NRHA Professionals are learning to branch out from strictly training horses to help pay the bills. Could a side hustle help you boost your income?
By Megan Arszman
Being a horse trainer takes passion and dedication, as well as the cliché blood, sweat, and tears. There are long hours in the saddle, hay to throw, and colts to start. It can take a toll even young bodies. That toll can determine the longevity of your career. This is why it can be beneficial for NRHA Professionals to look outside the training arena for other options to help pay the bills and keep your business profitable.
“You can only make so much money in your training fees,” said NRHA Professional and Million Dollar Rider Mike McEntire. “A trainer should try to do something besides training horses, whether it’s buying and selling a few horses, giving lessons, or something else.”
Professional horsemen have been practicing the art of the side hustle for generations; there just wasn’t a set name for it. Most NRHA Professionals know that there’s more to being a trainer than just showing and training. For some, it’s about coaching non pros, youths, and rookies; others might take on young colts to start.
McEntire and fellow NRHA Professionals Linde von Koeding and NRHA Eight Million Dollar Rider Andrea Fappani have learned that having a side hustle (or three) not only helps supplement the income, but also helps you be a better all-around trainer.
“I don’t like to put all my eggs in one basket,” said von Koeding. “But the biggest benefit for me with everything I do is that it makes me a better trainer, better coach, and a better show-woman.”
In this series, these three pros share what they’ve been doing to expand the outreach of their businesses.
Part 3: Selling and Catch-Riding
Embracing Technology
McEntire has embraced online video coaching. After a few reiners asked if they could send him a video of their run and get his critique, McEntire realized it was a virtually untapped market and something he could do when he’s not in the saddle. Clients send him a video from a show or training session, and then McEntire records himself talking over the video to offer critiques and timely tips. He then sends the video back to the client.
“I may send a video of myself demonstrating something as well, just to help the client understand better,” McEntire said. “It’s a very cool tool. It’s like having a lesson without them actually being at my barn.”
McEntire is able to do a few coaching videos at a time, using slower training periods when he can sit in the office and focus. While it’s not something he’s advertised much, he knows it’s something he can ramp up when his training starts to slow down.
“One day, there might be a time where that’s all I do,” he said.
Fappani embraced another hot form of technology with his very own podcast. Along for the Ride With Andrea Fappani debuted in 2019 with the help of his production team consisting of his wife, Tish, and friend, Jim Essick.
“Now, the podcasting itself is probably not going to make me a fortune, but I’m using it as a platform,” Fappani said. “I’m thinking about later on in my career when I don’t want to ride the 10 to 15 horses a day or I’m not comfortable doing that.”
As mentioned earlier, Fappani used the success of his clinics as a step up in his plan for growing his business. After consulting with friend and fellow trainer Clinton Anderson, that next step was producing training videos.
“As soon as I developed a training program that people recognized as being a contender at the NRHA Futurity level, I started doing videos,” Fappani said. “That helped me quite a bit as far as income in the fact that, with horses, you’ve got to be on the horse all the time in order to make that money. But with the videos, you invest a week to make a good video series and that’s going to last for years.”
That’s what happened with Fappani’s video series. Produced 20-plus years ago, he still sees a monetary benefit from the series. It started with initial sales in the United States, then the videos gained a European following, and now he sees a trend in sales in South America. Reining training video sales tend to see strong growth as reining continues to gain popularity throughout the globe.
Read the rest of this series at the links above.
