Technology monitors horse water intake

Adequate water intake is essential for equine health and performance, and horse owners can now monitor their animals’ drinking with the Hydrasure internet connected technology from an award-winning start-up company based in Co Wicklow.

Hydrasure recently won funding from Enterprise Ireland’s Competitive Start Fund, and it also one of 14 start-ups chosen to take part in the current AIB Start-up Academy competition.

The Academy prize is an eight-week business mentoring programme.

The first winner of the Academy, three years ago, was Fabien Peyaud, who founded the multi-award winning Herdwatch agri-app.

HydraSure products and services help horse owners ascertain what their animal’s normal water consumption is, and keeps them informed of any drinking abnormalities, on any mobile device, including SMS or email alerts.

A horse’s daily intake depends on climatic conditions, diet, reproductive status and workload, etc.

Hydrasure started in 2013, when Emer Cooney, a biologist and horse riding instructor from Co Wicklow, set out to design an improved drinking system for horses.

Her criteria were:

* Easier to empty and clean than existing models;

* Slightly larger, to offer horses a longer drink;

* Corner-mounted, to reduce risks of abuse from horses;

* Silent- filling;

* Designed to monitor water intake.

Along with Hydrasure drinking systems or standalone units, the company now also markets water monitoring units which can be retro-fiited to existing automated drinkers.

Automatic drinkers offer time and labour-saving benefits over buckets, but they typically do not allow users to review whether their horse has been drinking or not, how much they have been drinking, and how frequently.