You love your students. You love your horses. You want to help them both, and give everyone in your program your best effort.
You don’t have any illusions about the horse business, however. You learned from an early age that it requires hard work, long hours and a genuine passion. You may juggle a lot of responsibilities — especially if you manage the farm and business as well as teach — and you do it for the love, not just the money.
But here’s the catch: if the job is not sustainable, no matter how much you love it, you can still get burnt out.
And while we hear equine professionals shrug off their 70+ hour workweeks — and we get it, because we’ve totally been there — we’ve also learned that it doesn’t HAVE to be that way.
Taking care of your students and horses starts with taking care of you
“Self care” has become a hot topic in recent years.
It could mean a weekend getaway, a bubble bath ritual, or an evening glass of wine. But it could also mean implementing some long-term strategies to make your horse business sustainable.
Begin with boundaries
When you interact with your horse, you probably have a few rules. He isn’t allowed to push you over, or walk on top of you, or bite you when he wants food.
You treat your horse with kindness and patience, but for your safety and his, there are lines that can’t be crossed.
If your horse does cross a line, you immediately commit to some remedial training — because you know that it will be ten times harder to create the behavior you do want after you’ve permitted the behavior that you don’t want!
Horse training and human training are not that different.
If you don’t want your students texting you at 11pm with scheduling questions, you can’t reinforce the unwanted behavior by replying promptly to late-night messages.
Creating and reinforcing boundaries can be tricky at first. You’ll need to be very clear in your communication, preferably starting from each student’s first lesson.
- Post your “office hours” on your desk, website, and/or student newsletter. Explain to students that you will only respond to messages outside of these hours if it is truly a time-sensitive emergency!
- Consider implementing an official time slot in each day where students can come to you with their questions. This might be a half hour at the end of the lesson day, or an hour once a week where you are freely available to chat. Outside of this time, students should assume that you are busy, even if you look available to talk!
- Alternatively, you can designate an official conversation space. If you are in the office and there is a welcome sign on the door, for example, you are free to be interrupted. If you are working elsewhere in the barn, or students see a Do Not Disturb sign on the door, they should check in later.
- Speaking of Do Not Disturb, utilize that function on your phone, if you have it. This will silence notifications and send incoming calls to voicemail during a set time period, and can be customized to silence or allow specific contacts.
- If you haven’t done so already, create a packet outlining your business hours and contact preferences along with your cancellation, inclement weather and payment policies. Give each student family a printed copy, and periodically post it on your website and/or Facebook page where it can be easily accessed.
You may need to create similarly friendly-but-firm rules about scheduling
If you are the one setting the lesson schedule, remind yourself frequently that YOU get the final say on availability, not your clients.
Students will make demands if they believe they will be accommodated.
But if you say that beginner lessons are on Monday evening, take it or leave it, your lessons will fill with students who ARE willing to work with your schedule — and these are more likely to be the kind of motivated clients that you want in your program!
Remember that your scheduled free time does not equal available lesson time. It is both reasonable and necessary for you to have downtime built into every day and week.
Find your north
What is it that draws you to horses? What brings you joy?
For years, my summer contract with myself was this: even if I was working 12 to 14 hour days, four days a week, I would reserve a horse for myself and ride at sunset. It was public knowledge that this was my sacred horse hour, which gave me some helpful accountability.
These were rarely formal schooling rides; instead, I might ride bareback, or play pony games with a working student, or go hacking outside the arena. On a hard day, it might just be a few minutes of liberty with my heart horse. The only two requirements: it had to be fun, and had to take priority in the evening schedule.
We also learned to save our favorite summer programming for last.
July always concluded with a three-day camp spent choreographing exhibition quadrilles, complete with music, costumes and a big audience.
Not only was this our most popular camp, but it refilled our creative wells at the end of a long, hot summer.
Whatever inspires you, use it as a compass to guide both your personal horse time and your business. We all got here through a love of horses — don’t let the pressures of being a professional take that love away.
Look for ways to Level Up
Maintaining passion also requires investing in yourself through continuing education. You may find it hard to justify time and money spent on “indulgences” such as personal lessons, clinics and online courses — especially if they don’t directly relate to your business — but you and your students will reap the benefits in new perspectives and fresh inspiration.
While equine education is valuable, it isn’t the only place to go for personal growth.
We’ll wager that most horse professionals could stand to level up their business skills. We may think we know everything about this industry, but sometimes we all benefit from a little kick in the pants. Just because something has always been done one way doesn’t mean it can’t be done another way.
If you find yourself resistant to new ideas about how to run your business — even if they are designed to improve your quality of life — stop to examine why.
Open yourself to believe that the horse business can be good for your horses, good for your bank account, and good for you!
A few equine business resources we recommend:
Don’t be afraid to ask for help
Managing any kind of horse program is a big job.
It’s okay to be transparent about areas where you need help — and sometimes just the act of asking creates all kinds of additional options.
Need to prep for an in-house show? Host a pot-luck party where everyone pitches in to clean the facility. (This is the only way we got the annual paint job on our jumps!)
School horse prospect needs more experience? Recruit working students to take on the project.
Is your schedule gridlocked due to an abundance of private lessons? Explain to qualified students the benefits of learning to ride in a group, and your need to open more time slots.
Asking, delegating and saying no can all be difficult to practice, especially if you are a people-pleaser. But in the long run, they’re one of the kindest things you can do for yourself.
We learned a lot of these lessons the hard way!
We wore many different hats in our business, and tried to build a lesson program that was as inclusive and welcoming as possible.
But in doing so, the business grew like a bubble: the larger it got, the more stretched we — and our hard-working school horses — became.
As we head into summer — often the busiest time of year for a lesson program — our wish for you is that you make the most of it, but also take time for yourself.
Prioritizing your own health and happiness will not hurt your equine business. On the contrary, your clients and horses will also be better for it!
