New Zealand equine safety initiative targets earlier injury-risk detection

A key New Zealand equine safety project is developing a racehorse safety system that links development, training and veterinary records with wearable-sensor data and blood research to help identify bone damage before serious injury occurs.

Drawing on expertise from Massey University and Colorado State University, the New Zealand Equine Safety Initiative (NZESI) is taking shape as an independent not-for-profit organisation governed by a board.

NZESI said it was compiling training and clinical records, collecting growth data from young horses and testing Equimetrics wearable sensors on horses in training, including two-year-olds. Blood-biomarker research is also underway.

New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing (NZTR) has funded research underpinning the initiative and welcomed its launch.

“Improving horse safety starts with better understanding the factors that contribute to injury and how we can identify them earlier,” NZTR general manager welfare and industry capability Sam Fursdon said.

Professors Wayne McIlwraith, Chris Rogers and Chris Kawcak conceived the initiative, drawing on work covering orthopaedics in horses, development in early life and injury prevention.

The research will bring together information now held separately by breeders, trainers, veterinarians and racing authorities to create an individual record for each participating horse.

Researchers will assess how movement, workload, clinical history and other measures relate to bone health and injury.

“Catastrophic injury is rarely as sudden as it appears,” said Kawcak, of Colorado State University. “The final failure may happen in one stride, but the underlying bone damage can develop over many months.”

During fast work, the Equimetrics sensors record gait and cardiac data while tracking subtle movement changes. The system uploads data to the cloud for deeper analysis using artificial intelligence, with the potential to provide an early-warning screening tool.

Metabolomics is being used in blood research to detect changes in bone health before clinical signs emerge. Researchers are also assessing whether it could serve as a practical monthly screening tool for horses in work.

An earlier Colorado State University study classified horses as injured or uninjured with 73.8 per cent accuracy in 130 two-and three-year-old thoroughbreds, using biomarkers collected before injury. NZESI said the study identified risk up to six months ahead, but assay costs made routine screening impractical.

“We can detect those changes in a research setting. This programme is about making that knowledge practical and affordable enough to use routinely with horses in work,” Kawcak said.

Another project is a standing CT system; its final prototype is expected to be completed by the end of 2026. It is intended to image bone while the horse bears weight and without general anaesthesia. The CT project still requires funding.

The eventual plan is for an Equine Safety Centre to combine the central research database and these screening technologies with ongoing monitoring and preventative screening.

Researchers will also study paddock size and stocking density as part of the early-development work.

NZESI said activity in a horse’s first six months affects musculoskeletal development and its later response to race training, and that the findings are intended to guide breeders.

“New Zealand is big enough to produce robust data and small enough to connect it,” said Rogers, of Massey University.

NZTR says it already maintains a Racing Incident Database with Harness Racing New Zealand, dating from August 2014. It records race-day injuries, fatalities and pre- and post-race inspections with the cooperation of Racing Integrity Board veterinarians.

The NZESI lifecycle approach extends into retirement and includes post-mortem research and independent mortality review where a fatality occurs. NZTR’s Beyond the Track platform also gathers aftercare and rehoming information.

Racing authorities from other countries and research collaborators will be asked to share expertise and take part in building an interconnected system.

Related Australian research has examined osteocalcin, a blood marker associated with bone formation and repair. As previously reported by *The Straight*, studies involving 96 racehorses and a separate field population of 1359 thoroughbreds linked the marker with lameness and bone-scan abnormalities, but did not establish it as a diagnostic or predictive injury test.

TeleMedVET is trialling a rapid trackside osteocalcin test to make repeated sampling practical. That work is distinct from NZESI’s metabolomics research, although both are exploring whether blood measurements can help identify horses needing closer veterinary assessment.