Equine Business Edge

What if growing your horse business didn’t require adding another stall, riding another horse or working even longer hours? Matthew isn’t a horse guy, but he has been one of the host's closest friends and most important business mentors for nearly 20 years. His advice has shaped him personally and has left fingerprints on nearly every business Jamie has built. He has built many businesses around the ideas we discuss. Matthew is an entrepreneur, former U.S. Army officer and the founder of an award-winning healthcare branding and marketing agency. He has built his business around a lesson he taught Jamie years ago: There are riches in the niches. In this conversation, Matthew explains why horse professionals should stop trying to serve everyone and instead become the obvious choice for a specific person with a specific problem. Jamie and Matthew discuss: • Why being different is more powerful than claiming to be better • How to identify the clients you are uniquely equipped to help • Why clients aren’t paying for coaching or horse training—they’re paying for a transformation • The four parts of a clear and profitable niche • How to create products and services from what you already know • Why earning more doesn’t have to mean adding more horses or stalls • How personalized videos can create trust before you meet someone • Why giving away your best knowledge can lead to better clients • How narrowing your audience can reduce burnout • Why clarity—not volume—is your real competition Matthew also shares the question that helped him design his business and his life: “How small is big enough?” If you’re working too many hours, attracting the wrong clients or struggling to explain what makes your business different, this episode will help you look at your business in an entirely new way. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Jamie’s introduction: Why Matthew is on a horse-business podcast 06:10 - What “the riches are in the niches” really means 08:10 - How small is big enough? 11:50 - Creating new income with a 15-degree pivot 23:05 - The four parts of a powerful niche 25:35 - Sell the dream, not just the riding lesson 33:10 - Clients pay for a transformation, not coaching 37:55 - Seven personalized videos before 7:01 a.m. 39:30 - Building trust before meeting someone 44:30 - Give away your best knowledge 47:50 - Charging what your work is worth 51:40 - Turn what you know into a clear process 55:30 - A niche for riders working through fear 58:10 - How specialization can reduce burnout 59:10 - Are you running toward something or away from it? 1:06:05 - Why narrowing your market feels so difficult 1:12:50 - Clarity is your competition 1:14:45 - The goat-soap lesson: It isn’t really about the product 1:17:15 - Know your perspective and know your numbers 1:19:30 - Make more without adding another stall 1:20:10 - Matthew’s first step: “Why not you?” 1:22:15 - Matthew’s most profitable daily habit 1:25:50 - Can your clients explain what you do? 1:30:05 - Be more understandable, not louder 1:32:40 - Why clear outreach doesn’t feel like selling 1:40:10 - Advertising cannot fix an unclear message 1:40:55 - How to connect with Matthew Connect with Matthew Ray Scott: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewrayscott Listen to more Equine Business Edge episodes: https://equinerevshare.com/podcast/ Equine Business Edge is brought to you by EquineRevShare.com—helping horse professionals get paid for products they already recommend.

My trainer keeps telling me the same thing: “Jamie, stop looking at your horse. Look where you want to go.” When I get nervous or lose confidence, I look down. I start watching my horse's head, shoulders and every little movement underneath me. Then I start making a hundred tiny adjustments, my body changes, my horse loses the direction I'm trying to give him, and pretty soon we're wandering all over the arena. Turns out, I’ve done the exact same thing in business. When we're buried in today's client texts, bills, staffing problems, horses, appointments and emergencies, it's easy to spend all our time looking at what's directly underneath us and forget where we're actually trying to go. In this solo episode of the Equine Business Edge Podcast, I use one of the lessons my horse trainer has been drilling into me to build a practical goal-setting system for horse professionals. We start with the hardest question: What do you actually want your business and your life to look like? Not what another trainer has. Not what Instagram says success should look like. Not what somebody else thinks you should build. What do you want? I share the story of someone once describing my marketing agency as a “nice little lifestyle business” like it was an insult, and why I eventually realized I'd actually built exactly what I wanted. Then we'll work backward from your own five-year destination: 5 years → 1 year → 90 days → this month → this week → today. I also walk through the “congratulatory letter” exercise I use to picture the life and business I'm trying to create, the questions you can use to define your own destination, and how to use a daily Power Hour to make sure those goals don't disappear underneath everything urgent happening in your business. Because looking at what's directly in front of you isn't the problem. The problem is when that's the only place you ever look. Pick your fence post. Decide where you're going. Work backward until you know what needs to happen today. Then keep your damn eyes up. In this episode: TIMESTAMPS 00:50 - Why my trainer keeps telling me to stop looking at my horse 01:15 - What looking down does to my riding and my business 04:00 - Pick a fence post and look where you want to go 06:00 - Why horse professionals need clear business goals 07:00 - The harder question: What do you actually want? 11:00 - Start with the life you want, then design the business 12:00 - The five-year congratulatory letter exercise 14:00 - Questions to define what success actually looks like for you 18:00 - My five-year goal for EquineRevShare 19:00 - Working backward: five years to one year 21:00 - Turning the one-year goal into 90-day priorities 23:00 - Breaking those priorities into monthly and weekly actions 25:00 - Why looking at today's problems isn't actually the problem 26:00 - Using the Power Hour to work ON your business 29:00 - The yearly, quarterly, monthly and weekly planning rhythm 🐴 The Equine Business Edge Podcast is brought to you by EquineRevShare.com. If you make your living on or around horses, you're probably already recommending products to your clients and followers. EquineRevShare helps you get paid when people buy the products you recommend. It's completely free to join: https://EquineRevShare.com

What happens when someone gets hurt at your barn, even when you weren’t there? What happens when a horse you helped a client buy turns out to be the wrong horse? And will your liability waiver actually protect you? In this episode of the Equine Business Edge Podcast, Jamie Birch sits down with equine attorney and horseman Yvonne OCrant to discuss the legal risks horse professionals face and what you can do before something goes wrong. Yvonne has spent more than two decades helping horse owners, trainers, breeders, veterinarians, farriers, boarding facilities and other equine businesses with contracts, horse sales, liability, risk management, disputes and litigation. Jamie shares his own experience of someone being seriously injured at his facility while Jamie wasn’t even thereand the claim that followed. It illustrates an important lesson: even if you did nothing wrong, you may still have to defend yourself. Yvonne explains why insurance, enforceable liability releases, contracts, documentation and good business practices work together to protect horse professionals. They dive into horse sales and the potential liability trainers assume when helping clients purchase horses. Yvonne explains why trainers should clearly document what they've agreed to do and why a pre-purchase exam can protect the trainer as well as the buyer. They also discuss what happens when X-rays are recommended but declined, why text messages and written records can become critical evidence years later, and real cases involving alleged horse-sale misrepresentation. Jamie and Yvonne then explore medical care at boarding and training facilities. Who can authorize medication? What happens when the owner can't be reached? A written agreement can establish those expectations before an emergency happens. Finally, Yvonne explains why simply having a document called a “liability waiver” isn't enough. Releases may need specific language required by state law and should address the actual risks of your facility. Borrowing another barn's form, or using one written for another state, may not provide the protection you think it does. And yes, you'll hear the story of Bubba, the longhorn bull who occasionally wandered into an arena. SPECIAL OFFER FOR EQUINE BUSINESS EDGE LISTENERS Yvonne is offering listeners a FREE 30-minute initial consultation. She is also offering a customized liability release for a one-time flat fee of $350 - including a consultation and necessary changes. Contact Yvonne OCrant: Office: 312-704-3080 Text/Cell: 847-420-1613 Website: HinshawLaw.com TIMELINE 00:00 – Welcome & conversations in tack rooms 01:13 – The lawsuit that led Jamie to Yvonne 04:02 – Winning vs. having to defend yourself 05:58 – How exposed is a facility owner? 08:11 – Signs, waivers & risk management 10:35 – When someone refuses to sign a waiver 12:13 – Legal problems facing horse professionals 16:58 – Horse sales & the navicular case 19:43 – The bucking-horse case & smoking-gun texts 22:47 – Trainer liability when helping buy a horse 25:40 – Why trainers need written agreements 30:36 – How PPEs protect trainers and buyers 32:58 – Documenting declined X-rays 34:35 – The danger of handshake agreements 38:44 – Medication & medical authorization 41:51 – Emergency veterinary care 44:17 – What does a liability waiver really protect? 45:40 – Why borrowed waivers can fail 48:20 – Why seemingly crazy lawsuits happen 51:30 – Insurance + contracts + best practices 52:00 – Property conditions & liability 54:02 – Known hazards and negligence 55:25 – Tailoring waivers to your property

Hiring someone you already know and trust can feel like one of the safest decisions you can make as a business owner. You know their character. You like them. You trust them. Maybe they need an opportunity. Maybe you think working together will be fun. But friendship and employment are two very different relationships. In this solo episode of The Equine Business Edge, Jamie Birch shares lessons learned from hiring friends throughout his career, including situations that cost money, damaged businesses, hurt company culture, lost clients, and permanently changed friendships. The problem usually isn’t that your friend is a bad person. The problem is that friendship changes the way we hire, manage, communicate, and hold people accountable. Jamie explores why business owners often give friends opportunities they wouldn’t give another candidate, tolerate behavior they wouldn’t tolerate from another employee, and wait far too long to address problems because the personal relationship is always sitting underneath the professional one. In this episode: Why trust and friendship are not the same thing as job fit How hiring someone because you want to help them can cloud your judgment Why friends often receive different expectations, freedoms, and accountability What happens when spouses, families, and social circles become intertwined with the employment relationship Why former business owners can sometimes struggle becoming employees How friendship can make difficult feedback even more difficult Why waiting too long to deal with a problem can hurt the rest of your team How a bad hire can affect clients, culture, revenue, and other employees Why even hiring an extremely talented friend can permanently change the friendship The danger of hiring people who are comfortable and familiar instead of people whose skills complement your own Why compassion is important — but compassion is not a hiring strategy Jamie also shares two questions business owners should ask themselves before hiring a friend: “If I met this person yesterday, would I still hire them for this job?” And once they're working for you: “Would I tolerate this from an employee who wasn't my friend?” The larger lesson isn't that your friends are incapable of being great employees. It's that a great friendship is incredibly valuable — and turning that friendship into an employer/employee relationship introduces compensation, performance expectations, authority, accountability, difficult conversations, and potentially the responsibility of firing someone you care about. Sometimes the best way to protect a great friendship is simple: Keep your friends as friends. Hire extraordinary people to work for your business.

In this episode of The Equine Business Edge Podcast, Jamie Birch sits down with Jenny Schwartz, founder of Drop Your Stirrups, to explore a different approach to building a sustainable career in the horse industry. Jenny brings together two worlds that rarely intersect. She's spent decades in finance while also competing at a high level in the horse industry, serving in equestrian leadership roles, and helping trainers, barn owners, riding schools, and horse families make smarter business and financial decisions. Jenny shares the lessons she learned helping lead New Canaan Mounted Troop, including its tuition-based riding model, structured horsemanship curriculum, therapeutic riding program, community-building strategy, and creative use of underutilized barn capacity. In This Episode Why the traditional horse-show business model can be financially fragile Tuition and subscription-based riding programs Creating predictable recurring revenue Turning unused barn hours into revenue opportunities Therapeutic riding and community programs Creating rider levels and measurable progression Treating parents and families as customers, not just riders Thinking about the entire lifecycle of a horse Personal finance and investing for horse professionals The power of compound growth Using AI to operate an equestrian business more efficiently Newsletters, audience building and new revenue streams Chapters 02:25 — Jenny's competitive riding career 14:17 — How money is changing equestrian sport 16:25 — Rethinking the horse-show business model 17:23 — Building wealth as a horse professional 24:18 — The New Canaan Mounted Troop model 26:02 — Tuition-based riding programs 30:49 — Monetizing underutilized barn capacity 31:47 — Launching a therapeutic riding program 42:19 — Subscription models & owning lesson horses 44:25 — Creating revenue during unused barn hours 50:38 — Why community can beat technical excellence 53:27 — Retention vs. constantly finding new clients 57:01 — The entire family is your customer 1:02:10 — The lifecycle of a horse as a business strategy 1:11:03 — Financial literacy for horse professionals 1:19:09 — Using AI in an equestrian business 1:21:08 — Building an AI-assisted newsletter 1:23:58 — Monetizing product recommendations Connect with Jenny Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dropyourstirrups2024/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jennyiversonschwartz Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dropyourstirrups LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenny-schwartz-b247455/ Website: https://dropyourstirrups.com Email: [email protected] The Equine Business Edge Podcast helps horse professionals build stronger, more sustainable businesses through conversations about marketing, pricing, leadership, customer experience, technology, entrepreneurship and finance.