Bringing a horse to water and checking his drinking

Emer Cooney is an environmental biologist with an Msc in Biodiversity and Conservation. She is also an experienced horsewoman and qualified riding instructor and has spent almost 20 years working in the equine industry in Ireland, New Zealand, and the Caribbean. Two years ago, Cooney decided to combine her interest in science with her passion for horses to develop Hydrasure, a new drinking system that tracks and records equine water consumption.

“Horse-owners, vets and trainers need to know that their horses are drinking adequate amounts of water, for health and performance reasons. But existing drinking systems don’t track water consumption,” Cooney says.

“Hydrasure measures consumption and transfers the information gathered to the cloud where it is processed by a web-based software analytics service suited to the user’s requirements,” Cooney adds.

Users then receive alerts to their phone (or other mobile device) if their horses do not drink within a certain time period or if a leak develops in a drinking system.

“Reduced water intake can impair digestion in horses and lead to impaction colic – the third single cause of equine mortality worldwide,” Cooney says. “Not drinking enough can also have an impact on performance – as little as a 2 per cent drop can make a difference – and altered drinking behaviour can be symptomatic of a range of illnesses, including Cushing’s disease and kidney disorders.”

Old-fashioned bucket

Cooney says horse-owners tend to split into two camps when it comes to watering their animals. Some rely on the old-fashioned bucket. Others use automatic drinking systems – but Cooney says they can be difficult to clean.

“In addition to the monitoring system, we have also developed a new drinker with the monitoring unit built in,” she says. “It addresses the design shortcomings of existing systems and makes them easier to clean and more inviting for horses – who like clean water – to drink from.”

Cooney started working on her idea two years ago and in addition to a huge amount of time, she has also spent about €40,000 getting Hydrasure from concept to prototype. Several units are currently in beta testing and Cooney says her product will be of value to all sectors of the equine community – from private horse owners, to the racing industry, to those who use horses as working animals.

Financial support

The project has received financial support from the Wicklow LEO (Local Enterprise Office) and LEADER funding from the Co Wicklow partnership. Enterprise Ireland also provided Cooney with mentor

Andrew Parish

, who helped her thrash out key issues such as potential revenue models. The cost of the device has not yet been finalised as the product won’t officially launch until the spring.

Hydrasure won the best start-up award in the animal health category at the 2015 Ploughing Championships and Cooney credits Sean McNulty of innovation consultancy Dolmen with helping her achieve this success.

“I had no training or experience in product development but Sean was assigned to me by the Wicklow LEO as a product development mentor and has been an invaluable source of advice,” she says.

Cooney is still ironing out details such as who will make the product for her and how it will be distributed, but Ireland and the UK are her initial target markets, with Europe, the US, Middle East and Australia to follow. The company is currently looking for investment to accelerate its product roll-out.

“We have no direct competitors in the marketplace, and really want to maximise our first-mover advantage,” Cooney says. “Some manufacturers of automatic drinking systems have developed basic water monitoring devices as accessories but none facilitate the storage of drinking data, remote access to this information and user alerts – all of which are central to the Hydrasure product.”

– OLIVE KEOGH