Part II: Where Are They Now? Series Continues – Horse Tech Providers 3 Years Later…
We hope you enjoyed Part I of Where Are They Now? We created a two-part post to highlight all of the innovation that has entered and in some cases exited the horse world. The Tech Equestrian blog’s purpose is to provide equestrians a view on what’s new and what’s next when it comes to technology designed to help humans and horses. We 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.
Name: equineGenie
Tagline: Your Horse Business Management Partner
Description:
Horse Business Management Software that is BEYOND “recordkeeping”. equineGenie helps you manage your horse business, its horses, its customers, its financials, its business operations, its assets and your facility.
How many subscribers/customers do you have? 12,075+ customers in 33 countries.
How have you adapted/updated your solution in the last 3 years? Added more artificial intelligence, more analysis and supporting intelligent reports.
What are you most proud of with your solution? Management efficiency - 'One and Done.’ No transferring information to multiple software programs for accounting and analysis.
What are you looking forward to the most, post-pandemic? Our business has been excellent during the pandemic. The pandemic has given customers more time to manage and analyze their horse business.
Name: The Equestrian App
Tagline: Helping People Help Horses
Description: The Equestrian App allows you to connect with all the individuals who are involved in the care and enjoyment of your horse.
Instagram followers: 3,687
Facebook followers: 1,252
How many subscribers/customers do you have? 25,000 members with over 27,000 horses
How have you adapted/updated your solution in the last 3 years? I’ve received hundreds of emails asking for feature enhancements and requests over the past 2 years. I’ve literally added over 50 main features which covers from birth to retirement of the horses and everything in between. My goal is to release every month a new major feature that will benefit our community. Our focus for the remainder of 2021 is new equine business features which will include Leasing, Boarding, and Invoicing. In addition, I already have 2022 planned out for a new app that will continue to connect millions of riders.
One of my favorite features I just released is the ability for 4-H youth to keep track of their record books within the app. With a tap/click, they can quickly and cleanly print out their record book reports. There has been a large decrease in the youth writing their record books but using their phones and capturing it within the app seems to work the way they expect to work.
What are you looking forward to the most, post-pandemic? Last year was zero fun because all the horse shows were canceled. I’m very active in our states 4-H horse program as chairman of the Ranch Riding program and we just had our first live show which was a blast. I really missed visiting and competing in shows and having people come up to me and say, “You’re the horse app guy, the computer cowboy!” I look forward to smiling with others, shaking hands, and giving hugs again.
Original Blog Post
Name: STRIDER
Tagline: Connecting Equestrians and Opportunities.
Description: STRIDER builds community through innovative digital solutions for equestrians. Our team works with venue managers, equestrian organizers, and riders across the industry to develop and support tech solutions that work for real, on the ground, equine businesses.
Our solutions range from horse show entries, no-fee payment processing, time-based bookings, to an eWaivers service and member loyalty rewards program with top industry retailers.
Instagram followers: 2,899
Facebook followers: 9,358
How many subscribers/customers do you have?
We have 95,000+ riders using the platform annually, with over 1,500 venues (+growing!) offering online entries on STRIDER across the dressage, hunter/ jumper, equitation, eventing, and polo disciplines. The STRIDER platform reach is a bit unique in the market because it supports across all disciplines and breeds. There are a lot of opportunities out there for equestrians!
How have you adapted/updated your solution in the last 3 years?
STRIDER has really expanded to become a one-stop shop for venues to promote activities, collect entries, waivers, and payment for all types of activities. We’re like the VRBO or Travelocity of the horse world. Whether it’s a rated dressage show in Ohio, a hunter pace in Connecticut, a virtual H/J show from Practical Horseman, or a Polo Match in Virginia, you can find and book it on STRIDER.
We worked with USEF last year to expand our StriderFastEntry product to digitally support USEF’s 153,000+ members. We’re now a certified USEF Level 1 horse show entry platform that can process entries across all 29 USEF breeds and disciplines…the only one of its kind in the industry. Our system auto-syncs in real time to automatically pulls stored Coggins, saved horse/ rider profiles from STRIDER, plus up-to-date SafeSport data and owner/ trainer details from USEF’s member database. It’s convenient for the riders and the show organizers.
Last year we also launched our popular eWaiver service. When we spoke with Show Secretaries, we heard the message they needed a way to move off paper waiver signing to cell phone signing for liability releases. The volume of paper processing was simply taking too much time and cost. Our eWaivers service enables high-volume sporting events (you know, horse shows!) to collect and store participant signatures in a digital, cost-effective way.
As part of our emphasis on community, we built our loyalty rewards program, StriderRewards. It enables our users to enter with one click and earn rewards with partner retailers and brands in the equine space.
What are you most proud of with your solution?
We’re proud of the community and connections that our platform enables. Our vision is for entries across disciplines to be as simple as 1-click checkout. Riding, training, and managing horses is hard enough- getting to the horse show should be simple and quick. The best feedback we get from riders is when we hear “I found an amazing new horse show and it was so easy to enter with Strider!” It’s really satisfying when our customer service team and industry partners can work together to help venues smoothly transition to digital solutions.
What are you looking forward to the most post-pandemic?
We’re most excited to engage in-person with the riders, venues and businesses that utilize STRIDER. As folks return to in-person events we’re launching our StriderPlus service with time-based bookings and advanced ticketing functionality. We look forward to expanding our community reach and building out our strategic partnerships group even more to connect our users to some of the best products, services, and opportunities out there.
Original Blog Post
Name: Cavall
Tagline: Connecting buyers & sellers of quality horses on an app
Description:
CAVALL connects buyers and sellers of horses on a mobile app at horse shows. We partner quality riders with top horses by providing premiere marketing services and facilitating horse exposure at horse shows.
Instagram followers: 828
Facebook followers: 226
How many subscribers/customers do you have? We have dozens of customers using the platform presenting 25-30 horses.
How have you adapted/updated your solution in the last 3 years? Originally, we targeted owners and riders looking for horses. We slowly pivoted towards helping our trainers market their horses in a more efficient way. We primarily focused on trainers and finding ways to create revenue generating tools for them. We are planning to launch new solutions which will expand on this to be announced soon!
What are you most proud of with your solution? Our go-to-market strategy has been heavily focused on attending horse shows and creating horse profiles. It is so exciting to see our customers’ eyes light up when they download the app and say: “This is exactly what I have been looking for!” When young riders get excited about finding their next partner for their junior years (which often is a very important time in their riding career), it is extremely humbling to know they would trust CAVALL to help them find their next horses. We have been lucky to market top horses on our app and look forward to the next stages for our company.
What are you looking forward to the most, post-pandemic? I am looking forward to seeing our industry adopt more technology. I believe that COVID has really shown ways we can improve processes both at the barn and at horse shows, create more engaging experiences for our sponsors and exhibitors and most importantly, take care of our horses. Tech will never replace the relationship between riders and their horses, but it creates a great opportunity to enhance it whether it is about finding the next horse to build a relationship with, be there when they need veterinary care, become better riders for them, optimize our horse show operations, among many others. As a full time, private equity investor, I am also excited to see the market eventually consolidate. We are creating an eco-system of fragmented players in the equestrian tech industry, and I believe that the next 100M+ platform will be able to capture incredible value in our sport via M&A and organic growth (for example Voltaire acquired Equisense). It is only the beginning, and I am so thrilled to see more tech companies in our space scale!