I collect tabs like a hoarder. Thirty-seven open before I notice, each one a half-finished thought I can't find again. I'd click through them frantically, looking for the one tab I'd built an entire train of thought on. Usually I'd give up and start over.
That's ADHD. Every tab is a possibility. Every link, a distraction dressed as a breakthrough. Traditional browsers were designed for someone whose thoughts don't vanish the moment their eyes leave the screen.
Then I found Horse. Click a link and it branches off. Go deeper, another branch. Everything I've visited stays mapped out behind me. It's not a row of identical tabs; it's a map of how I actually got there. I can go on tangents without getting lost, because the path back is always visible.
Curiosity isn't the problem
I used to chastise myself for getting off task, as though curiosity was a failure. Horse changed that. My brain's way of working isn't something to correct; it's something the browser quietly supports. I stopped keeping random tabs "just in case." I stopped feeling guilty about following a thread.
Externalizing executive function
In clinical terms, this is "externalizing executive function": building systems outside the brain that reduce pressure on memory and focus. A timer on your phone. A checklist on the wall. Horse does this for research: it holds the structure of your thinking while you follow it.
I use pomodoros for time management. But once I start following links, tracking sources, mapping out ideas, timers can't hold that structure. Horse can.
What surprised me was the emotional shift. I didn't realize how much tension I carried while working online. The anxiety of losing a key source, the frustration of not being able to retrace a thought. That tension is gone now.
What my clients say
I recommend Horse to clients, particularly those in university or working on large projects. One told me it "made their thinking visible." Another stopped opening duplicate tabs out of panic, because they knew everything was still there.
Horse doesn't just support how I work. It supports why I work the way I do.
Want more?
