Why tips for horse owners are right in the app
Anyone who buys their first horse finds there are more questions than answers. What do you groom with, and in what order? Is it normal for a horse not to want to lift its feet? Can it have apples? What does it mean when it lies down and looks at its belly? The answers exist, but they are scattered across forums, videos of varying quality and advice from people at the fence who often contradict one another.
Tips for horse owners in iPalomino are a selected set of guides for situations everyone with a horse encounters. They are short and practical, and most of them come with a video in which you see what it looks like in real life — because reading how to tie a safety knot and seeing it are two different things.
The tips replace neither a trainer nor a vet. They are meant to give you confidence in ordinary matters and help you recognise the moment when it is time to call a specialist.
What the tips are about: from buying a horse to groundwork
The tips are arranged the way life with a horse goes — from the decision to buy one to the first exercises together. Browse the individual areas:
Before you buy a horse — and what to feed it afterwards
The foundations everything else stands on:
- Buying a horse: health and papers
- Supplementary feeding
- Vegetables and fruit
- SOS — when your horse acts strangely
- What your horse should know
Five steps of grooming and what goes with them
A series of videos that goes through grooming tool by tool:
- Metal curry comb
- Rubber curry comb
- Stiff brush
- Soft brush
- Mane and tail
- Sweat scraper
Hoof care and minor wounds
Jobs every owner should manage on their own:
- Cleaning hooves
- Hoof ointment
- Wound spray
- Scared of sprays? How to get your horse used to one
Safe handling and the basics of training
From putting on a halter to the first exercises:
- Putting on a halter and the safety knot
- Putting on a rope halter
- Groundwork
- The “wait” command
- Backing up
- Bending the head to the sides
- Desensitisation
The videos play right in the tip and you need an internet connection to start them. You can read the texts of the tips at any time.
Horse care: grooming, hooves and the first-aid kit
Everyday care looks simple until you do it on your own for the first time. The grooming series therefore goes tool by tool: what a metal curry comb is for and why it doesn’t belong on the horse, when to use the rubber one, in what order the brushes come, and how to comb out the mane and tail without pulling them out.
Hooves are a chapter of their own. Cleaning hooves is a job that should be done daily, and at the same time the one beginners fear most. The video shows where to stand, how to lift the leg and what to look for in the hoof. It is followed by a tip on hoof ointment — when it makes sense and when it doesn’t.
And then the small things that decide whether there is peace in the stable: how to get a horse used to the sound of a spray so that treating a wound doesn’t turn into a wrestling match, how to use a wound spray, and what a sweat scraper is for after a wash.
Everything you discover while caring for the horse — a graze, a change in a hoof, weight loss — you can write straight into the horse health record, and you can keep an eye on the farrier’s appointment in the stable calendar.
Groundwork and the basics of safe handling
A horse that can stand calmly, yield and let itself be led is safer for the owner, the farrier and the vet. Groundwork is not a discipline for the advanced — it is an alphabet every horse should master, and so should every person who handles it.
- Putting on a halter and a rope halter — correctly and without a chase round the paddock.
- Safety knot — a tie you can undo with a single pull in an emergency.
- The “wait” command — the horse stays standing even when you walk away from it.
- Backing up — respect for a person’s space, the basis for leading and loading.
- Bending the head to the sides — suppling and preparation for work under saddle.
- Desensitisation — how to teach a horse that a plastic bag, a spray or a tarpaulin is no reason to bolt.
The tip “What your horse should know” puts these skills into context: it is a list of things every horse should manage so that ordinary life with it is safe — giving its feet, letting itself be tied, loading into a trailer, standing for treatment.
If something is beyond you, it is time for a trainer. You save or look up their contact in the contacts: vet, farrier, trainer module.
Who the tips help
Horse owners
Above all beginner owners: a short video shows you how to do things correctly before you pick up a bad habit. More experienced owners will find inspiration for groundwork and a way of explaining some things to children.
Farms and breeders
On a farm where the whole family looks after the animals, it is good when everyone does the basic jobs the same way. A video is a shared guide that can be referred to.
Ranches and stables with a team
A new seasonal helper or volunteer? Instead of half an hour of explaining, you show them the tips on grooming, hooves and the safety knot. You save time and reduce the risk of injury.
Professionals: farrier, vet, trainer
A trainer can recommend a specific tip to a client as homework between lessons: this week “wait” and backing up, next time bending. The client knows exactly what to practise.
The most common mistakes of beginner horse owners
Every owner has made at least a few of them. The tips in the app are put together so that you can avoid them:
- Buying a horse without a pre-purchase examination. Enthusiasm is a poor adviser. An independent vet before the purchase costs a fraction of later treatment.
- Treats without limit. An apple pleases, a bucket of apples harms. The tip on vegetables and fruit says what and how much.
- Skipping the hooves. “I can’t be bothered today” easily turns into a week. Cleaning hooves belongs to every day.
- Tying up tight. A spooked horse on a fixed knot will hurt itself. A safety knot comes undone with a single pull.
- Waiting to see whether it passes. If a horse doesn’t eat, lies down and looks round at its belly, you don’t wait until morning. You call the vet.
Horse care can’t be learnt in a weekend, but good habits are worth having from day one. The short video guides are exactly long enough for you to watch them on the way to the stable.
Buying a horse and what to do when your horse acts strangely
Two tips deserve a special mention, because they can save the most money and worry.
Buying a horse: health and papers
Buying a horse is a decision for years, and mistakes made at that point are expensive. The tip goes through what to look at regarding the state of health, why a pre-purchase examination by an independent vet pays off, and which documents the horse should have in order before you sign a contract. Once you have bought the horse, you store its documents in the horse passport and forms module, and you can ask the seller for an export of the horse’s health history to PDF.
SOS — when your horse acts strangely
A horse won’t tell you what hurts. It shows it through behaviour: it doesn’t eat, lies down and gets up, paws, looks round at its belly, stands apart from the herd. The tip describes the warning signs for which you shouldn’t wait until morning, and what to get ready before the vet arrives. You have their number in the app, one tap away in the emergency overview.
And for everyday questions about feed there are the tips on supplementary feeding and on vegetables and fruit — what you can give a horse, in what quantity and what to avoid. You then plan the feed rations themselves in the horse feeding and feed stock module.
A month ago Petra bought her first mare. Cleaning hooves is stressful for both of them — the mare snatches her leg away and Petra is afraid. In the evening she plays the tip on cleaning hooves in the app and notices that she stands too far away and holds the leg too high.
The next day she tries it the way the video shows. A week later the mare offers her feet by herself, and while cleaning Petra discovers a wedged pebble before it does any harm. She writes a note in the health record and shows it to the farrier at the next visit.
Frequently asked questions
Which tips will I find in the app?
More than twenty practical tips: buying a horse, supplementary feeding, vegetables and fruit, grooming, hoof care, treating wounds, safe handling and groundwork.
Do the tips have videos too?
Most tips have a short video shot in portrait that plays right in the tip. You need the internet to play a video.
Are the tips suitable for beginners?
Yes. They are written for people who haven’t had a horse for long, and they start from the basics. They are also useful for more experienced owners as an overview and inspiration.
Do the tips replace a vet or a trainer?
No. They help with ordinary care and with recognising a problem. In the event of health problems always contact a vet.
In which language are the tips?
The texts of the tips are translated into the languages the app supports, including English.
Related features of the iPalomino app
What you learn from the tips you will use 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.