Why reminders for the stable are more than an alarm clock
Around horses nothing happens all at once, but everything happens all the time. Vaccination once a year, the farrier every six weeks, deworming twice a year, a medicine morning and evening, feeding every day. Taken one by one they are trifles. Together they are a calendar nobody can keep in their head — and with animals a forgotten date is not forgiven as easily as a missed email.
Notifications and reminders in iPalomino are not a separate feature that needs setting up. They arise by themselves from what you do in the app. You create an appointment — a reminder comes. You enter a medicine — it reminds you at the set time. You plan a feeding — the app starts watching the supplies. You only decide how far ahead and about what you want to be told.
The difference from the alarm on your phone lies in the context. A reminder knows which horse it concerns, what kind of appointment it is and who else should know about it.
Everything the app reminds you of
- Calendar appointments — farrier, vet, vaccination, deworming, training, competitions. On the day of the appointment or a few days ahead, depending on your setting.
- Tasks — a reminder at the time the task is due, and an alert for overdue tasks.
- Medication and dosing — every day at the time of administration, optionally 15 minutes to 2 hours beforehand.
- Feeding — a reminder of a planned feeding with the amount and the animals.
- Professionals’ visits — in the morning on the day the farrier or vet is due.
- Health — an approaching yearly booster, deworming and the end of a withdrawal period.
Each of these reminders arises in a different module: appointments in the stable calendar, tasks in tasks for grooms and the team, feedings in horse feeding and feed stock and health alerts in the horse health record.
When the reminder for a vaccination or the farrier arrives
For every appointment you choose how many days in advance you want to be alerted. If you set a lead time, the reminder comes twice: first ahead of time, so that you manage to prepare everything, and then in the morning on the day of the appointment. Try out different settings:
You set the lead time separately for each appointment — a week ahead for a vaccination if you like, while for training the day itself is enough.
Alerts for staff, the vet and the horse’s owner
When you share the stable with other people, notifications stop being just your private reminder. The app lets everyone know whom a change concerns:
- New task — and if it is assigned to a specific person, only they receive it, with the text “New task for you”.
- Urgent task — distinguished already in the alert so that it doesn’t get lost among ordinary ones.
- Task done — you know the work is finished, without a phone call.
- New, rescheduled or cancelled appointment — the farrier is coming a day later? The whole team knows.
- Feeding confirmed — an overview that the horses got what they should.
- New health record — when the vet enters a treatment or the groom an injury.
The alert carries the stable’s name in its header and the name of the person who made the change. The owner of a boarded horse receives only alerts that concern their horse. Who has which permissions is described in the article roles and access.
How to set notifications to suit you
- Allow the app to send alertsAt your first appointment or after joining a stable the app asks whether it may send notifications.
- Choose the lead time for an appointmentIn each appointment you set whether you want the reminder on the day or a few days in advance.
- Set the time for medicationFor a medicine you choose the time of administration and how far ahead the app should speak up.
- Turn off what you don’t needThe settings have switches by type: medication and dosing, tasks, calendar appointments and health.
The switches apply to your device. A groom can have tasks on and stock off, the owner exactly the other way round — everyone gets only what they need for their work.
Who notifications and reminders help
Horse owners
You will no longer forget a booster, the farrier or the dentist. The reminder comes with notice, so you have time to arrange the date, and the medicine the horse should get in the evening is brought to mind exactly then.
Farms and breeders
On a farm with dozens of animals the app keeps in its head what you would otherwise write on the kitchen calendar: deworming the herd, the end of a withdrawal period, the morning feeding.
Ranches and stables with a team
In a stable with a team, notifications replace half the phone calls. A new task reaches the groom by itself; its completion reaches you. Nobody has to write “have you done it yet?”.
Professionals: farrier, vet, trainer
A vet or farrier connected to the stable gets an alert for a new appointment and for its rescheduling. The client doesn’t have to forward anything, and the date doesn’t get lost in messages.
The most common mistakes with reminders and notifications
Reminders help only when you trust them. These mistakes cause people to start ignoring them:
- Absolutely everything is switched on. When the phone pings twenty times a day, you stop noticing it. Keep only the types of alerts you really need.
- A reminder only on the day. That is too late for booking the vet or buying a vaccine. Set a lead time.
- An alarm without context. “Medicine 18:00” in an alarm doesn’t say which horse or how much. A reminder in the app does.
- Notifications switched off on the phone. If the system doesn’t allow them for the app, nothing arrives. It is worth checking once in the phone’s settings.
- Relying on someone to remember. In a team everyone thinks someone else is keeping an eye on the date. An alert for the whole team closes that gap.
Well-set stable reminders are quiet. They speak up rarely, but always when something needs doing — and that is exactly why nobody overlooks them.
Horse vaccination and medication reminders in practice
Notifications pay off most for things that recur rarely. A vaccination once a year is exactly the date nobody remembers — and yet missing it can mean repeating the whole primary course or a ban on competing. It is enough to enter it once with a yearly repeat and a reminder a week ahead.
The opposite case is medication: a short period but a strict regime. Morning and evening, seven days. A reminder at the time of administration ensures that no dose is skipped, even when different people take turns with the horse.
After an injury the mare Luna is to get a medicine for ten days, at eight in the morning and six in the evening. The owner enters the medicine in her profile with both times and a fifteen-minute lead. At 7:45 her phone buzzes: “Luna · Medicine — at 8:00”.
On Saturday she is away and the groom is in charge of the horses. She gives him two urgent tasks for administering the medicine. The groom gets the alert, gives the medicine and ticks the task off — and the owner receives a message that the task is done. Not a single dose was missed.
Frequently asked questions
When will I get a reminder for an appointment?
According to the setting on the appointment — on the day or the chosen number of days in advance. With an advance reminder, an alert arrives once more in the morning on the day itself.
Will my employees get alerts too?
Yes, if they are connected to the stable with an invite code. They get alerts for new tasks, appointments and other changes within the scope of their role.
Can some notifications be turned off?
Yes. The settings have switches for medication and dosing, tasks, calendar appointments and health. Everyone sets them on their own device.
Do reminders work without the internet?
Reminders for your own appointments, tasks and medication are stored on the phone and arrive even with no signal. Alerts about changes made by someone else on the team need a connection.
Related features of the iPalomino app
Notifications are based on the data in 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.