USEA Rider of the Year Liz Halliday-Sharp Joins Team Equilume

Liz Halliday-Sharp and Cooley HHS Calmaria. Photo by Shelby Allen

Equilume, an Irish biotech firm offering lighting solutions for the international equine industry, are delighted to announce an exciting new partnership with USEA Rider of The Year, Liz Halliday-Sharp.

Californian, Halliday-Sharp, an established member of the US Eventing High Performance Training List with multiple International wins up to CCI5* level, recently installed Equilume Performance lighting in her barns having trialled an Equilume Cashel Light Mask on her mare HHS Cooley Calmaria. The mare subsequently won the Tryon CCI2*-L in November and Liz was convinced of the benefits of Equilume’s blue light technology for her horses.

Liz, who splits her time between her farms in Ocala, FL and Lexington, KY, has a strong team of horses for 2021 with her sights set on the Tokyo Olympics, said:

“I am very excited to announce my new partnership with Equilume. Equilume is performance lighting which supports circadian rhythms for the horses, these are very important for health, happiness and overall well-being. We want our horses to perform at their best and be as happy and healthy as they can, that is why we have chosen to partner with Equilume.”

Liz joins other international event riders Phillip Dutton and Sam Watson on Equilume’s team of riders, both of whom have noted positive effects on behaviour, focus in training, healing and coat condition in their teams of horses.

Photo courtesy of Liz Halliday-Sharp.

Equilume is a world leader in the research and development of light therapy solutions to assist the global equine industry in maximising reproductive efficiency and performance.

The company was established as a result of pioneering research at UCD by Dr Barbara Murphy, in collaboration with Professor John Sheridan, a UCD optoelectronics engineer, who identified the optimum light level required to advance the breeding season in horses, giving rise to the successful launch of the innovative Equilume Light Mask. www.equilume.com

The Equilume Cashel Light Mask is an individual headpiece for horses that provides timed, low-level blue light to a single eye throughout the day to ensure optimum health, performance and coat condition. Designed specifically for the Sport Horse market, this mask ensures that horses receive optimum wavelengths of light that mimic natural sunlight when they are stabled, travelling or away at competition.

The Equilume Stable Light provides horses with biologically effective light in a system that replicates the benefits of Nature’s environmental lighting indoors, designed to maximise health, performance and breeding efficiency for stabled horses. Modern management of horses requires that they spend a large proportion of the 24 hr day indoors, unexposed to optimum daylight and frequently disrupted by light at night. This regime negatively impacts the horse’s body clock and can result in impaired growth, reduced immune response, poor appetite and performance. The Equilume Stable Light was designed to counteract these problems by providing the horse with biologically effective light. Key features of the system are blue-enriched light by day, gradual transitions at dawn and dusk, red light at night and a circannual program that optimises performance throughout the year.