Most horses that work hard have more than one person looking after them. A bodyworker loosens the back, a chiropractor adjusts the pelvis, a trainer decides what the week’s rides look like, and the barn decides when the horse goes out and with whom.
Each of you sees a different part of the same horse. When what you notice stays in your own notes, the next person starts from zero. Here’s how a care team can share what matters without adding work to anyone’s day.
What a care team should share
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Who is on a horse’s care team?
Short answer
Everyone who works on the horse on a regular schedule. For a horse in work, that’s often a bodyworker, a chiropractor, a trainer and the barn that boards it, plus the vet and anyone else who sees the horse.
A care team usually forms around a barn: the same few people come out to most of the horses there: the farrier, the vet, the bodyworker, the trainer, on their own days. It can also form around one horse with an owner who brings in the same people every time.
Nobody needs a title or a meeting. If you’d want to know what the others found before you work on the horse, you’re on the same team.
Why does sharing notes matter?
Short answer
Because what one of you finds often changes what the next one should do. A chiropractor who asks for a week off hills needs the trainer to know before the next ride, and a bodyworker who finds a tight left shoulder wants to know if anything changed since the last visit.
Without shared notes, the owner ends up carrying messages between them, and details get lost on the way. Which side was it? Was it three days off or five?
Shared notes also make each visit faster. When you can read what the others found this month, you spend less time asking and more time working on the horse.
On the design: A chiropractor adjusts a horse’s lower back and asks for flat work only for a week. The trainer reads it that evening and plans the week’s rides around it. The bodyworker sees it before her next visit and checks that area first.
What should go in a shared note?
Short answer
Keep it to what the next person needs: the reason for the visit, what you found, what you did and where, and the plan until next time, including rest, riding and turnout.
A good shared note answers four questions: why were you there, what did you find, what did you do, and what should happen before you’re back. A marked picture of the horse says “left shoulder and withers” faster than a paragraph.
Write it while you’re still at the barn. The details that matter most, like which side was tight or how the horse took the work, are freshest before you get back in the truck.
Is a group text good enough?
Short answer
For a quick question, yes. For notes you need to find later, no. Group texts bury last month’s notes under today’s messages, new people on the team don’t get the history, and photos end up scattered across phones.
Use both for what they’re good at. A quick “running late” or “is he in today?” belongs in a message. A visit report belongs in one list the whole team can open, newest first, with each horse’s history in one place.
Whatever you use, it should work on a phone in a barn aisle with one bar of signal, and it shouldn’t lose a note when the signal drops.
Should the horse’s owner know their notes are shared?
Short answer
Yes. Tell the owner the reports are shared with the horse’s care team, and give them an easy way to stop it. Most owners are glad the people caring for their horse are talking, and the few who aren’t should be able to say so.
Share the horse’s care, not the owner’s details. The team needs to know what was found and what the plan is. It doesn’t need the owner’s phone number, email or address, or the files on their record.
Keep it simple for the owner: a line in the report email that says it’s shared, and one link to stop it. No account to make and nothing to download.
With WWC: In the WWC Care Team App, the report email says the report is shared with the horse’s care team and links to a page where the owner can stop it for that horse. Contact details and files are never shared.
What happens when someone leaves the team?
Short answer
Their access should end the day they leave, and the notes they shared should go with them. Everyone else keeps working with the team they have.
People change barns, and owners change who they call. A care team should make that easy: one tap to leave, no lingering access to other people’s notes, and nothing for the rest of the team to clean up.
How does the WWC Care Team App work?
Short answer
It’s a free add-on on WWC. The members of a care team, the people who work on the same horses, share their session reports and talk on one board, and everyone on the team pays less for WWC: 15% off with 2 members, 20% with 3 and 25% with 4 or more.12
Anyone on WWC starts a team by inviting a member by email, and the team starts when they join; someone who isn’t on WWC yet gets a link to sign up. A team is 2 or more members with no upper limit, and each member is on one team.
You pick which session reports from the Bodywork or Chiropractic App your team sees; a report stays private until you share it. The board takes notes and photos, keeps a post on your phone until you have signal, and emails your teammates about new posts at most once an hour.
With WWC: The discount goes on each member’s own WWC bill, starting with their next one, and updates when someone joins or leaves.
More questions
Does everyone on a care team need the same software?
To share reports and a board in one place, yes. In the WWC Care Team App, everyone on the team has a WWC account, and that’s who gets the team discount.
How many people can be on a care team?
In the WWC Care Team App there’s no limit. The discount tops out at 25% with 4 or more members.2
Can I be on more than one care team?
In the WWC Care Team App, each member is on one team. Accepting an invite from another team moves you to that team.
Are my reports shared automatically?
No. A report is shared only when you pick it. Each report in the Bodywork and Chiropractic Apps has a Share with my care team switch, off until you turn it on, and Choose reports in the Care Team App picks several at once.
Written by the Western Web Co. team. We’re family owned and build WWC in Cave Creek, Arizona.
