HORCERY: Smarter Safety and Monitoring for your Horse
The use of stall cameras is becoming more common in stables, yet selecting the ‘right’ camera can make all the difference in keeping your horse safe. Rather than relying on a device that has a few features to check on your horse, let your camera do the work for you. The Tech Equestrian recently interviewed CEO, Matti Hiob and Growth Partner, Sarah Sharou to learn how the Horcery ecosystem sets itself apart, with an innovative product suite.
A Comprehensive Stall Monitoring Solution
“Our product is not just a camera in your horses’ stall, it is a proactive alert system. When I talk with equestrians some are using a security camera that they bought at Best Buy. I point out that those are designed for driveways, not horses,” said Matti. Off the shelf products are post-incident tools rather than proactive systems. The Horcery solution detects abnormal movement and behavior, which are the primary ways horses communicate. “Our technology provides reassurance without requiring constant monitoring, making it easier for our customers to get real-time alerts, they need to pay attention to.”
Built for the Barn Environment
The Horcery stall monitor is specifically designed to meet the unique demands of barn environments. It features a high-definition wide-angle camera that provides a complete wall-to-wall view of your horse’s stall and includes night vision capability. It works seamlessly over wi-fi or standard internet connections giving flexible options for a variety of barns. Larger barns require a distribution hub accessory to make it easy to connect and power multiple monitors. “Barns can be tough on devices, so we designed our monitors in an aluminum enclosure with scratch-resistant glass to work effectively and protect against impacts, dirt, and debris,” Matti said.
This intelligent solution gives equestrians insights most cameras don’t provide thanks to its powerful AI capability that tracks:
- your horses’ movements – including rolling and sleeping
- the temperature, humidity, light and noise within the barn
- human interactions – when a person is in your horses’ stall and length of time
“Our industry leading AI alerts will give you notifications when things happen and deliver clips of each event so you can act fast and catch issues before they become emergencies,” shared Sarah, she added, “The monitor also gives you the joy of checking on your horse and revisiting sweet moments captured on video when you away from the barn.”
Bucket Meter – Consumption Measurement Made Easy
“The Bucket Meter actually receives the most inquiries, because tracking water intake or lack thereof is an early indicator of potential issues like colic,” shared Matti. The Horcery team wanted to provide a simple, valuable solution that allowed users to continue using their existing buckets, instead of forcing a switch to less-preferred automatic waterers, by simply providing a clip-on device that measures consumption. The Bucket Meter works independently and provides combined information with the Stall Monitor; for instance, it accounts for whether a horse is in the stall before flagging a lack of drinking.
App Integration
The Horcery app, available for both iOS and Android platforms, is thoughtfully designed to help users monitor and manage all their Horcery devices in one place. Through the app, you can easily control push notifications, ensuring you stay updated about your horse’s status no matter where you are. You can watch real-time video feeds directly through the app, with the ability to save short video clips, making it easier to document and review any noteworthy events or behaviors.
The app also provides access for caretakers, allowing them to stay connected and informed about the horse’s well-being.
Created by a Diverse Development Team
“You can feel confident, the Horcery product you own was not developed overnight,” said Matti who described the development team behind Horcery as a highly diverse group, including mechanical, electrical, and software engineers, as well as a physiotherapist and a veterinarian, who were all involved in the early stages of the project. The R&D process used a rapid prototyping approach with many learnings and iterations over three years. “The durability of the products was a major consideration, requiring the device to be waterproof and have no ingress points to prevent dust buildup,” he pointed out. The hardware features a metal back which functions as a heat sink, allowing the powerful internal computer to remain cool without needing fans, resulting in a fully solid-state system that can withstand the harsh barn environment.
Home Screen view
“We pride ourselves on producing first-rate products and we update the product monthly with the latest versions of the AI and new app features, emphasizing accessibility and continuous engagement with customers.”
AI Modeling Sets Them Apart
AI models, which involve creating a computer game environment with a digital horse because millions of diverse images are required to train the models effectively. This synthetic prototyping allows the team to try new things digitally and build resilience against different mounting locations. “We use AI to make the product easier by enabling the user to step away from the video feed while having the reassurance that alerts will be provided if needed. The technology aims to serve as a communicator between the horse and the user without attempting to prescribe behavior, as we trust users know their horses better than AI.”
“I believe AI has significant potential in horse tech but must be applied carefully to avoid overcomplicating solutions or overwhelming users with data,” said Matti.
In Development – What’s Next
The team's immediate focus is introducing the product to the sports horse world and developing portable mounting solutions for temporary stalls. “We are evolving the wall mount to also include new clamp arms to make the device easily transportable and set up in temporary stalls without drilling,” said Sarah.
“Our short-term focus,” said Matti, “is to make the product exceptional while staying true to our underlying philosophy of simplicity, value, and user-friendliness.” He also shared that the long-term goal for the company is continued growth, driven by positive customer stories, which validate the R&D efforts. “We are also working on developing mobile solutions for people to take the monitor with them, driven by feedback from the FEI grooms.”
WEF Partnership offered Valuable Rider Feedback
“We actually have been involved with the racing industry for a while, so by having a booth at Wellington International for the winter season, it gave us access to a different discipline - gaining feedback on the Stall Monitor perception from a nice-to-have to a necessity with proactive alerting,” said Sarah.
Investment Options
The current pricing structure for the Stall Monitor, is $499, with a monthly subscription of $9.99 that allows for unlimited users and there are bulk discounts available for larger barns. The wireless bucket meter is priced at $149 with a monthly subscription fee of $3.99 and it powered by a 9V replaceable battery. Matti explained that product updates happen mostly behind the scenes, with the system notifying the user when an update is taking place.
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