Page 96 - December2022

Streamlined, Time-Saving Technology Lip Chip LLC takes
horses’ records
high-tech and
high-trust.
by Diane Rice
Photos provided by Lip Chip LLC
Lip Chip LLC co-founder and President
Brad Bolen.
What’s your worst nightmare when checking into a race or show with your horses? A misplaced Coggins or piroplasmosis test result? Registration papers forgotten at home? A seem- ingly mile-long line of trucks and trailers ahead of you and your road-weary horses, who need to get out of the trailer to drink and stretch?
You can wave to these headaches and more in your rearview mirror due to cutting-edge technology that allows you to keep all your horses’ records in one place, readily accessible on your phone or tablet.
Tested in a pilot project on nearly 600 horses at Ruidoso Downs this past season and now being tested at Lone Star Park, Lip Chip LLC is quickly becoming the gold standard for performance horses on the racetrack, in the rodeo arena and in the show ring.
“I was skeptical at first, but the first day I joined the pilot program we Lip Chipped 20 horses and one of them showed a fever,” says trainer Marc Jungers. “We knew she’d been
off a little bit, but she had eaten well and never showed a temperature until that day. The temp stimulated some more in-depth testing in which we pulled blood and found she had an elevated white count indicating some kind of infection. So, we were able to get more aggres- sive in her treatment to get her over her illness.”
Those treatments allowed her to race soon after, rather than being sidelined due to an undi- agnosed illness that may have affected her long- term. “That was a huge benefit to us,” Marc says.
.
What Does Lip Chip Do?
Lip Chip LLC founders, racehorse trainer Brad Bolen of San Angelo, Texas, and his daugh- ter Jessica Cummings of Seguin, Texas, saw the need for the horse industry to embrace technology to help both the industry and their horses.
They extensively canvassed horsemen to learn their concerns. “Everybody was always complaining about cheating and in talking with other trainers and owners, we decided we first had to accurately and positively identify each horse,” said Brad, Lip Chip LLC’s president.
After defining other industry concerns, Brad and Jessica added veterinarians and technology experts to their team to achieve a humane and practical product that addresses a host of industry needs, all accessible on any handy device: your Apple or android smart- phone, tablet or computer.
“We came up with implanting the micro- chip in a different spot, so we could identify
a horse in seconds over the stall door or in a trailer without touching the horse,” Brad said. “We obtained a patent in what our attorney said was record time.
“We started working on it and were for- tunate we were doing a presentation for the AQHA Executive Committee,” Brad adds. “That’s when we hooked up with Antonio Rodriguez of Pretty Smart Labs in Austin, Texas. He didn’t know anything about horses, and I didn’t know anything about the technol- ogy. But I’d say we needed to do such and such and he’d say, ‘We can’t do that,’ and then he’d call me back and say it was done.
“We tested the Lip Chip on Jessica’s and my grandkids’ horses, then went all over the country meeting with owners and trainers, getting feedback,” Brad says. “Then we started working with different ways to incorporate health checks so that when horses come into the barn, officials can tell if a horse’s heart rate isn’t what it should be. And since tests have trouble catching the designer drugs, we figured out a different way to look at the whole horse: by accurately identifying the horse, checking
94 SPEEDHORSE December 2022