The technological revolution is affecting horse riding culture. Technology is now an inseparable part of our society, home, and hobbies. Even traditional sports like horse riding can’t avoid it. In fact, horse riding events have been more and more subjected to technological innovations in the last 10 years; from safety, comfort and performance, to even Virtual Reality (VR) for

training. But how is technology changing horse riding?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SAFETY AND COMFORT

 

Sfety was the first reason why technology came into this sport. In fact, horse riding is a sport where safety is really important, and many start-ups have made a business out of it with the creation of smart devices connected to apps with Global Positioning System (GPS). These apps will send alerts to the riders’ families or rescue teams in case of a fall, and at present they attract a large number of riders, from amateurs to professionals. Geeky Girl surveyed 210 riders on the use of technology in horse riding, 49 per cent of whom argued their use had increased safety and performance. The Tagalo app, for example, has analysed 500 different types of stuntmen’s falls, at equestrian show company Pegase Prod in France. Thanks to that, the app can understand the difference between a rider falling and a horse jumping and safely touching the ground afterwards. These kinds of apps can be really useful for riders training alone, as, if the rider falls, the app will react asking them to press a button. If there is no response, then the rider will be considered unconscious and an alert is sent. If the rider reacts, he can choose whether or not to send an alert depending on the seriousness of the fall. Horse comfort is another aspect riders are really interested in. Products like smart horse covers, through which it is possible to analyse a horse’s body temperature, are really popular on the market and, as other smart products, they can be connected to dedicated apps, too. While there are affordable horse covers on the market, such as those sold by Decathlon for €89.90 (£80), covers for competition horses can be much more expensive, reaching €530 (£475) for a massage horse cover. Horse owners are taking the comfort of their animals more and more into consideration nowadays, especially competition horses, which can be worth thousands of pounds. Yet owners of hobby horses may find these kinds of products just as useful, especially if their horse is really old. In fact, in a survey conducted by Geeky Girl,

24.8 per cent of respondents indicated comfort as the most important factor when shopping for smart horse products.

 

PERFORMANCE

 

Performance is another factor riders take into consideration when buying smart devices for their horses. Products like smart straps will analyse a horse’s heart rate, gait and jumps’ quality. As for smart horses’ straps, the ones sold by Seaver seem to be really popular among riders.

 

Seaver strap is one of the new products popular among professionals riders in every discipline. Seaver offers many connected straps for dressage, jumping, eventing and mixed disciplines from €329 (£296) to €599 (£539).

 

Mélène Laporte, Seaver Horse salesperson, presents their products: “Seaver straps give you a lot of data on the physiological state of your horse at work, on his performance, his evolution, on his health.

 

We collect a lot of data like we would do for any athlete in any other sports.”

“Seaver strap collects data as the cardio, the caloric spend. Moreover, it looks at symmetry at the trot which can permit to spot limping. On jumps its analyzing everything, the parabola with high, amplitude and angle. Finally it analyzes speed, distance done during the session and much more,” she adds.

 

Quentin Faucher, international horse rider, relies on the smart straps when it comes to his horse’s heart rate and speed, as he can then adapt his “horse’s canter training depending on the competition” he is preparing for. On the flat, I am interested in symmetry which helps me to spot limping.”

 

However, nowadays many amateur riders are also interested in these kinds of products. 48.1 per cent of riders surveyed were interested in apps which accompany training sessions and 24.8 per cent were interested in connected objects like saddles or straps. Laporte explains: “Professionals riders are interested in the details which can improve their performance and amateurs riders are more interested in the general details of their riding sessions.”

However, not everybody agrees. “In my opinion, these products are made for professionals (only), who will know how to make better use of them, (as) sometimes the data provided by these apps can be really hard to understand for a non-professional,” says Faucher.

 

Amateur riders are also really interested in the health-related data that smart devices can

provide.As an example, Victoria Hocques, an amateur rider, has bought a smart sensor to keep her horse’s tendinitis under control. She finds the sensor really useful as it allows her to rely on objective data rather than personal impressions when it comes to her horse’s health. The sensor, made by Equisense, has also helped her when observing her horse’s trot symmetry during jumping bounces, a type of fence-like obstacle typical of horse riding.

However, Justine Quintin, riding coach and amateur jumping rider, has some doubts on the

reliability of these products. According to her, the problem with these devices lies in the fact that data needs to be put into context sometimes for it to be 100 per cent reliable. In her opinion, these objects may be possibly useful for performance tracking purposes, but not for analysing a horse’s health.

 

“Data is really limited and I have doubts on the reliability. I wanted to check my horse’s limping with Equisense, however, I could only gather data on straight lines and not circular movements,” says Quintin. Hocques thinks this kind of sensor can be useful for anyone: “It’s an analysis of the work done with objectivity, not based on only our feelings.“

 

TECHNOLOGICAL HELP IN COMPETITION

 

Smart horse products are connected to apps that collect a lot of data, but should this data be

regarded as reliable in competitions? In a survey conducted by Geeky Girl, 57.5 per cent of

respondents argued that these devices are only useful during training, helping to improve

performance, but not during competitions. However, 11.2 per cent of respondents argued smart  devices could actually have an impact on competition rankings.

Hocques thinks technology helps her analyse the mistakes she makes during competitions, but does not influence her performance.

 

“Right now, I would say (technology) is not really helping riders during competitions. It did not help me. (Maybe) in the future, if we could monitor the horse’s heart rate from a watch or something like that during cross-country races…,” says Faucher, who wonders whether smart devices may make competitions unfair if more and more riders start to use them.

“If the rider uses all the data collected by a smart device’s app every day, this could help their horse improve their performance. However, during competitions, the app will only be collecting data (and not assist the rider immediately),” thus providing no extra help to the rider.

Geeky Girl asked International Equestrian Federation (FEI) to comment on the impact of smart

devices in the ranking of international competitions. However, they did not respond.

In conclusion, every person we surveyed, from amateur to professional riders, agrees on the fact that smart devices can help, but they cannot act as a substitute to the human eye, a coach or a rider.

 

The traditional world of horse riding has welcomed the addition of technology quite positively, despite some scepticism. “There will always be sceptical people,” says Hocques. “We just have to see (technology) as a support, not more.“

Faucher, too, believes horse riding is something that needs human input and has to be learnt by practice. “It’s not something we can understand from apps or data,” he says. “These devices can help in performances or when coaching riders from a distance, but it will not replace real humans.

 

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