What exporting a horse’s health history to PDF is for
Health records make sense when they reach the person who needs them right now. You have them in the app. But the vet at the clinic, a buyer from the other end of the country or the owner of the stable you are moving your horse to don’t have to have iPalomino. They need something they can open on any device and that can be printed — and that is a PDF.
The export of a horse’s health history to PDF takes everything you have recorded about the animal and assembles it into a document with a clear structure. It doesn’t create new records for you to maintain. It is a snapshot: the state of the records on the day you created the PDF, with the date in the footer of every page.
The more faithfully you keep the horse health record, the more valuable the document you get. A horse with a complete history of vaccinations, dewormings and treatments is easier to sell, insure and treat than a horse whose owner says “I think it was last spring”.
What a horse’s health card in PDF contains
The document has four parts, arranged in the order a person who doesn’t know the horse will read them. Go through them:
Which horse the document is about
Right below the name and age, the reader finds everything needed for identification:
- Species, breed, colour and sex
- Date of birth and age
- Microchip number, passport number and registration number
- Location, stable and owner
What to watch out for with this horse
A highlighted block with the alerts from the animal’s profile — exactly the things a new carer shouldn’t have to find out from their own experience:
- Allergies and intolerance to medicines or feed
- Chronic problems and limitations
- Temperament warnings for handling
Current weight and its development
If you weigh the horse, the PDF states the latest weight and the difference over the whole tracked period:
- Current weight in kilograms
- Gain or loss since the first weigh-in
- The individual weigh-ins in the history of records
A chronological list from the newest
The core of the document. Every record has a date, a type and notes and, if you filled them in, also:
- The active substance or the name of the product
- Who treated the animal
- The date until which the withdrawal period applies
The footer of every page carries the date of creation and the page number, so printed sheets don’t get mixed up and it is clear as of which day the history applies.
How to create and send a PDF with the health history
- Open the animal’s healthIn the horse’s profile go to the health records, where you see the whole history.
- Tap export to PDFThe app creates the document instantly, right on the phone.
- Choose where to send itThe ordinary sharing sheet opens: email, WhatsApp, AirDrop, saving to files or printing.
- DoneThe file has the horse’s name in its title, so the recipient finds it even half a year later.
The PDF is created from the data stored on the phone, so you can produce it even with no signal and send it once you are connected. More on that in the article offline stable app.
When a horse’s health record in PDF is most useful
- Selling a horse — the buyer gets the complete history before coming to look. It saves time for both sides and builds trust.
- A new vet or clinic — when referring the horse for an examination you send the history ahead, so the doctor doesn’t start from zero.
- Changing stables — the new stable knows when the horse was dewormed and vaccinated and fits it into its own regime.
- A longer absence — the person looking after the horse during your holiday has everything in one document.
- Your own archive — a PDF printed once a year and kept in a binder is a backup that needs no battery.
An important note: a PDF from the health records is your own overview, not an official document. It replaces neither the horse passport nor certificates issued by a vet. You can save photographs of the documents themselves in the horse passport and forms module.
Who the export to PDF helps
Horse owners
For a sale, insurance or a visit to the clinic you have the horse’s whole history ready in a few seconds. No leafing through the passport and fishing dates out of old messages.
Farms and breeders
A breeder who sells youngstock attaches each animal’s health history. The buyer sees that the animal has been cared for, and you come across as a breeder who has things in order.
Ranches and stables with a team
When a client takes their horse away from the stable, they get a PDF with everything that happened to the horse at your place. It is a professional full stop to the boarding and an answer to questions that would otherwise arrive by phone a month later.
Professionals: farrier, vet, trainer
The vet gets the history from the client before the visit and knows what to expect: the last vaccination, previous treatments, the substances used and the withdrawal periods.
The most common mistakes when handing over a horse’s health history
Information about a horse’s health can be handed over well or badly. What the bad ways have in common is that something gets lost in them:
- Photos of passport pages over chat. Blurred, in the wrong order and without the treatments that aren’t in the passport. A PDF has everything chronologically and legibly.
- Dictating over the phone. Dates and the names of medicines get garbled in dictation. The recipient reads a document in peace.
- An export from incomplete records. The PDF shows only what you have entered. Add missing vaccinations before you send it.
- An old file from last year. The history has changed in the meantime. A new export takes a second, so always send a fresh one.
- A PDF passed off as an official document. It is an overview of your records, not a certificate from a vet. Tell the recipient so beforehand.
A faithfully kept and legibly handed-over health history is the mark of a good owner. A buyer, a vet and a new stable will value it more than any amount of reassurance.
The PDF, the stall card and sharing right in the app
The health history is not the only document you can get onto paper from the app. The second is the stall card: a sheet with the horse’s name, feed ration, medication, alerts and a QR code that you print and hang on the door. It serves the people standing at the stall — the article QR codes for horse stalls describes it in detail.
And then there is a third way in which nothing needs sending at all: if the vet, farrier or new owner has iPalomino, you can invite them straight into the stable. They see live records instead of a snapshot and can write into them themselves. How to do that is explained in the invite code for staff and professionals.
When a PDF and when an invitation
A PDF is the right choice for a one-off handover of information to someone outside your team. An invitation to the stable suits people you work with long-term. The two options are not mutually exclusive — the vet can have access to the stable and you can still print a PDF for the archive once a year.
The owner is selling a six-year-old gelding. A prospective buyer from another city asks about his state of health and wants to know when the horse was last vaccinated and dewormed. The owner opens the horse’s profile, taps export, and a moment later the PDF is on its way to her by email.
The document holds six years of records: every vaccination with the name of the vaccine, dewormings with the active substance, two treatments after an injury with the vet’s name, and the development of the weight. The buyer forwards the PDF to her own vet, who reads it before the pre-purchase examination and on site deals only with what needs to be seen in person.
Frequently asked questions
What is in the exported PDF?
The animal’s identification details, the alerts from its profile, the current weight with its development, and a chronological history of all health records including the active substance, the person who treated the animal and the withdrawal period.
Can the PDF be created without the internet?
Yes. The document is created right on the phone from the stored data. You need a connection only to send it.
Can I print the PDF?
Yes. The document is paginated, has the date of creation and the page number in the footer, and you print it through the phone’s ordinary printing.
Does the PDF replace the horse passport?
No. It is an overview of your own records, not an official document. The horse passport and veterinary certificates remain the valid documents.
Does a PDF I have sent update itself?
No. The PDF captures the state on the day it was created. After adding new records you simply create a new one.
Related features of the iPalomino app
The export builds on the data from these modules:
Your whole ranch in one pocket.
iPalomino is now on the App Store. Download the app and try it in your own stable. An Android version is in development.