Further, Australia is home to almost every horse breed in the world. We have plenty of space and produce healthy and resilient horses. At this stage there is no reliable estimate of domesticated horses, but it is at least a million. We also have an extremely active equestrian community across all levels, and whilst we may be able to identify our elite riders, no one really knows how many participants are out there.

Consequently, to ourselves and the rest of the world we are largely unseen.

An exception being our Racing Industry, which is globally respected for Thoroughbred breeding, training and racing. Yet, it still struggles with its social license. Unable to convince the broader community that the retired race horses have a decent life after racing. They are doing good things but these aren’t easily proven or quantified, once they leave the track.

If racing, with all its money and international attention, struggles for visibility and trust for their life after racing programs, what chance does the rest of the Australian equine industry have?
The reason is simple: We are scattered, unmeasured and disconnected.

As a breeder and industry administrator, I know that there are over 100 breed societies in Australia.

Why so many?

It is because when someone is unhappy with how one operates, they don’t reform it, they just start a new variation of it!

I see the same behaviour potentially playing out in the performance sector. The last thing we need is duplicated or new performance organisations created. The way EA operates and works with the states remains at the heart of our equestrian industry dysfunction.

To change the current EA structure is proving to be very difficult at least. All federal and state boards and staff have good intentions according to media releases, but I can not see from what has been published so far how the current problems can be fixed and how it should be reformed.

What we need is one IT platform which will capture the current situation by linking all future, current, and historical equine and equestrian data. This will help us to set the pathway for the future and to be able to accommodate future changes, whatever they may be, big or small.

THIS IS WHERE equiprove COMES IN.

Many of you are aware I am a cofounder of equiprove. I believe we need modern technology to grow our industry and make it visible.

Our proposition is simple and powerful. Make it easy to capture, share and use equine data. Most importantly, we do it together. Whether you’re an equestrian state branch or EA National, Breed organisation, a breeder, rider, official, club, or registry, you should be able to access and contribute information in one place, without duplication or dead ends. This could start now, regardless of the outcome of the current EA turmoil.

It’s a big task, I know. And it won’t happen all at once.

But if we keep going the way we are – scattered and invisible – we will only fall further behind, and Australia will remain a nobody in the global equestrian world.

So how are we going to do it?

We have already built the basic equiprove framework that will soon:

1. Link existing breed society data (where organisations are willing to share), directly into the platform
2. Allow breeders and owners who are not affiliated with a participating breed society, or those who do not register their stock, to upload their horses’ information, easily themselves
3. Integrate with entry and scoring systems, and other third party provider equestrian tools, so information can be pushed and pulled automatically. No more recording the same data multiple times in multiple systems
4. Enable organisation administrators and event organisers to manually upload data from third party systems that aren’t yet linked, ensuring horses, riders, and results can still be captured and connected

equiprove has carefully planned a progressive, phased approach to support real industry needs. Not just today, but well into the future. We know we must start small and prove what we can do.

The support of a few forward-thinking individuals and organizations has allowed us start to collect and connect real data, including:

• ACE Group Inc.
• IDSHS
• Equipe Show Management System (captured Australian competition results from 2017 – 2025)

This is a critical foundation step. A real-world proof of concept showing what equiprove will achieve.

As a thank you to our supporters, we have published their logo’s on our website. As more supporters onboard we will continue to build momentum.

We accept that many breed societies, breeders, event entry systems, scoring systems, and clubs are still sitting on the fence, waiting to see what happens before committing.

That’s fair. Change is hard.

I believe that once everyone can see the bigger picture and the real value equiprove can deliver, many more will choose to join us. Together we can build our future.

Did equiprove respond to the Equestrian Australia IT tender?

Yes we did.

We put a significant amount of work into our Proposal, presenting our business model and technology. We enjoyed constructive conversations and received valuable feedback throughout.

While we were in the top four, disappointingly, we weren’t taken through to the final round. We look forward to continuing discussions with EA on how equiprove would compliment and collaborate with the successful EA Sports Management System provider. This is essential if Australia’s equine industry is to move forward.

I came to Australia from Germany over 40 years ago. I have competed here in Eventing, Jumping and Dressage and have been an event organiser. First-hand I experienced the commitment of volunteers. People who give their time freely, despite heavy workloads, limited training, constant pressure, and sometimes even bullying or backlash. Without them, our grassroots would not exist.

But when we waste money and resources on manual processing, double handling, and outdated systems, it becomes harder and harder to attract and keep the people we rely on.

If volunteers are no longer willing or able to carry the load, we will face a simple question – how do we keep the system running?

equiprove is all about giving our equine community access to better tools, so that time, money, and energy can be spent where it matters most on the horses, the people, the events, the venues and the future of our sport.

We’ve started building (quietly and carefully) with the support of those who could already see the need. But to make this real, we need the rest of the industry to step forward too.

The future of Australia’s equestrian industry depends on what we do today.

At equiprove we have a vision and we are seeking your support to transform it into reality.

Ulrich Klatte – equiprove Co-founder and Industry Expert