TTE Advisory Board: How Integration Will Shape the Future of Horse Tech
What integrated ways (or disruptions) will technology change the horse world; please provide an example of what you are currently seeing, planning on offering with your product/service or hoping becomes available?
Disruption is a common word you hear about in all industries these days. If you think about the way we did all aspects of our lives just five years ago and how different it is today, it's exciting, and a little scary, to think about where we will be in the next five, 10 or 20 years from now. The horse industry has been slow to adopt change in all but the most basic ways, however I feel like the trainer of the future is going to embrace these new technologies to make themselves more competitive in the show ring and out. Everything from smart saddles to performance management to how the industry manages their business are starting to intrude on the thousands of ways that everyone is comfortable with.
HorseLinc is gearing up to disrupt how trainers, owners and service providers work and think about their billing and record keeping processes for the horses they own, manage, and service by removing steps from all aspects of the process. Think of it for now like an Uber, Venmo, and Quickbooks all rolled into one that handles payments as easy as any payment processing platform while automatically tracking your record-keeping without having to do any manual data entry. And there are many new innovative features coming out in the near future! HorseLinc will be the one-stop shop for everything you need to manage a horse's life, while saving everyone involved time and money.
The ultimate winner of this disruption are truly the horses we love. Better and more easily accessible records of their performance and service history will only lead to better care and understanding. Allowing us all more time to enjoy what we love most.
- Misty, HorseLinc
With GoHorse.com we hope to help connect the horse owner and non-horse people alike who are trying to find local horse experiences with the relevant information they need on an easy to use website where they can effortlessly interact with the facility or horse owners and buy their experience online. Currently, people must call each location individually to understand if they can accommodate their needs.
- Jenny, GoHorse
Back in 2013 when Jeffrey Schab of Protequus® embarked on a journey to create an early-warning system for equine colic, he could only dream of a future where empirical evidence in the form of biometric and behavior data on horses could transform the industry. Today, he is one step close to making that dream a reality with the introduction of NIGHTWATCH®, the world’s first smart halter™.
Although NIGHTWATCH® looks like most other high-quality leather halters, it’s so much more. Inside of this breakaway halter is just 2.1 ounces of sensor and AI technology that monitors your horse’s vital signs and behaviors and alerts you via phone, text and email at the early signs of possible pain/distress so you can get to them sooner. Ultimately, NIGHTWATCH® is designed for early intervention and referral to reduce the risk and severity of injury, to save money on veterinarian bills and to even potentially save your horses’ life.
Although saving horse lives has been Jeffrey’s bullseye focus for nearly six years, he is quick to say that “NIGHTWATCH® is a shoehorn to the data.” In the not so distant future, Jeffrey envisions having enough health-related outcomes data from horses on the NIGHTWATCH® program to predict with high-confidence new and early markers for colic distress, and more. Jeffrey believes the advent of NIGHTWATCH® not only has the potential to save the lives of many horses, but also transform the equine industry through data science and predictive analytics for improved health and performance outcomes.
Can you just imagine what objective biometric- and behavior-related health outcomes data would mean for actuaries within the equine insurance industry, the advantage researchers would have when designing prospective comparative studies, and the impact this could have on veterinarian practices for improved health outcomes and operational efficiency? These are just some of the obvious areas that Jeffrey and his team plan to take his company, Protequus®, and we look forward to seeing his vision become a reality.
-Jeffrey, NIGHTWATCH
One of the reasons I created The Equestrian App was based on what I was being asked from the vet, farrier and trainer when I first purchased my horses - How are you training the horse? Do you have any issues with the horse? What are you feeding the horse and how do you ride the horse? That led me not only creating the app for myself to track what I do with my horses and when, but to also connect my family, friends and services providers directly to my horses activities. There had to be a better way to connect the people around the care and enjoyment of my horses and there wasn't anything so I created it. After a year of the app being out in the marketplace, a week doesn't go by without me getting an email about how appreciative someone is for the app connecting others to their horses. Everyone of those emails tells me I'm doing the right thing for the horses health and well-being for the long term.
- Patrick, The Equestrian App
As we continue to share in previous posts from the TTE advisory board, we can all agree that technology is and will become more present in the horse world. In the horse sport world for example, the application of technology is crucial to help optimizing the time and performance of equine athletes. At Ekinox Tech, we think that offering a disruptive technology will help dramatically the results in terms of rehab, recovery and high performance. We have improved the way electrotherapy is applied which ultimately helps a great deal in optimizing the time and performance of equine athletes. By offering different product models, which includes pre-set and customized programs, we are able to address the needs of difference audiences which is a great advantage for the users. A good idea for the future would be to have the ability to introduce data of the horse into the machine and based on the objectives, have the machine suggest the best programs to apply on a weekly basis and check the progress week over week. In terms of our business we are also going to create methodology and offer courses in order to optimize the usage of the machine.
- Nick, Ekinox Tech
One reason that Stable Secretary was created was to make it easier for people to provide the best health care for horses. We figured that if our product was quick and easy to track health records and get reminders for due dates, more people would stay on top of essential and performance related health procedures. Our software also has built-in team member roles to which subscribers can add their employees, co-workers, and horse owners to make it possible for all relevant people to access relevant information and health history for horses. Subscribers can also add people to a service provider role (intended for veterinarians, farriers, and other health care providers) to enable them to view and add health records and other relevant info for the horses they are treating. We also push reminders to users about due dates for each horse and make those due dates available throughout the software and mobile app. In order to continuously educate our subscribers we publish a monthly newsletter, which includes helpful tips and tricks to promote better horse care. We are hopeful that these strategies will encourage people to learn more about horse health care which in turn can help their horses live long and healthy lives.
- Kate, StableSecretary
