Sarah Ridd Veterinary Therapist

Use of robots and AI in equine business!

OMG!! The horse world has its own version of a robot grader, it make sense as I have a robotic hoover and mop all in one 🦿🧹
With AI now available soon to everyone to monitor your horses welfare in their stable and even their paddocks 🤖⛑️. You may laugh but yes AI to monitor your horses facial pain grimace pain 😰 scores and movement patterns - to indicate possible colic as an example. It’s already been rolled out at some equine hospitals even in the southeast of England 🏥. You may ask how can AI possibly monitor your horses facial pain and movement patterns - well it started with a need to improve the animal welfare in the meat industry. Do you think in the next 10yrs when you’re looking for a yard you won’t be looking for British Horse Society approved. But instead AI monitoring to ensure early indicators are picked up when staff knowledge is not consistent, noticing small signs that something is wrong with your horse. A simple notification to the stable manager will alert them to check on a horse, as the AI over the a period of a week has noticed a pattern of behaviour of reduced feeding, box walking and rolling. I think there is never replacement for human experience, though reducing human biases and pattern recognition can surely have a positive impact on our horses welfare.