Attachment to your expectations only brings grief. Let go of your attachments, and every effort is a success in itself.

The Business of Making Money with Horses

By Don Blazer, taught by Eleanor Blazer

Lesson Eight

Look good, feel good makes money

This lesson details the one sure method of making money with horses. There are no “ifs”, no “ands”, no “buts”, just income.

Train horses owned by someone else.

Win, lose, or draw, the trainer almost always gets paid. (There will be some hard-to-collect accounts, but not many if you are alert and maintain good business practices.) If the horse turns out to be a champion, the trainer gets paid, usually with a bonus. If the horse sells, or doesn’t sell, if the horse lives, or dies, the trainer gets paid.

You may not get rich as a trainer, but you’ll get paid.

If you have your own ideas, and you work hard, and you are dedicated to your craft, you’ll make money. You might even become very wealthy. It’s up to you.

Now if you do want to make a lot of money as a trainer, then all you have to do is play the game.

You don’t have to be the greatest trainer in the world to make money. You don’t even have to be good.

But you do have to know how the game is played, and the very best ways to accumulate the big bucks.

I wouldn’t presume to tell you how to train a horse.

There are as many ways to train a horse as there are trainers. Every horse is an individual, needing special care and attention in the development of his or her special skills.

You may wish to train trotting horses, or jumpers, or race horses, or western pleasure horses. You decide what you want to train and how you want to train. It really doesn’t matter, just as long as you know and follow the rule by which horses can make a trainer a lot of money.

The one and only absolute rule: always make your customers “look good” and “feel good”.

Trainers who make money know they really only have two major functions. Neither involves training a horse. Trainers who make money dedicate the vast majority of their time working on these two most important jobs.

1. A trainer must attract more customers, increasing total income.

2. A trainer must find new and better ways to increase the margin between effort

and profits.

Attracting customer—the ones who pay the bills and provide the profits—is priority one.

A key element of good marketing is distribution. You must get the goods or services to the customer. Or, you must get the customer to the goods or services.

If you aren’t already in the middle of the market which wants a trainer for the kind of horse you want to train, then you must find that market, and go to it. If you want to train race horses, go to the race track. If you want to train jumpers, locate in an area where jumpers are the number one topic of conversation. Sure, you might have to pick up and move lock, stock and barrel. But you’ll do it because it’s part of the make-money game.

Don’t attempt to train dressage horses in the heart of cutting horse country, or run Quarter Horses in a state where there is no Quarter Horse racing. Look for an abundance of the kind of horses you want to train. And don’t worry about there being too many trainers in the area already; few of them will know or follow the “look good, feel good” rule to becoming a wealthy trainer.

The customers of other trainers will soon be your customers because you will attract customers, and you will make them “look good” and “feel good”.

Nothing breeds success like success.

And one of the best ways to “show off” your success and ability is to get an education. You don’t have to do a thing to impress potential customers if you have the “credentials to show you have the knowledge.” There are so few horse trainers with formal education within their field that you will stand head and shoulders above most of your competition.

There are more than 200 colleges in the U.S. today which have two or four-year Equine Science programs. If there is no college near you, there are colleges with online courses. HorseCoursesOnline presents an online course, Training Performance Horses, which is open entry and work at your own pace. The nine-lesson course is offered by four different colleges, each of which presents the student with a certificate of recognition when the course is completed. That’s a great way to start.

Survey after survey has concluded that incomes increase substantially for those with some sort of formal education.

It’s easy to let prospective customers know about your educational background, and when they do, they expect to pay.

Being successful in school is one of the best ways a trainer can attract new customers.

Your education accomplishments are an image of success that carries over into all facets of your business.

To attract new customers you don’t have to be the world’s greatest trainer. You don’t even have to have a winning record in competitions.

But you must always be sure your customer “looks good and feels good” when they are with you. They must “look good and feel good” about the things they are doing, or learning or simply enjoying. You must be sure your customers want to be involved in the activities you create at your training facility. One happy customer attracts others.

Look good and feel good means never having a customer look bad or feel bad.

Never, never tell a customer his pride and joy or her precious baby can’t win, can’t run or can’t jump. You never, never tell a customer a thing like that unless you’ve suddenly developed a phobia about making money. If you want to make money, you must have horses—so no matter how bad the horse is, you still have to make the customer “look good” and “feel good.” Remember, no matter how bad a horse is, he’s always better than an empty stall.

Never, never fail to tell an owner the truth about his or her horse. A customer who has been lied to never looks good or feels good. Every horse has plenty of positive aspects to talk about. Talk about how full the glass, not how empty.

You know that only a small percentage of horses are winners at anything, yet their owners love them dearly. So making an owner look good and feel good about the horse he or she loves isn’t that big a problem. It just takes some positive thought.

A trainer who is making money is thinking his or her way to increased profit margins and increased income. A trainer who is making money finds a way to make an owner look good and feel good. And there are lots of ways to do that without seeking head to head combat in the show ring or other venues.

Study each of your new customers or your potential customers.

What makes each of them look good and feel good? It will probably be a different thing for each, but for all, there are some basic steps to follow.

First, be a good horseman and dedicate yourself to improving every day. Give horse training your very best efforts. Your attitude and efforts will be noticed and appreciated by your customers, and they will feel good being associated with you.

Now add some creative profit thinking.

Matching stall signs, matching halters, matching blankets, matching name plates, matching tack trunks give a “team” appearance to a shed row. It makes customers’ horses look good, and customers feel good. And there is always a little profit for the trainer when such items are purchased through regular sources.

Being a part of a team is very important to most of us. It is that feeling of “acceptance” which all humans crave. So when your barn makes everyone feel part of something important, they want to stay and they are willing to pay. Don’t be afraid to charge well for your services. It’s part of the game.

Some creative trainers are very well paid because they are very good baby-sitters.

Their entire training service is really just baby-sitting the horse owner’s children.

If you keep the little darlings happy, impressively attired and on a flashy horse, the mom, pop and the kid will look good and feel good, no matter the results of the competition.

Now if you really want to make a lot of money, and you are really thinking of ways to increase profit margins and total income, you’ll find a way to take the child to a level of competition at which he or she can win. Maybe on a horse you just sold to them…one with potential. You know how to find and sell a horse with potential, don’t you?

Wining at the smallest backyard show makes mom and pop look and feel great. The kid’s a star, and you’re on your way to the bank with a bigger roll.

Don’t knock it. Baby-sitting trainers—and that’s the majority—do extremely well with poor stock and no training talent. They attract customers and they increase income and profit by making everyone look good and feel good.

If you are a decorating genius, you can get rich just by applying your non-training ideas. The “status-ego” of some horse owners can keep you in the chips if you dress the part and see to it the horses looks the part.

A friend once told me, “Customers can see the shine on a horse, but they can’t see the time and training in one.” He was correct. He was also wealthy.

Glossy horses, standing in clean stalls, with personal rub rags and brushes in the tack trunks with embossed name plates, impress the current owners and at tract new customers.

Many people will pay anything to be part of an exclusive club. Without doubt, they believe they look good, and they know they feel good when they tell their friends how much extra they have to pay just to be in your stable. Some very profit-oriented trainers insist their clients buy special saddles and equipment, for which they get handsome kickbacks.

It costs plenty to join some private clubs, and there is almost always a waiting list. (Waiting lists are another good way to attract customers. I know one fellow who makes everyone wait at least 30 days before they can get into his stable. He claims it gives him time to learn just how much a prospective customer is willing to spend on horses and equipment.)

In those kinds of barns, who cares about winning? Those owners have the very best for their horse. And the trainer has the profits.

If you are training competitive horses, but not winning regularly, you really never have to make excuses for poor performances by any horse. If you think about it, whether it’s a race horse, show horse, or pleasure riding horse, the owner will give you all the excuses ever needed if you just keep quiet. The owner will think of a hundred reasons to continue to pay you to train that special horse.

Shuffle your feet and kick the dirt, or continue grooming the horse, but don’t speak. The owner will provide an explanation soon enough for why the horse misbehaved, or didn’t win. Then all you have to do is agree with the owner, and the owner looks good and feels good.

If I’ve seen it once, I’ve seen it hundreds of times. A dirty, rotten, no-good spoiled horse will dump, kick, or somehow hurt an owner, and the owner will immediately explain why it wasn’t the horse’s fault.

Want to make money? Just listen, don’t argue and don’t criticize. If you let the owner look good and feel good, he’ll be happy as a clam, continue to pay, and probably buy another dink for five times what he’s wroth. And if the trainer sells that new dink, it’s even more money for the trainer.

Be cool. Let the owner enjoy his or her horse, and the money will come rolling in.

It takes no horsemanship ability at all to be a wealthy trainer. Anyone who follows the rule can be a very wealthy trainer. Horses can make you rich.

Now don’t misunderstand. There are a lot of wealthy trainers who have loads of ability and horsemanship talent. It’s just that they didn’t become rich on training skills alone. In addition to being gifted, they know and follow the plan. They attract customers—on skills and winning records, too-and they find ways to increase profit margins and boost income.

For trainers, there are many avenues to a pot of gold.

Trainers have more opportunities than anyone else to take advantage of the other methods you’ve already learned. It’s simply because trainers are more often in the right place at the right time.

For example, training facilities are an excellent way to “land bank”, and make money.

Horse facilities are usually located in an area not really suited to other commercial ventures. The land is normally less expensive. So while you are making money practicing your trade as a trainer, the land you are utilizing is appreciating in value. Just as every horse you have is for sale, so it the land.

You would be surprised how many horse-owning customers will be interested in purchasing your gold mine if you just suggest to them that it is for sale.

Just as there is always another horse, there is always another place—especially if the profit margin will help make you rich.

If you don’t wish to, or can’t afford to start a land bank, then lease the facilities needed for your business, or go to a public stable. The advantages of doing this are many.

First, most of your new customers are already there. Horse owners love to switch from a trainer who doesn’t make them look good or feel good to a trainer who does. It’s a fact that you’ll take your good customers with you and pick up new ones every time you change locations. (Some trainers do change locations every time they want to add new customers.) Make our section of the public facility the fanciest. You’ll have people stopping by just to smell the roses. And it shouldn’t surprise you when they decide to join you.

Second, your income generally remains constant with your costs. If you need 20 stalls for paying customers, your costs are proportionate. If the number of stalls needed goes down, so do your costs.

Third, you’ll have more time to practice your craft, which is attracting customers, making customers look good and feel good, and thinking of new and better ways to make more money. After all, at a leased facility, you don’t have to spend your valuable time fixing and repairing all the little problems so common to a training stable.

Remember, the only three ways of making money with horses is to “win purses”, “sell horses” and sell your potential to make the owners look good and feel good.

Don’t be afraid to call on every horse owner that is the kind of person you want in your barn. Yes, you will step on some toes taking customers from others. But believe me, the guy who protests the most about you won’t hesitate to accept one of your clients. And no matter how hard you try, you will lose some customers. Smile as you wave good-by, the potential for your success is unlimited.

Horses—what a great way to get wealthy!

You can start with very little money, and get sizable returns on your investment. You can start with a lot of money and still get impressive returns on your investment.

You can participate in one, or any number of facets of the horse industry, and get wealthy.

You can do the thing you love best, and make money doing it.

But everything isn’t always roses. Life doesn’t work that way, and neither does the horse industry.

I’ve told you how to make money with horses. The surest way to lose money with horses is to own more than you should. If horses are your business, then make something else your hobby.

Winning and selling make money.

Owning a horse for the pure pleasure is an expense.

Own one, maybe two. But own many and you will be “horse poor”. I guarantee it.

Those are the rules. Following them is certainly the toughest part of being successful.

Following the rules means lots and lots of study, effort and dedication.

But you can do it.

And you can make money with horses.

CLICK HERE TO TAKE THE QUIZ

ASSIGNMENT:

1. Interview a local trainer. In an essay tell me name and location. In what breed and event does the trainer specialize? Give reasons why you think the location or surrounding area is a good (or not good) for this type of training facility. Identify the kind of customer you think the trainer is trying to attract. What is the trainer’s fee schedule? What was your overall perception of the facility when you visited?

Please send your essay to Eleanor Blazer at elblazer@horsecoursesonline.com

Be sure to include your full name and email address on the submission.