HAPPIE HORSE APP: Management and Health Care Reimagined

Hamburg, Germany
What do you call a barn management app, a tracking app plus a digital health app – all in one solution? If you guessed a ‘super-app’ you are correct. As horse tech evolves, we will start to see more of this concept that combines the best features across multiple apps/online solutions into one app to offer a one-stop shop alternative to having a variety of apps on your phone. We had the chance to find out the story behind this exciting entry and refresh from David Harder, Founder & CEO of Happie Horse app (formerly known as HorseAnalytics)

The Super App Concept
The Happie Horse app aims to cover every need of a horse owner and includes multiple stable management, health care, training and education aspects. The following features make every horse owner’s life less complicated:

Calendar & To-Do-List
Digital Health Record
Pasture Management
Training and Feeding Plan
Gait Analysis & GPS Tracking
Academy & Blog
Horse Sharing
Push Notifications

“Our app is about to become the first super-app for horse owners.”

— David Harder, Founder & CEO of Happie Horse app

Rebranding to Encompass More
Until 2020, HorseAnalytic’s (original brand name) purpose was to track and analyze riding and training data. “We quickly realized that we wanted to represent so much more than analytics. After adding new features, the DNA of our application changed so much that we no longer found the name suitable. At the end of the day, our app is all about making owners and their horses happy,” shared David.

A comprehensive digital health record at your fingertips.

Expanding into a New Market
Another reason for the rebranding is their vision is not only to work with horses but expand into the entire companion animal market. “In the future, HappieAnimals will allow our users to manage all aspects of their animals’ life, including personalized telemedicine and insurance products - including for dogs,” said David.

Luckily, younger generations are relying on technology more than ever, and are starting to integrate technology into their equestrian lives. “Sharing your horse, assigning to-do´s as well as tracking and analyzing rides is now becoming especially popular in Germany,” reported David. Even though it will take quite some time for the equestrian world to truly immerse themselves into technology, the process has now slowly begun.

Europe vs US Horse Tech Adoption
“The only significant difference between the European and the US market is the amount of iOS users, which is higher in the US.” As a horse tech provider, Happie app provides gait analysis through algorithms and the standardized sensor technology of all iOS mobile phones makes it easier to build movement patterns the app.

Feeding and Training App Features
According to David, he and his team have implemented a highly requested feeding and training plan feature into the app and are now working on AI recommendations based on health, training and feeding data. “Imagine that we can soon recognize health anomalies of your animal via symptoms, health values and other data before you even notice.”

Furthermore, we are regularly uploading new videos into our academy and adding gamification features in the next weeks to ensure knowledge about horse care and well-being.”

Compared to Competitors
“There are a number of apps in the market, but because of our robust platform, we stand out,” said David. “We are a freemium app and offer key features of other apps in the market, such as management, educational content, and tracking, and you get Happie - one super-app for only $29.99 - $59.99 yearly. In Germany we will soon be adding a symptom checker, a telemedicine service and an insurance offering as a pilot to our premium users, expanding market coverage even further. For our stable customers, we will be adding an employee plan in 2023,” shared David.

Additional features of the Happie app include:

Digital Health Record: Owners can stay informed about their horse's health by entering the TPR values, weight, symptoms, medications and diseases.
Calendar & To-Do-List: A feature to keep track of any appointments and tasks, be it the vet, training, farrier or daily tasks such as mucking out and cleaning tack.
Pasture Management: Manage horse’s grazing periods and always watch out for the fructan risk at your horse’s location.
Training Plan: Enables users to create a detailed training plan and to always have an overview with the training journal.
Feeding Plan: Tracking mealtimes, feed, snacks and treats makes maintaining a horse’s health and performance much easier.
Gait Analysis & GPS Tracking: Gaits are trackable via an AI gaits analysis and GPS feature, giving riders the opportunity to analyze their work, trace their routes and diversify training sessions.
Academy & Blog: The Academy offers inspiration with over 250+ riding exercises with videos and educates on different health related topics, complemented with interesting blog articles.
Sharing & Push notifications: gives you and your team a daily update

Horse Tech Industry Changes
“I believe that after 5 years, we are still talking about a first mover market situation. The equestrian world is historically old-fashioned, as most stables still use whiteboards and sticky notes to manage their horses. In comparison humans, dogs and even cows are more digitized.” David is optimistic, “It is a question of when and not if horses are following, and when that time comes, we will be ready.”