By MARLEY LIEN-GONZALEZ
The globally leading wearable technology company Garmin has recently announced its launch into the equine world with a new product line, the Garmin Blaze Equine Wellness System. The cutting-edge innovation comes as a large equine research study focuses on the power of biometric sensors in early injury detection.
Biometric Sensors for a Better Horse World
Following the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) led veterinary summit in March 2025, USEF published a white paper in July titled Optimizing Equine Health: Best Practices for Prioritizing Well-being in Horses in International Competition. In it, they summarize the Federation’s latest stance on wearable technology, specifically, biometric sensors.
An extraordinary rule change that was originally proposed in December 2024 has been approved and effective since April 2025, permitting biometric sensors “to be worn by horses and humans on the field of play” (GR 801.6 ) provided that the device is minimal in design so not to hinder or enhance performance in any way, and that the device or information gathered by the device is not accessible to the competitor in the field of play.
The stated intent is to “provide valuable safety and health information[…] to promote safety and wellness” for both humans and horses. In their white paper, USEF shares, “Biometric devices are currently being used extensively in horse racing around the world to measure and compare training techniques, as well as evaluate gait analysis for irregularities or minor lameness. The goal is to identify horses at risk for catastrophic failure and possibly provide an opportunity for intervention.”
This rule applies across all disciplines under USEF, which says, “Wearable technology is being utilized to assess horses as they travel by land or air, and this technology could be further expanded to all levels of competitive horses, as every horse could benefit.”
Concurrently, the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) announced on March 31, 2025, that they were underway with a year-long research study to “determine the effectiveness of sensors in injury detection.” Six sensor manufacturers participated by contributing sensor-collected data to the AAEP’s project analyst, among them, Garmin.
In 2024, Grayson-Jockey Club, a sponsor of the AAEP’s study, held a scientific presentation called Equine Wearable Biometric Sensors: The Next Phase in Early Injury Detection, where speaker Sara Langsam, DMV, (Chair of AAEP’s Racing Committee and
member of AAEP’s Board of Directors) described how the new technology would measure changes in gait by concentrating on musculoskeletal parameters.
According to Dr. Langsam and the ongoing research, every horse has a distinct, patterned way of traveling. When the horse deviates from their movement “footprint,” biometric tracking will detect even the slightest changes and notify owners and trainers that further evaluations need to be made–potentially changing everything we know about lameness, and how injuries occur and progress.
TPH Visits Garmin HQ
This summer, TPH Publisher Piper Klemm visited the Garmin U.S. Headquarters in Kansas on a press trip to learn about the launch of the Garmin Blaze Equine Wellness System, which became publicly available on August 27, 2025.
Already well established in many sports and fitness, Garmin has a range of products and smartwatches designed for automotive, aviation, marine, and outdoor recreation. Their expansion into the equine industry brings advanced data and technology to horse owners and trainers, helping to stay at the peak of equine well-being and performance.
During the media event, Garmin invited guests to join hands-on demonstrations and a live exhibition where the Blaze system, a removable equine tail sensor and adjustable tail wrap, tracked the data and measured the physiological response from a horse as it completed a jumping course.
The sensor is compatible with any Garmin Smartwatch, iPhone, or Android through the Blaze App. From there, users can track their horse’s activity, heart rate, heart rate zones, skin temperature, gait, speed, strides, and more. The technology logs time, weather, location, activity type, and gives threshold alerts when it detects no heart rate, an elevated heart rate, a change in skin temperature, severe heat score, and other advisories.
Why Assume When You Can Know
Heart rate monitoring is already an established practice in the equine realm due to existing research that measuring cardiac parameters in horses is a benchmark practice for assessing fitness, cardiovascular performance, and stress levels.
The figure of heart rate, beats per minute, or BPM, can give an indication of a horse’s workload effort during an activity, which helps in creating effective and informed physical conditioning programs. Over the course of time, recorded heart rate data can evaluate the progressive increase or decrease of a horse’s athletic capacity (Freeman, David W, et al., 2003).
The early detection of certain injuries or cardiovascular issues that may lead to failure is also possible with heart rate monitoring. Sharp increases in heart rate during exercise can occur when a horse experiences sudden pain, even if they don’t display physical signs right away. Spikes can also indicate heightened stress levels.
Knowing a horse’s heart rate, especially monitoring it during activity, can help owners and trainers address an injury immediately before it worsens with the continuation of activity, and avoid repeatedly burdening horses that show a reaction to certain stressors. Abnormalities in the heartbeat, like a murmur, can suggest that further veterinary investigation is necessary. While cardiac-related deaths account for about 55% of sudden athletic deaths in Thoroughbred racehorses, there are less frequent but equally devastating cases in show jumping equine athletes as well.
The collective data from the Garmin Blaze Equine Wellness System and similar technologies will give horse owners, riders, and caretakers the most comprehensive, accurate view of a horse’s physical state in the palm of their hands. Across the industry, these statistics and the resulting research could positively influence how we approach horse veterinary care, bring higher ethical standards to the sport, and add longevity to the lives and competitive careers of horses not only in racing or show jumping, but everywhere.
