Editor’s note: This article is part of TheHorse.com’s ongoing coverage of topics presented at the 2012 International Society of Equitation Science conference, held July 18-20 in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Have you ever wished for a device to measure how fatigued your horse’s muscles are getting during a workout? Well, thanks to equitation scientists, this might soon be a reality.

Surface electromyography (EMG) is a novel analytical tool that allows researchers to read muscle activity through sensors attached to the skin, even at a distance, according to Jane Williams, PhD candidate and researcher in the equitation science department of Hartpury College in Gloucester, England. By attaching these specialized sensors to close-clipped areas over a horse’s muscle, Williams said, scientists can receive electrical data in real time, indicating how that muscle is working and–more importantly–when it’s getting fatigued.

"When you think about what training is meant to achieve, you know that it’s to prepare horses’ musculoskeletal and cardiovascular systems to cope with and achieve our demands for performance," Williams said at the 8th conference of the International Society for Equitation Science, held July 18-20 in Edinburgh, Scotland. "But at the moment trainers subjectively base their programs on a ‘feeling’ without having any objective feedback about what’s going on with the muscles during the effort, and that can lead to injury