Last Thursday, June 20, students Mariëlle Klaassen, Sanne Bosman and Leonie Fitting of the Animal Management course (minor: Professionalization of the Equestrian Sector) at Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences (HVHL) were awarded the Anymal Research Award 2024. This honorable award has been presented annually since 2023 to a winning group of students working on innovations and new media in the equine sector.
For six months this year, students from HVHL, under the guidance of four instructors, again conducted intensive research at Anymal BV and several of Anymal’s partners, including HELTIEhorse, ZooEasy and VHL Genetics. The purpose of this research was to actively involve students in the latest technological developments in the sector. 
Mariëlle, Sanne and Leonie carried out their assignment at ZooEasy. They conducted research on what ZooEasy can do as animal registration software for horse studbooks. Part of their research included interviewing and conducting surveys at various horse studbooks to identify their needs.
The students’ research showed that ZooEasy can certainly contribute to horse, pony and donkey studbooks. Many of the functions such as printing out a passport or pedigree, keeping track of pedigree data, and registering various inspections and healthresults are already available in ZooEasy.The KGPS (Classic Gelderlander Horse Studbook) has already proven how useful ZooEasy is; they have already switched to ZooEasy administration!
On June 20, all students presented the results of their research at Royal GD in Deventer. A presentation was given on each of the three studies conducted. Then it was up to the jury, consisting of the supervising teachers, the business clients and independent jury member Ruben Burger (communication- and project manager of communication agency Imagro) to choose a winner.
All three groups provided beautiful, insightful presentations on their research assignments.The topics ranged from a study on guiding customers in choosing the right mineral/nutritional supplement for their horse, the possibility of ordering equine DNA tests through the Anymal app at VHL, to the role ZooEasy can play for horse studbooks.
After careful consideration, the jury ultimately selected the research at ZooEasy by Mariëlle, Sanne and Leonie as the winner!
It goes without saying that we as ZooEasy are very happy and proud of this! We congratulate “our” students with their award, and we hope that many more equine studbooks will make the switch to ZooEasy!