Advice for a struggling family-owned dressage barn?

Hi, I'm looking for advice on how to improve my parents small scale horse farm into a profitable business, if anyone has any advice, I'd really appreciate it!

For context, my mom has been in the horse business since she was 10 years old in the 70's and 80's, most of her experience revolving around dressage. She competed up to 2nd level in USDF competitions (mostly in the early 2000's through the early 2010's) and has worked with various clinicians over the years.

Most of our profits have generally come from foal sales, we do have our own stallion at stud (who's competed up to 2nd level as well as various other recognized competitions at lower levels and in hand classes), although now we're down to only 1 broodmare at the moment.

Lately our sales have dropped significantly, our lesson program is dwindling to a few loyal riders, we have an open spot for another boarder (we have 3 boarders already at the moment) that we haven't been able to get filled, and we haven't sold anymore foals despite marketing attempts on social media. My mom also hasn't competed at a USDF recognized show since 2017-2018 or hosted anymore clinics in the past few years either.

It's affecting her mental health as well, and she's my mom so it really hurts to see her struggling like this. If anyone more established and experienced in running a horse breeding/dressage business has any advice at all I'd really appreciate it.

Posted Dec 1, 2025, 4:08 AM UTC

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