BY ANGIE TRUEBLOOD
We know riding is expensive. But it’s also confusing.
When we talk about making equestrian sports more accessible and affordable, we’re missing, perhaps, the most important piece of the conversation: understandability. For many parents of equestrians, it’s not actually the initial cost that’s the biggest barrier to entry. Weekly lessons are often fairly affordable within the context of other youth sports, which is how many of us end up here in the first place.
The real challenge comes later, when families are deciding whether to stay, dig in, lease, show, buy the gear, commit the weekends, and become fully immersed in this world. That’s where many families start to feel overwhelmed, not simply because of the money, but because we have zero experience in the sport and are completely unfamiliar with this world that our kids have dragged us into.
When my daughter started riding at age 11, it felt simple enough. A lesson here and there, a fun way to spend an afternoon. Then came the first requirement: a helmet and shoes with a heel. Totally doable.
But when we switched barns, everything escalated quickly. Suddenly she needed paddock boots, half chaps for a show (what in the world?), and a helmet that actually protects her brain, not the one we got off Amazon that bounced up and down with every posting trot. Just like that, we were in it.
When you don’t understand the terminology, it’s hard to feel like you belong.
Even the language of the sport creates barriers. When our kids played soccer, we knew what cleats, shin guards, and a soccer ball were. In equestrian language, terms like breeches, jodhpurs, and hair nets are second nature to those who grew up in it, but to outsiders, they can feel like a foreign language. And also, why would my 12-year-old need a hairnet?
Have you ever read a prize list? After realizing it wasn’t a list of actual prizes but instead a very confusing, long list of descriptions of what my child could compete in, I realized we had stepped into an entirely new world.
I remember sitting in our new barn’s first ‘show meeting’ with the older riders, wondering what questions I could even think to ask. Afterwards, I scheduled a dinner with her trainer and a few other ‘new’ moms and asked everything I could think of, and still felt completely overwhelmed.
Even when information is shared, it’s often from a trainer who is so ‘in’ this horse world that they, through no fault of their own, don’t recognize what we don’t know. Local trainers, who are the backbone of this sport, are often managing lesson programs, horses, clients, and shows with minimal outside help, so asking them to fully ‘onboard’ every new parent seems like an unfair ask.
The Sport Gets More Expensive When You’re Guessing
We talk a lot about accessibility and affordability, but we don’t talk enough about how a lack of clarity directly impacts both. When you don’t understand how things work, you end up overbuying, upgrading too soon, signing up for things you’re not ready for (like a leased horse!), and missing opportunities that would have been a better fit. The sport becomes more expensive not just because it IS expensive, but because some of us are navigating it blindly.
And once you start noticing it, you realize it’s everywhere.
Clothing is one of the first places it shows up. No one clearly tells you what’s required versus what’s just common, so you end up buying fancy show jackets too early and repurchasing items because you got it wrong the first time or your kid is, you know, growing.
Finding resources adds another layer. Like many families, we initially relied on Dover Saddlery simply because it was the only name we knew. But it wasn’t convenient. It took years to discover other options like SmartPak, Chewy, and Big Dee’s Tack & Vet Supplies, not to mention local tack shops we didn’t even know existed. No one hands you a resource guide. You piece it together over time, often with your new barn besties and likely after spending more than necessary.
Progression Isn’t Obvious to New Families
The same lack of clarity shows up when families start thinking about horses. Without understanding progression in the sport, it’s easy to assume that buying a horse is the natural next step. But is your child ready for that responsibility? Would a lease make more sense? Is the horse appropriate for their current skill level?
Without that context, families can overspend, buy the wrong horse, or move too quickly, only to have to backtrack later. Again, trainers play an important role in each of these stages, but educating new families cannot fall on the backs of every local trainer when we have large, well-funded organizations leading the way.
Progression itself is another major gap. In most sports, development is visible. In riding, I didn’t even know what a lead was, much less whether my daughter was picking up the right one.
Without a clear understanding of what skills should be developing and when, parents have no real sense of where their child is in their growth. That lack of a “north star” can lead to kids staying at the same level too long without progressing, staying with one trainer far after their needs have shifted, or moving up before they’ve mastered foundational skills.
And while it’s easy to label parents as pushy when they want their kids to advance, the reality is that many of us are just trying to make decisions without fully understanding what it actually takes to get to the next level.
Horse Shows Assume You Already Know Everything
When I first entered the show world, I had never been to a horse show, never watched show jumping, and had zero context for how anything worked. Yet somehow, we’re expected to figure it out. There’s rarely a true onboarding experience for new families.
At rated shows, especially, even a basic first-timer orientation, a map of the grounds, or clear guidance around warm-ups and course walks would make a huge difference. Instead, most families are left to learn by watching, guessing, and asking quick questions in high-pressure moments, which adds to the stress of the actual competition.
If We Want More Families to Stay, We Have to Escort Them In
If we want this sport to grow and retain families, we have to focus on more than just lowering costs. We need to actively escort new families in.
That means creating real onboarding experiences at barns, tack shops, and horse shows. It means clearly communicating expectations around progression, having transparent conversations about costs and timing, offering guidance on leasing versus buying, helping families understand what equipment and apparel they actually need, and making reliable resources easier to find.
Because when families understand the sport, they make better decisions, spend more wisely, feel like they belong, and are far more likely to stay.
Angie Trueblood is the creator and host of the Broke Horse Moms podcast, focused on helping “non-horsey horse moms” navigate the often confusing, expensive, and overwhelming world of equestrian sports. Based in Richmond, Virginia, she shares honest, humorous, and relatable insights from the perspective of a parent learning the horse world alongside her daughter.
