GO HorseData: digital monitoring of free-ranging horses to optimise breeding and training on extensive farms

GO HorseData is a supra-regional Operational Group developing an intelligent monitoring system based on RFID transponders attached to horses, to record and analyse the movements involved in managing animals in groups, optimise equine breeding and training processes and provide breeders with real-time alerts.

The project supports the sustainability and economic viability of extensive horse farms that would otherwise be doomed to disappear because they cannot invest without data or production predictability. It also drives improvements in handling techniques, creates multidisciplinary working environments between technological know-how and the management of free-ranging equids, and applies statistical analysis of the data set to give the equine value chain a competitive edge.

It addresses four major challenges facing the equestrian sector: increasing the productivity of horse farms across their different uses, building a solid, precision industry around the horse, guaranteeing animal welfare, and supporting decision-making and marketing.

This Operational Group received a grant for innovation projects of general interest by supra-regional operational groups of the European Innovation Partnership for agricultural productivity and sustainability (EIP-Agri), under the CAP Strategic Plan 2023-2027, financed 80 % by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and 20 % by the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. The total grant amounts to €524,048.63.