Overview
Your lessons live in Horsify — but your day probably lives in the calendar on your phone. Calendar Feed Subscription bridges the two. Horsify gives you a private feed URL, you subscribe to it once in Apple Calendar (or Google Calendar, or Outlook), and every booking assigned to you turns up alongside the rest of your diary — on your iPhone, iPad and Mac.
It's a subscription, not a one-off export. Add a lesson in Horsify tomorrow and it appears in Apple Calendar on its own. You never have to re-download anything.
Who this is for: Instructors at a riding school (or solo instructors) with an instructor profile in Horsify.
Key Features
- 📅 Subscribe once — your lessons keep flowing into Apple Calendar automatically
- 🍏 Works everywhere Apple Calendar does — iPhone, iPad, Mac, and iCloud.com
- 🌍 Standard iCal/ICS format — the same feed works in Google Calendar and Outlook
- 🕐 Correct times — the feed carries the Australia/Brisbane timezone, so times are right wherever you travel
- 📍 Full detail — client name, lesson type, venue and arena, participant counts and notes
- 🔒 Private and revocable — a secret URL only you hold, which you can regenerate or switch off at any time
Before You Start
You need:
- An instructor profile in Horsify, linked to the account you sign in with. If your dashboard says "You are not registered as an instructor", ask your riding school administrator to set your profile up (see Instructor Management System).
- Your instructor profile must be active.
Step 1: Generate Your Calendar Feed URL
- Sign in to Horsify and open your Instructor Dashboard — it sits at the top of your profile menu.
- Open the Calendar Feed tab — the last of the four tabs, after My Bookings, Calendar View and Availability.
- Click Generate Calendar Feed.
Horsify creates a long, random, one-off URL just for you and shows it in a box with a Copy button. (The Copy, Regenerate and Revoke buttons only appear once a feed exists.)
- Click Copy.
⚠️ Keep this URL private. It needs no password — anyone who has the link can see your lesson schedule, including client names and notes. Don't post it in a group chat or a shared document. If it does get out, see Regenerate or revoke below.
Step 2a: Subscribe on iPhone or iPad
- Open the Calendar app.
- Tap Calendars at the bottom of the screen.
- Tap Add Calendar → Add Subscription Calendar.
- Paste your Horsify feed URL into the Subscription URL field.
- Tap Subscribe.
- Give it a name you'll recognise — Horsify Lessons works well — pick a colour, then tap Add.
Your lessons appear straight away.
💡 Pro Tip: If tapping the link doesn't open Calendar for you, change the https:// at the front of the URL to webcal:// and open it in Safari — iOS then hands it to the Calendar app and pre-fills the subscription for you.
Get it onto all your Apple devices
A subscription added on an iPhone lives on that iPhone by default. To have it follow you to your iPad and Mac, add it through iCloud instead:
- On a Mac, open Calendar → File → New Calendar Subscription.
- Paste the URL and click Subscribe.
- In the Location dropdown, choose iCloud (not On My Mac).
Anything set to iCloud syncs to every device signed in to the same Apple Account.
Step 2b: Subscribe on a Mac
- Open the Calendar app.
- Choose File → New Calendar Subscription from the menu bar.
- Paste your Horsify feed URL and click Subscribe.
- Set the options:
- Name — e.g. Horsify Lessons
- Location — choose iCloud so it syncs to your iPhone and iPad
- Auto-refresh — how often Apple Calendar re-checks the feed (see How often it updates)
- Remove — you can strip alerts and attachments if you prefer a clean view
- Click OK.
Other Calendar Apps
The same URL works anywhere that accepts an iCal/ICS subscription:
| App | Where to paste it |
|---|---|
| Google Calendar | Settings → Add calendar → From URL |
| Outlook | Calendar → Add calendar → Subscribe from web |
| Anything else | Look for "subscribe by URL", "internet calendar" or "iCal feed" |
Note: Google Calendar decides its own refresh schedule and can be noticeably slower than Apple Calendar to pick up changes — sometimes up to 24 hours.
What Appears in Your Calendar
The feed is named "{Your Name} - Lessons", and each booking becomes one calendar event:
| Part of the event | What Horsify puts there |
|---|---|
| Title | Private Lesson - {Client Name}, Group Lesson, Clinic, or Booking - {Client Name} |
| Time | The booking's start and end time, in Australia/Brisbane |
| Location | The venue, plus the arena or facility if one is set — e.g. Riverside Equestrian - Indoor Arena |
| Notes | Lesson type, client, booking status, participant count (for group bookings), and any client or staff notes |
| Status | Confirmed for confirmed, checked-in and completed bookings; tentative for anything still pending |
What's included
- Bookings assigned to you as the instructor.
- A window from 30 days ago to 365 days ahead — recent history for reference, and the full year ahead.
What's excluded
- Cancelled and no-show bookings. Cancel a booking in Horsify and it disappears from your calendar at the next refresh.
- Bookings assigned to a different instructor, and general facility bookings with no instructor.
- Your availability blocks — the feed carries actual bookings, not your working-hours pattern.
How Often It Updates
The feed is live — every time your calendar app fetches it, Horsify builds it fresh from your current bookings.
The catch is that your calendar app decides how often to fetch, and Horsify has no say in it:
- iPhone/iPad: Settings → Apps → Calendar → Account → Subscribed Calendars → tap the calendar → Fetch New Data.
- Mac: Calendar → right-click the subscription → Get Info → Auto-refresh. Options run from every 5 minutes to once a week.
Set it to every 15 minutes or hourly if you want same-day changes to reach your phone quickly.
💡 Pro Tip: If you've just made a change in Horsify and want to see it immediately, pull down to refresh in the iPhone Calendar app, or choose View → Refresh Calendars (⌘R) on a Mac.
One-Way by Design
The feed is read-only. Horsify pushes your lessons out; nothing travels back.
- Editing or deleting a subscribed event in Apple Calendar changes nothing in Horsify — and your edit is wiped at the next refresh.
- To change a booking, change it in Horsify (Instructor Dashboard → My Bookings). The calendar catches up on its own.
- Personal appointments you add to your own calendars are untouched — they simply sit in a different calendar to the subscribed one.
Regenerate or Revoke Your Feed
Both buttons live on the Calendar Feed tab, under your feed URL.
Regenerate URL
Issues a brand-new URL and immediately kills the old one. Use it if the link has been shared by accident or you're just not sure who has it.
⚠️ After regenerating, your existing subscription stops working. Delete the old subscription in Apple Calendar and add a new one with the new URL — on every device where you added it manually.
Revoke Access
Switches the feed off completely. The URL stops working and no new one is issued until you click Generate Calendar Feed again. Your bookings in Horsify are unaffected — only the external feed goes away.
After revoking, delete the now-dead subscription from Apple Calendar so it stops trying to refresh.
Troubleshooting Common Issues
Issue: "You are not registered as an instructor"
Problem: The Instructor Dashboard won't load, so there's no Calendar Feed tab to open.
Solution: Your Horsify sign-in isn't linked to an instructor profile at this organisation. Ask your riding school administrator to create or link your instructor profile — see Instructor Management System. If you instruct at more than one school, check you have the right organisation selected first.
Issue: Apple Calendar says the URL is invalid or can't be found
Possible Causes:
- The URL was copied incompletely, or a space or line break crept in.
- The feed was revoked or regenerated, so that URL no longer exists.
- Your instructor profile has been deactivated.
Solution: Go back to the Calendar Feed tab, click Copy (rather than selecting the text by hand), and paste it into a fresh subscription. If the tab offers you a Generate Calendar Feed button, the feed was revoked — generate a new one. If it still fails, ask your administrator to confirm your instructor profile is active.
Issue: The calendar subscribed fine but it's empty
Possible Causes:
- No bookings are assigned to you inside the feed window (30 days back to 365 days ahead).
- Your bookings are assigned to a different instructor.
- All your bookings are cancelled or marked as no-shows — those are deliberately left out.
Solution: Check the My Bookings tab on your dashboard. If lessons are listed there but not in your calendar, refresh the subscription manually.
Issue: New bookings take hours to appear
Explanation: That's your calendar app's refresh interval, not Horsify — the feed itself is always current.
Solution: Shorten the auto-refresh interval (Mac: Get Info on the calendar; iPhone: Fetch New Data under Subscribed Calendars), or refresh manually when you need it now.
Issue: Lessons show at the wrong time while I'm interstate
Explanation: The feed publishes times in Australia/Brisbane, which doesn't observe daylight saving. Apple Calendar converts them into whatever timezone your device is in — so a 9:00 am Brisbane lesson correctly shows as 10:00 am in Sydney during daylight saving.
Solution: This is working as intended. If you'd rather see everything in Brisbane time, turn on Calendar's Time Zone Override (iPhone: Settings → Apps → Calendar → Time Zone Override) and set it to Brisbane.
Issue: The subscription is on my iPhone but not my Mac
Explanation: Subscriptions added directly on a device stay on that device unless they're stored in iCloud.
Solution: Add the subscription on a Mac with Location set to iCloud, then delete the local copy on the iPhone.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Do I need to re-download anything when my schedule changes? A: No. Subscribe once and the calendar keeps itself up to date.
Q: Can I edit a lesson from Apple Calendar? A: No — the feed is read-only. Make changes in Horsify and they'll flow through.
Q: Does anyone else get my feed URL? A: Only you and your organisation's administrators can see it in Horsify. Treat the URL itself as a password: anyone holding it can read your schedule.
Q: Will my clients' details show up on my phone? A: Yes — client names and booking notes are in the event details. Bear that in mind if you share your screen or your calendar with anyone.
Q: I instruct at two riding schools. Can I sync both? A: Yes. Each organisation gives you its own instructor profile and its own feed URL. Subscribe to both, and give each a different colour.
Q: Does this work with the Google Calendar or Outlook apps on iPhone? A: Yes — subscribe in Google Calendar or Outlook on the web using the same URL, and it appears in their mobile apps.
Q: Can I stop sharing without deleting anything in Horsify? A: Yes. Revoke Access turns the feed off and leaves your bookings untouched.
Related Features
- Instructor Management System — setting up and linking instructor profiles.
- Riding School Management — the wider riding-school toolset.
- Riding School Setup Guide (End to End) — where instructors fit in the full setup.
- Setting Your Riding School Booking Hours — the availability that drives what gets booked.
- Client Management — the clients named on your lessons.
Support
Having trouble subscribing? We're here to help.
- In-app help: Click the Help link in the top navigation.
- Email: support@horsify.com.au
Subscribe once, and your teaching day turns up in the same calendar as everything else in your life.\n\n---\n\nSource: wiki/features/INSTRUCTOR_CALENDAR_SYNC.md \nLast synced: 2026-09-07 11:51:53 UTC