I recently returned from the U.S. Dressage Federation Convention, held Dec. 4-7 in Houston, where I participated in a talk titled “The Future of the Industry” with Reese Koffler-Stanfield and George Williams. I shared the findings from the survey of equine professionals I did earlier in the year and outlined the four biggest issues that emerged with the audience—many of whom also participated in taking the survey. 

Issues To Manage, Not Problems To Fix

How to make boarding profitable was the biggest issue people wanted to talk about: Should you factor everything into the cost of boarding? Your insurance? Your taxes? Your mortgage? Even dare pay yourself for the work you do? 

The answer is unique to each facility. Maybe you don’t need to factor in your mortgage, because you separate out the real estate investment of the property from the business happening on it. But you should figure out what does need to be factored in for your individual business, how much you should really be charging, and/or how much you are willing to lose each month by boarding people’s horses. Once that thorny issue is settled, then we can delve into the million other questions about how to make a barn run more efficiently—should the horses live out more to save on labor and materials, should it have more or fewer boarders, etc.

The second biggest issue for conference attendees was finding and keeping good employees. Should we be worried about mass deportations coming? Should we be worried that most young people don’t seem to seek working-student positions any longer as the way to move ahead in the industry? How do we need to change our management style to be better employers? 

There were so many more questions here than clear answers, but I think the time is ripe for meaningful discussions on how to improve. I was impressed that people wanted to talk about ways they needed to adjust as an employer rather than just gripe about “kids these days.”

Long-term financial planning is clearly a big issue from the results of the survey—more than 60% of respondents said they do not contribute to any retirement accounts or have long-term savings. The survey did not ask respondents about different insurance options, but I have had many subsequent discussions about this, and I think it’s a good subject to tackle in a future article. Almost everyone has liability insurance and some kind of umbrella policy for their farm. But especially for trainers, do you have long-term care insurance? Short-term disability insurance? Income-replacement insurance? I do not. And some of these options I had never even heard of. 

Another subject that falls under the long-term planning category is how to find and secure a loan to buy a farm. Many people are worried about the loss of farmland to development. And there are many out there who dream of owning their own facility, either large or small. But if you are not making much profit as a horse trainer, how can you turn that dream into a reality? There is much more to learn here, and this will be the first subject I write a longer article about in the next few weeks. 

Business management, too, is a key topic. The most successful respondents almost all reported good business management practices, meaning all the things that are not riding and training and caring for horses: bookkeeping, scheduling, good communication skills, long-term planning, having solid contracts, etc. None of these things are why we went into the business, of course, but they make it so that you can have a business over many years. This is the area that I’ve had the most people share with me things that have worked for them and made big differences in their businesses. It’s not an easy thing to get great at, but it is probably the least complicated question of the four.

All of these are issues to be managed over the long term, rather than problems to be fixed. There will never be a time that you have “fixed” your employee problem so that you’ll never have to deal with it again. But there are folks out there who have come up with good models that work in each of these areas, and it’s been such fun to learn about new ideas and new ways of thinking. 

Wait, There’s A Horse Welfare Angle, Too?

The end of our convention talk brought up the idea that all of these issues are intimately linked with horse welfare. 

I would venture that 95% of people got into this industry because they love horses and are passionate about correct training. But I want you to imagine a well-intentioned trainer who has become stressed over their disorganized business, has recently lost an employee and is trying to figure out how to get all the barn work done, has no savings to fall back on, whose body probably hurts, and who feels pressure from clients to get training done quickly on a horse that needs to be sold. Let’s imagine how the training will go for that horse. (I’d rather not.) 

Now imagine a trainer who feels organized, has some savings for a rainy day, has built a good team around herself and has established clear boundaries through good communication with her clients. Picture the training for a horse in that program. There are many factors at play here, and I don’t want to insinuate that no abuse would ever occur if these issues are addressed well. But I do think it’s a tangled problem that deserves a thoughtful look. 

I left convention feeling inspired by many people whom I spoke with, but especially the younger professionals. At the end of our talk, I asked the audience to finish this sentence: “The future of the horse world I help to create is ___________.” 

The first responses were “accessible,” “kinder,” “sustainable.” What a beautiful vision! Imagine a horse world that is accessible, kind and sustainable. The only people that will help create it are us! So let’s get to work.

Eliza Sydnor Romm is an FEI rider and trainer from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. She is a USDF Certified Instructor and sought-after trainer and clinician. She teaches horses and riders of all levels, from starting under saddle to Grand Prix.