If you want to make a small fortune in the horse world, you better start with a big one. 

This old joke is funny because it’s true. And if you’re an equine professional, it’s also sad because it’s true. Growing up in the horse world, I heard things like this all the time—“There’s no money in horses!” or, “The only way to make any money is in sales, and they’re all crooked!” or, “You get into this business for the love of the horses, and that’s the only thing that will keep you in it”—usually yelled at me by a weather-beaten, older professional with a bad back and a worse attitude. 

It seems like everyone “knows” these things to be true, or somewhat true. But are they really? Because I’ve always been a curious (some would say nosey) person, I thought I would just ask folks. I put together a survey for horse professionals—trainers, instructors, barn owners and managers—asking them many questions about their businesses: Are you consistently making a profit, and if so, how much? Does boarding make money in your business? How much are you paying workers, and what are your most common problems with them? Are you able to save for retirement and/or a rainy day? The survey was fairly thorough, even though I tried to keep it short enough that even a time-starved horse pro would complete it. And I got over 1,500 responses! 

Here’s the bad news:

• Over 50% of respondents are not reliably making any profit in their businesses.
• About 70% do not pay themselves on any regular basis.
• Well over 50% do not have one reliable day off each week, and just under 50% have not had any vacation in the past six months.
• Almost 60% of respondents do not contribute to any retirement fund or put money into savings.
• About 70% of respondents describe themselves as somewhat to extremely burnt out.

I would add to this the stress barn owners and trainers feel in many other areas that was not easy to quantify, such as care of horses, pressure from clients, finding and managing employees, etc.

All of this data paints an unsustainable picture for the future. If professionals cannot make a profit, save for their future, and maintain their physical and mental health, no amount of love for horses and passion for training can overcome those facts. 

For anyone reading this, I would like you to take a moment and complete the following sentence: The future of the horse world is ________.

Was your answer some version of “in trouble”? (Or maybe a worse word I won’t repeat here…) Most people I talk with tell me a version of that. 

It’s Not All Bad News

But it’s not all bad news. The passion for correct training and our deep love for these animals is alive and well. So many respondents shared that their love of horses and training and helping riders was so motivating to them that they couldn’t imagine doing anything else. People have a strong passion for sharing knowledge and acting as stewards to these amazing animals. And in our modern era, technology makes many things possible now that were not possible a decade ago. A motivated trainer can teach themselves about business management online at a low cost, without going to a formal business school. Training can happen with remote lessons, which is a great way for trainers to make money while lowering overhead. But it’s also a great way for trainers to continue to improve their own skills without feeling they must spend the winter in Florida or somehow move to Europe for the advanced training they desire. 

So what can we learn from all this data to help these professionals continue with this sport that we love? Four main areas stand out to me as the largest problems most trainers face:

1. Business management practices
2. Long-term financial planning
3. Managing employees
4. Running boarding operations in a profitable way

Let’s look at each of these topics slightly more in depth. And then I plan to devote a whole article to each topic in the future.

Business Management Practices

Of the 43.48% of respondents who said they consistently made a profit, it was clear that years of experience combined with a high level of organization around the running of the business was the largest indicator of success. There was not a significant difference between disciplines, although eventing trainers seem to fare slightly better. Location was not a major factor, although respondents from California had the best average, with 54.9% of businesses making a profit. 

One of the questions was, how organized do you feel in your business management practices (on a scale from 1-5, with 1 being very disorganized and 5 being highly organized.) For those who consistently make a profit of $70,000 or more, the greatest number of responses was a 4 on that scale. This is probably not surprising to anyone, as all businesses need to be well organized to run well. But what is surprising is that an equally large number of people who are consistently making a profit do not enjoy the business management side of things. So the takeaway there is that you don’t have to like it, but you do have to get good at it. Or you have to ask for help and hire people to manage that aspect of it. 

For more than a decade I promised myself each year at tax time that this would be the year I was going to stay on top of the bookkeeping, and I would not get to April of the following year and panic, as I tried to organize all the accounting. And for maybe a month or two I stayed very organized, kept track of every receipt and every deposit. But I hate that stuff, and I just wanted to train horses, and so inevitably it would slowly slip until I had months and months to catch up on. Finally I hired a bookkeeper to help me get organized. I thought the same thing many pros think: “I’m not making enough money to pay someone else to do this!” 

But in the first month that I hired her, she noticed that one of my clients had not paid her monthly training board. This was many years ago, when I did not invoice people online and collect payment online, it was all through checks. This was a wonderful client, and she always paid on time. I had simply missed it, and when I reached out to the client, she was mortified, because it had just slipped her mind. No ill intent whatsoever, but my bookkeeper (who at the time cost me $200/month) had just paid for herself for nine months, due to one innocent mistake. 

There is so much to say on business management, and I will delve much more deeply into all of it in a future article. 

Emily Brollier Curtis has built a thriving business outside of Lexington, Kentucky. Over the past decade, Emily has built her business up from first galloping racehorses and starting yearlings to now having 60 dressage horses on the nearly 100-acre farm she owns with her husband. She never had a sponsor or wealthy parents that got her here, just hard work and calculated risk-taking. 

“If it doesn’t bring me joy or make me money, it’s out!” Emily said. “Training and lessons are what brings in the steady income every month, but sales are my path to doing the things I want to do with my business.” 

Emily is good at sales because she can ride any type of horse, is honest and ethical, and has built a reputation for having many good horses at various stages of training and price points. 

“My husband and I joke that I am the CEO, CFO, head of marketing, head of IT, all of those roles! But really, anyone who runs a successful small business has to understand all of those things,” she said. Her method for staying organized is to keep it fairly simple: have more money coming in than going out at all times. Hire a really good CPA and attorney, and keep track of your records. 

“Stay focused on what you’re good at,” she said. “I use Quickbooks, keep an eye on my finances on a regular basis, and meet with my CPA for help with tax planning at the end of each year.” 

Financial Planning

Long-term financial planning is another massive subject, and one in which I do not claim any expertise. But the fact that almost 60% of respondents said they do not contribute to a retirement or savings account of any sort shows that we have a problem. There was not a follow-up question on the survey to ask why not, but I have since spoken with many trainers, some of whom are highly organized and reliably profitable. They saw saving for retirement as something for the future—to start once they get rid of debt, or once they sell the next nice horse—or not a priority over the here-and-now of current needs. And, of course, those who are not making a profit in their business don’t see any path toward saving because there’s no money being made.

Alexa Derr, of Reinholds, Pennsylvania, has managed to put money away for retirement from a young age. 

“It’s easier to visualize immediate wants rather than future needs,” she said. But she watched trainers she worked for as a young rider struggling with financial security, and she knew she wanted to do it differently. Alexa decided to become a part-time professional while also working a full-time job in the scrap metal industry. It’s a lot to manage, but she is able to feel more financially secure, maxing out her Roth IRA every year while also contributing to a simplified employee pension (SEP) retirement fund through her other job. This security allows her to shape her horse business, and the decisions for her personal horses, as she sees fit. 

“I never want business finances to negatively impact my horse’s welfare,” she said. “Prioritizing financial security makes ailments a little less stressful.” 

Another common theme with farm owners was, “I’m not putting money into a retirement fund, because this farm is my retirement, and at some point, I’ll sell it.” This is a very understandable thought process. But no one knows how the real estate market will look in 10 or 20 years, or whenever the farm owner decides to retire. And many horse people don’t want to sell out and move, even as they get older. So when the time comes, they find themselves in a real quandary with not enough savings but no desire for a different lifestyle. 

Helping trainers to plan ahead and save, even if it’s very small amounts each month at first, seems to be a big hole in our industry. This is another area where trainers can educate themselves without spending tons of money. It is not a requirement to hire a financial advisor or take college classes on these subjects. There are many ways to learn about this subject online, or listen to podcasts or audio books while driving. By starting small but reliably putting money away, trainers can be prepared if something happens to them physically, or if they reach retirement and want to seek a different path. 

Hiring And Retaining Employees

A huge area of concern for many professionals is employees: how to find them, how to train them, how to keep them. When asked to explain their biggest problem with employees, the top answers were reliability, work ethic, retention, affordability, and attention to detail. 

Jaralyn Gibson, of Wellington, Florida, has been successful with employees over the years. Part of her success lies in being extremely clear about job descriptions and compensation packages from the very beginning. In her offer letter to future employees she outlines every duty required, exactly how many days off per week and hours of work are expected each day, and then gets granular with what she provides to the employee. This includes a weekly salary but also housing, electricity, internet, lessons, board for their horse, meals, trailering to competitions, getting added to her liability insurance, and much more. When laid out in clear bullet points with a fair price attached to each, the employee can see the value in all of those things that are not part of their weekly paycheck. 

“My attitude has completely shifted over the years, when it comes to employees,” Jaralyn said. “The idea of being grateful to even have a job is completely gone in our country. I really work for my employees, they don’t work for me. Management style is extremely important. That relationship has changed, and most employers don’t realize that.”

Taking the time to create a team atmosphere where everyone, from the head trainer to the stall cleaner, feels like they are integral to the health and happiness of the horses and the business is vital. 

Taking the time to create a team atmosphere where everyone, from the head trainer to the stall cleaner, feels like they are integral to the health and happiness of the horses and the business is vital. 

“The equine industry has a leadership issue, not an employee issue,” one survey respondent wrote. 

The idea that people should be grateful for a $10-$15/hour job, and will show up every day and do quality work, is just not realistic anymore. We can moan and complain about this, or we can figure out how to be better employers who provide good leadership and very clear expectations. Jaralyn said she plans on shorter-term employees now than she used to 20 years ago. 

“It used to be that people stayed with me for 3-4 years,” she said. “Now I plan for six months, and if they stay longer, I just feel lucky.”

Another model has worked well for Kristina Harrison of Los Angeles. Everyone who works with her— grooms, assistants, barn workers— are independent contractors with their own businesses. 

“I am a referral service,” Kristina explained. She realized in the late 1990s that she could not afford to hire employees with the cost of workman’s compensation. “So I met with a labor attorney, who helped me to organize this system. Everyone is a true independent contractor. They provide all their own equipment. They all have their own businesses under me. They carry their own insurance. I’m happy to help them get started by explaining what they need to do to set up an LLC, open the right kind of checking account, etc., but they have to get it done.” 

Strong leadership and communication skills, along with creative thinking, is going to be required for a successful future of employment in the horse world.

Making Boarding Viable

Perhaps the hardest problem of all is boarding. For those who run boarding barns or offer boarding as part of their training business, it was clear that breaking even or making even a small profit is extremely hard. This problem should worry everyone, because if offering boarding is unsustainable, where will amateurs keep their horses? And as more and more farmland gets developed, the problem seems dire. 

This topic, like the others, deserves a much deeper dive. There are some people out there who are doing boarding well, and making it work for everyone, boarders and farm owners alike. 

Kate Poulin knew things would have to change when she was moving her business into a beautiful new farm in Hiram, Ohio. For a whole year, Kate kept a spreadsheet, which was available for all her clients to view at any time, that tracked every single expense. Included were the usuals, like hay, grain, shavings and employee payroll. But clients were surprised to see all the expenses they hadn’t thought of, such as taxes, insurance, manure removal, maintenance, repairs, equipment, fuel, and on and on, including the small things like laundry pods and trash bags for the tack room. After tracking each and every expense for a year, they moved into the new barn, and Kate charged exactly what was needed to cover all expenses. The owner of the farm doesn’t make a profit from boarding, but she truly has all her expenses covered, and that’s what Kate wanted. 

“The owner of the farm cannot be subsidizing other people’s horses,” Kate said. “We made it so transparent. Anyone could look up the spreadsheet and see that this is really what it costs to run a barn of this quality.” 

Kate found that none of the clients complained about the higher cost of board, because they knew it was being well-managed and they were aware of all that went into it. 

There are many models for how to run a boarding barn, and some people have gotten creative with co-ops, self-care and partial-care. Another option is to shift expectations for how your horse might live. 

Keeping the horses out most of the time, in groups with run-in sheds, is a way to keep expenses lower and the need for employees to a minimum. If your budget for boarding is low, you may have to change your expectations or think of new ways to help the barn owner save money. Creating more efficient barns is always smart. Kate said she and the farm owner thought through the design of the farm to increase efficiency, from the design of the barn itself, to the turnouts, to things like automatic waterers and manure removal. The more efficient a barn can be, the less time workers will need to spend and more money can be saved. 

The Issues Are Shared Among Disciplines

This survey was very interesting, because it shed light on so many of the issues that professionals face. Ever since my original Facebook post went viral, I have spoken with so many professionals, in many different disciplines. Everyone has been eager to share their struggles and hear about what others are doing. So often people think others are doing much better than they are, or that maybe professionals in other disciplines are the ones that have it all figured out. But the data shows that professionals in all disciplines are struggling. And it also proves that there are professionals, in all disciplines and all different business models, who are successful and have figured out many of these issues. 

So let’s keep the conversation going. I’m happy so many people are talking about these problems, and I’m excited to think through solutions with friends and colleagues. I’ll sit on a panel to discuss all these ideas Dec. 7 at the 2024 Adequan/USDF Annual Convention. And in January, I’ll talk about it again at the Young Rider Graduate Program, sponsored by The Dressage Foundation. I’m aware that it is easier to highlight problems than it is to come up with solutions, and I want to make sure we are thoughtfully thinking of the future we want to create for ourselves, as professionals in the horse world. 

I want you to think back to the sentence I asked you to complete at the beginning of this article. If it was negative, you’re not alone. But now try another one:

The future of the horse world I help to create is ____________.

Whether we continue with these same problems for years to come is up to us. By working together, building relationships, and asking for help, we can figure these things out and improve the lives of horse professionals. And this will, in turn, improve the lives of the horses we all love so dearly and allow us to continue horse sport well into the future. 

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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.