Lacy Gotshall Founder of the Horse Concierge

Lacey is the founder of The Horse Concierge, a platform built to help horse owners easily find and connect with trusted equine professionals.

"The idea came from my own experience navigating a 6-year complex care team for my heart horse, JD, who developed navicular disease. Trying to coordinate vets, farriers, bodyworkers, nutritionists, and other specialists across the country showed me how fragmented the industry is for horse owners. That experience ultimately led me to build The Horse Concierge."

Today the platform connects horse owners with providers across 49 states in the U.S. and includes features like horse profiles, care logs, trail discovery, and a growing provider directory of almost 4k pro's. Everything is designed around one idea: helping owners build and manage a trusted care team for their horses.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Thanks for tuning in to today's Horsewoman Podcast. Our show explores women in the horse industry as they share their dreams, challenges, successes. What drives these women? Well, let's find out. Hi, I'm Rose Cushing, and I am the host of today's Horsewoman podcast. My guest today is Lacey Gotchall. And Lacey has created some great programs that I think you're going to find very interesting. So, Lacey, welcome to the show. Thank you. Thank you for having me. And tell the audience a little bit about you and how you got into horses, and then we'll go forward.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Sure, yes. Um, I'm a third-generation horsewoman. Um, I don't consider myself a cowgirl, but I'm I'm more of a horse girl because cowgirls have way more grit than I do. But um, my grandparents uh showed quarter horses their whole lives. My um parents share show quarter horses as well. And uh early on in my life, I did some uh rodeoing and barrel racing. These days I trail ride a lot more. Um body just can't handle it at my age, uh doing all that competitive sports, but um been around for a long time. And when I um got my most recent set of horses, I have eight. Um my heart horse JD came along. I've had him for uh going on 14 years now, and um he had about a six-year lameness journey. So um that's kind of where I've ended up and how I got to the horse concierge.

SPEAKER_00 1:43

You have a lot of experience with horses, and you were telling me that you own horses now. So what are you currently doing with those wonderful devils?

SPEAKER_01 1:51

Um, I have a four-year-old, a five-year-old, and my hard horse JD, an 18-year-old, and we primarily trail ride. I use that term lately. Um, we ride between 16 and 30 miles in a trip. Um, I'm not competitive in it in any way. We just like to go out and enjoy them, enjoy them. I don't break anymore. I usually take in my green horses and just kind of finish them out. Now you live in North Carolina, what part? Um, I'm outside of Rayford, uh by the Carolina Horse Park, in between Rayford and Pinehurst. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

All right. So you are suffering with the pollen today. Yes, that's my scratchy voice. Thank you. Yes, me too. Um so tell us a little bit about the horse concierge. That is fascinating.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

So um, again, back to my heart, horse JD. Uh, it's uh he had been suffering with lameness for about six years, and he was diagnosed as, and I'll use the air quotations, navicular. And through that, I had moved. I'm originally from Ohio, I'm an Ohio girl, and uh that's where his diagnosis was. And I moved, and when I got to North Carolina, um we have fantastic um vets and farriers and all of these resources here. So I built a new care team and he did great for about a year or two. And then after about two years, he started to deteriorate and he went really fast. He went from uh completely sound in work, full work, to grade five lame within about two months. He was laying down about 90% of the time, and I had some of the top vets in the area. Again, we went down the lameness exam. Everybody knows we did the blocking, we did all of that, and again, it was navicular. And um because he was grade five lame, he's 18 now. Um, they they kind of, you know, gave me some options, and I'm not a rich girl by any means. Uh, one of those options was$1,800 injections every three to six weeks that might work, and injections had failed him in the past, um, or put him down. And I stood there with the phone in my hand and my pasture looking at my horse laying there in agonizing pain, and I said, that can't be it. So I put out a search across the United States and I built a new care team from across the United States. I have a farrier that comes in from Texas, Riley from CRS horseshoes. I have a nutritionist that's in Texas, an herbalist in West Virginia, fantastic bodyworker who's from the West Coast, but happened to relocate here. And then I got a new team of vets. He has five vets. And as we were working through his case, um, it became very clear that that six years of history that I had, nobody had that. And I had to regurgitate it. I had moved. It was in boxes, it was in text messages, I had x-rays from all of those years and all the farrier changes that we did, the shoeing changes and all these things. And they all wanted to know that history, and rightfully so. And I had to regurgitate it. And it was at that moment that I realized wait a minute, I shouldn't have to do it this way. We've come so far with technology. I there should be a modal that I can use, that I can document all of this and then literally hand that raw data to the professionals who are taking care of my horse. So that's where we started. I wanted to help my horse. And I started right here in the sand hills. I kind of built a prototype out, and that prototype just took off, and everybody was like, yes, because we have professionals that are across the United States. Not everybody that can help us is always in our backyard, right? But handing off that information to them becomes tough. So I built the app so that everybody is able to have this ecosystem. We have providers across 49 states, specialists from across the United States that uh treat treat nationally. They don't just treat in their backyard. So finding those providers, connecting your horse's profile to them. So everything that you're doing, GPS for ride tracking, feed tracking, turnout tracking, everything you do with your horse, putting it in there and having them be able to see it and document it too. Get them out of the silos that they work in. It wasn't that anybody wasn't great, but it wasn't until we connected all of them that I was able to bring my horse back from grade five to 100% sound and back to work. It took seven months. It took seven months, but part of that was me. That wasn't at all the providers and their lack of specialty. It was that I wasn't able to communicate things in the way that they needed to communicate it until I put it all in one place and they could see it. They could literally see it. I uploaded years of records and I put it all in one place, and everybody was like, yes, we get it now. And he's off of all injections, he's off of all medications, and it was just them being able to see it. And turns out he does have a navicular issue, but navicular is not the core of his issue. It's a medial lateral imbalance that's caused by his confirmation that exasperates up into his deep digital flex flexor tendon. And we never would have seen that because we were looking at everything in such a silo.

SPEAKER_00 6:33

It's really amazing and what a wonderful program to be able to connect not only your horse's information, but all these professionals together to be able to converse about it. I mean, my gracious, what an advancement for the horse world in general. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

And and I and it's kind of funny because I'm third generation, right? I've watched this over and over again. And it's like, you know, we've all anybody that's had horses any length of time, there's always that mystery lameness that comes up that we can't quite put our finger on. But whenever you're able to put all of that information into just raw information and let the professional digest it, it changes the game.

SPEAKER_00 7:09

Yeah. Yeah, that is so awesome. Now tell us about your program. How can other people access it and and utilize it?

SPEAKER_01 7:18

Um, we have a website, www.thehorseconcierge.com. The easiest way, though, is our app. We're both in the Google and um Apple Play Store. So you can go out and download it. It's a free-to-download, always will be. We have over 4,000 providers across the United States. So if you're traveling and you lose a shoe, you can find a ferry. Or if you know you're you're traveling and you have an emergency, find a vet. Um, and we put ratings and reviews on them so that their customers can rate and review them. So you're not going out there blindly and saying, Oh, I want to use somebody that I don't know. You know, that's a trust is a big thing in our industry. And I wanted to build that trust layer in so people can rate and review all of the providers across the United States and then you know rely on one another through an asynchronous way in order to make better decisions for our horses.

SPEAKER_00 8:04

I think this is fantastic. I uh I your story on Facebook caught my eye, and that's how I found you. Um, so this this website, this app that you created, you created it yourself, or did you have a lot of help?

SPEAKER_01 8:19

Or no, I created it myself. I literally sat in the barn while my horse was laying down with a laptop and taught myself how to code. I said there has to be a better way. Um, and that was whenever we were going through the actual, you know, steps of getting him sound and he was just laying down constantly. So I was sitting with him in his lap almost like and sitting there and learning to code. I didn't have anything better to do because I was just sitting with him because I thought we were gonna have to put him down. So I wanted to spend time with him and I put that time to use to learn to code and I built it myself. I do have a little bit of help these days. Um, one of my uh fellow friends from longtime friends, she happens to be a coder, so she helps me out. Um, she's in the western Pennsylvania, she's actually mounted patrol. So um, she's had horses her whole life, so she keeps that in there, and then I'm working with farriers and bodyworkers and trainers from across the country. Some of the top ones are from across the country, and they're talking to me about what they need to do things better, right? Um, and and we're putting that into the app. And because I'm not a big giant company, I have the freedom to do what works for us as a community, right? And it's it translates across any discipline. We all take care of our horses, we all feed our horses, we all care deeply for our horses. So I take that feedback to heart and I can make those changes. I can't promise to make it overnight, right? But if you see something in the app, I genuinely encourage if somebody downloads it and they see something that just doesn't fit or doesn't make sense, please reach out to me. I'm an open book. I love the feedback, good, bad, or indifferent. I want to make this for the community. I want to make it so that it helps the horses. If we can help one horse with this app, then I am happy. I just want to be able to take somebody else that was in my position and had this, you know, life-altering moment and didn't know what to do. Help them get their horse back to where they, you know, want them to be, whether that's past or sound, or just keep them, you know, around a little longer. They are our best friends. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 10:13

That that is just fabulous. I love this this whole story. Now, you've accomplished a lot in your young life. So what's left on your bucket list to do now?

SPEAKER_01 10:23

Um, to help people help their horses, really. That is my bucket list item. I want to continue to travel to the United States. I've traveled the United States, I've been blessed, I've rode in um probably somewhere around 20 or 30 states at this point. Um, I do want to do that, but if we really get to the core of what my bucket list, my goal is, is I want to see this become the tool that helps people understand their horses better and helps the professionals help their horses. That's really my goal. And if I never make a dime, then I never make a dime. I don't care. I really just want to help the horses.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

Hey, I totally get it. That's been my mantra from the very beginning with all my projects. Is you know, I if I accidentally make money, that'll be awesome. But I'm here for the horse, you know. Yeah. So definitely. So um, one more question. What advice would you give women coming into our industry as to how to make their mark and be successful? Because it's a tough place to make a living. It is tough, it is really tough.

SPEAKER_01 11:21

Um, my biggest piece of advice really would be to follow, follow your heart. Your heart is going to tell you where you need to be and how to do it. And don't give up. We we get trials and tribulations. I have, you know, had bad builds and sat here and cried. Um, you know, there's been moments where I've questioned myself and I just I follow the Lord and I I, you know, He keeps leading me down this path of, you know, to help other people and be a servant to your fellow peers. And that that reciprocates back a hundred times. Everything you give comes back by a hundred. Um, so just don't get don't get discouraged. People are not always going to agree with what you're doing or how you're doing it. Um, there's no wrong or right way to do it. We all have our own different ways of approaching things, but stay true to yourself, I think. And and that really will resonate. Resonates with people when you are true to yourself. The authenticity comes through. Don't try to be somebody else. We have all these wonderful people who have made it so far. We don't want to be them, be yourself.

SPEAKER_00 12:17

Right. Good advice, very good advice. Now, as I'm sitting here thinking about your app, of course, my mind is going a million miles an hour. But I have a couple more questions. I apologize, but it'll help me help you. How can, like if I was a vet and I wanted to be a consultant available to people via this app, is that something I can sign up and do?

SPEAKER_01 12:41

Yes, it's 100% pro free for all of our um professionals to join our network. We want the professionals in our network that makes our tool, and it's free for everybody to access that. Um, so yes, it's 100% free. We're actually um working towards, we're not there yet, we're working towards building APIs into the veterinarian software where that vet can just download your entire horse's um profile into the app, and then, you know, and vice versa, where they can push your coggins, they can push your shot records, they can push, you know, the high-level data that that helps the other areas that your horse sees out there. So um absolutely 100% for all professionals. Um, and it's not just the professionals, we have tax shops in there. We have anything you can think of that's equine related, transporters. Um, there's everything in the app. It's it's all there just for free for use. Um, go out, take a look, rate your favorite uh providers. If you think somebody's fantastic, we always want to see them in the network, add them. We review 100% of every person that comes into the network. So we're trying to make sure we're not having any spam, we're not having any false listings in there. Um, and we we moderate that extremely heavy. So if somebody joins tomorrow as a professional and they say, Well, wait a minute, my listing didn't show. That's because we're we're we're back here reviewing every single one, trying to make some sort of legitimacy behind it, not just have these people out there that, you know, with all the scams today, we don't want people to get scammed.

SPEAKER_00 14:03

Sure. Okay. All right. Well, that this is exciting. I am really excited about this whole program. So I can't tell you how much I appreciate you being on the show today. And I I want people to listen to this and everybody out there listening, please share it with all your horse friends because this is something that'll really help all of us. So thanks for being here.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

Thank you, Rose. I appreciate it. And I think can if I can just say one last thing, even if people don't use my app, um, I really think that the importance of tracking everything, even the minute details, I don't care what your method is, um, I can't express how valuable that will be to you someday. It's not if, it's when your horse is going to come up lame or have some mystery thing happen. And the more detail you have, even the mundane, everyday things, oh, I changed pastures or I got a hay delivery today, those things will matter at some point. So even whatever the modal may be, um even if it's not our app, I wish that people would just start tracking and hand that information to your professionals.

SPEAKER_00 15:03

You know, that's so true. Um, I did an expo once in Raleigh, and at the show, some of the horses were getting a little colicky all of a sudden. It made no sense. The city of Raleigh had done something to the water system that morning and put more chlorine in it, and that was the issue. So these little details really do matter, and it's crazy stuff. I mean, I the city of Raleigh, I don't live there. I had no idea that they even did that, but you know, that's what we learned that was making them a little bit feel bad. And thank God it wasn't anything big time, but it was something that you know reflected in their performances. Yeah. So all the details definitely matter. And I may not have asked you this. If I did, please forgive me. But how can people find you and follow?

SPEAKER_01 15:48

Um, we're in we're in both the app stores, so you can find us on uh Google Play or in the Apple store. Uh 100% free to download your first horse profile to build is free. Your basic course profile is free. Um, access to all of the um different professionals across the United States is free. Um, we have over 500 trails located in there right now. Uh we're still building out our trail directory. So if people want to learn new places to ride, um we have that in there. Uh, we're just trying to be your all-in-one go-to so that we're not so fragmented anymore. Let's all get into the same ecosystem. And you have social media places they can follow you? Yes, we're at Facebook, um, we're on TikTok, um, the horse concierge, just find us um on social media too.

SPEAKER_00 16:30

All right, I know you were very, very easy to find. So, folks, out check this out because this is something you're gonna really want in your toolbox, too. So, thanks for being on the show, and thank you guys for listening. Thank you, Rose. Have a great day. You too. I hope you enjoyed today's show. Our souls wander in similar places, even though we may not know each other, we touch the same wind, we walk under the same sky, and our hearts wander in the same dreams. We are one. Women, just like you and me. Thank you for listening.