BETA International is the world’s leading equestrian, country clothing, outdoor and pet product trade exhibition and is attended by over 4,500 industry buyers. Below are some of the equine technology products that stood out at this year’s exhibition.

Seaver connected equipment for horses

Seaver designs smart equipment for equestrian sports and they are creating the first connected objects dedicated to horse performance and health care. They have developed the Seaver Girth (pictured above) and its “reduced version”, the Seaver Sleeve.

The Seaver girth sleeve has exactly the same technological features as the Seaver Girth, therefore providing identical metrics and measurements.

The aim is that their technology will enhance traditional training methods for equestrian sports, giving riders, coaches and breeders precise metrics when their horses are training and competing.

The technology has the ability to measure and record the horse’s vertical and horizontal jump height, heart and breathing rate, average and minimum speed, calories burned etc. It can also monitor how much time the horse spent walking, trotting and cantering plus how much time was spent on the left rein versus the right.

Coupled with Seaver’s mobile application, riders and horse-owners will have live streaming of riding data and the horse’s vitals, plus exhaustive post-practice metrics and analysis.

Web: seaverhorse.com

Avansce Synchronicity System

Want to know how balanced and in sync you are with your horse? The Synchronicity System from Avansce (part of the Neue Schule group) assesses your riding through sensors in the reins which can measure the rider’s rein contact.

At BETA, Avansce had their system set up on a mechanical horse for people to try it out, and their mechanical horse was my first stop. Once the horse moves into canter, the assessment is started by pressing a large button in front of the saddle and then the rein contact is being micro-measured for the next 30 seconds.

The results from my trial showed that overall my contact was good but my left side provides a more consistent contact than my right.

The systems are being sold primarily to coaches and riding centres who can provide assessments and suggest exercises to correct any imbalances.

Web: avansce.com

Estride Tracker

If you are interested in a more detailed gait analysis, as well as training and fitness information, then the Estride Tracker could be the option for you. The system is comprised of a ‘Node’ which records data in real-time, horse boots (similar to fetlock or brushing boots) to store the nodes when in use and a ‘Controller’ to store the data.

The Estride Tracker can monitor stride count and analyse pattern in each gait, identifying any inconsistencies in pattern. The system is capable of giving automatic advanced warnings and alerts in cases of irregularities in regular stride patterns.

The system can also measure training time, session regularity, horse stability and calorie burn for you as well as your horse.

There is also a saddle pad that can show, in real time, how you are riding and how well the saddle fits.

Web: estride.store

Quick Knot

Equine technology doesn’t always come in the form of clever electronics, and in fact one of the most simple products at the show really caught my eye.

Quick Knot is a new tool for achieving professional competition plaits in a couple of seconds – so no more needle and thread or elastic bands.

The Quick Knot is like a paper clip, holding your plait firmly in place and comes out just as quickly. I will certainly be giving them a go.

Web: quickknot.co.uk

DriRug

Following the success of their Doggy Bag, the Microfibre Store have developed a rug that should dry your horse in 30 minutes.

It takes up very little space, making it easy to store and easy to wash.

I’ve tried their microfibre “glove” and found it great for drying horses legs, much easier than a towel – just rinse, wring it out and it’s ready for the next horse.

Web: drirug.co.uk, doggy-bag.co.uk

Horseware Products

A special mention must go to Horseware Irelalnd who took home four Innovation Awards for their products at this year’s exhibition, two of which were highly commended.

Horseware received their first award for the Horsepal 1.01 horse monitor, a small monitor which provides temperature and humidity data, and takes the guesswork out of choosing the correct blanket weight on any given day.

HIGHLY COMMENDED

The first of their products which was highly commended was the Amigo Hero ACY Plus with air-conditioned yarn. This 900-denier fabric is air-blown, resulting in a tighter weave using less yarn and offering an incredibly durable, breathable and lightweight product. Commenting on this product the Judges said: “This is a great advancement in fabric technology, increasing horse comfort and satisfying consumer needs.”

The second highly commended product was the HW Air Mk 2 jacket (pictured above). This competition jacket evolved from 3D mesh construction to single-layered, lightweight, cool-touch woven fabric with four-way stretch. The product is breathable and allows the rider good movement.

NEVER BEFORE SEEN

Last but not least, the Long Micklem girth won an innovation award with the judges stating that: “We have never seen anything like this before. It is a very interesting idea using the Martingale groove and offered at a great price point in the market.” Horseware effectively created a girth that is ergonomically shaped for minimum slippage and maximum elbow comfort, developed following research on saddled horses put through various paces to establish saddle movement and its effect on pressure points on the horse’s elbow.

Last year the technology products had very basic functionality, but a year on and the applications have matured.

As these types of produce become part of our toolkit it will be interesting to see what kinds of information are really useful and how we will use this technology to improve our riding, training and care of the horse.