Finding the perfect gift for the equestrians in your life can be hard – especially as the holidays are rapidly approaching! Fortunately, if any of the equestrians on your list (alright, or you!) love technology even remotely as much as they love horses, we may have just the solution. An added bonus? Many of them can be delivered digitally – no need to worry about shipping in time for Christmas!
For the Rider Who Loves His or Her FitBit – Try a Hylofit! Hylofit is a wireless heart rate monitor for horse and rider that uses zone training to set fitness goals, track performance, and prevent injury. Shop here.
For Your Favorite Show Jumper, Show Barn Manager, or Show Jumping Super Fan – Give the gift of a Jumpfax subscription! The Jumpfax app allows riders to plan their season, access practical show information and key contacts, find start lists and results, and much more. Shop subscription options starting at only $5/month here.
For the Friend That Loves Online Shopping for the Best Products – Sometimes allowing someone to shop for whatever they want is the best gift, and with a Corro gift card, they can shop for all the best, thoughtfully curated riding and horse care products in one spot online! Visit www.corroshop.com to purchase a gift card (and maybe a few things for yourself while you’re there).
For Your Barn Manager (or You!) – We may be a bit biased, but of course we can’t make this list without including BarnManager. BarnManager is the official barn management software of U.S. Equestrian, and gifting your barn manager a subscription may just make you their new best friend! Subscriptions start at less than $10/month and include:
-unlimited horse information, health, and wellness recording
-the ability to upload attachments directly to records to easily access files when you need them
-searchable barn-wide conversations and messaging, as well as private conversations and messaging
-a virtual “white-board,” that takes the conventional barn white-board and makes it accessible anywhere
-customizable tables and free form lists
-contact management and more.
For any Horse Owner (Especially That One Friend that Misplaces Her Paperwork!) – Know anyone who has ever shown up at a horse show without a horse’s health certificate or who just wants to stay on top of her horse’s care (a.k.a. all of us)? Then consider a subscription to Electronic Vet – currently available for only $50 a year.
Electronic Vet provides an innovative, user-friendly, digital health certificate designed to meet the ever-growing needs of horse show venues. By providing accurate, efficient, and secure information, “eVet” is the authority in online equine health certificates and immunization records – and a great gift. Visit www.electronicvet.com to find out more.
For the Eventing Rider – The CrossCountry app may be just what your eventing friends didn’t know they needed. The app allows riders to record their cross-country course walk with GPS; add photos, comments, and striding; share courses and download virtual guided course walks; and much more.Learn more at www.crosscountryapp.com.
For the Friend Who Always Wants to Know What Her Horse is Up To – Give the gift of Nightwatch! Nightwatch is a smart halter that monitor’s the horse’s safety when no one is around, including tracking the horse’s heart rate, respiratory rate, activity, motion, and posture. Shop online at www.SmartHalter.com.
BarnManager is designed to be a part of your team, with the compatibility and credentials necessary to improve communication, simplify the management of horses, and get you out of the office, off the phone calls, and into the barn with the horses you care about! Click here to get a free demo and find out more!
10 Masterclass Innovation Series Takeaways Worth Knowing!
For the past several months, our BarnManager team and our Equine Tech Collab partners have wanted to bring to life an event, or a series of events, that would embody the Equine Tech Collab’s mission of supporting the education of equestrians in order to equip them with the knowledge and tools needed for best practices in horse care, welfare, and management.
On Tuesday, March 19, that idea came to fruition in the form of the Equine Tech Collab’s Masterclass Innovation Series: A Mindful Approach to Horse & Rider!
The two-part panel discussion event included conversations on “The Soundness Spectrum: Maintaining Horses’ Soundness Through Proactive Management” and “In Good Company: Top Riders Discuss the Skills and Practices That Help Them with Mental and Emotional Challenges,” with panelists and moderators including:
two-time Olympic show jumper, Daniel Bluman
FEI groom for Millar Brooke Farm, Danny Ingratta
Tonya Johnston, MA, a Mental Skills Coach, author, and A-circuit competitor who specializes in working with equestrian athletes
the U.S. Dressage Olympic team bronze medalist currently ranked fifth in the world, Kasey Perry-Glass
Dr. Tim Ober, the official veterinarian of the US Equestrian show jumping team
Dr. Sheila Schils, an innovator in the field of equine rehabilitation and injury prevention
2018 World Equestrian Games (WEG) show jumping team gold medalist Adrienne Sternlicht
Jennifer Wood, founder of Jennifer Wood Media and Equestrian Businesswomen and co-founder of Jump Media
1. Keeping your horses sound starts with spending time with them.
Two-time Olympian Daniel Bluman shared: “Nowadays the schedule for the horse and the rider and for the whole team is pretty busy. There’s a lot of traveling; there’s a lot to do. I think it’s very important that you make yourself a good schedule where you get to spend enough time with the horses. I think that’s the base of our sport, the base of our industry, and our passion. I think for every horseman, grooms, veterinarians, or the rest of the team, it’s all about spending many hours with the horses so that you have as much information as you can.”
Danny Ingratta, the head groom for the team at Millar Brooke Farm (home of 10-time Canadian Olympian Ian Millar, Olympian Amy Millar, Jonathon Millar, and Kelly Soleau-Millar), added: “For me it’s daily; every day I’m looking at the horse. I’m feeling the horse—everything from acupuncture points to if their legs are a little bit bigger. I like to touch the horse and see what it tells me. You run your hands down it’s legs. Are there bumps? Is their scurf on its legs?”
Daniel also noted that the more time that you spend with your horses, the more likely you are to notice if something is off or unusual: “It makes it easier for me to notice if there are differences. If I normally do circles to the left or to the right and the horse is not reacting or doing what they normally would do, and I know them fairly well, then perhaps it’s important to call the vet and check that there’s not something that’s bothering them.”
2. Educating yourself is important for both you and your horse.
Educating yourself is another vital step to maximizing your horse’s well-being and soundness. It also goes hand-in-hand with spending time with them – and your vets will appreciate it too!
“Familiarizing yourself with anatomy enough to run your hand down the legs and know where swelling is and that it’s different from one day to the next [is one of the first things you can do to improve soundness]. Most vets appreciate clients who have gone through the process to form an opinion in that manner. Focus on your own education; get what you can from each example.” – Dr. Tim Ober, the official veterinarian of the US Equestrian show jumping team
3.A good relationship with your vet can go a long way.
“I would say that a grand prix horse showing in an intense schedule down here [in Wellington] should be seen every two weeks. Then I would scale it down and say every two weeks to every six weeks. I think everybody is challenged to figure that out in their own program—what a good rhythm is. But if it’s more than six weeks, it’s difficult to get to know the horse or it takes a much longer time to get to know the horse. I think there’s a big advantage in developing that familiarity with your veterinarian.” – Tim
“I think a close relationship with your vet is really important. If your vet doesn’t know your horses well enough, he or she is prone to making mistakes.” – Daniel
4. Stress is not always a bad thing – at least if you’re a muscle.
While negative connotations generally come to mind when we hear the word “stress,” it can be a positive force, too. In fact, stress is needed for a muscle to grow and rebuild. Dr. Sheila Schils, an innovator in the field of equine rehabilitation and injury prevention and a professor in the pre-vet program at the University of Wisconsin for more than 20 years, explained:
“The only way that you’ll get a stronger muscle is to break down muscle fibers. Often what we see in our horses is they get done with a competition, and we feel their backs and immediately feel, ‘Oh they’re sore.’ In my world, as long as that soreness doesn’t become pathological, I’m in the back going, ‘Yay!’ Because now, next week that horse is going to become stronger.
“We don’t want to over-stress those muscles, but we have to look at this discomfort and pain in a different way. The way that we reduce this stress, so it ends up making a stronger muscle as an outcome rather than resulting in injury, is we use the muscle more.”
5. Just because you may feel like you need a day off following a horse show, it might not actually be what is best for your horse.
In order to move the muscles more and to help them grow and heal, Sheila explained that a day off from riding after a big effort is not really the best solution.
“Even though on Monday, when all of you need a day off, you think, ‘So does my horse.’ Wrong! The brain may need a day off, don’t get me wrong, but the muscle needs to keep on rolling. The worst thing after the muscle has been stressed is to let it sit in the stall and rest, because then it becomes inflamed. If I have my preference, you ride them, because you have such a better sense of when that horse becomes fatigued. You can sit on them and know how far to push them, rather than putting them in something that doesn’t have that idea of how far. If a horse has had a strenuous week, and then you put them on a treadmill, or especially a water treadmill, then you could be not giving them that appropriate recovery time.”
6.You’re not the only one with show ring anxiety; Olympic and World Championship athletes battle it too.
“Even these big events that you go to, I try to think of it as a very small thing. Because if it becomes too big in my head, it becomes overpowering. Then I can’t focus. Two hours before I start my preparation, I feel sick to my stomach. I’m not nervous; I’m just anxious. Once I start braiding and getting him tacked up and all of that, it goes away. Then after my warm-up I feel pretty secure. I trust my training; I trust my coach, and she sends me in having full confidence.” – Kasey Perry-Glass, the U.S. Dressage Olympic team bronze medalist currently ranked fifth in the world
7. There’s great value in routine.
In fact, Daniel says he thinks it’s the most important tools for any athlete, and Adrienne and Kasey agree! Here’s some of what they had to say about routines and the rituals they utilize themselves:
Daniel: “[Routine] keeps you going in moments when your mind shuts down because you’re just so tired. You have to train your brain to not think about what’s at stake, rather it’s just one more time that you’re going in the ring to do what you practiced. I try to spend a lot of time with the horses before big competitions because I know that that’s going to give me that peace that I like. Part of my routine is actually to ride my horse as close to the competition as possible, so that I already know I’m guaranteed that period of time of peace.”
2018 World Equestrian Games (WEG) show jumping team gold medalist Adrienne Sternlicht: “Before a big class, I have a distinct routine, which brings comfort to uncomfortable situations. I was so freaked out the first day at the [WEG]! I had no idea what to expect. I found comfort in being able to a) meditate and b) listen to books. There are certain chapters of certain books that I listen to that I really like. (She often listens to chapters titled “Fear” and “Desire” in the book Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender by David R. Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D, as part of her pre-competition routine.)
Kasey: “I’m an overthinker. I think way too much about everything. I look at my husband all the time, and he doesn’t think about anything like ever! I just want to channel that. I’ve tried to simplify my life in any way that I can. The more organized that I can stay in my daily life and my routine, the better I am. My horse is on a very time-sensitive schedule at competitions. I plan everything out. By putting on his bridle, by putting on his saddle, braiding – because I braid myself, it helps me get in the zone.”
8. Daniel Bluman loves a good nap
Through trying different routines, Daniel found that a pre-competition nap is often quite beneficial for him. It’s all about what works best for you!
“Daniel over there, he sleeps often. I see him when he’s really nervous before a big class, where as I like to keep myself super busy.” – Adrienne
“I definitely love sleeping. That’s not a secret to anybody. The class may be going on, and I’m taking a nap before I get on the horse. That’s also something that has worked for me. If the first time I took a nap before competing I went horrible, I probably would have never napped again! But napping has consistently worked well for me. I’m an anxious person by nature, so I go over the plan too many times. Then at some point my brain shuts down, so a little nap is always fantastic to refresh. You just have to have somebody to wake you up in time!” – Daniel
“Sometimes focus comes in many forms…[Olympic dressage rider Adrienne Lyle] loves to sleep. We have to wake her up. So, it’s interesting how everyone can be so different.” – Kasey
9. At the end of the day, it’s important to remember why we all do this in the first place: the horses.
The next time that you’re feeling anxious going into the show ring or find yourself overthinking your last bad ride, try doing what Daniel does:
“I try to focus on the reasons why I do the sport. I didn’t start riding because I wanted to win a five-star grand prix anywhere in the world. I didn’t even know that five-star grand prix existed. I didn’t start riding because I wanted to be the most successful rider in the history of the sport; I really just started riding because I loved horses. In times when I’m really anxious or I feel my head is getting ahead of me, I just really try to remember that thankfully we work with horses and not with motorcycles or with cars. We work with actual animals that have this incredible power to give us that feeling of calm of peace.”
10. We truly are “stronger together.”
”Stronger Together” is the tagline of the Equine Tech Collab for a reason. We knew that together we could do far more to further our shared missions than we could ever do alone, and the first Masterclass Innovation Series was a testament to that. Not only did all of the Equine Tech Collab partners come together, but also the panelists all gave so generously of their time, knowledge, and expertise – something that we are so incredibly thankful for! By working together to share this knowledge and to share resources, we hope that the equestrian community as a whole can become even stronger together!
BarnManager is designed to be a part of your team, with the compatibility and credentials necessary to improve communication, simplify the management of horses, and get you out of the office, off the phone calls, and into the barn with the horses you care about! Click here to get a free demo and find out more!
It’s that time of year again – the time for holiday decorations, gifts, and snow, or, in the case of many riders, owners, and trainers: palm trees, horse trailers, heavily packed tack trunks, and warmer weather.
As horses across the country and across disciplines are shipping to more temperate locations for the winter show season, there are several things you can do to help ensure a smooth southern migration. Here are four tips!
1. Make a list and check it twice – or arriving down south may not be as nice.
Remembering to pack up all of the tack and equipment you will need for the winter—your horse, any feed and bedding needed for the trip, and all necessary paperwork—can be an overwhelming amount to remember. That’s why it’s important to make well-thought-out lists of what you need before you just start throwing items into tack trunks!
Consider breaking down your lists either by category (i.e. tack, grooming equipment, blankets and “horse clothing,” feed, etc.) or by horse. With BarnManager’s customizable list tool, you can do either, including setting up your own checklists and tables any way that you like and even linking lists to specific horse profiles to remind you of each horse’s packing needs.
Common items to include on your packing list may include:
+ Traveling items such as a spare halter, hay net and hay, buckets for water, and any shipping boots or wraps.
+ An equine first aid kit containing disinfectant, electrolytes, a thermometer, gauze, Vetrap, and bute.
+ Grooming and bathing essentials including brushes, curry combs, hoof pick, hoof polish, baby oil, fly spray, detangler, shine enhancer, sweat scraper, shampoo, conditioner, sponges, and rags.
+ Tack and equipment including saddles, saddle pads (for both schooling and show), girths, bridles, bits, spare stirrups and stirrup leathers, an extra set of reins, any boots for the horse, martingales, breastplates, a leather punch, a lunge line and lunge whip, studs and a stud kit, coolers, sheets, and blankets.
2. Have proper documentation ready.
In order to be shipped commercially or across state lines, each horse will need documentation of a negative Coggins test, as well as a certificate of veterinary inspection (or health certificate). Most states require that the negative Coggins test was produced within a year prior to travel, but some require that the test was performed within 60 or even 30 days before traveling. Regulations also vary by state for how recent the health certificate needs to be; some are valid for six months, some for only 10 days. Talk to your veterinarian about what the requirements are in your state and within the states that you’re traveling through or to.
For ease of access, keep your horses’ Coggins, health certificate, and any veterinary records in BarnManager so that they are always readily available on your phone, iPad, or computer.
3. Ensure the health of your horse.
Long distance travel can be stressful for horses and humans alike, and horses can be prone to problems like shipping fever (a term often used to describe any viral or bacterial respiratory infection a horse contracts while traveling). In order to do all that you can to prevent such concerns, make sure that any animals being shipped are up to date on vaccinations and in good health at the time of travel.
In order to reduce the risk of shipping fever, ensure that plenty of low-dust hay is provided for the horse during travel, and allow the horse to periodically lower its head while in the trailer. This allows the horse to clear particulate matter from its respiratory tract. Shipping fever has also been linked to stress, so avoiding shipping one horse alone for a long distance, which can induce greater stress, is also advised.
4. Arrange reliable transportation.
If you are not shipping your horse yourself, it’s important to know that you have arranged a transporter that you can trust.
If you don’t know where to find one, consider using a service like Equo. The horse transportation application makes it easy to find and schedule reliable drivers with at least two years of experience, GPS accessibility at all times, and rigorously inspected trailers and vehicles. Equo also allows for the shipment of a reasonable amount of gear along with the horse at no added cost, as well as, in many cases, one human ride-along!
Once you’ve followed these four tips, you’re on your way to hitting the road! Safe travels!
BarnManager is designed to be a part of your team, with the compatibility and credentials necessary to improve communication, simplify the management of horses, and get you out of the office, off the phone calls, and into the barn with the horses you care about! Click here to get a free demo and find out more!
Wellington, FL – Equine technology companies BarnManager, Equo, Jumpfax, and StableGuard have come together to form the first equine technology collaboration of its kind, aimed at supporting one another, better serving the equestrian industry as a whole, and ultimately creating greater inter-operability between the equine applications and software.
Launched by BarnManager founder and CEO, Nicole Lakin, the innovators working together on the equine tech collaboration include Lakin, Equo’s Steven Bluman, Alicia Heiniger of Jumpfax, and Alexa Anthony of StableGuard.
With the formation of the equine tech collaboration, the four companies are able to work together to develop improved solutions for the equestrian community, while also each continuing to provide a unique service and value to the equine industry.
For BarnManager, that service is a cloud-based software that offers digitized record keeping for the many facets of horse care, as well as intuitive and simple business tools to make small business management easier and more accessible. For Equo, it is offering what has been described as a “mix between Uber and Expedia for horses,” taking horse transportation to the next level by connecting riders, owners, and trainers with certified drivers through the Equo mobile app.
For competitors, Jumpfax offers a complete, dynamic calendar of events, a comprehensive horse show guide that includes programs, start lists, results, key contacts, and more, as well as a sports data center updated daily with show jumping’s statistics. And StableGuard is often compared to the “Nest home security camera for horses.” Through the StableGuard mobile app, users can watch live-stream feed of the horse in their stall, receive emergency alerts, watch event play-back, and track human interaction. Unlike other equine monitoring devices, StableGuard constantly tracks the horses’ well-being without needing additional wearable devices such as smart blankets, Bluetooth halters, etc.
“They are all very complimentary, and they all really could be used on a daily basis by any show jumping rider,” said Jumpfax founder Alicia Heiniger. “I’m a rider myself, so I’m a natural user of these apps, and we all really share a vision, a passion, and a wish to make our industry better and stronger.”
Lakin added, “We’re all trying to improve and advance our own specific area of the industry, but ultimately, we’re all using technology to help horse people have peace of mind at the end of the day and to allow them to focus on why we’re all really doing this in the first place: the horses.”
Lakin studied entrepreneurship and received her Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Babson College, and it was her experience there that sparked the idea for the equine tech collaboration.
“At Babson, I was constantly surrounded by other entrepreneurs,” explained Lakin, whose BarnManager application is now the Official Barn Management Software of US Equestrian. “It was a really inspiring atmosphere, and we were constantly thinking of ways that we could help each other – even though we were in completely different industries. It was a really great way to integrate together and to support each other, and I find it extremely important to have community like that.”
Steven Bluman of Equo, Alicia Heiniger of Jumpfax, Nicole Lakin of BarnManager, and Alexa Anthony of StableGuard have partnered to form a new equine tech collaboration.
In addition to forming their own community to help one another as equine technology start-up founders and better serving the equestrian industry, Anthony, Bluman, Heiniger, and Lakin hope that their collaborative effort will encourage equestrians to embrace how technology can help them navigate in their industry.
“It’s really an exciting time,” said Anthony, CEO of Magic AI, the company behind StableGuard. “Now is a great opportunity for all of us to join together and create awareness surrounding technology in a traditional industry. I believe it will make the adoption a little bit easier if all four of us work together – we’re stronger that way.”
Equo CEO Bluman echoed Anthony’s sentiments: “Just like in any other life aspect, when Uber came out and Airbnb came out, everybody said, ‘No way! I will never get in a car with someone that I don’t know,’ and, ‘I would never go in an apartment that I don’t even know who owns the place.’ Now, people are realizing they’re both great options. It’s the same with us. People are a little bit skeptical when it comes to using apps for whatever it is for their horses. By our companies coming together and acting as a force, people are going to begin to pay more attention to what’s happening. We’re trying to update the horse industry and really bring it into the 21st century.”
In addition to collaborating to grow and improve together and to introduce equestrians to applications to simplify their daily responsibilities, Lakin hopes that the equine tech collaboration will ultimately lead to greater inter-operability between the applications.
“We all are cognizant of thinking about how the applications are talking to each other, because at the end of the day, if we’re all making a million different products for people, and they have to have 17 apps on their phone, you’re not improving anything, you’re making it worse,” explained Lakin. “If we can work together and make our products work together, we’re not only better together for ourselves, we’re delivering better products for the end user.
“When each company can focus on their own specific piece of the puzzle, but then we can all also put those pieces together, we’re really able to create something great for the consumer,” concluded Lakin. “It’s a win-win for everybody.”
“If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.” – Henry Ford
Competition moves us forward, but collaboration transforms us.
It is a very exciting time to be working in the equine technology space. New companies seem to be launching almost daily, and we all share common goals of moving the equine industry forward, improving horse care, and making the lives of horse people easier, safer, better, and more efficient.
However, the launch of new equine tech companies also means that we are all competing for the same resources and attention within an already hectic niche industry. I know that, through BarnManager, we have built a great tool for barn managers, horse owners, riders, and other equine enthusiasts, but with so many new companies, how can we make sure that we aren’t getting lost in the noise? And more importantly, how can we make sure that we are continuing to deliver a product that makes our customer’s lives easier? My answer is through collaboration.
Equine Tech Collaboration
As more and more companies seek to use technology to solve the equine industry’s problems and close the gaps, we need to be aware of what impact we are going to have on potential customers and what impact we are having on one another.
This is the foundation for the collaboration between BarnManager and our equine technology partners, currently including Equo, JumpFax, Stableguard and Electronic Vet. We as equine tech founders and owners want to communicate with each other, grow together, and work to bring better solutions to our customers than any individual startup can do on its own.
So what does this all mean?
Integration and Inter-operability
We are committed to looking for ways to integrate our services and offerings and to make them compatible with other products and services. Each equine tech company is creating value for its customers in its own unique and specific way. Maintaining that focus on a specific problem or challenge enables each company to perfect their approach and to continue to evolve and improve over time. However, many of our customers are shared, so it is on us to make the use of all of our products seamless.
Our software and applications should communicate with one another and enable you to get the most of each product. They should minimize data entry so that you are not entering the same information in multiple places and programs. And they should work together to identify opportunities that arise from working together, opportunities that neither individual may have been able to identify or achieve on their own.
Cross-Promotion
No one wants to be constantly bombarded by salespeople, advertisements, sponsored posts, and e-mails. As start-up tech companies though, we must all utilize these channels in order to grow our businesses, reach new people, and share our stories. We want to tell you how our products can help you with that thing that drives you crazy, that thing you know you could do better, or that thing that you love but never have the time for.
If we as equine tech companies work together, we can have more meaningful conversations and create greater long-term value, while also taking less of your time. We can be in more places, learn more, share more and grow more as a team.
Innovation
It is no secret that the greatest innovations come from diversity of opinions, perspectives, backgrounds and thought processes. As we work together, we hope to bring you new ideas, discoveries, and inventions. Creativity is born from collaboration, and the best creations often come when you least expect it.
We at BarnManager look forward to serving our customers alongside our equine tech collaboration partners! Together, we are stronger than we are apart!
BarnManager is designed to be a part of your team, with the compatibility and credentials necessary to improve communication, simplify the management of horses, and get you out of the office, off the phone calls, and into the barn with the horses you care about! Sign up to start your free trial and to find out more here!
