AI Meets Horsemanship: Equestic Introduces EQ Coach-Copilot at The Dutch Masters
At a sport where feel, timing and partnership remain the foundation, technology is increasingly shaping how riders and coaches refine their craft. During this year’s The Dutch Masters in ’s-Hertogenbosch, Dutch equestrian technology company Equestic, officially unveiled EQ Coach-Copilot, an AI-supported training platform designed to capture coaching sessions, structure the information, and bring those insights back to riders when they train on their own.
In equestrian sport, a lesson is often dense with instruction. Riders must balance, control their horse, interpret the coach’s feedback and execute movements, all at the same time. It is hardly surprising that key points can fade once the session ends. That gap between lessons is precisely where Equestic believes technology can make a difference.
Leon Rutten, founder and CEO of Equestic, believes that gap between lessons is where technology can genuinely support training. “EQ Coach-Copilot represents a shift from reactive coaching to intentional, data-supported training,” said Rutten. “It marks the next step in our vision where technology helps give horses a voice and supports teaching, learning and performance in the era of AI.”
EQ Coach-Copilot records the coach’s voice during a lesson, converts it into a structured summary and links the guidance to objective motion data collected through the company’s well-known EQ Saddle-Clip sensor. The result is a digital record of the training session that riders can revisit when working independently. Over time, it also allows coaches to track patterns in training, monitor progress and maintain visibility into what happens between lessons.
The announcement also featured prominently during the FEI Dressage World Cup™ prize-giving ceremony at the Brabanthallen arena. As part of the celebration, the winners were presented with the EQ Saddle-Clip together with access to the new Coach-Copilot platform, a symbolic gesture linking elite performance with the next generation of training tools.
“We are proudly celebrating the FEI Dressage World Cup™ winners by awarding the well-known Saddle-Clip and the newly launched EQ Coach-Copilot — the best bundle for high performance and horse care,” said Rutten.
Nuno Avelar, World Champion and FEI trainer in dressage and working equitation, highlighted the importance of continuity in training. “As a coach working with riders and horses in many countries, having a lesson summary available is extremely useful,” he said. “No rider can remember every word after a training session, so tools like this help riders keep progressing between lessons.”
A similar perspective comes from Lendon Gray, Olympic dressage rider and founder of Dressage4Kids, who sees the system as a practical extension of the “homework” that riders often receive at the end of a lesson. “If you’re not keeping some sort of record of your lessons, you’re missing opportunities to improve,” she noted, adding that structured summaries can help riders revisit important training points long after the lesson has finished.
Dutch international dressage rider and KNHS Technical Manager Laurens van Lieren has already tested the system with students and was impressed by how quickly the lesson summary becomes available. “The summary appeared almost immediately after the lesson,” he said. “For riders it’s a helpful way to review what we worked on, and for coaches it makes it easier to track progress over time.”
The launch of the platform coincided with a broader discussion about innovation in equestrian sport during the panel forum “The Future of Coaching”, where leading coaches reflected on how digital tools may support — but not replace — traditional horsemanship. Many agreed that while the relationship between horse and rider remains central, technology can help coaches communicate more effectively and help riders retain crucial feedback.
Among the speakers were Di Lampard, Chef d’Équipe of the British jumping team; Wout-Jan van der Schans, national coach of the Dutch show jumping team; and François Mathy Jr., technical advisor to the Spanish jumping team and chairman of the International Jumping Riders Club. The discussion highlighted both the opportunities and the questions that accompany the growing role of artificial intelligence in equestrian training.
Klaus Roeser, Chairman of the German Dressage Committee, Chef d’Équipe of the German Dressage Team and Secretary General of the International Dressage Riders Club, described the topic as both fascinating and important for the future development of the sport. “It is a fascinating and highly relevant subject,” Roeser noted.
This moment reflects a broader shift in modern equestrian sport and coaching with the main goal not to replace coaches, but to support their expertise with tools that help riders retain guidance, train more effectively between lessons and make better decisions for their horses.
A First-of-Its-Kind Training Platform
EQ Coach-Copilot builds on seven years of real-world experience from the EQ Saddle-Clip, which has collected motion data from over 400,000 rides and horses worldwide. The platform transforms lessons into structured training units while protecting intellectual property — voice-captured content access is controlled jointly by coach and rider.
Designed as human-centered technology, EQ Coach-Copilot complements the coach’s expertise, enabling scalable, highly personalized coaching and new business opportunities such as remote training. EQ Coach-Copilot available worldwide and free to download now from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
For more information visit www.equestic.com
