If you’re an equestrian, you know the importance of maintaining your horse’s health. An injury to a horse, whether it’s during a training run or leaping over a fence during a competition, spells disaster. Even the smallest injuries may go undetected because let’s face it, horses can’t tell us what’s wrong with them. French company Seaver has created a fully connected Girth that not only foresees potential injuries during training but also optimizes your horse’s conditioning.
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“Dedicated to those who want to take better care of their horse,” Paris-based Seaver has created the first wearable completely dedicated to equestrian sports. Here is a snapshot of the Seaver Girth’s features and benefits that monitor performance:
• Heart & Breathing Rate (follow horses fitness and training intensity)
• Balanced Dressage training with time spent on each gait (left and right analysis)
• Playback of your jumping path and strides
• Vertical and horizontal jump height to improve your fence approach
• Distance, average, and minimum speed, calories burned
• Long-term performance analysis after series of training sessions
As someone in the industry has experienced, conditioning of an equestrian horse is equally as important as training the rider. Most of the time, performance metrics are isolated to strides between gates and overall times. Seaver has designed smart equipment that gives riders, coaches, and trainers insight into performance and health metrics after every ride.
Whether it’s injury prevention or optimal performance, Seaver’s Girth uses a set of strategically placed sensors on nine axes. Armed with ECG and respiratory sensors, users can tap into Seaver’s iOS/Android companion app to experience live streaming of riding data and the horse’s vitals. From analyzing gallop-speed as it relates to your horse’s heartbeat to measuring peak calorie-burning times, Girth keeps a pulse on the well-being of your horse. Seaver’s entire mission is to safeguard your horse from overtraining and to identify health problems before they become serious.
The Seaver sensors, according to their website, “are capable of detecting anomalies in your horse’s condition, making it possible to immediately identify health problems and notifying the rider, who can then contact a Vet.”
With built-in technology capable of measuring your horse’s stress levels, Seaver has designed a high-tech wearable that gives riders, coaches, and trainers insight into key performance metrics. Easily downloadable to any smartphone, Seaver’s companion app allows for greater insight into heart rate viability, movement, and respiratory rate. You can then tailor your next training session after analyzing the results from previous riding sessions. “You can benchmark more precisely your horse’s condition and better prepare for the next competition.”
Available in eight different sizes, two colors, and made out of premium French leather, the first connected Girth is estimated to ship sometime in February of 2017. Riders have the choice of four different styles: Belly Guards, Anatomical Fit, Low Straps, and Low Straps with Belly Guard. Seaver’s Girth can be used across all horseback-riding disciplines whether it’s Polo or Dressage.
updated 24.10.18
So my Polar electrodes got broken, I managed to fix it for a while but it eventually gave up and my V800 watch just wasn’t picking them up anymore. So i thought I’ll get another set.. nope, Polar don’t do them anymore ?. I looked for an alternative and came across the Seaver girth. It looked amazing, if not a bit pricey, they do a cheaper sleeve version, but I thought I’d use my birthday money and treat myself. Well instructions are a bit thin, doesn’t tell you to turn your Bluetooth off after you’ve used it or you’ll completely drain the girth battery if in range. The first few rides the app crashed and all data lost ?. So moaned to Seaver, who tried to help. Instructions don’t tell you how to attach the electrode as I discovered my girth straps were pulling it off, which could have resulted in the crashes, or at least I hoped. I also made sure my WiFi was turned off, so as not to confused the, what is turning into a temperamental, app ?. Anyway, Seaver told me how to attach it and the next ride I had no problems, it all seemed to work yay ?. So Sam and I had our final Endurance Ride coming up and the girth packed ready for its first real test. Well it didn’t work properly ?, even though there was no reason for it not to. Something went wrong with the heartrate graph, so not sure I can trust the stats (see pics), his trot symmetry is very good 50/50, but is it correct as the average speed and distance is wrong, it might have just about got my maximum speed nearly right (polar stats for comparison). Now I did two loops, the 46km loop did register but my second 36km loop did not and all data was lost ? AGAIN ???.
I have sent these results to Seaver and they are working on my issues to find out why I’m having so many problems. They have sent me a replacement electrode as the first one got damaged when my girth straps pulled it off, which was nice of them, although wouldn’t have happened if they told you how to put them on properly ?.
I really hope they find out what is wrong, personally I think there must be something wrong with the app, or it’ll have to go back as at the moment it it just a very very expensive girth. It has the potential to be a fantastic training tool, what would make it better, apart from it actually working ?,would be for it to incorporate maps, it uses GPS, so why no map? I did know this, but as I’ve got my Polar v800 it wasn’t a dealbreaker, seems like a wasted opportunity to make the product better. Perhaps that’s in the pipeline as it is a new product and as such I expect some teething problems, but I do expect it to work ?.
Update 24th Oct 2018 – well things are no better since the app update, in fact worse if anything, the app just freezes if I go into previous sessions then chucks me out. Told Seaver about this.
Also I did a short session in the school with a few small jumps, went over them about 10 times and the app only detected 2 ?. Which is funny as on one of my previous training sessions it detected that I’d jumped when I didn’t ?. . I did question the fact that the speed and distance was wrong, that’s apparently my phones fault ?. Anyway I was still willing to give it one last chance before I threw in the towel, so went to charge the girth up the day before in preparation.. guess what, it wouldn’t charge, i tried the charger on both sides, then I videoed it to sent to Seaver, who advised me that I was doing it the wrong way around, i had tried it the other way so I was not to be swayed, I want a full refund.
Oh no, not as easy as that despite the fact that I have complained since receiving it, two weeks later than it should have been, that it hasn’t worked. I get this response ….
Sarah, you are in your 30 days trial so a refund is possible. The refund is based on your product condition (if its really clean, a full refund is possible).
Can we ask you what did you dislike about your Seaver girth ? We did learn a lot thanks to you because you’re the endurance rider with the most long distance training. Now that me know that we adapted our algorithm to this kind of long training.
You can send back the product to our offices :
SEAVER
77 rue d’Aboukir
75002 PARIS
I am astounded at this response as I’ve asked for a refund throughout the time I’ve had the girth due to it just not working, but seaver encouraged me to keep using it! Which obviously will affect its condition. Not only are they saying I will not get a full refund, unless it’s clean, so basically I take that to mean brand new, but I am to return the girth at my own expense when I was effectively missold the product as it is just not designed for endurance, despite endurance racing being listed within its disciplines. They have themselves said that they have changed their algorithms from my training as I did the longest training sessions (that’s when the girth actually worked), so as I said I bought this product expecting it to work for my discipline, not to be the guinea pig that paid £500 for the privilege.
I responded to Seaver regarding my refund and have yet to have had a response, despite the fact they have seen and read my message.
updated 24.10.18
So my Polar electrodes got broken, I managed to fix it for a while but it eventually gave up and my V800 watch just wasn’t picking them up anymore. So i thought I’ll get another set.. nope, Polar don’t do them anymore ?. I look