Tech & Innovation: Wearable Biometric Sensors, Racing’s Frontline in Injury Prevention

Horse racing has always confronted an uncomfortable reality: horses are athletes asked to perform at the limits of their physical capability, and injury is an inevitable consequence of that demand. In recent years, the industry’s response has shifted from accepting injury as inevitable toward treating it as a problem to be anticipated, detected early and, in some cases, prevented. The principal tool in that effort is wearable biometric sensor technology, a field that in 2025 and 2026 has reached a critical mass of research, commercial development and regulatory interest.

The AAEP Research Programme

In March 2025, the American Association of Equine Practitioners announced that funding had been secured for a year-long biometric sensor research project, the most significant coordinated study of equine wearable technology in the sport’s history. Ten Thoroughbred industry organisations contributed a total of $785,000, including the New York Racing Association (NYRA), New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, Fasig-Tipton, Keeneland and the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association.

Six sensor manufacturers were selected to participate in the study, each collecting data from a cohort of 100 two-year-old Thoroughbreds fitted with their sensor during training workouts. The manufacturers include Arioneo, Alogo Analysis, Equibase/Stable Analytics, Equimetrics, Garmin (as part of their recently launched Blaze Equine Wellness System) and StrideSafe. The study runs until 31 December 2025, with results expected to influence regulatory and industry practice through 2026 and beyond.

The core research question is straightforward in its formulation and enormously complex in its execution: can wearable sensors detect early signs of musculoskeletal injury before a horse shows clinical symptoms that would be visible to trainers or veterinarians? NYRA’s vice president of operations Glen Kozak framed the objective clearly: “NYRA has embraced a variety of technologies and AI-driven solutions to support safe training and racing. The research being undertaken by the AAEP will expand our understanding of this evolving technology and help to prevent injuries before they occur.”

What Sensors Measure

Current equine wearable technology is typically characterised by small sensors mounted on the saddle, girth, leg or bridle. These capture various biometric and motion parameters:

Heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV): Cardiac data collected during exercise provides a window into a horse’s fitness level, workload effort and stress. A horse’s heart rate during a race typically peaks at 180 – 210 beats per minute (normal resting rate is 28 – 40 bpm). Heart rate variability, the variation in time between beats, is an emerging indicator of autonomic nervous system response and an early warning for physiological stress.

Stride symmetry and ground contact time: Motion sensors identify whether a horse is moving with even, symmetrical gait or whether there is asymmetry suggesting discomfort, lameness onset or compensatory patterns. According to Dr Sara Langsam, lead researcher on the AAEP project, “every horse has a distinct, patterned way of travelling. When the horse deviates from their movement ‘footprint,’ biometric tracking will detect even the slightest changes”, potentially flagging issues before they progress to injury.

GPS positioning and speed: Satellite tracking provides position data accurate to within centimetres at modern standards, allowing calculation of speed, distance, pace variation and racing line. At tracks like Meydan in Dubai, GPS data is streamed live during races and used to generate real-time graphics for broadcast and betting analysis.

Thermal imaging: Some advanced systems use thermal sensors to identify localised heat signatures that may indicate inflammation, a precursor to many musculoskeletal conditions.

Garmin Enters the Equine Market

One of the more significant commercial developments in equine technology in 2025 was Garmin’s launch of the Blaze Equine Wellness System, which became publicly available on 27 August 2025. Garmin, already well established in sports and fitness wearables for humans, and in aviation, marine and automotive systems, brought its data analytics infrastructure to the horse.

The Garmin system, which uses sensors on the underside of the tail (a naturally hairless area requiring no preparation), captures heart rate, locomotion and movement data and transmits it to a companion app. The choice of tail placement is a practical innovation; earlier equine wearables frequently suffered from placement challenges and data reliability issues related to movement of sensors during high-speed work.

Garmin’s entry into the market validates the commercial opportunity being created by the convergence of equine welfare requirements and data technology capability. As one equine technology analyst observed, the company’s presence signals that equine wearables are no longer a niche research tool, they are a commercial product category with broad industry application.

Industry Adoption Rates

The Plaid Horse Magazine’s February 2026 overview of equine wearable technology confirmed that adoption among high-end training yards has accelerated significantly: industry estimates suggest more than 40% of premium race stud operations in Europe and Australia now record some form of biometric monitoring during training, a figure that has doubled in fewer than five years.

The practical benefits for trainers are tangible. Rather than basing conditioning programmes on visual assessment or tradition, data allows quantifiable recovery rates to drive decision-making. As the Plaid Horse noted: “There is preliminary evidence that horses trained with biometric feedback are more consistent and less likely to miss training days.”

The Regulatory Horizon

The critical next step, which the AAEP research is designed to address, is moving biometric data from a training tool to a regulatory intervention mechanism. Currently, wearable data can flag concerns to trainers but cannot compel withdrawal of a horse from racing or training. That would require validation that sensor readings reliably predict injury risk in a clinical, regulatory sense.

Professor Chris Whitton of the University of Melbourne, who has studied equine injury prevention for over a decade through the StrideMASTER GPS system in Tasmania, notes that research has “identified that monitoring speed and stride characteristics over time may have potential but there is a way to go before it is a practical system that regulators can use.” The AAEP’s 2025 study aims to narrow that gap significantly.

If the research validates the technology’s predictive capability, the implications for racing safety could be profound. A system that could identify which horses face elevated injury risk and intervene before catastrophic failure would represent the sport’s most significant welfare advance in generations.