We are proud to share that Equiyd was recently featured in The Economist! Read the full article below:

A heritage sport is enjoying a data revolution, with animal welfare as the justification

“He’s a proper diva,” a winning rider told Horse & Hound, an equine magazine, of his horse, Dowdstown Purple, at the Royal International Horse Show (rihs) in Hickstead, on England’s south coast. Horses have always been pampered, but they are increasingly treated on par with the most elite human athletes. On digital marketplaces owners advertise horses with elaborate video profiles and CVs of “notable achievements”. “Very genuine mare who loves to please,” reads one for a grey piebald. “No vices whatsoever.”

Monitoring is the latest advancement. At the RIHS, Britain’s oldest horse show, which took place between July 21st and 26th, show jumpers swap tips on tracking their steeds’ heart rates and sleep. Many favour Sleip, a Swedish app which uses AI to analyse a horse’s gait. The United Arab Emirates and Sweden may lead on developing such equine technology (the UAE has large stables and lots of money; Sweden has more horses than dairy cows), but Britons are its keenest consumers. Its equine health-care market is Europe’s largest by revenue, with software and related services, including wearable monitoring, the fastest-growing sub-sector.

One reason for this British enthusiasm is welfare. A recent survey by YouGov, a pollster, for World Horse Welfare, a charity, found that 70% of Britons think a horse’s welfare should always take priority in sport, regardless of the impact on performance. In response to such concerns, the British Horseracing Authority, a regulator, has said it will trial Sleip’s technology at race meetings to ensure thoroughbreds stride safely.

Another is that the tech is just as appealing to regular, ordinary riders, of which Britain has an estimated 1.8m. Equiyd, a British startup with a stall at Hickshead, promises “F1 thinking” for “equestrian performance”. Its app lets owners use their smartphone camera and wearable sensors to collect thousands of data points on gait, biomechanics and rider posture. Some 35,000 horses in 62 countries use it. Around 80% of its British users are amateur show jumpers, reckons David Lea, Equiyd’s co-founder, many with ordinary day jobs such as nurses and teachers, who use the app to save on coaching and vet bills.

Some worry that too much tech will interfere with a rider’s natural “feel” for a horse. But its adoption in equestrianism shows no sign of slowing. Unlike a sprinter, a stallion is unlikely to object to being surveilled 24/7. And whereas regulation often hamstrings human-health tech, there are fewer barriers to “health-span maxxing” for horses. Soon, predicts Elin Hernlund, Sleip’s co-founder, horses could be “the most monitored athletes on the planet”.■

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