Garmin Made a Heart Rate Monitor for Horses — Meet Blaze
Garmin's first equine product doesn't go on a wrist. A sensor in a neoprene wrap sits under the horse's tail, tracking heart rate, gait and recovery — and streams it live to the Garmin watch you're already wearing.
Garmin can track your horse's heartbeat too
Garmin has moved into the equine market, and the product is called the Blaze Equine Wellness System. It costs $599.99 and it is genuinely one of the more interesting things the company has built.
It doesn't go on a wrist — it goes under the tail
The sensor sits inside a durable, washable neoprene wrap with adjustable hook-and-loop straps, which secures to the underside of the horse's tail.
That placement isn't a gimmick, it's the whole engineering problem solved. Optical heart rate needs consistent contact with bare skin, and a horse is covered in hair. Under the tail you get clean skin contact naturally — no shaving and no conductive gel, which is what traditional equine heart rate systems have always demanded. That alone is why this is a product rather than a science experiment.
What it measures
- Heart rate and time spent in heart rate zones
- Recovery rate — how quickly the horse's heart rate settles after work, one of the best fitness indicators in equine sport
- Strides and gait, plus speed and distance
- Skin temperature, tracked as average changes tied to activity, environment or illness
- Heat score — combines temperature and humidity into guidance on how safe it actually is to ride right now
It's broadly the Body Battery and recovery philosophy Garmin built for humans, pointed at an animal that can't tell you it's struggling.
The part I like most
Blaze ships with a Connect IQ app. That means you can see your horse's live heart rate on the Garmin watch already on your own wrist while you're riding — not on a phone in your pocket, and not after the fact.
If you've ever tried to judge effort from the saddle, having the actual number on your wrist mid-ride is a completely different kind of feedback. The Blaze phone app handles the fuller picture: real-time data, individual profiles so you can track several horses separately, and post-ride detail.
Practical details
The sensor is removable for cleaning and charging, and rated for up to 25 hours per charge — enough for long trail rides and full competition days rather than a single session. Data syncs over Bluetooth to the Blaze app and to compatible Garmin watches.
At $599.99 it's clearly aimed at people whose horses are athletes rather than pets. But if you're already reading Body Battery and HRV on your own wrist every morning, the idea of the same insight for the animal you're riding is an easy one to want.
You'll need a compatible Garmin watch to see the live data from the saddle:
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