AN innovative 14-year-old Kingdown School pupil from Westbury has been shortlisted in a national invention competition.

The competition run by Your Life, a Government-supported campaign which aims to highlight career opportunities made possible by studying science and maths, saw 140 teenagers from across the country enter with their own unique ideas.

Caroline Longley, 14, has made it to the shortlisting stage along with five other teenagers with her invention called the 'Horse Heat Detector.'

Caroline's invention is a device which is planted in a race horse’s saddle that feeds the horse’s temperature back to the race manager or jockey as the race progresses, to inform them whether or not it is fit to race and prevent it from collapsing.

Caroline said: “I wanted to do something that involved animals rather than people.

“We have our own horses and ride them quite often. I read lots of things in the news about horses collapsing so I thought something needed to be done to stop it from happening.

“Not enough attention is paid to horse riding and horse safety.

“It was nice to be shortlisted, I would love to see my invention win and it would be really great if it became used and made people more aware of horse safety in the future.

“I would like to do something with animals when I'm older.”

Entries were judged on their innovation, creativity and practicality with 20 per cent of votes coming from a public vote and 80 per cent from judges’ scores.

Head of the judging panel and Your Life non-exec director, Dr. Ros Rivaz, said: “Judging this year’s competition has been tough with the entries of a really high standard.

“It is so encouraging that top of young people’s concerns are solutions within health and also how to use renewable energy."

The two winners will be announced on June 21 by Your Life’s Patron Beth Tweddle at the organisation’s event during London Tech Week, ‘Fast Track Your Future’.

They will win £1,000 cash for their school, an iPad to keep for themselves and their invention will be produced.

To watch a video of Caroline’s invention, search for ‘Invent The Future Finalist – Caroline’ on YouTube.