It may not be the Apple Watch but equine wearables may help improve both animal training and health.
The athletic wearable technology industry is continuing its rapid growth among humans, but now horses are also benefiting from the tech. While wrist-worn pedometers and heart rate monitors have become commonplace for people to wear, a German startup called HorseAnalytics is using devices to enhance equestrian sports.
The goal of these wearables is to change the way we understand horse care and training.
The equine athletic wearable technology provides detailed data collection, quantification and analysis. This can be used to improve the understanding of an individual horse’s mental state and physical health as was never possible before.
The HorseAnalytics wearables were created to provide continual real-time monitoring of the horse wearing the device. These connected mobile gadgets make it possible for owners to check on the condition and activity of the animal at any given time.
The unique Pacer sensor is at the very heart of the horse athletic wearable technology function.
The Pacer is attached to the horse’s bridal or the neck of a halter. From there, it captures specific movements. That data is wirelessly transmitted to a mobile device – such as a smartphone or tablet – into which the corresponding app has been installed. Owners can use the device to observe, measure and analyze the device data, even if they don’t happen to be near the horse at the time.
The HorseAnalytics app is compatible with both iOS and Android devices. It displays the data in convenient graphs and charts to provide visuals that will make the information easier for the owner to use in a practical sense. Those graphs and charts offer insight regarding the health and mental state of the horse based on its fitness level, age and even its specific breed.
The company claims that the combination of the Pacer wearables and the mobile app can provide owners information about a horse’s sleep quality, overall activity, training performance and can even help to detect illness, lameness and early-stage colic.
The equestrian athletic wearable technology is in a test phase including the participation of almost 200 horse owners and riders. The app will be launched in the German market upon completion of the test phase.
