Swedish horsetech Ridesum acquires UK AI-powered seat analysis app Blackdog to upscale riding training
Summary
For the horseback riding sector alone, based on the 2019 data, the economic value is estimated at £4.7 billion of consumer spending on goods and services each year in the UK. With the help of AI, we can give riders the feedback they need to improve their seat and increase the horse’s endurance.” Blackdog Biomechanics was started by Ilse Daly in 2018. As a Ph.D. student at the University of Bristol in the UK, she struggled to afford regular riding training and could feel her position and seat on her dressage horses, Ru and Teddy, slipping. After some trial and error, she developed a working system: the technology uses video analysis to identify and measure rider movement patterns. Features offered by Ridesum include the revolutionary AI-powered seat analysis service ‘AI Seat Analytics’, a diary to log and track all horse-related activities, GPS, digital live remote training, the world’s largest bank of trainers and experts, and Pocket Office for efficient horse-related business.