Cutting through the noise surrounding equestrian entrepreneurship.

The other day I was scrolling through social media where a client tagged me in a discussion on understanding the cost of operating a boarding facility. The comments were filled with members advising them that making money was impossible, costs are too high and any profit would cause horses to be too expensive. There was so much noise within the comments filled with pessimism and of course reality; horses are expensive. Reading through the comments I absolutely agreed with much of it, except that instead of encouraging movement towards better, the comments were discouraging the person to even research before making their own informed decision. 

“You won’t make a six figure income doing this” 

But people do and others don’t. It is not realistic or sustainable to operate a business that takes more money than you have, working more hours than you should. There’s solutions that can be explored to price board for a target market without being outside their budget; multiple revenue streams stabilize many businesses. Consistently losing money running any business is not ok; that is literally why so many equestrian businesses get labeled hobbyist by the government and find themselves in even harder financial situations.

​​Here’s the thing.. profit isn’t going to make horses too expensive. They are already expensive, that’s why equestrian entrepreneurs hustle so hard. 

Profit isn’t greed. It’s also not nearly as extreme as those with skepticism to prioritizing profit within the equestrian industry think it is.. and that’s ok. That’s their journey. 

Over here at Equestrian Entrepreneur we’re helping equestrian businesses protect their passion with profit. 

That means the equestrian schooling barn with 5 old schoolies makes enough money to afford their increasing care costs.

Profit allows the professional rider to afford supporting the next generation of riders coming up the ranks. 

It simply allows an equestrian business owner to operate their business as a business and not feel shameful for making money. Protecting their passion because they can pay their bills, allowing them to sleep better at night. Perhaps they can even take a wage for themselves to chip away at the debt they accumulated starting their business or equestrian career.

Profit isn’t greed, it’s sustainability.

There are always opportunities to make money if we’re truly willing to approach it with a mindset of cautious optimism and the commitment to consistently move forward in alignment with both reality and perhaps a little delulu*. Let’s not shoot down the possibility of an equine economy which encourages entrepreneurship that collectively lifts the entire industry, before its potential has the possibility to be explored. Our mission to end the broke horse girl era isn’t a fever dream and it’s not out of touch; it’s possible. It’s a commitment to create an industry as strong as the equestrians and equines within it. 

*delulu = delusional

Signed, 

The delulu equestrian who loves our industry but knows we can do better.