Audience: Clubs, event organisers, riding schools and coaches Last Updated: 2026-10-09
Since July we've shipped more than 200 improvements, most of them asked for by people running clubs, schools and lessons on Horsify. The highlights are sorted by what you run. Read the three heads-ups, then skip to Clubs & events, Riding schools or Coaches & instructors.
⚠️ Three things worth knowing
1. Give your helpers access to just the parts they need
Instead of "admin or nothing", you can now give each person View or Manage access to specific areas such as events, members, money and bookings. Clubs set this up on the Committee page and schools on the roster's Staff tab. Anyone with Manage access to an area, or View access to an area that shows people's details or money (such as events, members, messages, money or bookings), will be asked to set up two-step verification the next time they sign in, so let your treasurer and office staff know it's coming.
▶ Watch: Set your staff's access (1:26) · Full guide: Staff access: who can do what
2. Card surcharges ended on 1 October (Australian organisations)
In line with the surcharge ban, Horsify no longer adds a card surcharge to online payments for Australian organisations. You don't need to do anything. If you take payments through Horsify's Stripe setup and you'd like payers to cover Horsify's fee, you can switch on the Platform fee on your organisation's profile (Organisation → Profile in the organiser menu). It's shown at checkout and only applies to online payments.
3. Reminders now go to one place, not three
Each rider now gets a reminder once: in the app if they have it, otherwise by text (if you text riders), otherwise by email. Before this, some riders got the same reminder by email, text and app. Texts now draw on a monthly allowance that's included with your plan. You can see your allowance under Settings → Communications. When it runs out, an admin can buy an SMS pack there (500, 1,000 or 2,000 texts at 5c a text, or 6c in New Zealand), and the $10 Club Site plan can now text from a pack too. The Instructor plan includes 50 texts a month from 1 November. See Texts and SMS packs.
✨ New for everyone
📬 Everything you send, on one page
Communications → Messages in the organiser menu now shows everything you've sent and anything that didn't arrive. It also has your broadcasts, the next 30 days of scheduled reminders, and which automatic emails are switched on. You can now preview and send yourself a test of any email template before your members see it.
📊 Invoices and receipts, ready for Xero
Press Export on Invoices or Payments to download any period as Excel or CSV. Pick from quick ranges like "last financial year", choose your columns, or use the Xero sales-invoice layout that imports directly into Xero. It's one less job for the treasurer at end of year.
⚡ Big lists are much faster
Members, invoices, payments and the appointment book now load only what's on screen. If your organisation has thousands of members or bookings, these pages now open in a fraction of the time. Families also stay grouped on the Members page.
Clubs & events
🐦 Early bird pricing
Set one early bird deadline on your event and an early bird price on any ticket or class. Riders see both prices, and the price changes automatically when the deadline passes. Invoices show "Early bird price $45.00 (standard $55.00)", so nobody has to ask why they paid less.
🛒 Riders who don't finish their entry get a reminder
If a rider fills a cart or starts a payment and then leaves it, Horsify now emails them before entries close: one nudge, then a final reminder. They get at most two emails, so it never turns into spam. It's on by default under Settings → Communications → Event Reminders.
🔁 Riders change their own classes
While entries are open, riders can add and scratch classes themselves. If you tick "Let riders change their class or horse", they can also swap classes or horses. If they move to a cheaper class, the difference they've already paid becomes club credit, not a card refund, so you don't have to work out the money.
👨👩👧 Built for families
Parents can enter the whole family in one order and pay once. If you imported every family member as a separate person, you can now link them into a family (People → Members, then Manage dependants → "Link an existing member") without re-entering anyone. Membership reminders for a child go to the parent, combined into one email.
▶ Watch: Entering several riders in one order (1:19)
🎽 Smoother show days
Each rider gets one competitor number for the show, labelled for where it's worn (bridle, back, saddlecloth). You can print back-number and judge's cards. Plan classes on a drag-and-drop schedule board, or build a clinic timetable from a few answers. You choose who sees provisional scores, and riders get a "your result is in" notification on their phone.
💳 More flexible memberships
Price a membership as a base fee plus extras. Some can be included (a grounds levy, say) and some can be optional (a yard, a locker). Create each extra once and add it to whichever membership types need it.
🏟️ Hire out your arena, your way
Hire by the hour, half day or full day, and take a deposit at booking. You can make an arena members only, give members their own rates, and have your insurer emailed automatically each time a hire is booked, moved or cancelled.
▶ Watch: Setting up a facility (1:44) · Full guide: Facilities and facility hire
🌐 Your club website
Post club news from Club Site → News (Website → News if you're not on a Club Site plan): schedule it for later, add a cover photo, and each post gets its own page you can share. Moving from WordPress or Wix? Set up redirects so your old links still work. Menus now drag and drop, and on Club Site Premium you can use your own domain. If your club has no website yet, Club Site starts at $10 a month with a 30-day free trial.
▶ Watch: Your club website (0:51)
Riding schools
🧩 Plan the day: rearrange everything, then save once
Press Plan the day on the appointment book and drag lessons around freely, including swapping two of them. Horsify checks the whole day as you go, warning you about clashes, arenas over capacity, overworked horses and riders too heavy for a horse. When you're happy, review and apply it all at once, and only the riders whose times moved are emailed.
📖 An appointment book that keeps up
15-minute rows, a full-screen mode, each day framed to your actual hours, and you stay where you were after every save. Switch between instructor and arena columns. Add a rider to a group lesson by searching their name, and pay a lesson from a package in one click. Saving is noticeably faster.
✉️ Fewer emails to parents
Confirm a child's whole term one lesson at a time and the parent gets one email listing them all, not eight. Lessons booked online send a waiver request automatically. If you're loading clients from another system, you can turn off emails for bookings your staff make, so no one gets a flood of sign-up links.
🚚 Moving from another booking system?
New schools get a guided setup that asks how you operate, not which settings you want. It then creates your lesson types, hours, waiver and reminders. While you're still taking money in your old system, mark lessons as paid elsewhere so Horsify doesn't raise invoices for them. You can also carry over riders' remaining package balances.
▶ Watch: Setting up lessons, pricing and instructors (2:30) · Full guide: Riding school setup guide
🙋 Riders book for themselves, and their kids
Parents book lessons in their child's name, and siblings who share a parent's email each get their own record. If you allow it, riders with a current waiver can choose their coach. If you keep your own website, add a rider hub page showing each rider's upcoming lessons and package balances, plus a button for everything you sell.
📺 A yard board for staff without a login
Share one link with your juniors and stable hands. It shows the day's lessons with coach, arena and which school horses go out, refreshes every minute, and never names a client. Put it on the tack room tablet. Find it on the horse day sheet under Share with the yard. The day sheet also shows each school horse's hours worked today.
🌾 Agistment, in the same place
Run your paddocks, yards and stables: who's where, paddocks resting, jobs due, and agistment agreements signed online or uploaded from paper. Nightly reminders cover what's due. Included with Riding School and Club Site Premium.
Coaches & instructors
📱 My day: your whole day on your phone
At the arena gate: your lessons in order, with arrived, no show, put them on a horse, and done, with a note (tap the microphone and dictate it). Your shift, timesheet and jobs are on the same page. The school can also let you see Everyone's day.
▶ Watch: My Day: your lessons and checking riders in (0:58) · Full guide: My day
☀️ A morning summary, and a heads-up when things change
At 7am (or whenever you choose), get your day in one message: lessons, shift and tasks. When the office moves or cancels one of today's or tomorrow's lessons, you get one alert, even if a whole group lesson moved. If you have nothing on that day, you get no message. You can change all of this under Coaching notifications on your profile.
💬 Text your availability
Text "available Sunday 8 to 3" or "off 12 to 16 Oct", in your own words, and your hours update. Made a mistake? Text UNDO. The number to text is shown on My day.
📍 Teach at other people's venues
Don't have your own arena? Add the venues you teach at under Where You Teach in your riding school menu (Facilities at a school with staff) and set your hours for each one. Riders then book you at that venue. The venue stays the school's, and you don't get access to anything of theirs.
⏱️ No more awkward gaps between lessons
Turn on "Book lessons back to back" and riders can only book online at times that follow on from your previous lesson (8:00, 8:45, 9:30…). That means no 15-minute gaps in your morning. The office can still book any time, and your lessons can sync to your phone's calendar.
Also new
Horse health declarations that fill in the rider's horses and property details, wound care tracking for horses, clinic reminders that give each rider their own ride time, a horse's full competition record, Horsify following your device's light or dark mode, and dozens of fixes you've reported to us.
Nearly everything here started as a conversation with one of you. If something's missing, annoying or almost right, email us at hello@horsify.com.au. It comes straight to us, and we read every one.
Will and the Horsify team
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wiki/features/WHATS_NEW_ORGANISERS_OCTOBER_2026.md \nLast synced: 2026-10-21 13:19:08 UTC