Carly Batts ’17 drove to Wyoming after graduating from Stetson and took along her beloved horse Bear.

The former president of Stetson’s Equestrian Club figured she would go online and find places to stay along the 2,000-mile route. While it was easy to find rooms for herself, finding stables for Bear was a different story, she said.

She ended up mapping out the route, determining how far she could drive each day and then searching online for stables in the area, close to the interstate. She would call each one and ask if they might board a horse for the night.

“It was so hard,” Batts recalled. “At one point, I had to ask my grandmother in Colorado to ask her knitting circle if they knew of a place for my horse because I wanted to stop and see her, and I could not find anything online.”

Batts planned to spend a gap year in Wyoming and apply to law school. But instead, she returned home with Bear to Stuart, Florida, and launched an online boarding directory, called Hoofle USA, last month with friend and fellow alumna Martha Hunsucker ’17. (The two came up with the name by joining “hoof” and “Google” because they envision the site becoming a search engine for stables across the country.)

The two met their first year at Stetson in the Equestrian Club and eventually became officers — Batts was president and Hunsucker was vice president.

“This service would not be just for college students traveling with their horses,” said Hunsucker of Gahanna, Ohio. “It’s for anyone, even if you’re trying to go to a vet across the state. If you’re trying to go for a trail ride in a different state, if you’re going to a horse show … that’s what Hoofle is trying to address.”

Batts, an Environmental Science major, and Hunsucker, an English major, wrote a business plan, sold stock and have set a goal to list 200 stables nationwide in the directory during the first year. Currently, stables pay a small fee to be listed for short- and long-term rentals, including hurricane evacuations. The women plan to add an online booking platform next June.

The two said their online directory is different from several others online because it provides a more detailed search function, allowing horse owners to pick what kind of housing they want and in what part of the country; verifies listings; and provides marketing services to the listed stables and farms.

The online directory is a big improvement over the word-of-mouth network that horse enthusiasts have used for years to find places to board their horses when traveling, said Vicki Prettyman, owner of Triple Diamond Ranch in Eustis, Florida.

The ranch is listed in Hoofle USA and Prettyman, the Stetson Equestrian Club’s Western Coach, boards horses for Stetson students, who like Batts, bring their horses to college.

“I think it’s an awesome idea,” Prettyman said. “There are many times I have traveled across the country and tried to network with people (to find stables). … You can’t get into a hotel room and leave a horse in a trailer. They’d go stir crazy.”