Building a Sustainable Horse Business: Financial Literacy, Community & Smarter Revenue with Jenny Schwartz

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: jenny@dropyourstirrups.com

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.