Spending much of his youth on a dairy farm in Vermont, Bob Valentine, creator of equineGenie, can’t remember a time he wasn’t around horses. Fast forward to present day, Valentine lives in Fort Collins, Colorado and has recently downsized his Arabian breeding operation. “The market is not like it used to be for Arabians, or many other breeds for that matter,” stated Valentine. The one demand that is starting to grow is the digital recordkeeping and better management tools for horse businesses. 

Tech Background Meets Horse Background
Valentine has a PhD in physics and has experience working for large semi-conductor companies. He started his breeding business after completing his education and managed it for many years with just spreadsheets. While teaching equine business at Colorado State University he realized the need for a digital management tool to make managing a horse business easier with better business analytics. In April 2004 he started to develop equineGenie and by June 2008, he launched, and today equineGenie has more than 10,000 customers in 29 countries. “I taught myself to code using C++ which is an extremely fast computer language that helps with the required real-time execution,” said Valentine, “equineGenie has embedded AI capabilities in it that assist in making better management decisions,” he added. “The software is truly a management program.” Valentine runs a lean business and takes most of the service and support questions, especially for international clients. “One of our largest customers has 933 horses under management,” he explained. Clients are based as far away as Australia, Singapore, Thailand and India.

Package Offerings
equineGenie’s focus is on providing full service equine business management software (supported on the Windows operating system) for any type of equine business. “QuickBooks® is a terrible system for managing a horse business,” said Valentine, “equineGenie provides a better capability and keeps it simple so horse people don’t have to be an accountant,” he pointed out. “We are a much more affordable solution and cover everything from horse management, business operations, inventory control, customer billing to analysis.” equineGenie offers
4 business solutions to choose from:

1) Stable: ideal for boarding stables
2) Trainer: perfect for people who show, train and provide riding lessons
3) Breeder: comprehensive breeding management for full service breeding facilities
4) Pro: which combines all of the features and benefits of the three solutions and is the most popular product

There is a one-time charge for the product and then you’ll receive unlimited free setup help, product training, software updates and support. “We typically roll out product updates every six months,” said Valentine. The software can also be used remotely on any computing device that supports the Windows operating system.

Customers’ Top Features
“One of our unique offerings is the complete business operations suite of features,” explained Valentine. The software can manage your horses, suppliers, purchasing, inventory, and customers, while producing all your financial statements with horse accounts and sub accounts for better analysis. You even know your income and expense by department, horse and customer. The second top feature, according to customers, is how the product manages the billing for one horse owner to automatic splits for multiple owners of a horse. equineGenie has batch billing and invoicing, and invoice emailing directly to a customer. “There are many ways you can keep track on a daily, weekly, monthly or annual basis to help with forecasting and managing income, expenses and your cash,” said Valentine. Lastly, the reports contain intelligence – the software learns your business through AI and can provide predictive analytics. “equineGenie uses your data to give you more intelligence, about your business and your horses so that you can make better business decisions.”

Thinking Outside of the Bottle
equineGenie has a presence on Facebook and have just started promoting the product through social media. Mainly promotions are done through Internet searches and word of mouth from satisfied customers. Valentine views the future of technology adoption in the horse world, cautiously and said, “There will be more technology developed for equestrians, however the adoption won’t be guaranteed. The technology will need to be cost effective and not just convenient. With a tightening market, nice to have just won’t do it. Businesses need to make money. That includes horse businesses.” He stressed the importance of learning all you can as a consumer and to raise your business IQ by keeping current on new ways to manage your horse business more efficiently.

Website: Equine Genie
Facebook: @equinegenie