Misty Pleiness, founder and creator of HorseLinc, has been immersed in the horse world ever since she was little.  “I grew up on a diary farm and my family bred Arabians,” recalled Pleiness. “I was not into Barbie dolls when I was young, it was all about the horses.” When she was eleven she bought her first horse and realized her dream of riding in the Morgan World Championships when she was 17. “Horses have always been there for me and I’ve ridden different breeds and disciplines that have brought me so many great experiences,” she said. During her college years she rode dressage and also had experience riding Quarter horses and Saddlebreds when she was younger. To further broaden her riding resume she now shows in the hunter/jumper world.

Braiding Business Spurs the Idea
Misty learned to braid when she was 17 to help pay her way to the Morgan World Championships and has been doing it ever since. “There were times when I had to stay late at a show just waiting for the person with the check to show up, or else I might not get paid,” said Pleiness.  Knowing the struggles of getting paid, connecting with the right people and keeping track of assignments all started to form the idea of HorseLinc. 

Development & Scheduled Updates
Pleiness has a Masters in Accounting and Information Systems from Michigan State University and studied database design as part of her degree. This gave her the ability to direct the design and coding of the app with the team at SnapMobile, one of the top mobile app development companies in the US. “We just launched the app on February 21st and the plan is to have monthly updates based on feedback and new ideas I have already received from users, along with broadening the functionality,” said Pleiness. This aggressive schedule shows the dedication and passion of providing a much needed technology tool to organize the essential services associated with horses. The first module includes the braiding services and the next update will include general functionality for all services, including but not limited to farrier, vet, chiropractor, massage, etc., by early April.

Saving You 500 Hours in a Year
Imagine being able to coordinate vet services, farrier work, hauling, clipping and more simply from an app on your phone – talk about a time saver! “The free app to download should only take an hour or less to set up everything for your entire barn and then it will be seamless and automated. In the test module, we were able to schedule braiding services for 20 horses for a week of showing in under 5 minutes, and then pay for those services in under a minute,” explained Pleiness.  “It’s similar to signing up for Uber, once you have an account and credit card information, the experience from that day forward makes it convenient and easy.”  The app is designed not only for service providers, but also for trainers, barn managers and owners. 

The biggest time saving features of the app include:
·      Service requests appear on a screen and a Horse Manager can accept or reject a request – ideal for planning for the Horse Manager and service provider.
·      Payments – once completed by the service provider and approved by the Horse Manager – payments are automatically processed to the service provider – like the Uber example above.
·      A Horse Manager along with a trainer and owner can manage horse information profiles.  The trainer or owner can also schedule services for the horse on this page providing visibility and easy payment notifications and confirmations.
 

Secure Data equals Peace of Mind
“If you think about it, rarely is the person paying for the service physically there at the time of service,” Pleiness pointed out, “the app now has a digital log of what services were performed and all of the personal data is securely collected and stored by a third party.” Stripe is the company that stores the payment information and handles the payment processing for a majority of the apps on the market. Other profile information is securely housed in a cloud service provided by Amazon. “I invest in the top app support companies to instill trust and reliability with my users,” she stressed.

Spring Promotional Ramp Up
Pleiness is currently at WEF in Wellington rolling out promotional plans and soon the spring show season will be upon us. HorseLinc has had a great response from the digital media campaign that has been started, and will be rolling out to more focused locations across the country in March, as well as some campaigns and contests they are excited about. “The social media reaction to the HorseLinc app has been outstanding with more than 70,000 people viewing and reacting to the promo video on Facebook and YouTube.”

Website: www.horselinc.com

Facebook: @horselinc
Instagram: horselinc