Barn management, built for trainers.
Barn in Order takes admin off your plate, starting with month-end billing: log each extra and shared cost, then reconcile alongside QuickBooks, Wave or whatever you already use.
We're looking for 10–20 trainers. We label each feature Planned, In development, Tried at a pilot barn or Running at a pilot barn today. The names in the mockup are demo data.
Today · Demo Barn
Mockup, plannedOnly a person marks anything given or done.
Start your morning with the Barn Daily Brief
Each morning, your barn gets one brief of what's happening today across horses, lessons, shows and care reminders. You read it once, first thing, instead of piecing the day together from texts and whiteboards.
Built for the trainers I see at the shows
I'm Marti Smith, a horse-show parent in the Colorado hunter/jumper community, and I'm not a trainer. I've spent my career in process improvement. I've managed several international moves, coordinated care for horses and evaluated barns. Now I'm building Barn in Order for the trainers I've gotten to know at the shows.
At the shows, I see where their time goes. Riding and teaching are the job. Trainers also carry a second job: billing the extras, passing on what the vet said, keeping grain and meds straight, getting ready for the next show and posting about it afterward. They keep that second job on whiteboards, in group texts, on scraps of paper and in their heads.
Barn in Order is barn management for horse trainers. It takes that admin off their plate, and the trainer still checks and decides. Before we build more, I'm running the beta to hear from trainers how their barns run.
Where we're starting: the trainer problems we hear most
We're starting with the problems trainers raise most, and we'll keep adding as the beta grows. Trainers come first, then boarders and lessons. We label each answer with where it stands today.
Month-end billing takes hours
It's the end of the month, and the extras still don't match the bill.
You rack up braids, clips, hauls and shared show costs all day. At month-end, matching them to what you bill, then creating and fixing invoices, takes hours on top of the riding.
Log each extra and keep your own billing.
- Tried at a pilot barn, it cut month-end reconciliation from about 3 hours to 30 minutes, as reported by the pilot barn.
- Log a braid, a haul or a shared cost when it happens.
- A person reviews the extras before anything leaves the app, then exports a CSV.
- You then create and adjust invoices from that CSV in QuickBooks, Wave or whatever you already use.
- Your invoices and payments stay in your own accounting tool. Barn in Order doesn't send invoices, take payments or take a cut.
You run show weeks on lists and group texts
Before we load the trailer, what's still left?
You track entries, Coggins, braiding and arrival times, then split hauling, stalls, grooming and other shared costs across clients when you get home.
A countdown for each show
- Days to the show, with what's still left: entries, Coggins, braiding.
- You log shared show costs as extras and review them before billing.
- Next, we plan to put show day in one place: order of go, rotations, arrival times, hauling and results.
The vet's instructions get lost
The vet leaves a sheet, and three days later nobody's sure what it said.
Getting the vet's instructions to whoever does the care, and knowing it got done, is hard when the sheet is sitting on a truck dashboard.
The vet's sheet, kept and followed up
- Orders are entered from the discharge sheet, confirmed, then locked. Changes add a new version; nothing is overwritten.
- The recheck date becomes a reminder.
- Reminders and records only. Your vet makes the medical decisions; the app never does.
- Medical records are never exported.
Grain and meds changes don't reach the night feeder
Who changed the grain program, and does the night feeder know?
A change at noon has to reach the evening crew. And someone has to know who gave what.
Each horse's program, as you wrote it
- Grain and meds programs per horse, shown exactly as entered, on the Today list.
- Only a person marks a dose given.
- No dose math and no suggestions.
Things fall through the cracks
Last month, did a farrier date or a vaccine slip through?
You keep farrier dates, vaccines, Coggins, deworming and rechecks in your head, so something slips.
One Today list, by horse and time
- Overdue and due-now items first, then later ones, across care, shows and month-end review.
- Reminders inside the app for what's still left. A person acts on them.
You lose your evenings to social media
You'd rather be riding than writing captions.
For a lot of trainers, the barn's social media is one more job at the end of the day.
Social Studio: post drafts you approve
- The app drafts a post from a show result or barn news.
- You edit it, approve it and share it from your phone. The app posts nothing on its own.
- No photos of kids without a parent's OK on file.
The ground rules
You stay in charge
A person confirms each record, reviews each extra and approves each post. The app keeps track, and you decide.
Works with what you use
Billing reconciliation works alongside QuickBooks, Wave or whatever you already use. You keep your own books. Tried at a pilot barn
Made for the barn aisle
A phone app with Today as the home screen, and offline use for barns with bad signal. Planned
Boarders and lessons come second. We'll add boarder views of their own horse and lesson scheduling after the trainer tools. Planned
Honest about what's ready
Barn Daily Brief
The morning brief, covering today's horses, lessons, shows and care reminders, runs at a pilot barn today.
Membership and registration tracking
Tracks each rider's USEF, CHJA, USHJA and NHS membership status and each horse's registration in one place.
Billing reconciliation
A pilot barn tried month-end billing reconciliation. It ran alongside the barn's own accounting tool, which the barn kept using.
Billing extras, show countdown and post drafts
Early versions run on demo data, and barns can't use them yet.
Horses and the people around them
We're building the core records for horses, trainers, staff and owners now, on demo data.
The other features on this page
We're designing vet follow-up, meds and grain, the Today list and reminders, and show day with trainers before we build them.
We're looking for 10–20 trainers
If you train horses and the admin gets in the way, we'd like to hear from you. Helping means:
- A short conversation about how your barn runs, with no sales pitch.
- Feedback on early mockups as we build.
- Free access to the beta when it's ready.
Founding members lock in a discounted rate for their first year.
The beta is free for the trainers who help. We'll never ask for client names or any horse's medical details.