Who We Are
HaloVet Overview
HaloVet started in 2021 when practicing equine vet Jack decided that "close calls" were a sign of good luck, not quick reactions. He decided it was probably better to do something to improve the status quo regarding PPE rather than just hope his luck held out until his planned retirement.
As much as Jack appreciated the gift of this lovely photo of him treating the mouth of a miniature Sheltand when the world was dealing with its greatest crisis in a long while, it now acts as a reminder of how times and perspectives change.
Just because we have certain tools and do things a certain way now, doesn't mean we have to stick to that way forever, we can look to improve things, innovate the way we work and embrace technology to help us do that.
The role of the equine veterinary surgeon is dangerous enough that we don't need to do it without a form of head protection.
Wearing a hard hat will not stop horses from reacting suddenly and unexpectedly. It won't stop you being inured when you get kicked in the leg and it won't stop you being launched through the air by a 500kg patient.
But it will probably lessen the damage to your head when your unintentional flight is abruptly stopped by whatever you fly into.
It will likely lessen the head injury and concussion from the horse that, despite being well sedated, all of a sudden throws its head up and down, mid-oral examination, before you can get out of the way and connects that vital piece of safety equipment, the dental gag, with your head.
It might even make you feel a little less vulnerable when suturing one of those wounds on the medial aspect of a hind limb.
The fact that all of these situations are seen by all equine vets and that we are often placed in the situation of - do a better job with a head torch, or wear head protection, is not in keeping with how the world can and should operate in the 21st century.
How we have progressed
Since the initial version of the HaloVet was created in 2021, with the prototype being in use for over 4 years before it was thought of as being suitable for wider distribution, many issues have been encountered and overcome.
Due to the usual veterinary assistant levels of handling and equipment care, the Halovet system had to be robust, but with all the will in the world, accidents will happen and equipment will be broken. With this in mind, the system not only had to be fit for purpose, but also able to be simply and quickly fixable and at a low cost.
With the aid of 3D printing and the need for the system to be mountable to any size of hat with no additional tooling, a modular system that could fit all sizes of a style of hat was developed and the HaloVet was made as a detachable system for the Charles Owen JS1 Pro type safety hat.
The additional need for eye protection that didn't have huge fogging problems and required minimal effort to use lead to the HaloVet system being developed further so that it could mount to the Manta 3 style hats. These multi-purpose safety rated hats with their in-built eye-protection (now our preferred helmet as it not only allows more breathability but the eye protection gets used far more than was ever anticipated) allowed another barrier to hats being worn to be removed.
Irritation with disorganised bottle drawers in practice cars led to the development of a modular bottle storage system, full customisable to any vets' drug choices and stocking needs led to quicker stock takes, more appropriately stocked cars, less drug wastage and an impressed PSS assessor.
A challenge was set by a farrier - can you make me a frog support pad that has a latero-medial 3 degree wedge. Challenge accepted and done, but why stop there? We now produce pads of varying forms with half (back, medial or lateral) sole coverage or full sole coverage with any amount of wedge angle in any orientation to suit the individual horse's needs. Want a frog support pad with a 3 degree latero-medial wedge and a 2 degree dorso-palmar wedge with lateral sole cover, we've got you covered. The 3D printed pads have lasted well beyond our expectations and proved easy to work with, robust and comfortable for our patients.
Using Hoof Beat to assess foot fall and struggling to get the improvements you want with trimming and shoeing? Then why not consider a custom graduated pad to suit that horse's foot's particular landing issues.
After seeing our custom pads a surgeon set us a challenge, can you improve the tried and tested hospital plate?
This one was a bit harder, but after a lot of trials the "Equiplate" was able to be successfully fitted to the first patient in 2025 after a keratoma surgery. The Equiplate system allows for much easier fitting compared to a conventional metal hospital plate and also makes the dressing changes much easier and quicker than with a standard metal system. The system can be custom made for the individual horse prior to surgery based on the radiographs and simple hoof measurements. The difference to farriers, owners and horses alike in ease of use, time and stress saved has been massive.
So where to next?
Where we want to go
Our goals for the future are
- To help make it the "norm" that people wear head protection whenever they're around horses, not just when they're riding them. Helping to encourage vets to wear hard hats is part of this and certainly the initiator for HaloVet.
- To help improve the ergonomics of how we as equine vets work by finding innovative solutions to daily problems that are considered to be part of the status quo.
- To innovate existing systems and methods of treating horses using modern technology.
- To help others to realise potential solutions to problems they have identified and considered solutions for.
