Horse management lessons for new owners?

[Lammy]

Hello all!

My friend has come to me and asked if I could help her do some market research for her new possible business venture and I thought posting this here would be a good start.

She has come up with an idea to go out to people to help them with their horse management skills, whether they have a new horse they are struggling with on the ground/ridden or if they simply want to improve on the skills they already have. All she has seen so far is of riding schools offering stable skills lessons or long distance learning courses, whereas she wants to go to people and help with their specific problems/areas they want to improve.

To me it sounds like a good idea and does sound like there would be a market for that kind of thing, there seems to be a lot of people struggling with confidence and handling horses on the ground who could benefit from a one to one situation.

Would this be of any interest to anyone? Does it sound like something you would consider if you needed some help? She has qualifications in horse management and is looking to do an equine behaviour course at degree level - though she has already covered some of this with her previous qualification. She has a lot of experience horses and genuinely works well with instilling manners in unruly beasts but is also good with more nervous owners and kids. I think her prices will be low as she starts out, I think maybe £15/20 an hour so not extortionate and she's in the midlands, a good area of the country to cover.

Any feedback that I can pass on, or show her this thread will be great. Thank you!

 

[be positive]

That sounds like several businesses possibly linked together that could be complex to set out clearly without becoming confusing to the potential clients, is she an instructor looking to branch out onto more general handling/ stable management skills or is this a totally new direction.

I would think there are people that require help but it will not be something they tend to look outside of their yard for, most yards have a YO/ YM/ trainer/ or know all on site, who may or may not be of help, so finding where they would look outside for advice will be the first step to setting up a business, I would expect most people to ask within their own circle/ ask through local RC/PC, look online for IH or BHS instructors locally, it may be something you google but I am unsure what someone would put in or what how business would be picked up by a general search.

I think she would probably be best starting out with one "product" and developing as she goes along, it takes a long while to become established, get a name and generate word of mouth recommendations, it may be best to approach the local RS/ RC/PC's and see if she could run a few demos/ do some training days to get started and maybe pick up a few clients that way, possibly a big livery yard that doesn't already have a trainer on site would also run something but she needs to remember she is just trying to start out when there are many trainers already established in the area who may not want more competition.

Years ago I ran a short SM course on my yard for a few outside clients, I covered most of the basics fairly quickly and went on to turn out/ trimming/ plaiting/ bandaging and some simple first aid, having a group made it viable, kept the costs down, allowed me to cover requests, we ended each day with a question and answer session which normally helped me plan the next lesson.

Not sure if that is of any help but should give her a few things to think about, my feeling is she needs to have a usp rather than try to deal with everything but that may seriously limit her income until she proves herself.

 

[ChwaraeTeg]

Good points made above. , To me, it sounds a very good idea indeed. I would certainly recommend potential/new or nervous owners have knowledgeable support such as this - and a bonus to have someone coming on to their yard one-to-one .

 

[be positive]

Good points made above. , To me, it sounds a very good idea indeed. I would certainly recommend potential/new or nervous owners have knowledgeable support such as this - and a bonus to have someone coming on to their yard one-to-one .

Something I thought of doing at one time was to offer to help source suitable horses/ go and view with buyers in order to try and reduce the problems before they buy rather than fix them later, I have had many a call asking for help after the purchase which would have been much better before, judging by the amount of threads on here a hand holding horse viewing service could be worthwhile and could be a usp.

 

[Sparemare]

I think sourcing/matching horse to new owner as a service is a brilliant idea. Especially for a first time owner.

 

[Lammy]

Great, thank you guys for the feedback so far. It's a completely new venture for her, though she has done some teaching before? I think PC. I'll pass on everything above, I do agree she needs to narrow down what she is going to do, as long as she thinks she'll get enough interest to make it work as a business.

The viewing is a really good idea, we've been together a few times to view projects for herself and once for a friend and she has a really good eye. But how would you price such a service? Would you do an hourly rate?

Thank you so far!

 

[be positive]

Great, thank you guys for the feedback so far. It's a completely new venture for her, though she has done some teaching before? I think PC. I'll pass on everything above, I do agree she needs to narrow down what she is going to do, as long as she thinks she'll get enough interest to make it work as a business.

The viewing is a really good idea, we've been together a few times to view projects for herself and once for a friend and she has a really good eye. But how would you price such a service? Would you do an hourly rate?

Thank you so far!

Pricing it was what put me off as it can add up when they drag you off looking at totally unsuitable horses that you would have ruled out from reading the ad, I did go with some clients but only after I had approved the ad/photos etc. or I did the sourcing for them, I charged an hourly rate but in reality I am not sure people really appreciate the value of having a knowledgeable person involved, I can often prevent them wasting money on a vetting but some people are happy to pay far more for a vet to fail it than pay a sensible hourly rate for a fair assessment.

 

[Sparemare]

I would imagine that if someone approached a 'horse finder' and gave them the spec (I.e. First pony, nice manners, happy hacker), the horse finder would then trawl adverts, speak to vendors/dealers and do the initial visits. The client would pay when they bought a recommended horse. It was something I would have been happy to pay £500 for when I bought my first horse. It's a scary business and a middle man to do the legwork would have been worth it to me.

 

[Lammy]

Yeah pricing it would be hard, I think you would have to do something like SpareMare suggested and do it as a bulk service. Though you'd have to have some money upfront as I can imagine someone just buggering off once a suitable horse has been found. It's definitely something for her to think about.

 

[GirlFriday]

- The handling training I simply paid a normal instructor for on the odd occasion (twice I think?) something came up. Unless we're talking about real problem horses here (and I think we're not) I don't see that it really requires a special person beyond a normal riding instructor who is happy to help on the ground too? That way OP's friend would be capitalising on the 121 relationship she has with ridden/groundwork clients to do both with all and get recommendations too.

- A structured course is also good (did that too before getting my first share) but quite different and, TBH, I'd tend to go with a syllabus designed by a large organisation or even RS over a random trainer. Although if she can run something under a RS/PC banner it might be a good way to meet potential future 121 clients.

- Similarly for the horse-finding. For low-level/first horses taking a RI from your RS/a recommendation is quite normal. I'm not sure that an agent would normally fit well into the initial purchase without some form of previous/on-going relationship?

 

[Red-1]

I know there is a market for this, as I have done both helping clients find horses and also help with handling issues/ stable management.

The difficulty I would envisage is selling the service, as my experiences with stable management/handling have mostly been with clients who have come to me already for riding lessons. Often we start with stable management and ground handling after they have contacted me for a perceived ridden issue. Most did not realise that the stable management and handling was impacting the ridden work, so I doubt they would have contacted someone for that alone.

Similarly with helping pre-vet a horse for suitability, they are already clients I know well, looking for a new horse, so I know what they are after. Having said that, because of the cost, the client has found the horse already and I just go as a 'voice of reason' to the viewing.

 

[GirlFriday]

Red-1 said what I was trying to, better. There is a reason some people communicate for a living!

 

[Joanne_Stockport]

In the past, I have used my instructors to get help on the ground (not that mine is very tricky on the ground). It would be a good idea for her to start building a collection of videos demonstrating her skills and how she helped owners resolve their problems. How to solve specific problems : ie: horse loading, horse spooking, horse not standing still when mounting, etc.... A specific subject would for each video (before and after kind of thing). For example, there is a trainer poping up on my Facebook feed and he specialise on horse who cannot load...he would probably the one I would call if my horse had that problem because he seems to be able to "fix" every horse.
She could do short videos (and post on a Facebook page) and longer videos (with all the training on how to achieve this) and could eventually create a subscription based video library which would bring revenue as well. When she will be seen as the specialist, she will naturally get clients who will trust her because they already have seen the progress with other horses on videos..I am definitely thinking of getting someone (or sending my horse) to desensitise him from motorbikes!! He is terrified of them!