Volunteer veterinarians from around the world provide care for working animals in Costa Rica using Juniper Systems’ data collection solution

In this article, we’ll be highlighting a Juniper customer with a powerful mission to drive change and how they made the leap to Juniper’s veterinarian data collection solution.

Equitarian Initiative is a non-profit group with a mission to deliver healthcare and education to improve the health, nutrition, productivity, and welfare of horses, donkeys, and mules, and to empower their care providers for sustainable change.

Volunteer veterinarians from around the world are prepared by this non-profit organization. Together they provide quality veterinary care for the working horses, donkeys, and mules relied upon for the survival of over 100 million families.


The developing world has numerous needs with animals suffering and a lack of education in these communities. Juniper Systems and the Equitarian Initiative have come together to actively and efficiently provide direct aid to the families and individual owners of these equids. According to Equitarian Initiative Executive Director Annie Henderson, this partnership means a family can generate a livelihood or a child can access an education or medical attention based on the educational resources provided by this group.

This vision combined with one of Juniper Systems’ core company values to “assure quality in our products and services by understanding and meeting customer expectations” has made it so the volunteers are empowered in delivering this critical support in developing economies.

Read more about Juniper Systems’ values here.

To help support Equitarian Initiative’s mission, Juniper Systems provided a data collection solution to provide the following:

1. Digitalized veterinary records

As the Equitarian Initiative tried to find veterinary software in the past, nothing fit their needs. The organization wanted a totally customizable software for their unique work. After years of recording and subjecting their records to the general destruction of the elements and the natural contaminants of working with animals, the group was introduced to the a data collection solution by Juniper Systems.

Competing software typically must be connected to internet, while Equitarian Initiative’s animal records need to be accessible offline. Henderson enthusiastically took the leap to digitize the organization’s health records after discovering Juniper’s solution.

Isabelle Kunz, Solution sales representative at Juniper Systems, accompanied the group to Costa Rica. Her presence catalyzed the process of getting the group up and running with digital data collection throughout the trip.

“Working with Annie and everyone involved with Equitarian Initiative has been so much fun,” said Kunz. It’s nice to be able to provide a great digital recordkeeping solution for such an amazing cause.”

Since partnering with Juniper Systems and having quick access to animal information, the Equitarian Initiative volunteers are now able to demonstrate and capture the impact they’re having in these communities.

“By having easily accessible data analysis of animals being treated, the vaccines being administered, and most importantly how we can prepare to meet the needs of the animals and people, we can do so much more,” said Henderson.

This transition has made it so the volunteers on-site and those seeking support from generous donors can collaborate. Through this collaboration communities will receive the resources and education necessary for them to succeed with healthy animals. The volunteers are able to more efficiently access animal information in the field and track it over time. This allows them to measure their impact and share it with donors.

2. Time savings and accessible information

“Once we are home, not having a huge staff capacity is pretty hard to get that data into a format where we can use it,” said Henderson. “Going back and analyzing that data is such an undertaking. It is something that we haven’t been able to do effectively with our limited staff capacity. The Uinta software has increased our effectiveness in extrapolating and utilizing this data.”

The Mesa Rugged Tablet combined with the Uinta Data Collection Software has made it possible for the staff of the Equitarian Initiative to answer lifesaving questions. Instead of painfully looking for a single piece of paper that could be damaged or blown away for information related to the patient being treated, volunteers can now confidently rely on digital records. This software and rugged technology alleviate the stress associated with collecting and analyzing records. 

3. Rugged tablets and personalized customer care

Retrieving the data after these workshops is key to improving the efficiency of the Equitarian Initiative. Kunz, describes her understanding of the Equitarian Initiative as follows:

“Once a project is completed, the data collected is at their fingertips to share with others. The limited staff are no longer inundated with transferring mountains of paperwork into spreadsheets.”

The Mesa 3 Rugged Tablet and the Uinta Software provide the solution with top-of-the-line protection for these precious records.

“Working with Isabelle and Trevor Brown [Business Development Manager] has really been amazing,” Henderson said. “Their dedication to understanding our needs, learning the specific challenges of the organization, and being able to work with a company that has corporate ethos that align with the Equitarian Initiative was amazing. The device and software make it so we can communicate a clear vision for our donors to see the results being achieved.”

Together we continue to show up with ethical guidelines and core values for the people we serve and do business with.

Learn more about the Mesa Rugged Tablet and Uinta Data Collection Software. If you would like to read more about the Equitarian Initiative you can visit their website.

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