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Mustad: A 190-Year-Old Trade Goes Digital Across Three Markets
Mustad set out to move the traditionally offline farrier profession into the digital age. Monterail built EQUINET, an offline-first mobile and web app that lets farriers manage appointments, invoicing, inventory, and job records from anywhere, even with no signal. The product grew from an MVP into a full application live across three markets, rated 4.6/5 with an 80% NPS.
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The company and product
From Paper Routines to a Field-Ready Platform
Mustad Hoofcare Group has manufactured and sold hoofcare products since 1832, serving farriers, horse owners, and veterinarians as the largest company of its kind in the world. For most of that history, the business centered on physical products in a hands-on trade with no established software layer.
Farriers ran daily operations on paper. Scheduling, invoicing, inventory, and job notes lived in notebooks and memory, often recorded between visits in remote locations. Mustad decided to extend its offering beyond products and provide farriers with a tool for running their businesses. Work began in January 2019, commissioned first as an MVP with the goal of maturing it into a marketable product.
KEY CHALLENGES OF THE PROJECT
Offline-first data with two-way sync
The app had to store data on-device and reconcile it with the server across multiple databases whenever a connection was restored.
Adoption by a non-digital audience
The interface had to be intuitive enough that farriers with no prior software habit would choose it over paper.
Native device features across platforms
Camera and photo handling had to work on both iOS and Android.
OUR APPROACH
Agile Delivery Across Three Time Zones
The EQUINET application matured over time and expanded across the operations farriers run daily: scheduling, invoicing, inventory, and job records. Four decisions shaped how it was built and delivered.
A Cross-Continent Partnership
The build ran on an Agile approach with a team spanning the US, Europe, and Australia, coordinated across those time zones. A Monterail team worked alongside Mustad's product owner and client-side developers who contributed directly to the frontend, designing features together and giving continuous feedback on flow.
Offline-First by Design
Offline operation drove the architecture from the very beginning. Every storage and sync decision was made so a farrier can log a full day's work with no connection and have it appear on the server automatically once back online.
One Codebase, Two Platforms
To deliver camera and photo handling natively on both iOS and Android from a single codebase, the team adapted and rewrote much of the original code for the framework and used its native components for device features.
A Staged US Launch
Entering the US was run as its own workstream on both the business and technical sides. Mustad assembled a dedicated US team to lead internal testing while a local user group evaluated the app in parallel and supplied region-specific feedback. The team also handled US-specific requirements such as customizable tax rates and adding products to invoices.
APPLICATION FUNCTIONALITIES
Technologies we used
| Layer | Technologies |
|---|---|
| Frontend | React Native (single iOS + Android codebase), native elements for camera and calendar, push & in-app messages |
| Backend | Ruby on Rails, PostgreSQL (server-side source of truth) |
| Offline Sync | WatermelonDB (reconciles device with server), SQLite (on-device), REST push-and-pull API (syncs on reconnection) |
| Media & CMS | Firebase / Cloud Firestore (image attachments), Flamelink (headless CMS) |
| Build & Monitoring | AppCenter (build & distribution), Sentry (error monitoring) |
The results
From an MVP into a Fully Functional Mobile and Web Application
EQUINET grew from an MVP into a full product shipped as two applications: a mobile app for fieldwork and a web app. While the mobile app became the everyday companion of farriers in the field, the web app provided a comfortable environment for recurring administrative work such as invoicing.
The apps are now live in three markets: Australia, New Zealand, and the United States.
The app holds a 4.6/5 average rating across the App Store and Google Play, with an 80% NPS from farrier users.
Offline-first operation lets farriers log jobs, invoice, and schedule in low-signal areas and sync automatically once back online.
One platform replaced scattered paper notebooks, so a farrier now runs the entire operation from the field.
For Mustad, EQUINET marked a milestone in digitizing a core part of its business and established the company as the digital leader in a hoofcare sector that had no software incumbent.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Offline-first architecture is a core product requirement for fieldwork users
Building sync on WatermelonDB from the start let farriers work fully offline and reconcile later, which was the deciding factor in adoption for users in remote areas.
Winning over a non-digital audience is a UX problem
Designing an interface intuitive enough to replace paper routines mattered more than feature count in getting farriers to switch.
Plan market expansion as a distinct workstream
Entering the US meant adapting tax handling, invoicing, and marketing compliance, and validating the changes with a local user group long before launch.
A partnership model produces a better product
Co-designing features alongside the client's product owner, with continuous feedback on flow, shaped a tool farriers chose to use.
THE DEVELOPMENT TEAM
About the Development Team
EQUINET was delivered by a dedicated Monterail team working in close partnership with the client. The Monterail team comprised two senior backend developers, one of whom acted as tech lead, two junior backend developers, one senior and one mid frontend developer, a senior QA engineer, and a part-time project manager. Mustad contributed a product owner and two mid-frontend developers, alongside the dedicated US team.
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