Animal husbandry – Exercise or amusement device – Animal forced to travel relative to an underlying,...
Patent
1998-11-13
2000-12-12
Poon, Peter M.
Animal husbandry
Exercise or amusement device
Animal forced to travel relative to an underlying,...
119784, A01K 1502, A01K 106
Patent
active
061583898
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to an exercise system and method for training animals to increase their running speed. More particularly, it relates to an exercise system and method wherein a restraining force is applied to a running animal to condition the animal to be able to run at higher speeds when no force is applied.
As used herein, the term "animal" refers to any animal amenable to training to increase running speed and includes, without limitation, horses, dogs and humans.
When an animal's body is repeatedly subjected to strenuous physical activity which may tax both the musculatory and cardiovascular system, the body adapts and becomes conditioned so that it can more efficiently perform the physical activity to which the body has been repeatedly subjected. Examples include sprinters who select training activities which develop great leg strength and muscle mass in order to quickly accelerate their whole body to high speeds, and marathon runners who select other training activities to develop legs with leaner muscles in order to more efficiently carry the marathon runner long distances.
In order to condition a animal's body to perform at a level beyond its current capability, the animal may engage in selected strenuous activity that exceeds its current level of conditioning. For example, a marathoner who wishes to improve his time may run longer distances in training than actually run in competition. The body thereby will cardiovascularly adapt to accommodate the marathoner for a longer distance. The marathoner may then run a shorter distance faster than before the body underwent the cardiovascular adaptation.
This conditioning method, however, does not adapt sprinting animals who sprint at full speed over short distances. Conditioning methods currently know in the art are not optimally effective in conditioning sprinters and exhibit various disadvantages. Some of these prior art methods and disadvantages are discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,070,816 to Wehrell (the "Wehrell Patent"). While the Wehrell Patent discloses an exercise system and method resolving many of the problems of the prior art, there continues to exist a need for improved methods which repeatedly subject sprinting animals to an appropriate strenuous physical activity so that the body adapts and becomes conditioned so that it can more efficiently perform the sprinting function.
A prior art system (the "Wehrell System") for conditioning animals is shown in FIG. 1. In this system, restraining devices 41 and 42 are supported by guide rails 8 and 9. Tethers 43 and 44 are attached to each of restraining devices 41 and 42 respectively and to pivoting member 47. Pivoting member 47 is attached through electronic position sensor 46 to rigid harness 45. This system permits the application of a training force in direction A upon an animal, a horse in these figures, running around a training track.
This system additionally allows the horse to shift across the track laterally without an imbalanced force acting from the left or right side. If the horse shifts laterally towards guide rail 9 while running, the vectors of tethers 43 and 44 change relative to electronic position sensor 46 on harness 45. When restraining devices 41 and 42 apply equal resistance, i.e., Force A=Force B, the difference in the tether angles will create a unequal Force A' which is greater than Force B'. Such lateral force relative to the horse's direction of motion is undesired. For example, when tether 43 creates a Force A'>Force B', pivoting member 47 rotates clockwise in favor of the greater Force A'. Sensor 46 detects this rotation and sends a electronic signal instructing restraining device 41 to apply less resistance to tether 43 while simultaneously instructing restraining device 42 to apply more resistance to tether 44, such that the net training resistance stays the same.
Under ideal operation, the simultaneous adjustment operate so that the horse feels equal forces, i.e., Force C=Force D, pulling directly backwards at points 410 and 411 of the rigid harness 45 att
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Poon Peter M.
Shaw Elizabeth
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