{"id":5354,"date":"2025-05-06T23:58:31","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T03:58:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/miwf.org\/?p=5354"},"modified":"2025-05-07T00:12:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T04:12:12","slug":"horselinc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/miwf.org\/small-business-success-stories\/horselinc\/","title":{"rendered":"HorseLinc: A high-tech lifeline for horse-owners and caregivers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the horse world, Mondays are for catching up \u2014 on invoices, missed calls, and the chaos of weekend shows. For Misty Pleiness, a nationally ranked amateur jumper and lifelong horsewoman, Mondays used to mean hours of manual data entry just to keep up with her horses\u2019 care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019d get invoices from 12 different directions \u2014 text, email, paper, even the occasional Post It,\u201d Misty says. \u201cThen I\u2019d spend my whole day off trying to make sense of it all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That pain point became her lightbulb moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HorseLinc<\/a>, the app Misty launched in 2019, is now helping horse owners and service providers across the country connect, collect, and communicate in a way the equine industry has never seen before. Think of it like Venmo meets a digital medical record system \u2014 but for horses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One App to Rule the Barn<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The average show horse has about a dozen service providers: farriers, veterinarians, trainers, massage therapists, dentists \u2014 the list goes on. Traditionally, each operates in a silo, leaving horse owners buried in invoices and missing critical information like vaccination dates or shoeing schedules. HorseLinc solves all of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The app is built as a dual-sided platform \u2014 service providers can schedule appointments, issue invoices, and get paid; horse owners and barn managers can request services, track medical records, and maintain a comprehensive care history for each horse. Everyone sees the same information in real time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it\u2019s not just for recordkeeping. \u201cYou can attach files like vaccination records, health papers \u2014 even favorite videos or photos of your horse to send to prospective buyers,\u201d Misty says. \u201cIt\u2019s your horse\u2019s whole history, all in one place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Braiding Manes to Building Platforms<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Misty\u2019s journey into the equine world didn\u2019t come with silver spoons or six-figure ponies. Growing up on a dairy farm near Ludington, she saved up to buy her first horse \u2014 an 18-year-old named Heggie \u2014 at age 11. By 17, she was competing at The Grand National & World Championship Morgan Horse Show, working for top trainers and braiding horses to pay her way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Braiding, in fact, helped fund her college education. She earned her CPA and built a career in IT auditing. \u201cI basically made sure computer systems spit out the right numbers for the auditors,\u201d she laughs. That background in accounting and technology, plus a deep knowledge of the horse world, gave her a unique lens to see how fragmented and inefficient the industry\u2019s operations had become.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final spark? A six-hour drive home after a show in 2017, where she waited five hours to get paid by a client who\u2019d forgotten their checkbook. \u201cI just kept thinking, there has got to be a better way.\u201d By 2018, HorseLinc was live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growth, Grit, and Michigan Women Forward<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Launching a tech platform in a niche industry isn\u2019t for the faint of heart. Misty self-funded the initial version of the app, then upgraded to a more robust system in late 2019 \u2014 right before the pandemic derailed her plans for trade shows and on-the-ground marketing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had spent money getting the app in a great place, and then everything came to a halt,\u201d she says. That\u2019s when someone referred her to Michigan Women Forward. The organization provided funding to help cover development costs and support new marketing efforts during those uncertain months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCompared to going to a bank, it was night and day,\u201d Misty says. \u201cThe process was simple, the team was supportive, and there were even surprise moments \u2014 like when a few months of loan payments were covered by outside donors. That kind of generosity gave me breathing room when I really needed it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also participated in MWF\u2019s WomanUp & Pitch competition, earning second place and $5,000 to reinvest in her business. \u201cIt was such a great experience,\u201d she says. \u201cI learned so much from it \u2014 and it reminded me that I\u2019m not alone in this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Vision for the Future of Horse Care<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Today, Misty manages HorseLinc while living full-time on the road in a fifth-wheel camper with her Belgian warmblood jumper, Snoopy. The two have competed at some of the most prestigious shows in the country, including Devon and the Washington International. Misty has ranked among the top 10 adult amateur jumpers in the United States. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But she\u2019s just as focused on helping others simplify their horse care. Her latest vision for HorseLinc includes new subscription-based features, like task management tools for trainers and grooms, and multilingual capabilities that allow Spanish-speaking barn staff to view care instructions in their native language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe dream is to connect everything \u2014 from medical records to horse show entries to scheduling braiding services \u2014 all in one app,\u201d she says. \u201cBecause this industry runs on relationships, but it also runs better with information.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With HorseLinc, Misty isn\u2019t just building software \u2014 she\u2019s shaping the future of how an entire industry operates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Get more information about Michigan Women Forward’s small business loans<\/a> to help you start or grow your business. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the horse world, Mondays are for catching up \u2014 on invoices, missed calls, and the chaos of weekend shows. For Misty Pleiness, a nationally ranked amateur jumper and lifelong […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5355,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"ghostkit_customizer_options":"","ghostkit_custom_css":"","ghostkit_custom_js_head":"","ghostkit_custom_js_foot":"","ghostkit_typography":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[55,47],"class_list":["post-5354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-small-business-success-stories","tag-business-loan","tag-entrepreneurship"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHorseLinc: A high-tech lifeline for horse-owners and caregivers - Michigan Women Forward<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How Michigan Women Forward helped Misty Pleiness launch HorseLinc, an app that helps horse owners and service providers across the country connect, collect, and communicate.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/miwf.org\/small-business-success-stories\/horselinc\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"HorseLinc: A high-tech lifeline for horse-owners and caregivers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How Michigan Women Forward helped Misty Pleiness launch HorseLinc, an app that helps horse owners and service providers across the country connect, collect, and communicate.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/miwf.org\/small-business-success-stories\/horselinc\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Michigan Women Forward\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MichiganWomenForward\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-07T03:58:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-07T04:12:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/miwf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Blog-Photo-\u2013-800x520-16.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"520\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Julia Elliott\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Julia Elliott\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":[\"Article\",\"BlogPosting\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/miwf.org\/small-business-success-stories\/horselinc\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/miwf.org\/small-business-success-stories\/horselinc\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Julia Elliott\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/miwf.org\/#\/schema\/person\/4f68cbe845b39d3ffcfb99b9357540c2\"},\"headline\":\"HorseLinc: A high-tech lifeline for horse-owners and caregivers\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-07T03:58:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-07T04:12:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/miwf.org\/small-business-success-stories\/horselinc\/\"},\"wordCount\":836,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/miwf.org\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/miwf.org\/small-business-success-stories\/horselinc\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/miwf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Blog-Photo-\u2013-800x520-16.png\",\"keywords\":[\"Business Loan\",\"Entrepreneurship\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Small Business Success Stories\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/miwf.org\/small-business-success-stories\/horselinc\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/miwf.org\/small-business-success-stories\/horselinc\/\",\"name\":\"HorseLinc: A high-tech lifeline for horse-owners and caregivers - 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