If you’ve never shown your horse before, you might be feeling tense and nervous, hoping that everything goes well. Before you begin preparing, take the time to center yourself and relax.

Your horse can read you like a book, and she could very well pick up on your stress and perform less admirably than she is capable of. Once you have done this, you’re ready to start. Here are a few helpful tips to help you and your horse shine.

First, Be Sure Your Horse is Mentally Prepared
Horses that behave perfectly at home or at the stable where you train can do things that are completely out of character in strange surroundings. Do all you can to prepare your horse for the sights and sounds that she might encounter at the show you’re attending, and if possible, take her to some shows without actually showing her, just to see how she responds to the activity around her.

In addition, ensure both you and your horse are accustomed to every piece of tack you plan to use. Now is not the time to suddenly switch bits, and it’s definitely not the time to try out a brand new saddle or even a new saddle pad. Finally, keep the experience fun and positive for her, and keep your expectations in line with your expertise. The desire to win is natural, but treat your first few shows as opportunities to learn, and you’ll get more out of them.

Second, Don’t Wait Until the Last Minute to Groom
Hopefully, you’ve been working with your horse almost every day, and the two of you are capable of working as a team. In addition, you should be grooming your horse regularly and ensuring that her coat, hooves, mane, and tail are in tip-top shape. Keeping your horse well groomed at all times not only helps raise your awareness of potential health problems and improve your relationship with her, it helps make preparing for a horse show much easier.

Third, Practice Braiding, Banding, and Other Show Grooming Techniques in Advance
Depending on your horse’s breed as well as on the type of classes you’ll be showing in, you may need to braid your horse’s tail and braid or band her mane, as well. Braiding and banding, using tail extensions when allowed, and making other special grooming preparations takes practice. Be sure you have the right tools for the job, and if you’re not sure how to do something, find someone with experience to help you learn.

Fourth, Remember to Apply Hoof Polish if Allowed
Again, depending on which class and breed you are showing, apply hoof polish as appropriate. Use black polish on black hooves, and clear polish on light colored hooves; not only does this help keep droppings and dirt from staining the hooves, it helps to give your horse a finished appearance. Do this the night before the show, and be prepared for last-minute touch ups.

Fifth, Remember to Prepare All of Your Tack and Apparel in Advance
Using products that are appropriate for your saddle, bridle, and other equipment, clean and polish everything until it shines. Do the same for the boots you will be wearing, and ensure that the clothing you plan to wear looks flawless. Bring polish, a tape roller, needle and thread, with you, along with a spare shirt and breeches if possible; you never know when something could happen to your clothes.

Don’t put your jacket on until the last possible minute, and be sure you have a helper to check your appearance and make adjustments after you have mounted.
While professional horse shows are serious business, your first shows should be fun and positive for you and your mount.

Preparing for a horse show should be fun as well; take your time and enjoy every step of the experience.

Just like us humans, horses are susceptible to a number of illnesses. Some, like tetanus, are caused when bacteria enters the body through an open wound. Others are viruses, and many are highly contagious. Here are just some of the most common equine illnesses.

Encephalitis
There are three known strains of Equine Encephalitis, including Venezuelan, Western, and Eastern Encephalitis. Transmitted by mosquitos, this group of diseases attack a horse’s central nervous system, leading to symptoms that are caused when the brain becomes inflamed.

The first sign of any of these types of encephalitis is a high fever that normally lasts from two to three days. After this, an affected animal may start walking compulsively or weaving in its stall; in addition, affected horses display a loss of coordination. At this time, it is common for blindness to develop, and as the disease progresses, the stage known as “sleeping sickness” occurs, with the horse becoming extremely lethargic.

As the disease moves from the brain to the spinal cord, weakness and muscle twitching combined with a staggering gait are displayed, and finally, paralysis affects the lungs. Horses in the final stages of encephalitis develop seizures and collapse before death.

Preventing encephalitis is much easier than dealing with it. Foals and weanlings require their first and second encephalitis vaccines beginning at the age of three to four months, and all other horses should be vaccinated each spring.

Treating the disease consists of helping the horse survive the initial effects and long term effects, and early intervention is a must. Eastern Equine Encephalitis is the most deadly of the three, with mortality rates at seventy to ninety percent. Call your vet if you have the slightest suspicion that your horse may have encephalitis.

West Nile Virus
Another mosquito borne illness, West Nile Virus causes meningitis and/or encephalitis. Symptoms come on suddenly; the first signs you might notice are stumbling and a sudden loss of coordination, skin twitching, and uncontrollable muscle tremors.

Other symptoms include facial paralysis, difficulty defecating and urinating, extreme listlessness, and sleepiness. Some horses with WNV develop mild fevers, while others develop seizures and blindness. Some are unable to rise after lying down.

Vaccinating your horse against West Nile Virus is the best prevention. While the disease kills only a small percentage of affected animals, the effects are severe and affected animals can be injured when they stumble, stagger, or fall. Veterinarians can usually intervene and help keep affected horses comfortable throughout the illness if it is contracted.

Equine Influenza
Much like flu strains seen in humans, Equine Influenza symptoms include fever, reduced appetite or total loss of appetite, coughing, fever, and nasal discharge. It is highly contagious, and affected horses should be isolated from others. Your veterinarian can provide you with Phenylbutazone to help control stiffness, pain, and fever if your horse is affected.

While this extremely common horse disease is one that most animals recover from fairly quickly and easily, vaccination can prevent it entirely. Foals and weanlings require a three part series beginning at the age of three months, while yearlings and performance horses must be vaccinated every three months.

All other horses should be vaccinated against Influenza every six months, and broodmares should be provided with a booster four to six weeks prior to foaling.
These are just a few of the most common horse diseases that can be prevented via vaccination.

For a complete list of diseases and vaccines, as well as for a vaccination schedule for your horse, contact your veterinarian. Be sure any incoming horses are vaccinated, and ensure you keep thorough records on each animal in your care. Taking this simple step can prevent costly treatment and it can save your horses’ lives.

Horses are creatures of habit, and when something seems different than usual, we often notice and wonder whether what we are seeing is normal, or if we should be concerned that something might be wrong. Here are some helpful tips that can help you make that determination.

Your Horse’s Attitude
Horses that feel good are usually alert and quick to respond to stimuli, often pricking their ears when they hear sounds, looking at things that are happening around them, and interacting with their owners or caregivers.

If your horse seems listless and unresponsive, check to see whether he is napping; if his head is hanging and he seems out of sorts, see whether things that normally pep him up get his attention. If he is not bright, alert, and responsive, he may be sick.Watch for deterioration, and err on the side of caution. Your vet won’t blame you for calling out of concern.

A Normal Appetite
Horses usually have excellent appetites; this is because horses evolved as grazers, constantly eating unless travelling, socializing, or resting. Strenuous activity can sometimes interrupt the appetite – in fact, some horses show little interest in their feed for up to twenty-four hours after a tough competition.

On the other hand, lack of appetite or lack of interest in feed or favorite treats can be one of the first indicators of illness. Be sure your horse always has access to water, and ensure you feed good quality hay. If you’re a new horse owner, be sure to learn about horses’ nutritional requirements as any deviation can lead to colic, founder, and other serious problems. If in doubt, talk to your vet.

Body, Coat, and Hoof Condition
Your horse’s body should be neither thin nor fat; and his coat should be shiny and even, rather than dull and patchy. The hooves should not flake or crack, and the frogs should be well shaped with an almost rubbery texture. In addition, you should not be able to detect an odor coming from the hooves.

If you’re new to the world of horses, spend time learning what is normal and what is not.Horses are much like us in that they occasionally develop problems; knowing what to look for can help you to intercept trouble before it becomes severe. If you’re not sure about something, ask an experienced horse person to look at your horse. It’s normal to worry and it is better to be too concerned than not caring enough.

Droppings and Urine
Your horse’s droppings can tell you quite a bit about how he or she is feeling. Normal droppings should be oval-shaped, slightly firm, and a little moist. Once you have spent time around horses in good condition, you’ll know what normal horse manure looks and smells like; if your horse has diarrhea or foul-smelling droppings, investigate the cause.

Sometimes it is something as simple as too much spring grass, in other cases, it can be an indicator that something is amiss. Your horse’s urine should be clear to yellow, and sometimes it will have a slightly cloudy look; dark yellow urine that has a very strong odor can indicate dehydration, and urine that looks red or black indicates serious trouble – if you see it, call the vet.

Vices
Vices, like wind-sucking or cribbing, weaving while stabled, or constant pacing while confined can indicate stress or psychological problems. To prevent these problems, ensure your horse is not kept confined for days on end, and ensure that he or she is able to socialize with other horses.

Horses need exercise, and they need mental stimulation. Imagine what would happen to your own psyche, were you kept in a small room with no entertainment – you might start to destroy your surroundings or pace to keep yourself busy. If you keep your horse stabled and can’t visit every day, be sure he or she is being turned out regularly.

These are very basic ways to tell if your horse is in good health. There are plenty of great resources available; for instance, every horse owner should keep a basic veterinary manual on hand, and new owners should definitely seek the advice of someone with practical experience. In general, horses are hardy, active animals. Properly cared for, they can live long and productive lives.

In the wild, horses roam a range, grazing as they go, never staying in one place too long. This creates very little negative impact on the environment and allows grasses to easily recover. When we confine horses to a smaller area and limit their ability to roam and move on, we must take steps to manage the pasture and grazing area. Luckily, there are steps that can be taken, even on smaller acreage horse farms.

Understanding How Their Differences Distinguish Them
Horses are very different from other livestock. In fact, many of these differences are what make the horse one of the most loved animals in the world. Unlike cows or sheep, horses have a full set of teeth on both the upper and lower jaw. They also have active lips that when combined with all those teeth, make them unstoppable grazing machines.

In addition to this, horses love to play. Have you ever driven past a cow pasture and observed a herd of cows running back and forth, jumping, chasing and kicking up their heels? It’s possible, but probably not. Adult cows are by nature less playful than the horse and rarely run, where as the horse loves the occasional game of chase. This playful nature of the horse is fun to watch but very hard on pasture. Horses are also decidedly pickier than other livestock.

When grazing, horses will first eat the most succulent, lush patches of grass down to the soil. This makes it harder for the good grasses to recover and easier for the less desirable species to flourish.

Manage Pasture With a Simple Rotational Grazing System
The more land you have, the easier it is to graze a herd of horses without sacrificing the pasture. However, even a small horse farm with a small herd can be successful if managed carefully. For a realistic example, lets look at a horse farm of ten acres.

The tens acres is not including the land the house sits on and is the total amount of space available for the horses. To set up a simple rotational system and maximize resources, one might consider dividing the 10 acres into 4 sections: 1-acre paddock, and 3 sections of 3-acre pasture. The paddock area should be the one area where you do not try to grow grass. This is your control area where you can put the horses in bad weather, when you want to vaccinate/worm them, or any time you are working on the remainder of the land. It could even double as a riding area.

Rotate your herd through the remaining three areas. Manage the duration of time in a particular section by observing the length of grass in that section. Grass should not be allowed to go below 3 inches and time-frame will depend on the number of horses in your herd. Move horses to next section before grasses get below three inches. If every section is right at three inches or if soil is extremely soft from heavy rain, move herd into the paddock area and feed hay. This will give the pasture ample opportunity to recover.

Natural Weed Control
Weeds are not good for several reasons. They take up space that could be used by grasses, they have little to no nutritional value, and many of them can be toxic to horses. Many people focus too hard on killing the weed, often times using chemicals that are more toxic than the weed itself.

There is a time and place for fertilizers and weed killers but before going this route consider a more natural approach. Instead of focusing on how to kill the weeds focus on how to enable the growth of your chosen grasses. If you continue to plant quality grasses and manage your pasture effectively without over grazing, you will find the grass overtaking the weeds on its own.

At the heart of any horse farm or business you will find horses and usually a staff of people who work there because of their love of horses. Without horses a horse farm could not operate. They are the single most important part of your business and because of this, you should be prepared to (and want to) give them the bulk of your time.

Paperwork, invoicing, and accounts receivable tasks can pull you away from your horses, especially as your farm begins to grow. Instead of letting paperwork take over your existence, purchase farm management software to help take over your paperwork. Utilizing farm management software like LaRaedo can cut down your office hours and get you back out in the barn where you want to be.

Improved Customer Relations and Communication
The other key part of your business is your customers. Without customers to bring you business, your farm would fail. Treat your customers just like what they are-valuable and essential to your business. This is not impossible to do without farm management software, but it will be time consuming.

Every time you want to inform your customers of an event you will have to manually type out an email. Every time you want to communicate anything to your customers, you will need to write out individual emails or make phone calls. With LaRaedo you can quickly and easily update your schedule of events and customers can log in from their homes to view information.

Giving your customers access to information on their horses and the barn will make them feel like they are a true part of your horse farm. By barely lifting a finger you can communicate information to all your customers at one time-which allows you to put more time into your horses. Both you and your customers will feel happy, organized and in the know.

Automated Maintenance Tracking and Billing
Get rid of those tedious handwritten equine maintenance records. With LaRaedo, track all maintenance information for both your customers and personal horses. Did you just complete 30 days training on a horse? Is it the end of the month and you need to send bills to your ten boarders?

With LaRaedo, billing and maintenance tracking is simple. With the click of a button, mark each maintenance task complete and LaRaedo will bill the customer. Have difficulty keeping track of worming and farrier? LaRaedo can track this easily for you on a monthly basis. Utilizing farm management software in your business will shave hours off these time consuming tasks and eliminate confusion and billing errors.

Instant Access to Important Information for Owner and Customer
Not only will you and your customers have access to all maintenance information on your horses but LaRaedo also makes it easy for you to access all payment information. Customers can download reports to see exactly what they have paid for the year and owners can pull reports to see all outgoing and incoming payments.

The reports can be easily downloaded into accounting software, saving you hours. Farm owners can also use reports to access incoming payment information to assist them with market research. This helps farm owners make decisions on future services offered based on profits. Still trying to decide if farm management software might be right for you?

We offer a 15-day free trial, which includes full use of the software. Try it out and see what your clients think, have your staff take a look at it. We can promise you that you will be very satisfied with the results.

Currents plans are in the mix to eliminate the free trial and provide you with full use of the software for as little as $7 per month for up to seven horses. This method will give you plenty of time to become familiar with all the features for only $7 per month.

Any questions, feel free to send us a message on the LaRaedo Contact Page or give us a call at 248-946-1245 (9AM – 5PM PST).

Making a living doing something you love is what most would consider a “dream job”. What horse lover has not at least considered, even for a brief instant, what life would be like if they could make a living with horses? For some, that’s all it will ever be, a brief consideration.

Others may dabble in the industry part time but be unwilling to jump head first into a full time horse business, knowing the risks and high chance for failure. Then there will be a few who want to take that risk. For those people it’s just a matter of deciding what part of the industry they want to stake their claim.

For those who are intent upon starting a horse business of some kind, breeding is one option to consider. Like any potential business there are pros to consider as well as cons and doing research in advance to make yourself aware of both sides, is always the smart thing to do.

The Pros
Walking To the Barn Vs. Driving to Work
There are some people who actually enjoy working in an office. The excitement of the corporate world gives them great satisfaction. Others long for freedom from the white walls of a corporate career and a daily commute. For these folks, getting up and heading out the back door after a cup of coffee and merely walking to work, would be a dream come true.

Seeing the Fruits of Your Labor
As you progress with your knowledge of bloodlines and genetics, it can be very rewarding to look forward to the birth of a particular foal and see that he/she is everything you hoped and more.

Maybe you are breeding for a Perlino Foundation Quarter Horse colt and you end up with exactly that-except he has an even better conformation than you hoped for and you are able to sell him for a nice price as a stallion prospect. Being able to have an idea in your mind of your end goal and reaching or exceeding it can bring any breeder a very high level of job/career satisfaction.

Selling Quality Horses for Top Dollar to Happy Customers
This is how you begin to establish yourself in this business. Let’s say you are a halter horse-breeding farm and you sell ten weanlings after your first year to show homes. If even half of those weanlings do well in the show ring, you will get customers from it. It may be repeat business due to the customer being so happy with their first purchase, or it may be more of a referral sale-someone seeing one of your colts or fillies at a show and asking about their breeding.

The Cons
Breeding Quality Horses Requires Quality Knowledge
This is not meant as a discouragement to anyone from going this route if they feel they have a lot to learn. Much learning can take place through trial and error and as you go, although,  you do need to have some knowledge.

Starting a breeding business if you are a novice horseman or horsewoman is not only dangerous, but does not serve your horses or customers well. Now, that doesn’t mean that you couldn’t hire the knowledge. If you have the money to spend, a qualified breeding manager can teach you all you need to know as well as ensure your breeding program runs smoothly. If this is not an option be sure to take the time to educate yourself before embarking on this journey.

Large Upfront Cost and Slow Return
Starting a quality-breeding program requires quality stock. You may choose to stand a stallion along with some great mares, or you may choose to focus only on top quality broodmares and pay a stud fee for your pick of stallions.

Then you will also have to pay for the upkeep of every horse in your breeding program. Whichever way you decide to go is going to require a decent amount of money. Even if you are prepared to spend this kind of money-be advised that it will take at least a year for your first crop of foals to be ready to sell as weanlings.

Highly Competitive Market
The horse industry has been around for years and in that time many farms have established themselves in the breeding industry. This is not to say that this market is impossible to break into, but it will likely take some time and patience.

Arming yourself with great marking strategies, as well as picking a good nitch for your breeding program (such as Dunn colored reining prospects or Swedish Warmblood hunter/jumper prospects) will go a long way towards helping you enter this competitive market.

Unlike other livestock such as cattle, horses have only one stomach and also unlike other livestock, very little digestion occurs in the stomach. When a horse masticates (chews and swallows) feed passes through the stomach and small intestine and heads to the hindgut where the majority of digestion takes place.

In the hindgut, friendly microbes break down undigested feed in a fermentation process. Due to this quick rate of passage through the intestine, which affects feed efficiency (nutrient absorption), it is of great importance that a high quality, balanced diet is being provided.

Forage
The most important part of any horses diet should be forage. Bermuda, Orchard, Timothy, and Bluegrass or Legumes such as alfalfa and clover are great examples of quality forages. Forages are extremely important to the horse’s digestive tract because they aid in gut motility.

Ideally, 4 hours is the longest a horse should go without grazing or chewing. This is because the horse’s digestive system was designed to have forage moving through it consistently throughout the day.If you are lucky enough to have a large pasture this will not be a problem and your horse can graze as often as he likes.

Boarding your horse or housing it in a paddock is also fine, but it is important to remember to provide plenty of forage in these instances. In fact, horses in these cases should be given enough hay to eat frequently throughout the day, as this prevents boredom and the behavioral problems that often come from boredom such as weaving or cribbing.

If you board your horse and are limited to feeding only twice a day, you may want to provide more at each feeding by mixing a high quality forage like alfalfa with a lower quality grass forage. The same holds true if you are on a budget. A mixture of high quality with lower quality to provide more chewing time for the horse is better than giving them a smaller amount of only high quality forage.

Please understand the difference between lower quality and poor quality. Lower quality still has nutritional value and should still be higher quality than what you might feed to other livestock. Never feed your horse poor quality hay that is dusty or moldy.

Feeds
For some time there has been much confusion over whether to feed your horse a sweet feed or a pelleted concentrate. If you’re looking for an easy black and white answer you probably won’t find one. The answer is-it depends. The difference between a sweet feed and a pelleted feed is mainly in the processing not in the ingredients.

Sweet feeds often contain more molasses or sugar, though some lower quality pelleted feeds have a high content of the same. Molasses is not necessarily bad for the horse and can actually offer many advantages by increasing palatability of the feed, and generating more internal body heat (which is helpful during winter months.)

Molasses should not be fed in high amounts however, as that can be harmful to a horse’s digestive system. When deciding between a sweet feed and pelleted concentrate, the key word to remember is quality. If you choose a sweet feed, try to pick one with lower starch content. Starch gets turned into sugar in the digestive system and too much of this can make your horse overly “hot.”

If you go with a pelleted feed choose one with known quality forages as the top ingredients. This ensures proper fiber content for your horse and makes it less likely that the feed has a high content of low cost sugary fillers. Also, avoid purchasing feed with generic ingredients listed on their labels. Examples of this would be “grain products.” This translates to mean that the manufacturer can choose any grain they want and their label will be accurate.

Manufacturers like this will switch ingredients based on the market and what is currently the lowest in cost. A horse’s individual situation should determine the amount of concentrate needed. Things to consider would include size of the horse, age, level of work and any know health conditions. For example, a growing colt will need more concentrate to meet its nutritional requirements than a middle aged, lightly ridden trail horse.

Amount of fat, calories and protein in a particular feed should also be considered using the same factors. Many think that the horse gets most of its energy from protein, but this is not true. A horse’s body will first draw energy from fat, then calories and then protein. Therefore, a racehorse will need a feed with a higher fat content as will a pregnant mare. A pasture ornament on the other hand, might do well on just forage or forage and a lower calorie feed.

Fluids
Last but not least horses should always have access to clean water. Roughly 62% of a horses body weight is made up of water and on average, a horse will drink 10-12 gallons of water each day. A dehydrated horse will be at a greater risk for impaction colic and other health risks. Water is also needed to produce the amount of saliva needed to chew forage and feed.

Consider investing in a quality water tank that can be hooked up to your well. This type of tank keeps water moving and prevents water from becoming stagnant. If this is not an option, be prepared to change your horse’s water at least twice a day. Making sure your horse has plenty of water is key to its health and digestion.

Organization
Do you find yourself always rushing and frequently late for appointments? Have you ever scheduled your Farrier only to be surprised when he shows up during a lesson? Do you have to hunt through the stack of paperwork on your desk for the sticky note your wrote your new clients number on? If this sounds like you, it may be time to pull yourself up by your bootstraps and get organized.

Practice Promptness
Lacking punctuality is a common human flaw. If it’s the exception rather than the rule, then it’s probably not having a negative impact on your business or relationships. It’s when you find yourself frequently “running five minutes late” that you may be sending the wrong message. Showing up late for an appointment-any appointment, especially on a regular basis, tells the other person that your time is more important than theirs. This type of message creates disrespect and poor customer relations. Practice promptness with your business and customers. Stop what you are doing 15-20 minutes prior to your next appointment to give yourself time to prepare (saddle horse for a lesson, tidy the barn for a new client tour, brush horse for potential buyer) and then commit to giving the person your full attention. This not only shows people you value their business but it helps you stay organized and on schedule through your entire day.

Cleanliness With a Cadence
Have you ever found yourself at the end of a busy day on the farm and you realize you have about 4 solid hours of cleaning to do? Then you find yourself cutting corners putting off the less important tasks for morning? Avoid falling into disorganized habits like this and learn to “clean as you go.” For example, let’s say you have a lesson at 8am, 9am and 10am and each lesson is scheduled for 45 minutes. Instead of wasting the 15 minutes in between, utilize that time to clean up from the previous lesson and prepare for the next. If your client wishes to discuss their lesson, ask them if they wouldn’t mind walking with you as you clean up from lesson one and prepare the horse for lesson two. If you build a rhythm like this into your workflow you will soon find yourself cantering through your day with cadence and organization.

Utilize Digital Aids
We all use aids on horses to improve the flow of communication between horse and rider. What if we placed that same level of devotion on customer/stable manager communication? The results would no doubt be very positive. Utilize digital aids to improve the flow of communication with your customers and employees. Invest in a blackberry or phone capable of receiving emails, so you always have contact with your customers on the go. Also, consider investing in farm management software like LaRaedo to keep customers informed of events, lessons, or anything else on the schedule. You will improve customer satisfaction as well as feel prepared to face each and every busy day with a smile.

A budget is a plan for the present to get you where you want to be in the future. Successful businesses whether horse business or other, always have a budget. If you are new to business, creating a budget may seem like a daunting task. Instead of letting it overwhelm you, consider breaking the process down in simple, easy steps. You can use accounting software to begin your budget such as QuickBooks, or even a simple Excel spreadsheet. Here are some ideas to get started:

Expense Equitation
Before embarking on your journey into the horse business it is important to know your expenses and know them well. Just like an equitation show, the emphasis is in the details. The more detailed you get with your expenses, the better you can prepare for the future of your business. Create a list of monthly expenses based on historical spending.

If this is your first shot at a horse business and you have no historical spending to go from, visit other farms in your area and gather information on what their expenses include. Also research the Internet for possible expenses. You will probably miss some your first year in the business, but the more you can make yourself aware of them, the easier it will be to bring your business to stable ground.

Income Impulsion
Impulsion is the controlled energy in the forward movement of the horse. With a proper budget your business and income can move forward too. Create a list of all possible sources of income and update it frequently. Ideally, your income should come from a variety of sources. When creating your budget initially, estimate the amount of income you expect to have from various sources and estimate conservatively.

It is better to come out above budget than behind. Again, if you need help deciding where your income should come from, visit other barns in the area and talk to others in the horse business. There is no way to avoid all mistakes but learning from others can prevent you from making unnecessary mistakes.

Expense & Income Comparison
Once you have established your income and expenses, add them both up and compare. Is your income more than your expenses? If this is the case, your budget is off to a great start. What if your expenses are more than your income? If this is the case, it’s time to revisit your expenses and look at ways to reduce those expenses.

Perhaps you can find the same quality hay for cheaper by offering to give your hay supplier’s child a free weekly riding lesson. Or possibly you can do more work yourself and take on fewer employees to start with. There are many ways to reduce expenses; you just need to be creative.

Review & Planning
Plan a time weekly to go over your budget. After you have been in the business a few years you may be able to reduce this to a once a month review. When you are first starting out however, reviewing your budget weekly helps everything stay fresh in your mind and keeps you on a better financial track.

Also, carefully plan the future use of any excess income. If you come out ahead of budget your first year, planning efficiently how to use your extra income could make or break your future in the business. Consider spending some on growing your business. Examples of this would be spending some of your profit on marketing to gain more business or purchasing farm management software like Laraedo to improve efficiency.

When you have allocated some funds for the growth of your business, you should focus on saving the rest. Saving money will cushion your business if you are hit with unexpected expenses or prevent you from going into debt if you happen across a “too good to pass up” opportunity.

Most horse farm owners can spot a good conformation a mile away or tell the difference between an original Stubben saddle or Billy Cook saddle and an imitation. In fact, most horse farm owners have a wealth of knowledge on their equine friends but have no idea how to go about marketing this knowledge.

To run a successful horse business you need to not only know horses, but also how to market your skills and services. In the last decade, marketing techniques have changed drastically to include digital forms previously not in existence. To stay competitive in the industry it’s necessary to know what the popular channels of marketing your business are and how to use them.

Video Marketing
Most people watch TV, and this form of media has conditioned us with short viewing attention spans. Keep this in mind when considering video marketing for your farm. A good video is easy to watch, interesting, honest and relatively short. There are many instances where one might consider a video.

If you breed horses, having a video of your stallion is a great idea. Also, having videos of your foals or weanlings for sale is beneficial. In these cases videos will enable you to expand your sales territory, as someone in another state may be willing to purchase a weanling based on a great video.

If you offer horse training at your farm, having a video to showcase your talents will put you ahead of the competition. What if you own a boarding facility? Take a video of your top of the line boarding facility, giving a tour of the barns and pointing out all the amenities. Then post the video on YouTube and/or your website. Show prospective customers something that catches their eye and they will remember it.

Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is basically the digital form of “word of mouth” using social networking platforms, and is a must for any business owner today. The beautiful thing about social media marketing is it usually won’t cost you a dime!

Set up a Facebook page for your horse farm and send out friend requests to everyone you know-even your non-horse friends. They may know other people who have horses who would be interested in learning more about your business. Link your Facebook page to your website or blog.

Also, sign up for a twitter account and tweet about the latest happenings at your barn. Spending just a small amount of time on this daily can greatly increase your customer base and get your name out there.

Web Marketing
If you don’t yet have a website for your farm, consider getting one. The first thing everyone wants to know if they can’t immediately pay a visit to your facility is – if there is a website to look at. If you do have a website, update it frequently and keep things fresh. This will keep customers coming back to your website.

Also, consider starting a blog and linking it to your website. Your blog can be anything you want it to be and you can write about anything you want. Use it as a means to connect with your customers. Blog about the new horse you just bought or blog about how you unexpectedly hit the dirt and fell off a young horse for the first time in years.

Blogging is a great way to help you appear personable and approachable to your clients and customers. If you have the funds, web advertising is a great web marketing too. Put an ad for your facility on a popular horse website. This will draw more potential customers to your website.

Word Of Mouth
No matter how digital our world becomes, word of mouth will always be an important marketing tool. People will still always ask friends if they “know” someone who could give their daughter riding lessons and people are always more willing to try a known over an unknown.

The most important thing to remember about word of mouth is that it is based purely on reputation. No matter how many dollars you can pour into advertising and marketing, your reputation and how you treat your customers will still be discussed and talked about. Treat all your customers like VIP’s and you will succeed greatly with word of mouth marketing.