December is a month that shepherds in holiday festivities, gift giving, time with loved ones and most important – reflections on a year that bows its head to Father Time. Each year I look to tie in a theme to summarize the highs and lows. Without a doubt, I think we can all agree this year can be summed up with one word: uncertainty. However, in hard times comes grit, determination and hope to get through a rough ride. We’ve all been there. With that as the backdrop, The Tech Equestrian takes a look at the year through a horse tech lens and acknowledges the human spirit and drive to carry us through.

TRANSITIONS – Adapting to the ‘New Normal’

More Access
One of the mainstream technology heroes this year was a company called Zoom (just named ‘company of the year’ by Yahoo Finance) – that catapulted onto the main stage when lockdown and work from home became common place. Not only did companies adopt its easy to use functionality, but schools, community groups, non-profits and even seniors embraced its ability to feel connected without risk of transmission of the virus. No matter the platform (Zoom, Microsoft Meetings, Facetime, etc.) it led to more of our star equestrian athletes spending time doing interviews. The Jay Duke Show was a great example – hosted by former Canadian show jumping team member, senior course designer and sought-after clinician, The Jay Duke Show airs every Monday LIVE on Horse Network at 7:30pm ET.

This year Jay interviewed legendary equestrians both old, new and up-incoming and we learned about their horses, how they cope with the stress of competing and so much more. 

Virtual Events & Competitions
V.E.T. & Equitana
V.E.T. an acronym that stands for Virtual Equestrian Tradeshow became the first virtual trade show this year and was billed as #1 place for equestrian businesses to connect with horse lovers! All the excitement of a trade show shopping all from the comfort of your couch! This exciting event happened towards the beginning of the pandemic and helped fill the void of gathering and seeing the latest products and services for horses. We featured the blog post on this great example of adapting and making it work! (view story here)

Equitana slated for September in Kentucky also shifted from being an in-person event to virtual this year and hosted digital only events throughout the month of September including one of our favorites: Traditions & Changes in the Equestrian World hosted by Nicole Forbes interviewing panelists Carson Kressley, Dani Starwyn and Micah Deligdish. For a full list of presentations visit this page on their website, titled eQuestrian Celebration. Look for the live event to commence October 1-3, 2021 at the Kentucky Horse Park. 

Digital Horse Show
The Digital Horse Show became the ‘go-to’ state-of-the art online competitive experience, offering expert feedback and growth opportunities for all members of the equestrian world. They are the official sanctioned online horse show competition of the United States Hunter Jumper Association (USHJA). In partnership with IHSA and IDA, this platform offers riders the ability to upload un-edited videos to be judged and receive comments and voting. The riders also have the ability to ask questions in return. 
This concept started when a group of industry professionals with experience in video, show management, entry systems, sales and marketing came together to offer an alternative to showing that was cost-effective and provided a learning resource that connected judges and equestrians to watch entire competitions online.

Competitor Tent – Stay at Home Dressage Show Series
The hunter/jumper world wasn’t the only discipline to get the virtual touch this year, thanks to Competitor Tent, the app for competitive riders, they created the show series ‘The Stay-at-Home Dressage series’ benefiting the Equestrian Aid Foundation. The series was created to help riders continue to work toward their goals, compete safely and give back to an organization that is making a difference during these difficult times through their Disaster Relief Fund.

Virtual Equestrian Fashion 
Another example of innovation and connecting with equestrians remotely was the way some retailers hosted Live virtual Fashion Shows – one of our favorites was boutique brand Arista Equestrian held a Facebook Live Fashion Show in May of this year – with the ability to bid and buy using chat and answer fun trivia questions for a chance to win a gift card. This type of outreach provided more ‘facetime’ with the brand and allowed people to interact with creators of products to get an ‘inside look’ at new designs and what inspired designers. 

Happy Hours via Zoom
Some trainers and riders even hosted virtual events to discuss topics and keep everyone focused on learning when they weren’t in the showring. Lauren Sprieser, from Sprieser Sporthorse a USDF Gold, Silver and Bronze Medalist and an international Grand Prix dressage competitor, held virtual cocktail parties to help connect with students and fellow equestrians. She also is a blogger for The Chronicle of the Horse and writes for Dressage Today and Practical Horseman.

HORSE TECH SOLUTIONS: 
This year we saw some of the horse tech brands that were announced last year (or had big announcements/name changes) do even more this year. I call them the ‘young jumpers’ because they elicit so much energy and potential to be game-changers. Here are some of our favorites:

Young Jumpers
Strider
Formerly known as Event Clinics, Strider™ was introduced as the new brand in April of this year under the leadership of CEO, Tara Swersie & COO, Natasha Sprengers-Levine. They also brought on board Heather Briggs. Now with more than 90,000 riders using the Strider bookings platform, she also brought onboard Heather Briggs, Chief Technology Officer to start expanding their offerings including a full featured eWaivers subscription service - we posted the interview in November. (view post here). With remote learning taking center stage this year, Strider attracted subscribers and introduced a Fall 2020 Series of Professional Development Webinars for Equestrian Organizers, plus they are busy planning what’s next.

Strider’s technology road map extends 18 months in the future and includes things like the Strider App. “The production schedule for end of Q3 was very ambitious with the launch of the eWaiver service and the integration the USEF API into our platform,” shared Heather. “For our members, this is a big win as their USEF rider and horse details can be pulled in and populated into their Strider profiles.” Heather loves that “Strider has an extraordinarily stable and robust technology stack which affords Strider the ability to pivot and capitalize on great ideas.” 

mystride
Dave Harig, CEO and founder of mystride has spent a majority of this year creating something revolutionary in the way information will be available to barn and horse owners. Mystride is an app originally created to keep track of your barn management needs, but Dave wanted to take the concept further and is now on the path to ‘create the ultimate connected barn experience’ so you can say goodbye to dusty and messy white boards and go completely digital with the launch of a BarnBoard.® The board is a rugged 12” touchscreen that can be hung in front of the stall that serves as an intelligent stall management system. Integrated with the BarnView™ - a live video stream of each horse is accessible on the mystride app. Currently in ‘pre-order’ status, we are excited to see this new entry and how it adapts and enhances the demands of horse care. 

Piavita
We know how critical vet care is to keep our horses healthy and that veterinarians have an extremely hard job of diagnosing illness and issues with limited diagnostics – but thanks to the team from Piavita, headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland they’ve introduced a brand-new system that delivers advanced patient monitoring. This full-featured wearable completely changes the way vets can measure vital signs which in turn provides a more comprehensive picture to help with an accurate diagnosis. Part of their mission is education and they routinely post to their blog and include case studies and more on their website. In addition, don’t miss The Tech Equestrian blog post, from late last year. (view story here)

Handy Hunters
The handy hunters are so fun to watch in action – changing leads so smoothly and stopping on a dime – they command attention and are alert with their riders every request. This category is focused on horse tech vendors who put customer service first and know the importance of customer experience when it comes to navigating an app or website.

BarnManager
A barn management software that is been available now for some time is undergoing changes that are designed to further enhance this full feature tool. The Tech Equestrian caught up with Nicole Lakin, Founder and CEO (also a member of the TTE Advisory Board) over the summer to find out ‘what’s next.’ She gave us insights on the next version for release called BarnManager Pro and shared, “It is very important when you are trying to develop solutions, that you dig deep and uncover what your users are actually requesting.” We applaud this mindset and focus and look forward to its new capabilities. You can view the article found in the World Equestrian Center’s Volume III 2020 issue.

Corro
For those of us who own dogs and cats, we are most likely familiar with the popular online store for pets: Chewy – well, think of Corro as your Chewy for horses. Designed to help you manage routine purchases and monthly deliveries – Corro takes the horse world by storm by offering a robust online platform that offers service and choice all with a click of the button. Their tagline: “One Source for All Things Horse” lures you in with the convenience of having products delivered to your stable door. The attention to detail and customer service is first-rate.   

Fillies & Colts
New on the horse tech scene – these are the ‘ones to watch’ and if this was a horse race, I might place my bet on a trifecta!

The Mounting Block 
A new app for helping you find horse vendors based on location from the creator of The Equestrian App. 

Pegasus App 
The countdown is on for the launch of this new app set to release on New Year’s Eve, recently featured on The Tech Equestrian – (view blog post here) this new app is designed solely to bring the community together to organize, share, trade and sell with one another. “The primary objective being that users will use Pegasus as their means of managing their entire equine life,” said Jen Tankel, CEO and co-founder. We can’t wait!

Bridl
Soon to be unveiled this exciting new portal will provide the first, transparent & easy digital equine trade market exclusively for sport horses.

New Year’s Excitement
Don’t miss next week’s post where we will look forward to some exciting new entries into the horse world and reflect on viewing some favorite pictures from this year’s reduced competition.