Connected horses – the future of equine training

As is the case with so many industries in the current climate, digital is taking over. The demand for real-time information, sourced quickly, easily and where necessary reported in a way that allows for instantaneous analysis is changing the world, and not just in business but also sport.

The UK horse racing industry is worth a staggering £3.45billion to the British economy, and is directly responsible for 85,000 full-time jobs. It has become a multi-billion and multi-national sport, attracting visitors from around the world. With global interest comes high pressure, and it has never been more important for the world’s top horses to have their progress analysed like any other sports man or woman.

As with modern day athletes who wear GPS and heart monitors to register work rate and distance covered, the same type of analysis has now entered the world of racehorse training. Working with Internet of Things (IoT) specialist Eseye, Fine Equinity has implemented an industry leading system which is changing the training of horses.

The gap in the market

The equine industry has in many ways mimicked the human sport industry in its adoption of technology to assess the performance of its athletes. There has long been an awareness of using human performance trackers on horses, which can then be adapted to fit the needs of trainers and owners. Fine Equinity first entered this market and started to produce an equine specific solution four years ago, initially using human athlete trackers as a beta test for how best to optimise the data for a horse tailored tracker.

equinITy, the Fine Equinity system, was developed to monitor and nurture the health and performance of race horses. The horses were equipped with a monitor during exercise, which then had its data collated locally. The information was then downloaded on specially designed platforms and analysed at a later date away from the track.

It was agreed there would be a direct and substantial benefit to the trainers being able to view this critical data in real-time, such a capability would provide a comprehensive and live progress report of each horse’s fitness and performance. This live data analysis would not only be extremely beneficial to the practitioners training these horses, it would also truly set Fine Equinity apart from its competitors.

The development

When initial development of the equine specific tracker began to take shape, it was crucial to ensure heart rate, speed and positioning; the horse racing world mainly works in furlong (~201m) splits, so it was critical the new solution worked in a way tailored to this specific need. In all cases whether business or sport; the speed, ease and accuracy in which this data was delivered was paramount.

The critical consideration for the development of the new product however was the real-time recording and viewing of performance data. A key area in the development of a horse is the ability to provide trainers with hard data on the physical performance of each horse. The live streaming element of the equinITy product is therefore essential to the trainers. Its functionality provides a dashboard of data which delivers key information in real-time, allowing them to effectively watch the horse perform in a data driven format, which allows early identification of abnormalities or improvements in performance.

Connecting horses

The partnership between Fine Equinity and Eseye has led to the development and implementation of the equinITy device. The product itself is attached to the horse and transmits real-time performance and positioning data for visualisation and reporting to provide trainers with live updates. This includes viewing live data within the equinITy App and also the equinITy Web Client. The device has an embedded Eseye SIM which automatically connects to the local network and provides 3G services in a very efficient way, without the need for complex configuration. The Eseye technology is responsible for efficiently delivering data in real-time from anywhere in the world to the equinITy infrastructure.

The Eseye technology is a fundamental part of the market leading Fine Equinity product. The Eseye API provides back-end usage reporting systems with SIM data including quantities used, cost and network usage.

The partnership between the two companies has led to global recognition and trainers from the UK, Australia and the US have implemented the device. With the modern day world becoming increasingly connected; from cars, houses and athletes, the work being done between Fine Equinity and Eseye has led us to the next generation in horse training; connected horses.