Cira Baeck has a story that is quite unique, yet she still decided to use digital stable management to run her business. In this article, you will see real-world examples of how an equine professional uses equicty to manage the health of her horses, work as efficiently as possible with her team and create a thoughtful action plan make a successful plan to be successful in competitions.
When we asked Cira to tell us how she uses equicty’s digital stable management solution, she said ‘I think it’s important that where we’re using equicty now is a little bit different than how we were going to run our previous stable. We have about 150 horses here, all of which have the same owner’. Cira wanted to tell us how she worked differently now to than before. ‘The difference with my old system is that I used to have everything on whiteboards, if a horse had wounds, scratches or a cough, we wrote down such things on the whiteboard. We had a timeline of rehabilitation activities and how long to administer some medications. For me equicty makes my life a lot easier because equicty allows me to plan wherever I am’. Equicty is accessible from anywhere at anytime, giving Cira more flexibility to access, record and update important health information concerning her horses. The fact that equicty always accompanies Cira because she has the choice to access her digital stable environment via her mobile phone, laptop, iPad or computer. This works for Cira since she is not always in her stable but remember she does have a team of hard workers that receive her requests.
Cira goes onto explain that ‘sometimes when you sit on your horse, you realise that the horse could actually use supplements for a while because its skin is dry and the coat is dull, it needs attention or it’s a bit lazy. I would like to give this horse certain supplements. In this case, I usually told myself to write that down and when I was done driving, I didn’t even think about scheduling it on the whiteboard. It now makes my life easier because I immediately pick up my phone and start scheduling, choose which supplements I want to give this horse from the product list and decide how many days I want to give them. The entry is so easy and the next day my grooms get to work giving the supplements and confirming its implementation via the app. The same thing happens when we go into the pasture and you see a horse scratched or wounded, then I can immediately fill it in on my phone to guarantee the follow-up. Again, I select which aftercare I want and how long the aftercare should take place. I set a reminder to check that horse again in three days. Using equicty makes sure I don’t forget anything, so it makes everything very clear to me and my team! Equicty’s support has given me peace of mind and my life has really changed, it’s so much easier now.’
With 150 horses to manage professionally with only 15 employees, Cira can provide her team with the tools to work effectively to complete stable tasks on time and be flexible towards a plan that can change at any moment. Cira says she now has the freedom to check the status of tasks anytime during the day in addition to checking up in the evening. She knows at all times, who did what and if anything has been forgotten. One problem that Cira used to face was ‘sometimes. certain employees in my big team would say to me that they thought that she or he was going to do it and or already did it’. This caused confusion in the stable because the plan got mixed up or we assumed that certain tasks were completed but turned out not to be.
‘With equicty you can perfectly see who completed the task, where they completed it and the hour it was marked completed. So it’s very clear.’
Cira Baeck
There is nothing wrong with a clear plan, where staff members know their responsibilities and where the entire team can monitor progress throughout the day. It saves time, confusion and a system just forms that works because the system is implemented into a stable that recognised they needed it. ‘All my grooms really love the system because it makes their life easier too. Every evening before we go home, everybody checks equicty to see if everything has been completed, and if so, they can go home. So this really helps me a lot for the planning and managing stable as a whole. Even one last issue that we were able to resolve was that we could very easily put in planned farrier visits.’
Now that you have come this far in Cira Baeck’s story. We want to dive deeper into how flexible digital stable management really is in comparison to whiteboard planning. Cira says ‘well the first thing is that you don’t need to stay at the barn and do the planning on the whiteboard, you can just plan while you’re on the couch, kitchen, living room or at a competition. Wherever you might be, you can fill in the plan for the whole week.’ Well, it’s true because equicty has an application that can be downloaded from the apple store or the play store. If you don’t have the app, then it’s still accessible from a laptop or computer. Actually with a laptop or computer, there is more functions available for planning or accessing information. Cira explains that ‘everything is just much clearer, you can sit down on a Sunday evening and check which appointments you have for which horses for the week ahead. If the farrier comes, if one horse needs to go to the vet that week, etc.,. And if you have a horse that had some issues, you can open your monthly plan for that horse and read its historical records to identify trends. Sometimes I realise that this horse showed several signs of this same problem. So indeed with equicty, it makes everything much clearer and easier to keep track of.’ But I’m really looking forward to seeing what the data looks like a year from now. How many times have I ridden the horse, how much rest has the horse had, what competitions have we participated in, what results have we achieved, etc. I used to have all that information on paper and it was quite difficult to find out at the end of the year. I’m looking forward to seeing how this will be in a year from now with insights and stats on certain things that I can compile from the reports. It’s really exciting.’
If you require a digital solution to help you improve your organization and efficiency in your stable, try equicty. Save time, money, and stress by finding the best way to manage your horses, team and administration. Try equicty’s 21-day free trial today and receive expert support during setup.
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