Did you know that environmental light is the most important cue influencing a horse’s mental and physical well-being? Exposure to the wrong kind of lighting plays havoc with an animal’s internal body clock causing it to flatline. Special cells at the back of the eye respond to blue light, which is naturally high in sunlight, to regulate internal rhythms throughout the horse’s body. This ‘circadian’ system controls the activity of nearly every cell in the body.
Equilume performance lighting solutions uses biologically effective blue light to strengthen your horse’s internal body rhythms and ensures they get maximum value from their nutrition, training and management so that they can maximise their fertility, performance and well-being. The timed blue light helps to strengthen the horse’s circadian rhythms and ensures that every cell in the body functions optimally, keeping your horse healthy from the inside out.
Equilume Light Masks are mobile lighting solutions that allow your horse to receive optimum daylight hours whether they are kept outdoors, indoors or on the road to competition. The rechargeable Equilume Cashel Light Mask has been a gamechanger for performance horses by allowing them to receive optimum levels of stimulating blue light while turned out, travelling, or when stabled at a competition. The duration as well of the quality of light also impacts a horse’s body clock.
The Cashel Light Mask delivers 15 hours of biologically effective blue light each day, from 8am until 11pm, ensuring your horse receives the benefits of a long summer’s day throughout the year. The rechargeable masks lasts for 7 days and takes 3-4hours to charge. The battery in the cup has a lifespan of 15months and the cup can be removed and replaced when needed.
By supporting your horse’s internal rhythms, the mask helps to:
- Maintain muscle tone
- Strengthen immunity
- Ensure a sleek and shiny coat
- Reduce the need for clipping
- Encourage appetite
- Positively influence mood and behaviour
- Extend the period of peak performance
The blue-enriched light has been shown to have a positive effect on breeding stock as well as performance horses. Increasing the duration of blue light helps stimulate cyclicity and reproductive activity in barren and maiden mares, successfully advancing the breeding season. Pregnant mares receiving blue-enriched lighting show more mature foals when born, shortened gestation times and helps to improve the mare’s chances of an early return to pregnancy.
When combined with the Equilume Stable Light, the Equilume Cashel Light Mask can provide your horse with all the benefits of natural light every day throughout the year, without disrupting the lighting regime due to competition schedules. The Stable Light mimics the gradual transitions of dawn and dusk, avoiding abrupt light transitions which can cause stress, and provides a dim red illumination at night for optimal rest, recovery and hormonal regulation.
The Equilume Cashel Light Mask retails at $700. Visit www.equilume.com to give your horse the competitive edge.
