10 Ways You Can Help a Shrinking Horse Industry
I am on a number of horse focused Facebook groups and the majority of my friend circle is made up of horse owning and horse-riding people. A topic of discussion that frequently comes up is that of decreasing participation in any horse related activity and particularly, a decrease in youth participation. While it seems that everyone can wax eloquently on the reasons for this, kids just want to play with devices, no one wants to put in the work, and on and on, very few people seem to want to brainstorm ways to make a change. I am a firm believer in a few things. The first is the philosophy that you are either part of the problem or part of the solution. The second is that change starts from the ground up, meaning that the grass roots folks can often make a bigger impact than larger organizations. I have spent quite some time thinking about this and offer a few thoughts.
Barn Owners/Trainers:
- Have a lesson program. Most people who have an interest in horses don’t run out and buy one right away. They start by taking lessons somewhere. A beginner lesson program is the beginning of the pipeline to horse ownership. Not everyone who starts riding lessons is going to continue, buy a horse and maybe start to show. That is not everyone’s goal. If, for example, 5% of those who start to ride in a riding program go on to buy a horse that is good for the industry. The more people that are taking lessons, the higher number that 5% becomes. I know that giving beginner lessons is not really fun or exciting for a lot of people. There isn’t much glory in it and there are no big belt buckles that come from it. The goal here is to develop new riders, to foster the love of horses in new people and maybe inspire someone to get a horse, show and win those big buckles.
- Create new innovative riding programs. We need to make riding fun. Let people know that, though we horse people might be a bit crazy, we are good crowd to spend your time with. This means that we have to get our thinking caps on and come up with some fun ways to get people involved. Off the top of my head, two programs come to mind. Jennalinn Show Horses in New York offers a Sip n Ride program for their adult riders. Riders sign up for a group lesson and then afterward spend time socializing with some finger foods and a glass of wine. Amy Wunderlich Performance Horses offers a Mommy and Me program for mothers and young children. This is a great program that exposes young children to horses and horse related activities, combining horse content with other fun activities.
- Create an Interscholastic Equestrian Association Team: The IEA is an organization open to riders in 4th through 12th grade. The riders do not need to own their own horses. There are local, regional and national IEA horse shows where these students compete. This organization has the same type of structure as intercollegiate horse showing. This is not just a great way to introduce young people to riding, but also to horse showing. This makes showing horses much more affordable as the rider does not need to own the horse or the tack. They need to have appropriate attire and membership. This is a great building block for a student to prepare to either show at a higher-level show, get their own horse, or ride for a college team.
- Host an intercollegiate college riding team: Before the days of NCEA teams, there only were intercollegiate equestrian teams. Post NCEA riding teams, smaller schools do still have these programs. This is another great way to promote horseback riding and showing to those individuals who may not own their own horses. These riders will take lessons at your farm and then show at the intercollegiate horse shows. As someone who rode on the Purdue University Intercollegiate team in the early 1990’s, I can attest that this is a ton of fun!
- Market your riding programs to schools: These days parents may primarily focus on sports where their children can obtain scholarships for college (think soccer). Well, the horse world has NCEA teams now too which means that we have scholarships. I would venture to guess that many families don’t know this fact. They won’t know until we tell them. Contact grades schools and high schools and find out how to let the parents of the world know that their child can get a college scholarship from riding horses too!
Horse Owners:
It is likely true that our non-horse friends might be over our Facebook and Instagram feeds being constantly filled with pictures of our horses. However, some might not be. Some of our friend’s kids might think the horses are pretty cool too.
- Invite them over: If any of your friends or your friends’ children show interest in your horses, invite them to visit. I am not saying that we must let them ride or turn into eternal givers of pony rides, but we should take steps to foster their interest. For some people just being in the presence of horses is enough to spark their interest. Sometimes if we just let them hang out and brush our horse it can be meaningful for them. It is very hard for anyone to express an interest in something they are not exposed to. Most people do not have any exposure to horses. We can’t make horse enthusiasts out of people who have never seen a horse in person.
Everyone in the equine community:
- Be Nicer: Let’s have a moment of vulnerability here. If we are all really honest with ourselves, we have had moments where we were not that nice to people when it comes to our horses. Maybe this means we were annoyed when a non-horse person asked to pet our horse. Maybe we got offended when a friend asked for a pony ride on our World Champion horse. Maybe we were snobby or rude to the new people on the show circuit because their horses weren’t as good as ours or they weren’t as good riders or competitors. Let’s be honest. People are not going to stick around the horse world if they don’t feel welcome.
- Be Ethical: The term horse trader didn’t get its negative connotation out of nowhere. Unfortunately, historically, our industry has a reputation of being less than ethical. I have heard way too many stories of people in this industry who had bad experiences with aspects of the industry, whether that be bad experiences with trainers or paying way too much money for a horse that is lame or dangerous. This is the type of experience that can make a person change breed or discipline or leave the horse industry permanently. It’s just not ok and it does great damage to the industry.
- Let go of your ego: I know a lot of good horse folks who don’t want to work with beginners or give lessons. Though I respect their decisions, I wonder, where are the great youth and non-pros going to come from? Where are you going to get these great training horses from when no one is trying to bring more people into the industry. I wonder do we need a mind set change. If the only reason we are in the horse industry is to win trophies and money, we are missing a big part of the point of horses. The journey. Can we learn to find as much satisfaction from cultivating progress in a new rider? Can we feed our horse trainer esteem by helping a person make progress in their relationship with their non world caliber horse? Can we learn to find satisfaction in many aspects of training horses and people and not just from trophies and belt buckles?
- Think long term: If you are a trainer or barn owner, have a plan. I don’t know many people who are equine professionals that have a formal business or marketing plan. We tend to rely on word of mouth or clients just arriving on the doorstep. This may have worked years ago, but it doesn’t work today. We need to think farther down the road. How do I make my business sustainable? How do I bring in more clients? How do I market my services in new and innovative ways? If we all don’t start to or continue to think long term, the industry will continue to dwindle. The pool of clients gets smaller. Your income gets smaller and it gets harder to get new clients and make a living. If you want your horse business to survive, and hopefully thrive, a change of mindset is needed. We must be much more proactive and get the word out to the world that they need horses and horseback riding in their lives.
To summarize, I want to say that I am not a horse trainer, riding instructor or barn owner. I am just a nearly life long horse owner who truly understands the value of having horses in our lives, whether that be for the innumerable great things kids can learn from riding or the general mental health and well being benefit from just being around or casually riding horses. I want future generations to know the gift of being raised around horses that I was afforded as a child.
January 16, 2020 @ 4:03 pm
Excellent! And, spot on.
January 16, 2020 @ 6:42 pm
Thank you
January 16, 2020 @ 4:15 pm
The lawsuit businnes is also destroying us. Many kids got thier start with my small herd and some one on to be horsr owners. But now with no liability insurance, i seldom take the risk.
January 18, 2020 @ 1:22 am
Sally, I feel your pain. It is so cost prohibitive because of the liability. Unless you have a lot of money to start a barn, a lesson program, give instructions, have liability insurance on your lesson horses (most people forget about this aspect), it is very difficult to do.
January 18, 2020 @ 5:17 pm
Same thing here, just can’t afford the insurance.
January 17, 2020 @ 1:41 pm
As Sally King says, the insurance that is needed these days to offer any sort of lessons or equine “meet n greet” is difficult to get around. In my own situation, even though I acquired a coaching certificate in 1984, the insurance would cost me $1500 per year. I live in a small town, and would not cover the cost of the insurance with lessons. It’s even more if you are offering school horses. Instead, I bring in an insured coach from a more popular and populated area to give the lessons a few times a year at our facility (donating the use of the facility to keep costs low). But it is difficult to get enough riders to make the lessons “go”, even though there are no other sources of riding and training information of this caliber in our area. I would like to add that a great place to entice new riders into the sport discipline is at “Fall Fairs”. These competitions are often not as high level as your local A circuit, but often offer great prize money and low cost entries. Their goal is to create a “show” for the public, YOU AND YOUR HORSE are the “show”. As such, you are ambassadors of the equine industry. These shows attract the public that does not usually go to horse shows, and has the barn area “open” to the public, which can be a hassle for you, but has it’s positive side As such, it is an excellent place to let a city kid pat your horse for the first time, if you happen to have the right sort of horse for this. Infect a city kid with the horse bug, and the next thing you know, their parents are asking where they can take the kid for riding lessons.
January 17, 2020 @ 1:49 pm
Thank you for your input Nancy. Insurance sure makes things difficult and expensive. I completely agree with you about letting a “city kid” get close to a horse. It can have a great effect! There is so much hidden talent out there in people who don’t have the opportunity to be around horses!
January 17, 2020 @ 1:42 pm
Great article!!!!! Well written! We are a small beginner farm…..Every Winner Was Once A Beginner….I have 3 lessons plus my 3 kids ride. It’s enough! The cost of a farm/horses requires me to hold a full time nursing job. Rising costs for hay/grain/health care/training/fuel really dampens most equine facilities that run on a smaller scale. Many folks are forced to get a job to support this passion!!!! Professionals included.
January 17, 2020 @ 4:00 pm
This is right on the money!! Couldn’t of said it better myself…
January 17, 2020 @ 4:39 pm
Also you may want to invest in program for middle age people who now have time to ride but never had the opportunity or had to give up riding to raise a family. I would like to get back into riding and lessons but don’t know where to start?
January 17, 2020 @ 7:36 pm
Great suggestions…where are you geographically
January 17, 2020 @ 7:28 pm
Great article. I agree we need to get kids up on the horse. No hand held game can top the great cadence of a trot, or the wind in your hair while cantering. Insurance is a problem. The be nice advise is spot on. I have had horses for 50 years. The last show I went to as a spectator, I walked around smiling saying hello to people. It was the Sat, night barn party. Groups sat tight at their stalls, no one mingled. Not one person asked if I were showing or watching, no one engaged in any way. I ended up leaving before night classes started.
January 17, 2020 @ 7:38 pm
Thank you. Totally agree we have lost some of the social feel
January 17, 2020 @ 10:05 pm
The state I teach lessons in used to be 2nd in the horse population 20 yrs ago. Plenty of trainers in all disciplines & a great selection of barns covering all locations of the city. As the horse population started to dwindle, prices of horses went up & knocked out many potential buyers in the middle class & now we are back to society rich owning horses. This caused many of the older trainers to sell their farms to developers, because young trainers could not afford land prices. Now in my area of a large city, there are less than10 barns down from 25. Knowing the demand for leases or space at these remaining barns for young trainers, many barn owners have taken unfair advantage & the leases in this area can go as high as $10000 a month for a 15 stall barn, which then drives a horse owner’s fees up to $850-1000 just for board & add another &1000-1500 for training & lessons. Any parent or individual who wants to spend that serious amount of money monthly isn’t in to this activity just for fun. That is a house payment! Only option is to drive 45 min – 1 hr to barns way out of the city for affordable pricing. Is a parent willing to do that with their kid, if the kid has 5 other activities for free or small cost. Therefore I have gone to the adult groups & senior riders. who now have their own money & time schedules. Just like therapeutic horsemanship, we can keep all age adults in great physical & mental health with balance, flexibility, strength & stress relief that a horse provides. And you never know which one of these riders has their own child or grandchild, who catches horse interest. Used to be the other way around, but time for a change.
January 17, 2020 @ 10:46 pm
we have the same struggles where I am. All available land is being bought up to build warehouses and land is super hard to afford. Glad you found a way to keep going and are there for the adults and senior riders who want to ride! Though we might not like the changes, we need to be flexible! sounds like you are doing a great a job.
January 18, 2020 @ 4:02 am
Great article. Just started riding/showing again myself after a 30 year layoff. Great reason to get back in shape
January 18, 2020 @ 1:33 pm
glad you are back in the saddle 🙂
January 18, 2020 @ 4:07 pm
I started a trail logging program in 2013 and it’s based on the rider recording their trails with a GPS (usually an smartphone GPS app) and then uploading the track to their account with both the horse ridden and the rider getting credit for the mileage. It’s a lot of fun and a great community (we connect on the website, on our Facebook group and often times get to meet in person). We just need to figure out how to reach the younger demographic!
January 21, 2020 @ 4:06 pm
Actually, I’m doing every single suggestion actively to some degree. I offer to wave ALL fees (including show entries, haul in, and everything else) for U.C. Davis riders. New clinicians are under social pressure to take novices of all ages (you promise to teach people who have never been within 100 yards of a horse?). We have also offered scholarships for winners of essay contests (Why would you want to learn Dressage?) at local high schools (free lessons for the Summer, lend of a horse, saddle, tack, boots, riding habit – with all show and clinic fees waived – sponsored by the county Dressage group). Our ranch has a weekly potluck (we are in the wine country North of San Francisco so you can imagine what that’s like)! Our ranch is positively a bargain with boarding and plenty of turn out (check out our reviews). Now all I need is more horse people.
January 21, 2020 @ 4:11 pm
Wow Paul! you are an inspiration! I want in on a pot luck in wine country!
January 21, 2020 @ 4:43 pm
The Kansas Horse Council (KHC) has launched a HORSEMANSHIP REWARDS PROGRAM where both young, vintage and in between equine lovers can get rewarded while doing what they love: spending quality time with equines. You don’t have to own one. If you are a horse rescue or therapeutic volunteer this is your program. You get to log in hours of grooming, ground work, driving and riding. Horses, donkeys, mules, minis, registered or grade. All you need is a KHC membership and pay an initial $35 enrollment fee (non Kansas members are WELCOME!) For more info go to http://www.kansashorsecouncil.com 🐴💚