Leverage a new digital platform to educate your new reining horse owners.
By Jennifer Paulson
With the increased visibility of reining comes new fans and customers for your business, and that means you might find yourself in need of help educating the newcomers to your barn and people who approach you at events. With its rules and scoring system, it’s not always easy to explain exactly what you do and how the sport works.
NRHA’s partnership with Horse IQ helps ease that process, allowing you to focus on what matters in your business. It’s also a method for NRHA Professionals to hone their judging abilities. The site explains its role as follows.
“HorseIQ is an interactive equine learning platform that brings you quality content by collaborating with equine associations, organizations, and institutions. Our courses are designed to teach exhibitors, professionals, judges, and competitive horse judgers what carded judges are looking for in a wide variety of disciplines, how to best care for your equine athlete, and how to run a successful horse show. HorseIQ also features hours of bonus content in the resource library. Content is added monthly so there is never a lack of fresh material!”
Step 1: Subscribe
The site offers a free 30-day trial to give a taste of what it offers, and then you or your customers can sign up for a monthly or annual subscription—$9.99 or $199.88, respectively. Bonus: If you’re an APHA member, you can request a 30% discount code by emailing admin@horseiq.com.
Additionally, if you coach a judging team or manage APHA horse shows, you can choose packages related to those areas of use.
Step 2: Choose a Class
Each course offers an introduction to tell you what you’ll learn from it. A graphic on the class page lets you know what your time commitment will be for the class, so you can plan sufficient time to engage with it.
Courses range from beginner-level information, which can be valuable to bring customers who are new to horses up to speed, to more advanced, including judging and scribing.
Step 3: Submit Videos for Evaluation
Outside opinions are almost always helpful. HorseIQ.com allows you/your customers to submit videos for evaluation by professionals from all corners of the industry, including NRHA-carded officials. By providing a video up to three minutes in length, a top-notch judge will offer feedback with a detailed critique and score sheet for $25.
Step 4: Spread the Word
Once you take a look around HorseIQ.com, tell your fans, followers, and customers about it. Using it as a tool to support your business makes lighter work for yourself when initiating new customers to your business and helping potential ones decide that reining in your barn is right for them.
