Stable Secretary: Features, Pricing, and Alternatives in 2026
Stable Secretary is a 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 30-day free trial and paid plans priced by active-horse count, from a couple of dollars a month up to about $78 for its unlimited tier, 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 for a boarding operation is that its facility billing tools, invoicing, online card payments through Stripe, QuickBooks export, and the client invoice portal, are gated to its top Professional tier and built around individual-horse records rather than multi-owner board billing. It also has no automated past-due payment reminders and no AI layer. 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 subscription model with a 30-day free trial rather than a permanently free tier. Paid plans are priced by the number of active horses and unlock invoicing, document storage, online payments, and reporting on higher tiers.
As of 2026, Stable Secretary's published pricing scales by active-horse count, from about $2 per month for a single horse up to roughly $78 per month for its unlimited Professional tier. Its invoicing, Stripe online payments, and QuickBooks export live in that top Professional tier, which is built around individual-horse records rather than multi-owner facility board billing. That structural gap is the main story: Stable Secretary is designed as a personal horse management app first, with facility billing bolted on at the top of the range.
For barn managers comparing options, low-cost tools like HorseReport's basic plan provide similar individual-horse tracking, while EquineGenie sells a one-time desktop license and platforms like BarnManager deliver more of 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free trial available | Yes (30-day) | Free to start | Yes (trial) | No (money-back) |
| Boarder billing and invoicing | Paid tier | Yes | Paid tier | Yes |
| Online card/ACH payments | Paid tier | Yes | ACH only | No |
| Health care and vaccination logs | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Coggins and document storage | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Boarder self-service portal | Paid tier | Yes | Partial | No |
| Automated payment reminders | No | Yes | Limited | Limited |
| Facility-level reporting | Yes | 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 web platform with an owner portal 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?
Not a permanently free tier. Stable Secretary offers a 30-day free trial, and its paid plans start at only a couple of dollars a month for a single horse, scaling up by active-horse count. That keeps it affordable for personal use compared to most barn manager app subscriptions, though the trial, not a free tier, is how you try it.
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 offers board billing, online card payments, and a boarder portal in its base product, while Stable Secretary and BarnManager gate their billing, payments, and portal features to their top paid tiers. For individual owners, EquineGenie is a one-time-purchase desktop option, and HorseReport's basic plan is a closer low-cost match for simple horse record-keeping.
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.