Networked Wearable Sensors for Monitoring Health and Activities of an Equine Herd: An IoT Approach to Improve Horse Welfare
Authors: Morgan Miller, Richard Byfield, Marci Crosby, Jian Lin
Journal: IEEE Sensors Journal
Summary
# Editorial Summary: Networked Wearable Sensors for Equine Herd Monitoring Wearable sensor technology has matured considerably over the past decade, yet practical implementation across working herds remains hampered by connectivity and data integration challenges. Miller and colleagues addressed this gap by developing an IoT framework that simultaneously monitors heart rate, location, and movement patterns across multiple horses using integrated PPG sensors (achieving 95% accuracy), GPS tracking, and inertial measurement units. The networked system revealed that horses positioned near environmental stressors—including service roads, barn structures, and feeding facilities—displayed elevated resting heart rates and concentrated their time in these zones, suggesting environmental constraint rather than voluntary preference. For practitioners, these findings highlight how precision monitoring can quantify the often-overlooked physiological and behavioural costs of facility design and management practices; farriers and veterinarians might use such data to contextualise stress-related pathologies, whilst nutritionists and coaches could refine feeding schedules and training programmes based on baseline welfare indicators. The ability to correlate cardiovascular responses with spatial behaviour offers a genuinely holistic approach to identifying welfare concerns before they manifest as clinical problems.
Read the full abstract on the publisher's site
Practical Takeaways
- •Wearable sensor technology can identify which areas of your property are causing stress responses in horses—allowing you to modify facilities or management practices to improve welfare
- •Real-time heart rate and location data enables early detection of health issues and behavioral changes across the entire herd without intensive daily observation
- •Environmental design matters: data showing horses spend more time near stressors suggests facility placement (roads, feeding areas) should be reconsidered to minimize chronic stress exposure
Key Findings
- •Wearable IoT sensors achieved 95% accuracy in heart rate monitoring via photoplethysmography in horses
- •Horses near environmental stressors (service roads, barns, feeding stations) demonstrated elevated average heart rates and increased time spent in those areas
- •Networked wearable sensor systems can provide holistic data on health and behavioral correlations including heart rate and geographic movement patterns