Backdrop
Field work, long hauls, and back-to-back barn calls are a way of life for equine veterinarians. Dr. Roland Thaler and his wife Bonnie run Metamora Equine PC with a schedule that swings from farm lameness work to multi-day road trips covering dozens of horses. Notes, imaging follow ups, farrier and trainer updates, and billing used to stack up after dark.
“It has added back probably about two hours a day.”
— Dr. Roland Thaler
Before Talkatoo
A four-day road run to Ohio could mean around 40 horses and hours of clerical work after the last trailer pulled out. Records had to be assembled from memory, calls needed summaries, and owners, trainers, and farriers all required clear communication.
What changed
Roland brought Auto-SOAP into the barn aisle. He records each appointment on his phone, finishes the exam, then reviews a structured SOAP in the portal that night. Small vocabulary tweaks happen in minutes, and the note goes to Bonnie for billing and client follow up.
Even better for equine work, Auto-SOAP doesn’t require cell service. Roland can dictate notes in remote barns or on rural roads without a signal. As soon as he’s back in coverage, Talkatoo automatically uploads and completes the records.
“As I finish with one horse and they bring me the next, I dictate into Talkatoo. At night I open the portal, make a few corrections, and zip it to Bonnie. It literally takes me minutes per horse instead of half an hour.”
For surgical narratives and common client communications, Roland leans on the AI Assistant to generate clear, reusable language that matches his voice. When he calls owners and trainers, Call Summary places the call and returns a concise clinical summary with the filler removed, along with the full transcript for the record.
On the drive home, he uses Talkatoo for callbacks. With cell service, he can place all of his client calls from the truck, and every conversation is automatically summarized and stored in the notes—so there’s no backlog waiting at the office.
“The phone call summaries are beyond excellent. They save so much time and they are more detailed. It took out all the junk and left a clean clinical summary.”
Quick addenda, treatment lists, and one-off entries happen with Desktop Dictation anywhere he can type.
An equine workflow that fits the field
- On the farm: Record the entire visit with Auto-SOAP, even without service. Notes capture palpation findings, blocks, imaging decisions, and plans while the case is fresh. They upload automatically later.
- On the road: During multi-day circuits, each horse is documented in real time. Evenings are for quick reviews, not reconstruction from memory.
- For the team around the horse: Call Summary produces clean updates that farriers and trainers can act on. Owners appreciate leaving the pen and paper in their tack trunk. Roland simply tells clients he’ll send them the notes so they can focus on the horse, and the response has been consistently positive.
- On the drive home: Callback documentation happens from the cab of the truck, summarized and filed instantly into the record.
Results that matter in the barn
- Hours returned: About two hours a day saved, with road trips shifting from paperwork marathons to short nightly reviews.
- Better records: More complete SOAPs and call documentation, less guesswork later.
- Happier clients and partners: Summaries that capture what was decided for the horse, not the small talk.
Product notes and feedback
Roland shared a few quality-of-life ideas especially relevant to ambulatory equine work, such as pasting phone numbers directly into the dialer, richer in-app editing for quick formatting, and optional support for inbound call summaries. The Talkatoo team captured his suggestions and walked through tips like recording with the screen off in a pocket during hands-on procedures.
Why Talkatoo is a fit for equine practices
Equine ambulatory medicine is mobile, loud, and fast. Auto-SOAP works in the aisle—even offline. Call Summary keeps owners, trainers, and farriers aligned, whether calls happen in the barn or on the ride home. The AI Assistant handles repetitive writing like procedure reports and discharge instructions, and Desktop Dictation fills the gaps anywhere you type. Documentation finishes when the trailer door closes, not after dinner.
