When one stable in the app isn’t enough for you
Few people really have their animals in one place. The horses are on the pasture by the forest in summer and at home in winter. The young horses stand at a friend’s place because there aren’t enough stalls at home. The family has a cattle farm and, next to it, a small ranch with riding horses. Or you are a trainer and a farrier in one person and, besides your own horses, you see into three clients’ stables.
Simple apps go about this in two bad ways. Either they throw everything onto one heap — and then you search a list of thirty animals to work out which are where. Or they force you to have a separate account for each place and switch between them with a password.
Managing multiple farms and ranches in iPalomino rests on a simple idea: a stable is a self-contained unit with its own animals, supplies and people, but you as a person have only one day and one calendar. Stables are therefore separated where that makes sense and joined where you need them to be.
How several stables work in one app
The app adapts to how many stables you have. With one, you don’t even know switching exists. With several, a shared view is added. Look at three typical situations:
You have one ranch or one horse
The app is as simple as it can be — you switch nothing and select nothing:
- The home screen shows your stable’s day today
- The calendar shows all appointments and tasks
- A new animal, feed or task automatically belongs to this stable
You have a farm and a ranch, or a summer and a winter stable
You switch between stables by tapping the name in the header, and a shared overview is added:
- A shared calendar with the stable’s label on every appointment
- A “today” overview across all stables
- Animals, stock and contacts separately for each stable
- For a new task you choose which stable it concerns
You are a professional or keep a horse at someone’s place
Stables someone has invited you to are shown next to your own:
- Each is marked as shared, with the owner’s name
- You see in it what your role allows
- Their appointments are in the same shared calendar
- You can leave a shared stable at any time
The number of stables neither slows the app down nor complicates it — everything you don’t need stays hidden until you add a second stable.
Horses, cows, goats, sheep and other species
iPalomino was born among horses, but a farm seldom has horses only. When adding an animal you therefore choose from more than twenty species:
- Equines — horse, pony, donkey, mule.
- Cattle — cow, bull, calf.
- Small livestock — goat, sheep, pig, rabbit, poultry.
- Less common animals — llama, alpaca, deer, bees, fish, peacock.
- Companions in the yard — dog and cat.
- Other — for everything that didn’t fit into the list.
The species is not just an icon next to the name. The app uses it, for example, to calculate the expected date of birth — a mare, a cow, a goat and a ewe each have a different length of gestation, as the article horse breeding and foaling date shows. Everything else works the same for every species: profile, health records, medication, feeding, tasks and documents.
Thanks to that you have a goat with a yearly vaccination, a cow with a withdrawal period after treatment and a horse with a farrier appointment in one calendar. The basics of record-keeping are described in the article animal records and horse profiles.
How to add another farm or ranch
- Open the settingsIn your profile you will find the list of your stables.
- Add a new stableYou enter a name — for example “Summer pasture” or “Farm at my parents’”.
- Fill itAdd new animals, or move existing ones by changing the stable in their profile.
- Invite peopleEach stable has its own invite codes and its own list of people with access.
When you move an animal to another stable, its whole history travels with it: health records, documents, medication and planned appointments. You set nothing up afresh.
Who managing multiple farms helps
Horse owners
Do you have one horse at home and another in training elsewhere? Each is in its own stable, yet you see both horses’ appointments in one calendar. And if the training stable invites you in, you also see what it records about your horse.
Farms and breeders
A farm with cattle, sheep and a few horses doesn’t need three different notebooks. Livestock records and horse records are in one app, and each herd can have its own stable with its own feed stock.
Ranches and stables with a team
Do you run several premises, or keep boarded horses separate from school horses? Each stable has its team and its supplies, and you have the “today” overview across all of them at once.
Professionals: farrier, vet, trainer
A farrier, vet or trainer sees all the clients’ stables they have been invited to in one place. In the morning they check the shared calendar to see where they are going today and what awaits them there.
The most common mistakes in managing multiple farms and stables
Two operations don’t mean twice the work — provided you don’t make these mistakes:
- All the animals in one list. With thirty animals in three places it is a riddle. Each stable has its own list.
- Different records for each place. A notebook on the farm, a spreadsheet at the ranch. Then the overall picture exists nowhere. The app has a shared calendar.
- One stock for two places. A number that combines the hay on the pasture with the hay at home is useless. The feed stock is separate for each stable.
- The whole team sees everything. The groom from the ranch doesn’t need the sheep records. You invite people to a specific stable.
- The animal moved only physically. In the records it stayed in the old place together with its appointments. Changing the stable in the profile moves everything at once.
Managing multiple farms works when the stables are separated in their data and joined in the overview. That is exactly how the app for the farm and the ranch is built.
One overview of the day across farms and ranches
The greatest risk with several stables is that you forget one of them. While you are dealing with the ranch, a deworming date lapses on the farm. The shared calendar prevents that: a dot under a day means something is happening — and after a tap you see what and where.
Notifications and reminders work the same way. An alert carries the stable’s name, so you know at once whether “Farrier tomorrow at 9:00” concerns the ranch or the pasture. And for tasks and appointments that concern several animals at once, you select the whole stable or only some of the animals.
What shouldn’t be mixed, on the other hand, stays separate. The feed stock is separate for each stable, because the hay on the pasture won’t feed the horses at home. So are the contacts — the vet for cattle is often a different one from the vet for horses. And roles and access are set for each stable individually.
A family has a farm on the hill with forty sheep and six cows, and in the village a small ranch with eight horses, three of which belong to clients. In the app they have two stables: “Farm” and “Ranch”.
The parents have access to the farm as workers; a groom and three clients as horse owners have access to the ranch. In the morning the owner opens the app and sees in one overview: on the farm the withdrawal period ends today for two sheep, at the ranch the farrier comes at ten and the oats are running low. Two operations, one view, no notebook.
Frequently asked questions
Can I have several stables in the app?
Yes. In one account you can have several farms, ranches or stables and switch between them by tapping the stable’s name.
Do I see appointments from all stables at once?
Yes. When you have several stables, the calendar and the overview of the day show appointments and tasks from all of them, with the stable’s label.
Which species does the app support?
Horses, ponies, donkeys and mules, cows, bulls and calves, goats, sheep, pigs, rabbits, poultry, llamas, alpacas, deer, bees, fish, peacocks, dogs, cats and an Other category.
Can an animal be moved to another stable?
Yes. You change the stable in the animal’s profile, and its records, documents and appointments move with it.
Does each stable have its own team?
Yes. Invite codes and the list of people with access are managed separately for each stable.
Related features of the iPalomino app
With several stables and species you will also use:
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.