E E Fernald’s scientific contributions

The goal of this survey was to identify a relationship between an individual's role in the equine community (owner, trainer, caretaker, casual rider, and competitive rider) and their attitude about the use of technology in the collection and application of biometric health data and the maintenance of records of the horse's health data. An advertisement for the online survey was placed through Facebook for 24 hours, targeting likely respondents in the United States. The survey questions sought to determine whether community members collected health data independently. The survey also included questions regarding a community member's attitude about the use of technology, asking for an indication of if they would use technology to monitor health data or maintain health data records. In order to gauge whether or not respondents had a reason to collect such data, the survey also asked if there had been a medical incident in the last year that required monitoring heart rate, temperature, or respiratory rate. Respondents (n = 74) frequently identified with multiple roles, with some combinations like competitive riders and owners being common. The results showed that there was indeed a relationship between an individual's role in the equine community and their attitude of health data collection. In particular, a Chi-square test of the survey results showed dependence between a willingness to use technology to monitor horse biometrics and identifying as either a competitive rider (Chi 2 = 10.334, d.f. = 4, p < 0.05) or a horse owner (Chi 2 = 12.081, d.f. = 4, p < 0.05). No other demographic groups showed such dependence. The results also showed a dependence between a likeliness to collect biometric data for training and care purposes outside of veterinary visits and identifying as a competitive rider did (Chi 2 = 10.597, d.f. = 3, p < 0.05). Interestingly, no such dependence was shown with identifying as a horse owner. Analysis of the health monitoring questions found that most respondents were not likely to monitor heart rate (5.4%), respiratory (6.8%) or temperature (10.8%) absent a medical reason to do so. This may be because respondents were not aware of links between performance and biometric data. The results also showed that approximately two-thirds of respondents (50 out of 74, 67.6%) would likely use technology for care and training. The data suggest that while individuals might not be currently maintaining health records, with the introduction of technology, they might be willing to start. Lay person message: Biometric technology is used by human athletes, coaches, and trainers to improve performance and reduce the risk of injury, but the use of such technology in horses is still fairly uncommon. This research investigates attitudes of members of the equine community (from casual and competitive riders to owners and trainers) about equine biometric data collection. Most people were willing to use technology if it was available, particularly those identifying as competitive riders or owners.