Name of your website?Progressive Riding Program
Your name?
M. Judith F. De Michele
Your Location (city, etc)
Catharpin
Please give us a short summary of your website?
PRP provides beginning through advanced riding instruction in American style forward seat horseback riding lessons. We treat every student like a potential horse owner and try to provide as much horsemanship and horsekeeping information as possible within the lesson structure through a series of weekly interactive questions.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
I spent 40 years teaching people how to ride and realized that that was only a small part of the whole, that many of these people wanted to be horseowners and were not getting the information they needed to be succesful as such. I felt a responsibilty to the students and the horsew to provide real insight into the problems and the joys of horseownership. I have a real calling to equip people with the information they need to make good decisions about purchasing and owning a horse. This is my contribution to increasing to number of knowledgeable and sefl-sufficient horse owners.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
I first launched my web site in 2004 when I decided that I needed to start my own riding program to fill the gap for lesson students between riding at a lesson barn and horse ownership.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
A current student of mine who is a horse owner and a lawyer came up with the name because of her vision of what my instruction provided for her.
What makes it different from other, similar offerings?
I start by making the connection between the value of excellant horse care and the price of lessons. I don't skirt the issue, I cost more than some because I refuse to cut corners on horse care and I say that up front. I find that given the reasoning behind the expense makes the decision to go for quality logical for most clients. I try to provide the very best school horse available. I have spent hours on the phone calling contacts I have made over 40 years in the horse industry locating exceptional horses for this program. I currently have a former Grand Prix and top quality equitation horse, many former older top quality field hunter/show hunters and a nice event horse. I have recently added a lovely young Cob to the program to give advanced riders a chance to ride and train a green horse.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
I am living my goal on a day to day basis. Every day I educate another person to be a kinder more consistent and considerate rider and horse owner. I just want to create as many good horseman as possible within the time I have on earth. It is my way of giving back to all the wonderful horses I have owned and ridden in my life.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
I started out planning to go for quality and either succeed or fail accordingly. The initial startup was hard financially and harder time wise but people seemed to be looking for a program like mine without knowing it. I have been successful from the start. The program has grown and expanded in the past 4 years.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
At this point given unlimited funds I might try to find a facilty with a few more amenities but other than that I am extremely happy with the program as it is. This is currently a one person show as I am the only instructor. Perhaps in the future one of my students will decide to teach and I can add more people to the program without adding too many more hours to my schedule, but right now I haven't found someone with my same vision and teaching style so I will keep the program a managleable size.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
I do not plan to allow that to happen as my stated purpose is to provide a high quality product one that I can moniter and change as is needed. I'm happy with the program as it is. I don't want to dilute the quality.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
Market prices of good such as hay and grain and gas have really made it hard to sqweak out a profit but so far my students have been accepting of price adjustments to cover those realities.
What has been your biggest challenge?
My first year trying to get the program started was extrememly difficult. I spent a great deal of money with print ads trying to get the public interested. Everything improved when the web site started to catch on.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
I have enlisted a promotiooonal county wide web site to boost my exposure and I now have a professional web hoster to help to keep the site up to date and attractive.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
To tell you the truth I was so removed from the electronic world at that time I had absolutely no expectations. I started the site because my son offered to do it for me.
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
My site will run as long as i am still running the progressive Riding Program. I hope that will be well into the future.
How does your program fit into todays world?
I fear that people in general have removed themselves from the physical world in such a way that I really am a missing link for a lot of them. We live in a very artificial world where people excersize in a gym not outdoors. People get depressed because of their lack of exposure to the outside. they have big yards they never use. The only people ever seen on the lawn are the commercial service people who tend it.
So I guess the answer is that i don't fit into todays world I'm sort of the antidote to it. I provide the lost link between people and t nature .
What is your website address?
Progressive Riding Program
No trackbacks.
Comments