Stable Secretary: Features, Pricing, and Alternatives in 2026
Stable Secretary is a UK-based stable management app used by thousands of horse owners and barn managers to log health care events, track feeding schedules, and store horse records. As of 2026, it offers a free tier and paid plans in the $5 to $10 USD per month range, but it faces real competition from newer barn management software built for professional boarding facilities.
What is Stable Secretary? Stable Secretary is cloud-based equine management software that centralizes all the information horses generate every day: health care logs, vaccination records, farrier visits, veterinary notes, and competition history. Available as a stable secretary app on iOS and Android and accessible through any browser via the stable secretary login, it was built for individual horse owners but functions as a lightweight stable management app for small yards as well.
What Stable Secretary Does Well
Stable Secretary's core strength is simplicity. The platform lets you build a profile for each horse, log daily care, and share records with vets, trainers, or co-owners. Here is what the platform covers across all plans:
- Horse profiles. Store breed, age, ownership details, insurance, and registration documents.
- Health care tracking. Log vaccinations including Rabies, EEE, WEE, West Nile, Potomac Horse Fever, and Coggins test dates. The AAEP vaccination guidelines are a useful reference when building these reminder schedules.
- Feeding and supplement logs. Track daily rations and adjustments over time.
- Farrier and dentist records. Schedule and document appointments.
- Competition history. Record results and track USEF or USEA registrations.
- Document storage. Attach photos, PDFs, and health certificates to each horse profile.
The mobile app works well for quick daily entries from the barn aisle, which is where Stable Secretary earns its reputation: low friction for the horse owner who wants digital records without complex setup.
Where it falls short is facility-level barn management. There is no invoicing engine, no boarder portal, no automated billing through Stripe, and no integration with QuickBooks. If you run a boarding operation with multiple horses across multiple owners, those gaps become operational problems quickly.
Stable Secretary Pricing in 2026
Stable Secretary runs on a freemium model. The free tier covers a limited number of horse profiles and basic logging, making it one of the more accessible options for anyone looking for free horse stable management software. Paid plans unlock additional horses, document storage, and reporting.
As of 2026, published pricing sits in the range of a few pounds per month for individual plans, which translates to roughly $5 to $10 USD depending on tier and exchange rate. There is no enterprise or facility pricing tier. That structural gap is the main story: Stable Secretary is designed as a personal horse management app, not a full equine business management software solution.
For barn managers comparing options, equine management software free alternatives like EquineGenie's entry offering or HorseReport's basic plan provide similar individual-horse tracking at no cost, while platforms like BarnManager deliver the facility-level feature set that boarding operations require.
Feature Comparison: Stable Secretary vs. Alternatives
The table below compares Stable Secretary against three commonly evaluated platforms across the dimensions barn managers care about most.
| Feature | Stable Secretary | Stables | BarnManager | EquineGenie |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mobile app (iOS and Android) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Limited |
| Free tier available | Yes | Trial available | No | Yes |
| Boarder billing and invoicing | No | Yes | Yes | Partial |
| Stripe or payment integration | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| QuickBooks sync | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Health care and vaccination logs | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Coggins and document storage | Yes | Yes | Yes | Limited |
| Boarder self-service portal | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Automated payment reminders | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Multi-barn support | No | Yes | No | No |
| Facility-level reporting | No | Yes | Yes | Partial |
Takeaway: Stable Secretary covers personal horse stable management cleanly. Once you are running a boarding facility, the missing billing and boarder communication tools push most operators toward a dedicated barn management software.
For a detailed side-by-side breakdown, see BarnManager vs Stable Secretary vs Stables: 2026 Comparison.
How to Choose the Right Barn Management Software for Your Operation
Not every barn needs the same tool. Use this framework to match your operation size to the right category of stable software:
- Individual owner, one to three horses. A stable secretary app or stable management software free option is usually sufficient. Stable Secretary's free tier and EquineGenie's basic plan handle health records, farrier logs, and vaccination tracking at no cost.
- Small private yard, four to ten horses, single owner. You need something between personal and professional. Look for a stable manager app that adds scheduling and document management without a steep learning curve. This is where Stable Secretary's paid plans and BusyBarns compete directly.
- Boarding facility, ten to fifty horses, multiple owners. This is where the category splits. You need boarder billing, automated invoicing, a payment processor, and a boarder-facing portal. Horse barn management software platforms like Stables and BarnManager are built for exactly this range.
- Large equestrian center or multi-barn operation. You need horse farm management software with multi-location support, role-based access, facility-level reporting, and accounting sync with QuickBooks. This is the enterprise tier of equine stable management tooling.
- Training or competition-focused yard. If USEF, USEA, or AAEP compliance documentation drives your workflow, prioritize platforms with strong health care record exports and competition tracking built in.
- Budget-constrained startup barn. Evaluate equine management software free tiers first. Migrate to a paid platform when billing complexity demands it. Starting on the wrong paid plan is a sunk cost that does not get easier to unwind.
See the Best Barn Manager App for Boarding Facilities (2026 Roundup) for full competitive scoring across the horse farm management software field.
Where Stables Fits in This Landscape
Stables is an AI-powered platform built for equine stable management at the facility level. It handles everything Stable Secretary does not: boarder invoicing, automated payment collection via Stripe, health care record management across an entire horse roster, and a clean mobile app that works for both stable managers and horse owners on the same account.
The AI layer is what separates Stables from the rest of the field in 2026. The platform surfaces patterns in horse management data, flags overdue vaccinations (Rabies, EEE, WEE, West Nile, Potomac Horse Fever), and triggers billing reminders before they become late payments. That combination of equine business management software depth and predictive tooling is not something Stable Secretary or BarnManager currently delivers.
For a boarding operation weighing its options, the full feature breakdown is at horse management software. Stables is worth a serious look if you manage ten or more horses in board and want your stable software to do more than passive record-keeping.
!Top-down view of a horse health record binder open on a tack room counter with a digital tablet
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Stable Secretary used for?
Stable Secretary is a stable management app that lets horse owners and small barn managers track health care records, feeding schedules, farrier visits, Coggins test dates, and vaccination history. It also stores documents and photos for each horse, accessible through any browser via the stable secretary login or through the dedicated mobile app. It is best suited for individual owners and very small yards rather than professional boarding facilities.
Is there a free version of Stable Secretary?
Yes. Stable Secretary offers a free tier covering a limited number of horses and basic logging. It is one of the more accessible free horse stable management software options for personal use. Paid plans unlock additional horse profiles, more document storage, and expanded reporting for a few dollars per month, keeping it affordable compared to most barn manager app subscriptions in the market.
What are the best Stable Secretary alternatives in 2026?
The most commonly evaluated alternatives are Stables, BarnManager, EquineGenie, HorseReport, and BusyBarns. For boarding facilities, Stables and BarnManager offer billing, Stripe payment processing, and boarder portals that Stable Secretary does not provide. For individual owners looking for equine management software free of charge, EquineGenie's basic plan is the closest functional match in terms of horse stable management features.
Does Stable Secretary have a mobile app?
Yes. Stable Secretary includes a mobile app for iOS and Android. Daily entry features, including feeding logs, health care notes, and appointment records, are available through the stable secretary app. It is well-rated for ease of use in individual horse care scenarios, though barn managers running boarding operations consistently report that the app handles personal records better than facility-level stable management needs.
What does barn management software typically cost in 2026?
Pricing varies widely across horse barn management software. Free tiers exist for personal tools like Stable Secretary and EquineGenie. Paid barn manager app plans for small boarding facilities typically run $30 to $80 per month as of 2026. Enterprise-tier horse farm management software for large equestrian centers can run higher depending on horse count, staff seats, and feature requirements. Stable Secretary sits at the low end of this range because of its individual-owner design.
When should I switch from Stable Secretary to a dedicated barn management platform?
The switch usually makes sense when you are managing five or more boarders and manually tracking invoices, when collecting payments becomes a recurring time drain, or when boarders start requesting access to their horse's health records. At that point, a full equine stable management platform with built-in billing and a boarder portal pays for itself in administrative hours saved each month, typically within the first billing cycle.
Reviewed by the Stables Team, boarding-software specialists for AI-powered barn operations.