iPhone Applications for the Sport Horse Industry
A few weeks ago, our favorite social media news blog, Mashable, wrote about Five Great iPhone Apps for Pet Owners. It was a fun post and we started to wonder what kind of apps are out there to support equine enthusiasts and sport horse professionals. Equine-oriented apps, it turns out, are a quickly growing segment of new applications for the iPhone or iPod Touch. In this feature post, we'll discuss a few of the currently offered applications, a few that are coming soon, and put out some ideas for apps that we think would be useful for the sport horse community.
Currently Available Applications
EquiApps.com
We chose to purchase EquiCalc ($.99 through the iTunes App Store), as we have been harboring a weight estimate for our VERY LARGE 4 y.o. gelding Fitch, but thought it would be interesting to see what the EquiCalc formula came up with. For supplements and medications, we always assume he's 1300 pounds.
Out at the barn, we measured Fitch's heartgirth and body length (the same way you measure for a blanket) and selected "Horse," as opposed to "Weanling" or "Yearling," on the EquiCalc screen. ("Behemoth" is not an available choice.) At 80" x 69", EquiCalc estimated Fitch's weight at 1380. While pleased that the calculation was so similar to our horseman's estimate, we were disappointed that the app does not have a way to save measurements for a single horse or for multiple horses.
We was also curious about EquiTempo ($1.99),with it's walk, trot and canter metronome settings that are adjustable in tempo. While we didn't give this one a try, the reviews for EquiTempo in the App Store are overall positive, with one rider questioning whether the digital metronome sound might be mistaken by some horses as a cluck. This could obviously be avoided by wearing ear buds, but we're aware that the use of headphones while riding is a contentious subject.
We also didn't try EquiList but the App Store reviews are fairly positive. The main suggestions from users are designations for discipline-specific lists and a process for saving custom list items.
With three applications currently available, EquiApps.com seems to be the segment leader in creating sport horse oriented apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It will be interesting to see what they come up with next...hopefully they'll take a look at our list of ideas below!
Upcoming Applications
EquestrianApps.com
Another company, EquestrianApps.com, offers two apps - TrailLogger and Dressage Tests. The Dressage Tests app was previously released on iTunes, but has been taken down to reversion and address reported bugs and errors. The upcoming release, currently awaiting Apple's approval, will also add Level 3 and Level 4 tests to the application. We think this could be a very useful application so stay tuned...I'll keep you posted on its release.
HorseGirlTV
Another upcoming iPhone App release is HorseGirlTV, a popular online series focusing on news and education for the equine industry. The HorseGirlTv app will deliver the website's content, including its popular "webisode" videos, to a user's iPhone and iPod Touch. For you fans of HorseGirlTV and its host Angelea, we'll put out an update when the HorseGirlTV app is available for download.
More Ideas for Apps
None of the equine iPhone apps currently available or in development addressed the things that we think would be really useful to have in a portable application:
USEF Rule Book Application
Does anyone get the 3 ring binder version of the rule book anymore??? Both USEF and USDF have done a great job of making their rule books available online, but wouldn't a rule book iPhone app be a great, portable resource for trainers, stewards, horse show managers, and judges?
Health Care Management Application
Whether it's one or more personal horses or, for trainers, managing herd health, keeping track of vaccinations and worming, supplements, and medications is time consuming and unwieldy. Could an iPhone app keep track of worming and vaccination calendars, medication dates and dosages, and even feed charts?
Show and Event Calendars Applications
Again, breed and discipline organizations could provide an iPhone app that calendars major events, deadlines, etc.
What do you think of these ideas? Do you have other ideas for equine oriented iPhone applications? Leave a commment here to let Dappled Grey know.
Posted May 3, 2009 | Comments (9) |
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Comments
Great post. Does your comment notification work?
Posted by Jeff on May. 03, 2009
Thanks so much for the review and feedback! We are already working on EquiEvents, EquiInfo and EquiTests which do deal with your ideas.
Our vision is to develop high quality apps for equestrians that are authentic and genuinely useful. The only way we will get there is listening and responding to posts like yours.
At the moment we're spending any spare time away from 'paying' contracts to develop these apps. As user support grows we will be able to spend more time responding with feature enhancements and new apps. We love the iTunes model that allows us to improve features within each app which are free to existing users. So, please do give our apps a try and let us know your thoughts, feedback and critiques.
Sincerely,
Tanya Heins
Posted by Tanya Heins on May. 06, 2009
Great post - good to see more equestrians take an interest emerging media and technology. I'm a rider and a technogeek myself and I tried to look for cool horse apps but hadn't found anything to date.
An app to help you get ready for shows (lists of things to pack/do), or an app that explains all the different show rules would be great.
Show event calendar and details would be brilliant, as well as real time results.
Posted by Liv on May. 08, 2009
Like your blog a lot!
Posted by Marti on May. 28, 2009
I think you should have a Appy-App.
A game where you can put your own spots on your appy!
Just for fun!
As a hunter judge I would like to see a Hunter score tally/tracker. and event show calendar would be helpful.
Follow me on twitter hunterjudge
Posted by Laura on Dec. 26, 2009
love the horse calendar app! could be searchable by zone, state, discipline, etc. as the organizer of the show calendar for our group of parents, riders and trainers I can tell you it would be appreciated!
Posted by diane on Feb. 01, 2010
I will switch (from Blackberry) to iPhone if all of these apps become available - and probably upgrade my iPod too(all the ideas I have seen posted above are of interest!).
Posted by cb on Feb. 02, 2010
Today EquiApps released a great Dressage test iphone app called EquiTests. Read the blog post here on Dappled Grey here:
http://www.dappledgrey.com/2010/02/-equitests-dressage-application-for-the-iphone.html
Posted by Jeff on Feb. 08, 2010
Just got my first IPod Touch and have been looking for something along the lines of your suggested Health Care Management. Great Idea. One I would like.... Away to keep track of items needed for certain events whether it is going to a show, trail ride, camping trip etc.
Thanks
Posted by Lindsay on Mar. 04, 2010
