Part I: Where Are They Now? Series – Horse Tech Providers 3 Years Later…
2018 was a big year for horse tech! The Tech Equestrian launched a blog with the vision of providing equestrians a view on what’s new and what’s next when it comes to technology designed to help humans and horses and interviewed over 30 vendors from around the world. There was a sense of a digital transformation taking over a very traditional, adverse to change horse industry. So, with all that has happened in the world in the past 3 years, you might be wondering – where are they now? The Tech Equestrian reached out to the original contacts (for those that are still in business) and asked a series of questions to learn more about how they are weathering the ‘new normal’ and what they are most proud of as it pertains to their product/service along with a future forward question.
We broke out the post into 3 categories: Top Rankings; In Development and Out to Pasture. This first category: Top Rankings highlights horse tech products and services that are in it for the long haul. They are in the order I interviewed them the first year of the blog. Be sure to check out each one - they offer years of experience now and have a firm customer base and we are excited to see where they go in the near future.
BarnManager
Tagline: Made for Barn Managers, by Barn Managers
Description: Barn Manager is horse care and barn management software that keeps you in the barn doing what you love, working with horses. Better communication, better record keeping, and better scheduling mean peace of mind.
Instagram followers: 8,382
Facebook followers: 14,494
How many subscribers do you have? 500 Barns, about 5,000 users
How have you adapted/updated your solution in the last 3 years?
New Features:
Contact Management, Discharge Reports, Feed Management (Especially focused on tracking changes to horses' diets over time).
Launching BarnManager Pro this summer with Invoicing, Payment Processing and a Quickbooks online integration.
A lot of small changes came from our users to make our features more useful for a variety of barns.
What are you most proud of with your solution? That we really have been able to build something that works for a lot of different barns and a lot of different managers. I always believed that we had to be cognizant that there are a lot of people who have developed workflows and practices that work for them. We are building tools to support them and make their lives easier, not to reinvent the way that they manage their barns. If we can give them new ideas or help them see things in a different way, that is great. But to be able to help so many people who share our love of horses is really amazing.
I also love how engaged our users are. We really do prioritize our development schedule based on user feedback. And our users are so thoughtful and collaborative. It makes it fun and helps us to build more useful features and make improvements to existing features.
What are you looking forward to the most; post-pandemic? I miss the atmosphere at special competitions and events, and I'm looking forward to having spectators back at competitions. The horses have remained a great constant throughout the pandemic and have kept me sane. But a lot of the bigger competitions that we look forward to having lost their atmosphere without spectators. And I love being able to share my love of horses with friends and family. So I am excited to be able to do that again someday.
NIGHTWATCH® smart halter™
Tagline: Equine Distress & Wellness Monitor
Description: The NIGHTWATCH® smart halter™ is a predictive-health wearable for high-risk, pregnant, and performance horses that automatically alerts you to early signs of potential problems in your horse while objective insight is available 24/7 via a mobile App.
Instagram followers: 3,235
Facebook followers: 8,682
How have you adapted/updated your solution in the last 3 years?
Over the past 3 years we:
o Restructured our backend to allow a single smart halter to be transferred and used on multiple horses (vs 1 halter for every horse)
o Introduced manual alerts to provide immediate out of the box value (vs smart alerts that require 80-hour initial learning period)
o Launched a native iOS and Android mobile app (vs web App only)
o Partnered with Covetrus to sell the smart halter to veterinarians
o Offered a new pricing structure/model with financing options
o Made it possible for firmware updates to occur over cellular networks (vs WiFi only)
o Automated many processes for scalability and efficiencies
What are you most proud of with your solution? I am most proud of my team staying true to our shared vision and not becoming distracted. We have always placed the animals' welfare at the center of all we do and while we may have gotten delayed, frustrated, and even scared at times, we did the right things right with integrity.
What are you looking forward to the most; post-pandemic? I am most looking forward to traveling again to see our customers, influencers, and of course the horses!
Original Post
Stable Secretary
Tagline: Barn Management Made Easy
Description: Stable Secretary saves time, stress, and money for horse trainers, barn managers, and horse owners by enabling them to record and view their horse health, shoeing, and billing records anytime, anywhere.
Instagram followers: 1,336
Facebook followers: 5,328
How have you adapted/updated your solution in the last 3 years? "How haven't we updated our solution" is perhaps a better question! We prioritize our development based on user suggestions, and we have had fun implementing their feedback! Here are a few of the things that we have done:
We have greatly expanded our mobile app features, and have even added a mobile-only product for those who only want to use the mobile app. We have transformed our Invoicing system into a mini horse focused accounting system that is still easy to use, but good enough for an accountant. We have added some new health categories to track Vitals and Diagnostics tests separately. and there are lots of other things - anyone can see updates history at https://stablesecretary.com/stable-secretary-updates/ .
What are you most proud of with your solution? I am most proud that our product is easy to use AND comprehensive AND reliable AND useful AND mobile! And, we get so much praise for our personalized friendly above and beyond Customer Support. So, I'm proud that we are achieving/excelling at ALL of those goals, not just one or some.
What are you looking forward to the most; post-pandemic? Not being afraid of being near other people.
Original Post
HorseLinc
Tagline: HorseLinc is first and only integrated app for horse management.
Description: Connect. Collect. Communicate. HorseLinc connects service providers with owners and trainers, gives everyone an easier and more secure way to collect payment, and help communicate key notes and history about their horses. All in one place, with your network you already have relationships with, in just three easy steps.
Instagram followers: 1,211
Facebook followers: 3,261
How many subscribers do you have? 2,000+
How have you adapted/updated your solution in the last 3 years? We are continuously improving the app based on feedback from our user base and adding new features.
What are you most proud of with your solution? My favorite thing about our solution is that people who have tried haven’t stopped using it, not a single one. I love that so many people are benefiting from an idea that was born from such a need in our industry.
What are you looking forward to the most; post-pandemic? In person events where we can meet with and reach more new users to show them how we can help them Connect, Collect, and Communicate!
Original Post
EquestFile
Tagline: A New Perspective on Equine Data Management
Description: EquestFile is a software platform to help horse barns and horse owners manage their record keeping data more effectively.
Instagram followers: 910
Facebook followers: 1,035
How have you adapted/updated your solution in the last 3 years? We have added many more features and re-fined existing. We still have many more plans for more features.
What are you most proud of with your solution? I am proud of our solution. Developing this has been really hard. If I had known how hard it was going to be I would have never gone down this road. But, we are here and still growing. I think online (mobile) data management is going to be huge in the long run in horse management. We recently released a new reporting and tagging feature that we are excited about.
What are you looking forward to the most; post-pandemic? Getting out in the public and being a vendor at shows. I have not done that at all during the pandemic and have missed the social aspect of it.
Original Post
Sales Paddock – working on re-launching online and app versions.
HorseNotes – based in Canada, a barn management software, is in beta test – according to their website.
The Pony App – the dream team of Lindsay Douglass and Lucy Davis created a new way to connect with fellow equestrians and made pony avatars really cool!
Original Blog post
JumpFax – No longer in business. JumpFax was designed to be your ‘go to’ for all things show jumping – shows, stats and more! They were a member of the Equine Tech Collaboration.
Hylofit – no longer in business as of November 2, 2020. Hylofit was a wearable device for horse and rider that delivered accurate, real-time feedback so training adjustments can be made from the saddle. Hylofit tracked performance and provided insights to improve training results and promote the overall health and wellbeing of the horse. Tagline: KNOW YOUR RIDE
Ekinox – no longer in business
Huufe – based in the UK, this ride tracking app got an upgrade a couple years ago and is now owned by Harry Hall – a top UK equestrian tack provider with a rebranding: Harry Hall Riding App
Stay tuned for Part II of the Where Are They Now? Series next month.