a lot of issues from lameness start as a small injury," she says. "But over time, because people have trouble planning their training in the right way and building up to it, those little injuries can be overloaded, so we also want to show people how to plan their training correctly." The rein sensors contain load cells— devices that convert pressure to an electrical signal that can be measured— that send rein pressure to the app in real time via a Bluetooth connection, and then the app stores that data so the rider can view it later. The data appears as two bars—one for the left sensor, one for the right—that grow and shrink as more or less pressure is applied through the reins. It's up to the user to interpret the data, but Steenbergen offered some tips on decoding the numbers. "Average pressure doesn't tell you that much, but you can see the minimum and maximum values, which measures the quality of contact," she says. "If it drops down to zero all the time, you need to go back to having an independent seat, flexible elbows I want to make sure I'm not the one making the horse crooked or making him be unbalanced." —MENKE STEENBERGEN

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