Networked Wearable Sensors for Monitoring Health and Activities of An Equine Herd: An IoT Approach to Improve Horse Welfare
Authors: Miller Morgan, Byfield Richard, Crosby Marci, Lin Jian
Summary
# Editorial Summary: Networked Wearable Sensors for Monitoring Health and Activities of An Equine Herd Wearable sensor technology has matured considerably over the past decade, yet practical deployment across multiple horses remains hampered by networking and communication challenges that limit real-time data integration at herd level. Morgan and colleagues addressed this gap by developing an integrated wearable device combining photoplethysmography (achieving 95% accuracy for heart rate measurement) with GPS location tracking, 3-axis accelerometry, and gyroscopic motion detection—enabling simultaneous monitoring of cardiovascular, spatial, and kinetic parameters across an entire herd via an Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure. Their networked system represents a significant technical advance in equine monitoring, designed specifically for horses rather than adapted from other species, and facilitates long-range wireless communication with sufficient computational capacity to apply machine learning analysis to collective health and behavioural datasets. The ability to correlate individual vital signs and movement patterns with herd-level dynamics offers professionals—from veterinarians assessing disease transmission and stress responses, to farriers and physiotherapists evaluating locomotor symmetry and activity patterns—unprecedented insight into how health status and behavioural changes manifest differently in group versus solitary settings. This precision agriculture approach opens practical pathways for early detection of subclinical illness, identification of social dynamics affecting welfare, and evidence-based intervention protocols grounded in objective biometric data rather than visual observation alone.
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Practical Takeaways
- •Real-time herd monitoring technology is now feasible for detecting changes in heart rate, movement patterns, and location that may indicate health or welfare issues before clinical signs appear
- •Wearable sensor networks can identify behavioural changes across multiple horses simultaneously, useful for early detection of lameness, colic, or social stress
- •Implementation of precision monitoring systems allows data-driven management decisions for large operations, though practical constraints around device attachment and battery life remain to be addressed in field conditions
Key Findings
- •A networked wearable sensor system was developed featuring PPG heart rate monitoring with 95% accuracy, GPS location tracking, and 3-axis accelerometer/gyroscope motion detection
- •An IoT network successfully interconnected multiple wearable sensors across an equine herd for long-range communication and high-speed computation
- •The system enables collective health and behavioural monitoring of horses in herd settings, allowing comparison with individual horse data