What's New in 24Trots: Guardian Flow Overhaul, Helmet Tracking, and a New Photostream

The guardian signup and linking experience got a full rework, participants now track helmet info, a new Photostream page surfaces session photos in one place, and a wave of quality-of-life fixes landed across the platform.

24Trots Release Notes — July 12, 2026 Release date: July 12, 2026 Update type: Minor version update Applies to: All user roles (Admin, Manager, Member, Participant) · All person types (Staff, Volunteer, Participant, Guardian) Estimated read time: 4 minutes Summary A focused release centered on the Guardian experience — from how they sign up, to how they're matched to participants, to how they receive notifications. Alongside that, helmet tracking landed on participant tack records, the new Photostream page pulls all session photos into one feed, and a batch of reliability fixes tidied up loose edges across forms, notifications, and deleted-content pages.

What's New 📸 Photostream — All Session Photos in One Feed A new Photostream page collects every photo shared across sessions into a single Instagram-style feed, grouped by session. Photos are displayed with the session context and roster, so it's easy to browse recent activity without visiting each session individually. Available to Managers and Admins. Use it when: You want a quick visual snapshot of what's been happening at the barn across all recent sessions without hunting session by session. 🪖 Helmet Tracking for Participants Participant tack records now include a Helmet field alongside the existing saddle and bridle entries. It lives in the Default Tack section of the participant profile and carries through to session rosters and the printable session sheet. Use it when: You need to document a rider's assigned helmet for safety tracking or to prep tack before they arrive. 💬 Load Earlier Messages in Channels Channels with more than 20 messages now show a Load Earlier Messages button that pages back 20 messages at a time. Previously, long conversations were truncated with no way to scroll back. This keeps initial load fast while letting you dig into history when you need it. Use it when: You're catching up on a busy channel and need to read back through messages from earlier in the day or week. ✍️ Agreements Now Signed at First Login, Not During Signup Required agreements (waivers, consent forms) are no longer presented mid-signup wizard — instead, they appear on the first login after account creation. New accounts are created cleanly, and the signing step is handled in one focused flow the first time you sign in. This resolves a bug where the wizard demanded signatures before ever showing the agreements. Use it when: You're onboarding a new Volunteer or Guardian — they'll complete their account first, then sign everything in one clear step when they log in. Improvements • Guardian notifications include participant name: Messages and notifications sent to Guardians now reference the specific linked Participant by name — so a Guardian receives "Aurora has been added to Wednesday's session" instead of a message that reads as if the Guardian themselves was added.

• Guardian-participant fuzzy matching: The participant lookup during Guardian signup now searches across legal name, preferred name, and preferred + last name combinations. Previously, participants were sometimes missed if their preferred name didn't exactly match what was typed.

• Guardian fields simplified: Emergency contact and photo consent fields are no longer shown or required during Guardian account creation — those fields belong to the Participant, not the Guardian.

• Block signup when already logged in: If a logged-in user visits an org's signup link, they now see a clear message — "You're already logged into your account" — with a Log Out button instead of being allowed to create a duplicate account.

• Additional emails more prominent on participant pages: Additional notification emails now appear in their own clearly labeled section on the Participant detail page in read mode, making them visible to staff without opening the edit form.

• Start date auto-sets to today for new signups: When inviting someone from the waitlist or creating a new account, the Start Date field now defaults to today's date automatically — unless the linked person profile already has a start date set.

• Guardians list on participant detail page: Guardian names now display using the full person display name, the Approve button matches the platform's primary green button style, and the Add Guardian button is right-aligned inline with the section header.

• "Not found" message updated for deleted sessions: When navigating to a permanently deleted session, the page now reads "This session cannot be found or has been permanently deleted" instead of a generic not-found message.

• Release notes hidden from Participants and Guardians: The Release Notes section in Settings is no longer visible to Participant and Guardian accounts. Staff and Volunteers can still access it.

• Roadmap uses median days on list: The roadmap stat previously labeled "Avg. days on list" now shows the median, which is a more accurate representation given the skewed distribution of task ages.

• Admin notifications for guardian link requests: Admins now receive a notification (and companion email) whenever a Guardian requests to link to a Participant, so requests don't go unnoticed.

Fixes • Fixed white screen shown after signing agreements — users are now automatically redirected to the Dashboard on completion instead of landing on a blank page.

• Fixed horse feeding schedule entries not saving in certain configurations — enforced single-item entry structure that was causing silent failures.

• Fixed guardian link request admin emails being blocked by an incorrect person-type flag.

• Fixed guardian-participant name matching failing for participants found only by preferred name or preferred + last name combination.

• Fixed guardian participant notifications using the wrong wording and missing coverage for some notification types.