Horse Browser is the browser for ADHD. I've updated the homepage to say that now. If you go look and give it a read, it actually makes a lot of sense. But I didn't want to do it, and if you'll indulge a bit of a rant, I'll explain why.
(´-ω-`)
The Browser That Fixes Everything
When I built Horse Browser, I thought I'd fixed everything. Like, seriously fixed the internet. I was convinced everyone would use Trails once they tried it because it actually changed how browser navigation works, not just what your browser looks like.
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For years, I held onto this belief. I thought once people experienced how Trails worked, they'd never want to go back to traditional browsers. I sure didn't. It felt completely new, not just the same old "address bar, back button, and tabs" in a purple jacket.
(￣ω￣)
But I called it a "research browser" as a strategic positioning move. Making the Trails system work with (almost) every website under the sun was going to take me several years of work, something nobody even seems to notice these days as being the primary challenge of making Horse Browser. (Good design is invisible!) The "research browser" label would allow me to safely improve the browser while avoiding comparisons to projects with millions in funding, and give me time to perfect the system before people expected it to replace their daily browser.
(＾▽＾)
The Browser That Fixes... Something
Right away at release, reactions to the Trails® system I created were mixed. To some, it was more of a hindrance than a help. To a few, it allowed them to finally get things done, and these users had a near-maniacal love for Horse Browser that could be pretty intense. (One of them recently said "I would pay Horse's entire MRR by myself, that's how much it helps me run my company!")
(・・;)
But to most it was a curiosity. Even when they spent enough time with Trails® to see it really was a novel way to browse the internet, and not 'just Tree Style Tabs in a new jacket' it often didn't click.
(－‸ლ)
An example of this disconnect happened when Niléane of MacStories reviewed Horse Browser. "Horse Browser is unlike anything I've ever seen in this space," she said in her review. Here was a professional reviewer who'd given the system proper attention and recognized its novelty, unlike some of her commenters whom she'd gotten quite annoyed by (which made me lol). But even after understanding that Trails was genuinely different, it still didn't become part of her daily workflow.
( ｡ •̀ ⤙ •́ ｡ )
This wasn't a failure of the review or the reviewer, it was data. For someone whose brain naturally maintains browsing context, the external structure that Trails provides isn't solving a problem they have. If anything, it might feel like visual clutter. The very feature that makes some users "near-maniacal" in their love for Horse Browser was, for others, simply unnecessary overhead.
(・・;)
I tried changing the copy, the pricing, the feature list. I endlessly built new features. But without understanding who was actually using Horse Browser daily, I was shooting in the dark.
(－‸ლ)
Finding Our Real Users
I relied on users telling me how much they used Horse Browser. But when I started logging actual usage data, how many times each license checked in, a completely different picture emerged. Some people who talked to me daily for months, claiming to be huge fans, barely used the product at all. They just wanted to talk to me because I'm such incredible fun to talk to. (I get it. I'm really amazing.) And out of our top 100 most active users, I had only spoken to 4 of them. I'd been waiting for users to reach out to me instead of reaching out to them.
( ദ്ദി ˙ᗜ˙ )
With this new data, I finally knew who our most dedicated riders were. I reached out and sat down with a bunch of them for video calls. These conversations were often really fun and went on for ages. At some point, we'd end up talking about why we clicked so well... and every single time, the answer was they had ADHD, or it ran in their family.
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One of them even said, "Horse Browser works like my brain does. I can go off on a tangent, and when I come back, I know exactly what I was doing before."
(╥﹏╥)
That's when it clicked. Trails work for neurodivergent minds, ADHD, autism, and others, because they externalize the browsing context that neurotypical brains hold internally. When you have challenges with working memory or executive function, that visual trail of where you've been and how you got there isn't just helpful, it's calming. You can follow tangents without anxiety because you can always see your way back. No frantic back-button clicking trying to reconstruct your path.
(◉_◉)
For neurotypical users who naturally maintain this context in their heads, the external scaffolding can feel like a distraction. They don't need to see the trail because they never lost it. But for those of us whose brains work differently, making that invisible context visible transforms browsing from chaotic to coherent.
(╥﹏╥)
That was the moment. I sat there thinking: "Oh, flippidy flamingo. I made a product for ADHD."
(_´︶`_)
Why I Didn't Want It to Be About ADHD
The funny part is I'd been diagnosed since 1996. I just never engaged with it. My whole self-concept was happy, talkative, funny, jolly. The diagnosis sat in a drawer for thirty years and I sailed right past it. Eleanor and I built Horse Browser for ourselves, the way you build a kitchen for yourself. It wasn't supposed to be about anything. It was supposed to make our days work.
(￣ω￣)
Then a couple of office bits where the happier I was, the more likely someone was to yell at me. So I tried to hide. In fact, I hid so hard that they never found me in an office again by going remote in 2013. Problem solved. Diagnosis still in the drawer.
(o˘◡˘o)
So when the calls kept landing on the same word, I had to take the diagnosis out of the drawer and actually look at it. I went to talk to Daniel, a psychotherapist who happens to also use Horse Browser. He didn't lecture, didn't tutor, just said one sentence in plain terms: "Horse externalizes executive functioning, that's why it works for ADHD brains."
(◉_◉)
That sentence cracked the whole thing open. I read Barkley. I read the rest. Suddenly the product made a different kind of sense, and so did a lot of other things. Eleanor and I had built a tool that took the part of my brain I had been quietly going around for years and put it on the screen.
(_´︶_)`
Embracing the Truth
The people who love Horse Browser, the ones who stick around and use it every day, all have ADHD. They say it's the only browser that doesn't punish the way they think.
(｡◕‿◕｡)
Horse Browser works for people with ADHD because I'm one of them, I just took the long way around to admit it. And now I'm finally fine saying it out loud.
(_˘︶˘_)
So yeah, I updated the homepage. It says what it is now. Horse is the browser for special little boys and girls like me who want to get their special little life together. And I really hope it does.
(ﾉ ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ\*:･ﾟ✧
If you have ADHD and you've tried Horse Browser, tell me how it went! Email me at howdy@pascalpixel.com.
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