The Pegasus App: Your One Source for All Things Equine

All horses give us wings. Karl Cook riding his mount at the Winter Equestrian Festival 2020. pc: The Tech Equestrian

Pegasus is one of the most recognized creatures of Greek mythology and for the creators of The Pegasus App – they are hoping the app becomes just as well-known and popular in the horse world. The Tech Equestrian had a chance to catch up with CEO and co-founder, Jen Tankel to find out more about this exciting new entry into horsetech.

A Community First ‘One Stop Shop’ App
“The Pegasus App is first and foremost a social media platform,” explained Jen. The app is designed solely to bring the community together to organize, share, trade and sell with one another. “The primary objective being that users will use Pegasus as their means of managing their entire equine life,” she said.

Leveraging a social media platform, Pegasus' main feature will be to provide equestrians a full social media community experience that is exclusive to and designed specifically to service the equine community. It will include similar social features including groups, forums, friends, private messaging etc. 

With the community collaborating in one place, Pegasus will provide users with supporting utilities to make their lives easier. “For example, Pegasus members can quickly and digitally fill out, sign, save and share all paperwork surrounding equine sales/liability/waivers/entry forms/etc.,” said Jen and added, “They will also be able to create events, sell tickets to said events, rsvp, and host virtual meetings/consultations.”

Additional features will include a global news feed that pulls news articles from equine websites around the world, that can be customized by discipline, allowing Pegasus members to get all their news in one place and never miss a story. “We also built an Airbnb type experience into the platform for equine business owners to create a business profile that can be searched for on a map and filtered by location and price.” 

Leaving nothing out of the Pegasus app, Jen also included a job board to enable users to post ads to find staff for equine businesses. For equine job searches, you can search jobs, apply through the platform, conduct virtual interviews, and review resumes.

“To provide a concrete example of one of the many ways to use the app - a user can search for a boarding stable within a commutable distance from their house and then review the five nearest stables and read customer reviews,” explained Jen. “They can then create a short list, choose one (or many), and private message the stable owners through the app.” Once they choose a stable, she described, the app can be used to fill out the boarding contract online, save it and send it to the boarding barn for their records and this is all done within the platform.

Horse Genes
“My mom was an avid show jumper, so I learned how to ride at about the same time I was learning how to walk,” recalled Jen. Her first pony, Z-Z was a green Arabian-cross that her parents purchased for $1 and was given to her for Christmas at age eleven. Soon after she discovered Pony Club and the sport of eventing which led to the transformation of Z-Z becoming an eventing sport pony. “A few years later, I was gifted my 'unicorn' horse, named Impulsive, who was a former advanced level eventing thoroughbred.” This duo worked their way up the ranks in eventing competing on the East Coast within USEA and Pony Club. “Some of my fondest memories are the rides I had with 'Imp' as we called her.” 

Fast forward many years and Jen graduated engineering school and then landed consulting jobs that included lots of travel, which unfortunately put her competition days on hold, however she never stopped riding. “These days, I'm training on my instructors' horses and leasing an ottb, still focusing on eventing but looking to do more show jumping. I'm also partaking in some foxhunts and polo matches,” Jen added. Her goal for the upcoming year is to be back in the show ring.

The New Modern
“As co-founder and CEO, my focus right now is very much on growth and serving the community,” said Jen. Along with her co-founder, Sam Baynes, who is Pegasus' chief technology officer, with a primary responsibility on building the platform, she feels very fortunate to be able to do all of the development in-house. The team also consists of a developer who is focused on the platform's infrastructure and security, as well as a business development manager and researcher. 

“As equestrians and technology experts ourselves, we've created and continue to create a user experience that assists with everything from business operations, social components, learning and knowledge sharing, lessons, showing, stable management, industry news, and much more. 

Jen and Sam know that the equestrian industry is quite disconnected and antiquated. “To date, the equestrian technology that exists is primarily used as a utility - perhaps you have a place to sell your tack, or a place you upload photos - but there isn't anything to date where you can do it all,” stated Jen. “We want to break the mold and create a sleek, modern tech platform - an international platform.” To date, their focus has been based on the US and European markets, but they are excited to learn more about challenges that may be region-specific and therefore provide features to equestrians all around the world. 

An Intelligent Newsfeed
The Pegasus app will incorporate a newsfeed that will provide essentially a discovery board: a place for equestrians to not only see their favorite equestrian publications and blogs, accessible in one place and linked to the original site, but also the ability to discover new content. “An example of this is the following hypothetical user journey: someone on the Pegasus app comes to the newsfeed: they'll see numerous icons which could include the latest article from The Tech Equestrian, the latest research from the University of Florida's equine sciences program, a blog on fashion from a prominent rider, The Horse Mag's most recent article about eventing news, etc. and the reader is an avid foxhunter in Middleburg; they can then filter the newsfeed to show only foxhunting and equestrian events in and around Middleburg, providing content that is most relevant and important to them.”

Official Launch Date
The beta launches in December, which is essentially a soft, but official launch. “The hard launch is spring 2021, in which we hope to host an in-person event pending the state of COVID,” shared Jen. “We're actively working with publications, prominent riders, and the equestrian community at large to promote the app. We're optimistic that it will take off at launch serving every type of rider and horse enthusiast in the equestrian community.” 

Flying into the Future
“If we are successful at Pegasus, we will look back at 2020 and wonder how we ever lived like we did then,” said Jen. No more keeping records of our students on note pads in the tack room; scouring numerous websites for news; selling stuff on craigslist, etc. – those days will be gone.

“In 5 years, our hope is that everyone in the equine industry will be using the Pegasus app as their daily admin portal to make life easier and more enjoyable. Everything from tracking your horses’ routine to finding a stable during a long haul to catching up on global show jumping news – you’ll open Pegasus.”

“If we do our jobs right and realize our dreams, we will build the connecting tissue that empowers all equine businesses, from farriers to media publications, to be front and center to all equine enthusiasts, in a way that streamlines communication, administration and organization,” said Jen.

Website
Instagram: thepegasusapp 
Facebook: @thepegasusapplication
Twitter: @ThePegasusApp