The Standardbred Canada website recently featured a story about how a successful crowdfunding campaign led to the first clippable ‘running shoes’ for horses. Now another aspiring venture has gotten off the ground courtesy of a wave of online support.
The creators of a bodysuit for equine recently took to Kickstarter to get their product off the ground. It took just one week for their €50,000 ($69,844 Canadian) target to be met and surpassed. Initial version of the vest are now scheduled to be shipped in the fall of 2017.
According to an article by horseandhound.co.uk, Equisense’s bodysuit allows horse owners to watch over their horse's wellbeing courtesy of a smartphone app.
The app is sent alerts as to whether a horse is colicking or injured. It also keeps track of time the horse has spent sleeping, moving, how far its travelled, which gait it has been using, how much the horse has been perspiring, and its heart rate.
The article also states that upgrades are currently being tested that would measure how much time the horse has spent eating, if the horse is agitated, and an analysis of the body temperature.
The ‘wearable tech’ works by using algorithms that can detect anomalies in the horse. The unit has to be purchased and then the horse owners have to pay a monthly fee to receive the real-time information on his/her smartphone.
“For the last six months, we’ve been analyzing behavioural and physiological data of stabled and pastured horses. We quickly came to realize that by studying horse’s behaviour, movement or even sleep, we could optimize aspects of their daily lives and even make improvements,” said vet and product director Marine Slove.
“With this data, we were able to prevent illnesses linked to day to day life that is different from their natural state, such as gastric ulcers or spasmodic colics which we know are partly linked to stress.”
(With files from horseandhound.co.uk)
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