our mate Tippy!

Introducing the World’s First Crash Test Horse.

Weighing 757kgs, this little fella is packed and ready.

Weighing 757kgs, this little fella is packed and ready.

CAD Overview.

CAD Overview.

Over the course of a few months our design studio and workshop worked with Areion Equestrian to develop the world’s First Crash Test Horse here in Ballarat Victoria.

Tom Hotchkin of Areion Equestrian had developed a harness and float to protect horses in transit and now needed a horse to test his design.

Working with our Engineering Manager Scott Snowden over a couple of months Scott and Tom refined the design of an 18 Hand Horse that had the same weight distribution and aesthetics as a fully grown horse.

The sculpture was designed to be cut from 1m x 1m gym mats that could be cut on our cnc machine, and then slotted onto a internal steel structure.

Head Section of Horse.

Head Section of Horse.

CAD Overview of internal Steel Structure.

CAD Overview of internal Steel Structure.

CNC layout of Rubber pieces.

CNC layout of Rubber pieces.

140 Rubber gym mats ready to be cut on our CNC machine.

140 Rubber gym mats ready to be cut on our CNC machine.

Internal Steel Frame.

Internal Steel Frame.

228 Pieces of Rubber.

228 Pieces of Rubber.

Scott Snowden (Engineering Manager) and Mark McGrath (Construction Manager) quality inspection.

Scott Snowden (Engineering Manager) and Mark McGrath (Construction Manager) quality inspection.

Weight testing during construction.

Weight testing during construction.

Tippy eyeing off the camera.

Tippy eyeing off the camera.

Over a week our CNC operator Bianca Laidlaw cut the 140 gym mats into 228 individual pieces of the horse. Our workshop manager Mark McGrath then led the teams to bring the horse sculpture to life.

We look excitedly towards the future to see how our little mate fares in the the crash test.

Learn more about the reason behind this project at

ArgiCulture 2020

Ballarat Courier

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