Biography
I grew up in Kent and had no interest in riding other than occasionally on a donkey just outside Greenwich Park on Blackheath. My sports growing up were rugby, football and volleyball. My first real horse experience was when I was 20 on Boxing Day with a hangover, and a girlfriend legged me up on a cob with no saddle and a baler-twine halter. Twenty minutes of walk, trot and canter and I was hooked. I finished my degree at Stirling University and spent most of my grant on riding lessons.
I then met Judy Harvey and trained with her for a short while in London before moving to Newmarket to study for a PhD at the Animal Health Trust in 1985. I was fortunate enough to work with horses on the first high speed treadmill to be installed in the UK. I then worked for three seasons with racehorse trainer Luca Cumani and saw Kahyasi win the English Derby. I returned to the AHT in 1991 and between 1993 and 1996, led the Atlanta Project.
It was around this time I first started working for the British Equestrian teams, which I still do. My main areas of interest are respiratory health and disease, RAO (broken wind), EIPH (bleeders), thermoregulation and general exercise physiology. In 2005 I left the AHT and set up my own consulting business and Science Supplements. I have published nearly 200 scientific papers and a number of books and book chapters. In 2009 I conducted studies with Monty Roberts comparing the effect on horses of natural horsemanship versus traditional methods. Other projects included research on exercise boots, endurance, treadmills and heart monitors, to mention a few.
I also travel extensively, which includes my work with World Horse Welfare (formerly ILPH), and in 2010 I am Chair for the 8th meeting of ICEEP (International Conference on Equine Exercise Physiology) which is being held in Cape Town, South Africa in November.