"If you had told me a few years ago that I would be building one of the fastest growing equestrian apps in the world, I honestly would not have believed you."
EquiCare did not begin because I set out to become a tech founder. It did not start in a boardroom or with a detailed business plan. It began in the very real and very messy world that every rider knows all too well. The early mornings, training, coaching, competing, injuries, and the never ending list of things to remember.
Somewhere in the middle of all of that I realised something none of us likes to admit, the way we manage horses simply is not good enough.
For years I relied on the classic system, a whiteboard in the feed room, a diary that was never quite up to date, group chats buzzing at all hours and whatever else I could remember in my head. Most riders do the same and we all just quietly accept the stress and overwhelm that comes with it.
I reached a point where I didn’t want to accept that kind of overwhelming feeling anymore and so I started looking for a better way. Funnily enough, through all my research - there was nothing that existed.
The very first spark for EquiCare came back in 2017 after I had a major shoulder surgery. While I was recovering, my non-horsey parents stepped in to care for my horses and suddenly every little thing I normally kept in my head had to be explained. Feeding, treatments, appointments, all the tiny things that matter more than people realise. Watching them try to make sense of it all showed me how complicated horse care becomes when nothing is written in one place.
I remember thinking.. there had to be a better way to do this - but at the time I did not have the confidence, the money, or the right team. So the idea sat quietly in the background waiting for the right moment.
The truth is that there is never really a ‘right’ moment and no founder story avoids the messy parts, mine definitely did not.
In early 2023 I went through a difficult business partnership separation, it dragged on for weeks and took a heavy emotional toll on me which left me wondering if EquiCare would ever become what I hoped it could. But when it was finally all over, the business was fully mine and looking back at that moment, it was when the real journey began.
Of course things did not suddenly become smooth sailing. I went through multiple developers who gave me false promises and it took almost a full 12 months to find someone that I could trust. In July 2024, the entire app crashed and every user opened it to find a blank account. It happened on a weekend so all I could do was wait and hope nothing got worse. Only two weeks later, my developer told me that the app code was not strong enough to grow and that we needed to rebuild the whole platform, this honestly felt like being dropped right back at the start.
And that is not mentioning the smaller moments that chipped away at me - losing a major stall spot at Equitana, months of frustrating testing, burnout creeping in, losing momentum, questioning whether I could actually do this by myself. There were days where I felt like I was falling apart more often than holding things together.
But, something I have learnt is that you rarely reach the breakthrough without walking through the breakdown first.
The whole of 2024 was basically spent stabilising the existing platform and at the same time, quietly rebuilding the whole app in the background. While we were doing this, riders slowly started using the app and word was starting to spread organically. I was even hearing people talk about it as something they relied on, which was honestly the best feeling because it meant the idea was no longer just mine, it was becoming part of the community.
In November 2024 I launched EquiCare 3.0, this was the version I had seen in my head for years. Clean, simple, intuitive, user friendly, and on launch subscribers doubled almost immediately! We hit our first one thousand dollar month and even a rider in Greece subscribed, even though I had never marketed there. It was crazy to see riders from around the world messaging me to say how excited they were to start using it and how much they needed something like this.
The past 18 months have been full of moments I never imagined would happen. Being interviewed by High Horse Performance at Equitana, running my first trade stall at Sydney 3DE, being invited to speak at the ETBA Summit, appearing on The Equestrian Experience podcast, launching our first Riders Retreat, seeing our story in print in Australian Performance Horse Magazine, creating an apparel line, watching downloads spike internationally and the list goes on.
One of the most emotional moments for me though recently was showing the first look at EquiCare Desktop to my team riders and seeing how excited they were. I have spent most of 2025 developing a partner platform to the app, which is the desktop version, and it almost made me cry when I saw the team riders reactions because it was the kind of moment that made the years of setbacks and rebuilds feel so worth it.
When EquiCare Desktop launches in 2026 it will mark a real shift for the industry, because for the first time riders, stables and teams will have a fully connected platform where everything syncs in real time across both mobile and desktop.
Even with the wins I have had, the journey has never been perfectly smooth. There have been slow months and cancelled subscriptions, weeks where motivation dipped and times where I felt completely overwhelmed trying to manage everything at once. And all of that while living in a remote town and running this as a solo founder. Some days genuinely felt like I was sprinting and sinking at the same time, but there has always been this underlying pull to keep going because EquiCare has never felt like a small idea. It has always felt like something bigger.
I think that pull comes from the fact that it is not just a business to me. EquiCare grew from a problem I lived every day, and it is the same problem riders all over the world are still living now. We deserve better systems and the equestrian world deserves modern tools that match the level of care and responsibility our sport demands. In so many other sports technology has been embraced for years, from data tracking to performance analytics to fully integrated coaching platforms. Meanwhile equestrians are only just beginning to step into that space.
That gap is exactly why I keep building. Our industry is ready to evolve and riders are ready for something that finally supports the way we work, train and care for our horses. EquiCare is my way of contributing to that future and every step forward feels like a small piece of the change we have needed for a very long time. Today we have riders using EquiCare all over the world.
Our trial to paid conversion rate is up to ten times higher than the App Store average and we are preparing to launch a product that will grow our ecosystem in a way I once only imagined. What began as an idea I held quietly for years has become something far bigger than I ever expected.
Writing this has been the first time I have really paused to look back on the journey, and it has reminded me just how much change can come from solving a problem you have lived yourself.
EquiCare has always been more than a business to me. It is a step forward for an industry that is finally ready to (and needs to) evolve and a reminder that riders deserve modern tools that match the level of care we give our horses.
Every time a rider tells me that EquiCare has made their life easier, it brings the whole journey into perspective. It reminds me why I kept going on the hard days and makes me even more excited for what this next chapter will mean for our community.
- Nicole Creed, Founder, EquiCare App
Find EquiCare on socials:
@equicare_app
@itsnicolecreed
EquiCare Website