I’m working with a student group for marketing research for a leg wrap to be used for post-training therapy on horses. I am interested in learning more about how cold therapy.
Here is a link to the survey: https://goo.gl/forms/0nSFwkbs0Pm3HEOV2.
Your responses on this survey will help greatly aid the design of this prospective product. Thank you for your time.
Tim
Some folks might be nervous about clicking a link posted by a first-time poster. I live on the edge, so I clicked. It is a survey, generated at a university. However, I don’t like giving my email address and the survey questions were inadequate. For example, the type of riding did not list jumping. Asking what breed of horse you work with is odd, many people work with several. There is also no indication how long this survey will take. So, I didn’t continue.
Thank you for that response. I appreciate the feedback.
Apparently I ticked an option later this evening that added a required email response up front, which that was not supposed to be there. Providing a way for us to contact you for additional questions is completely optional and may be skipped as the last set of questions on the survey.
I added an option for Hunter/Jumper events, as that was certainly an oversight but do have an Other category there for other events we don’t include. I do understand that people are working with multiple breeds of horses in many cases, so I edited that question to make it clearer too.
Finally, the survey will take 5-10 minutes to complete. I have added that to the background.
Again, thank you for your feedback.
Hi guys, we are just a few days away from my due date for this project, and we are still looking for help on finding out more about your preferences for ice therapy. Even if you don’t use any ice today to cool your horse’s legs, it would still be helpful to hear from you! ]
Here’s the link to the survey: https://goo.gl/forms/0itXPxVhzkRxyw8r2:D
Thanks!
Tim
there is interesting new research coming out on the use of ice for human athletes, that suggests ice as a routine post-training treatment is not particularly helpful. It is useful for an acute injury, but not for regular use. I think there have been some threads on this on COTH, and how it applies to horses. How does your company address this?
[QUOTE=Scribbler;9038706]
there is interesting new research coming out on the use of ice for human athletes, that suggests ice as a routine post-training treatment is not particularly helpful. It is useful for an acute injury, but not for regular use. I think there have been some threads on this on COTH, and how it applies to horses. How does your company address this?[/QUOTE]
“suggests ice as a routine post-training treatment is not particularly helpful”
In fact it is and or can be counter productive. Depends on a number of factors. The people I have talked to and or “studies” I have read don’t just suggest but prove out the “science” behind the old school way of doing things.
I know the benefits of both hot and cold therapy and when it should be applied/used. Based on working with TB racehorses and rehab.
I don’t “do” surveys as a rule. It has taken me years and years to gain the knowledge and skills I have acquired. Why should I share for free? For the benefit of someone else’s gain.
Consultants worth listening to are paid. Some paid very well. I am not interested in “amateur” opinions by and large.
[QUOTE=Scribbler;9038706]
there is interesting new research coming out on the use of ice for human athletes, that suggests ice as a routine post-training treatment is not particularly helpful. It is useful for an acute injury, but not for regular use. I think there have been some threads on this on COTH, and how it applies to horses. How does your company address this?[/QUOTE]
Thanks for that feedback. Do you have some links to that research? It is true that the science is fuzzy around this topic for regular use, and how cold the wrap would need to be. We are in fairly early stages of trying to understand where this fits in to the whole equine world. Do you have any links to those studies that you could send me? I’ve been looking at some of the other threads here too- lots of interesting perspectives!
One other thing- we are a student group on a class project and, so we are still to early to know how to address those questions. Just gathering data now.
[QUOTE=gumtree;9038968]
“suggests ice as a routine post-training treatment is not particularly helpful”
In fact it is and or can be counter productive. Depends on a number of factors. The people I have talked to and or “studies” I have read don’t just suggest but prove out the “science” behind the old school way of doing things.
I know the benefits of both hot and cold therapy and when it should be applied/used. Based on working with TB racehorses and rehab.
I don’t “do” surveys as a rule. It has taken me years and years to gain the knowledge and skills I have acquired. Why should I share for free? For the benefit of someone else’s gain.
Consultants worth listening to are paid. Some paid very well. I am not interested in “amateur” opinions by and large.[/QUOTE]
Thanks for your feedback. I understand your perspective on surveys, and most of the time private companies would pay for opinions but we are just a student group. I was wondering if you might be able to point me to some of the studies you mentioned about the therapy being counterproductive?
I found the survey poorly designed with no skip sequencing and a complete lack of respect for anonymity. I don’t think the survey will tell you much of anything.
[QUOTE=gumtree;9038968]
“suggests ice as a routine post-training treatment is not particularly helpful”
In fact it is and or can be counter productive. Depends on a number of factors. The people I have talked to and or “studies” I have read don’t just suggest but prove out the “science” behind the old school way of doing things.
I know the benefits of both hot and cold therapy and when it should be applied/used. Based on working with TB racehorses and rehab.
I don’t “do” surveys as a rule. It has taken me years and years to gain the knowledge and skills I have acquired. Why should I share for free? For the benefit of someone else’s gain.
Consultants worth listening to are paid. Some paid very well. I am not interested in “amateur” opinions by and large.[/QUOTE]
Thanks for your feedback. I understand your perspective on surveys, and most of the time private companies would pay for opinions but we are just a student group. I was wondering if you might be able to point me to some of the studies you mentioned about the therapy being counterproductive?
[QUOTE=IronwoodFarm;9039231]
I found the survey poorly designed with no skip sequencing and a complete lack of respect for anonymity. I don’t think the survey will tell you much of anything.[/QUOTE]
Many of the questions were optional, and it was very clear that the request for contact information was optional too if people would be interested in contributing further. I appreciate your comment, and please let me know how a survey like this could be more effective. We are a student group and aren’t professional survey makers.
gumtree
I don’t “do” surveys as a rule. It has taken me years and years to gain the knowledge and skills I have acquired. Why should I share for free? For the benefit of someone else’s gain.
The questions are really aimed at preferences. Would you like to have the horse walk around while in treatment, what benefits are you looking for, what color, how would you like it to fit and fasten, how cold do you want it to be, that sort of thing. Very marketing-oriented questions, as opposed to “tell me what I need to know to build this thing”.
I am unconvinced a routine training session needs any post session “therapy”. If injury is suspected there are multiple theories that generally fall back on the handlers past experiences with similar.
We seem to be leaning towards overtreating everything, driven by glossy ads and vague hints we should feel guilty if our horse doesn’t get the latest thing, need it or not.
If I were inclined to cool a leg, there’s a hose right there and no science establishing how cold cold should be with no apparent injury post exercise.
[QUOTE=findeight;9039495]
I am unconvinced a routine training session needs any post session “therapy”. If injury is suspected there are multiple theories that generally fall back on the handlers past experiences with similar.
We seem to be leaning towards overtreating everything, driven by glossy ads and vague hints we should feel guilty if our horse doesn’t get the latest thing, need it or not.
If I were inclined to cool a leg, there’s a hose right there and no science establishing how cold cold should be with no apparent injury post exercise.[/QUOTE]
Thanks for your perspective on that. You make some good points. 
OP, you can find the research as it applies to human athletes easily enough if you have access to an academic library database that has holdings in kinesiology or sports medicine. You can find the research as it applies to horses through holdings in the fields of veterinary science or agriculture. These days, university libraries tend to subscribe to databases that support the courses taught at that institution, but there are often “extras” bundled in that the university doesn’t need, but isn’t paying extra for, especially in the science databases.
If you are at a college, ask your librarian how to find this material. By and large, such material is behind a subscription paywall, and not given out for free on the internet.
I learned about this new research in regards to humans first because one of my first-year composition students chose it as a topic for her final paper. She got the idea for the paper from her experience on a local sports team. 18 year old average student researching her first college-level paper: I don’t think the material is that hard to find, and even if you are in a business course rather than an academic program, that’s the kind of basic research you need to be able to do if you want to do product development, or even marketing. So I think you ought to be able to find the material easily enough, via your college library.
If you are a high school student, you can visit a nearby college library.
In general, if a treatment is proven useful or useless for humans, the same applies to animals (with the caveat that obviously some drugs can’t be used cross species). Human research obviously is more advanced than horse research, and tends to lead the way; equine researchers often then test out things that have been developed for humans.
Asking people for their opinions on how they want to use a therapeutic treatment without realizing that there are questions being raised about the efficacy of that treatment suggests you haven’t really informed yourself about the product and technique at all.
That’s not how succesful products and companies are created.
[QUOTE=Scribbler;9039654]
Asking people for their opinions on how they want to use a therapeutic treatment without realizing that there are questions being raised about the efficacy of that treatment suggests you haven’t really informed yourself about the product and technique at all.
That’s not how succesful products and companies are created.[/QUOTE]
Thanks for your response.
My questions on research that people are reading was not indicative of our lack of collection on scientific data and reviewing of literature- I’m just interested in the specific items that people are referring to. (generic references to research are a dime a dozen, as you probably know). It is exactly an interest the hard science that is driving my question on the specific research being referred to.
I certainly don’t believe that our team has been able to access all the relevant information that may pertain to this project. Also, this particular survey is part of an effort to understand what the industry is interested in today, not where it could or should be.
If you would look into the survey, you will see that we are seeking to understand why people are using cryotherapy and what their preferences are in a more neutral manner. The purpose of this step is not to tell people that their reasons for doing something is right or wrong.
Here is a link to the survey for anybody interested in making some last minute responses: https://goo.gl/forms/q8vAsdFqxRMfzMng1
I’m a bit confused. You say in your OP that you are doing market research on a post-training leg cold wrap. Then later you say this is a school project.
The point of doing market research is not to find out how a product works. It is to see if there is a need for a product that you have already designed to some degree.
If you are designing a product, then you need to research the hard science behind the product idea before you design your prototype and start market research on the concept.
It’s of course perfectly normal to design, research, and market a product that is useless, or counter-indicated by the most recent science. Indeed, I would say that at least 75 % of human and horse supplements and patent medicines, etc., fall in that category. In that case, the producer of the product is either deluded or just cynical.
But market research is not the step where you find out the hard science behind your idea. Market research is where you find out that people prefer vanilla scented lotion over spice, or pink fabric over yellow fabric, or how much money they will spend on a nice package. It isn’t a place where you find out whether the science behind your idea works.
If you had done your research, not on the internet, but through a college library database that accesses scholarly sources that are held behind subscription paywalls, then you wouldn’t need to ask for references. I repeat this because I am not 100 % sure you know how an electronic database like EBSCO or Science Direct is different from “internet information.” You would know what the emerging consensus is on using ice to treat athletes, human or equine.
The process in product design is:
This may be more work than your marketing class mid-term market survey assignment requires.
Thanks to everybody who completed the survey or provided feedback!
The source reference for a well signed survey is Donald Dillman. Dr. Dillman started in the days of mailed surveys, but have expanded to online surveys. https://www.amazon.com/Internet-Phone-Mail-Mixed-Mode-Surveys/dp/1118456149/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486570742&sr=1-2&keywords=survey+design
Unfortunately it is too late to redesign the survey if the work is due soon. I’ll leave it to your professor to explain the significant flaws in the design. Dillman really rocks it when it comes to surveys. Use his method and your response rates and reports are pretty darn good. Wing it, and well…consider it part of the learning curve.
Thank you for that info IronwoodFarm!
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