Owning a racehorse is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Seeing your horse run under your colors on a racecourse is priceless. This is an exciting and emotional time! With the emergence of data in the equine sector, this experience has become even more immersive. As a racehorse owner, data allows you to follow your horses’ careers and get involved in their training more closely.

How can data improve your experience as a racehorse owner?

On the agenda:

1. Make informed decisions with new equine data

2. Be involved in your racehorse’s training

Make informed decisions with new equine data

Choose a horse that matches your expectations

Data may allow you to make decisions about buying a horse and becoming a racehorse owner. Indeed, data offers several benefits to both buyers and sellers. It allows purchasers to get more information more easily. If a horse is already in training, you may examine his locomotion, recovery, or split times to precisely determine his potential.

There are two ways to give information:

One-shot monitoring – Before buying a horse, it may be possible to see and monitor him in training in order to determine his locomotor profile and to assess his physical condition. This will allow you to see how the horse compares to other ones and to detect any potential anomalies. 

The combination of the pre-purchase medical visit and data allows you to make a purchase in total transparency. Thanks to a 360-degree view of the different horses, you will be able to make an informed decision. Indeed, data brings to light elements invisible to the naked eye, which may or may not support your choices. Either way, technology is a tool to help you make a purchase that is more likely to meet your expectations. 

Prevent injuries and avoid additional medical costs

In the long run, using data can also simplify your life as a racehorse owner. Indeed, equine technologies are effective preventative medicine tools as longitudinal monitoring allows for the detection of abnormalities or early signs of pathologies. 

It is essential to keep an eye on the athletic horse’s health. As an owner, data allows you to follow your horse’s career closely in order to react upstream if necessary. Moreover, data can help you communicate with your veterinarian while keeping your veterinary expenses under control. Indeed, the use of data is financially benefical since it helps you to prevent injuries. Your horse’s physical integrity is therefore protected. 

Example – Heart failure

Arion, a 4 year old gelding who had never raced, arrived in a new stable. His diet was revised upwards due to a lack of fitness, but he continued to show signs of premature fatigue in training. His trainer decided to equip Arion with Equimetre in order to monitor his training and to get tangible information about his physiological functioning.

Heart rate and speed curves of a horse from the same lot

Between Arion’s speed and heart rate curves and the ones from another horse monitored during the same training, many differences can be seen. Arion’s recording shows an abnormally high maximum heart rate, which exceeds 250 BPM during an effort at 50 km/h. This anomaly can be identified on several recordings. After detecting it, the trainer decided to call his veterinarian. Download our case study to find out the veterinarian’s diagnosis by clicking here.

Get involved in your racehorse’s training

Follow your racehorse’s training remotely

It is difficult for a racehorse owner to frequently visit the training center but data can help overcome this problem as technology allows you to follow your horse’s training from a distance. Indeed, thanks to the quantified and tangible data, you can see the evolution of your horse’s daily work without having to be present on site.

Moreover, it is the best way to understand your horse’s strength and weaknesses. You may determine which types of tracks your horse prefers, which distances fit him, what his acceleration strategy is, etc. Additionally, those informations are relevant for the trainer who can optimize your horse’s trainings and maximize his performance. 

Example – Adapt the race distance to win

Communicate more easily with your trainer

Finally, as a racehorse owner, data helps you communicate more easily with your trainer. When you are not a specialist in racehorse physiology, results might take some time to be seen because some factors are not obvious to the naked eye. However, data allows us to compare elements in an objective way and therefore to highlight progress or possible drops in performance. As an owner, observing evolutions during training with quantified data reinforces communication and the relationship of trust with your trainer.

At Arioneo, we have thought of facilitating the communication between owners and trainers through the linked accounts feature. In fact, each Equimetre is associated with a single account called “child account” to which the data is automatically sent. This child account gives access to the training sessions registered by Equimetre that are associated with it. At the same time, the parent account (the trainer’s account) has access to all the children’s accounts associated with it. Conversely, children’s accounts will not have access to the data of another child account. 

Conclusion

Data is slowly becoming part of the daily lives of trainers and owners, and it continues to expand throughout the horse industry. In ownership, it not only allows for better management of the horse’s health, but it is also a way to complement the owner experience. The horse’s entourage feels invested in the horse’s career and evolution.  

Keywords: racehorse owners data, training, racehorse, communication