My name is Molly Cobb. I am currently a USDF Bronze and Silver medalist. I am also a Certified Financial Coach, a Business Owner, a Business Consultant, and an Accountant. I own and manage a 27-acre facility in North Central Florida named Pony Paddock. I have been involved with horses for 50-plus years. The last 20-plus years as a full-time facility owner/instructor. I have started and developed 3 different facilities during my career while coaching riders from their first lesson to national competitions. I have helped other instructors develop profitable businesses, and consulted with attorneys and real estate investors. And I would like to share my experience with you as a rider, an instructor, and an entrepreneur.
As a consultant, I work with attorneys, real estate professionals, facility managers/owners, and other equine specialists to evaluate businesses, horses, and legal issues including:
Instructor liability, Facility safety, and evaluation, Developing new programs and income streams,
I grew up in 4-H and Pony Club. And did some 3-day eventing back when it was 3-day eventing and not just eventing. In high school, I got totally sidetracked and stopped riding altogether. After high school, I went to college where I earned a BS degree in Accounting and a Master’s in Administration. And set off to have a life outside of horses. After 12 years, of working as an accountant, during which time, I managed multi-million dollar budgets for several healthcare organizations, and owned serval small businesses, I returned to the horse world.
When I first returned to the horse world, I was just going to take some time off and “figure out” what I wanted to do with my career. So I started riding and training ponies, for my family. A the time, my mother had a large Welsh pony breeding operation named Dragon’s Lair and produced many nationally ranked hunter ponies. When I came “home” there was no lesson program and no training program. My mother’s ponies were a hobby and her passion. But not a business. And so my journey of developing and managing horse farms started.
I started my dressage journey in 2002, when I found myself with a beautiful Welsh cross pony mare, who did not wish to be a hunter pony. Actually, she just didn’t like kids. Annabelle was my niece’s short stirrup pony. But she didn’t like children, other than Morgan, my niece. And if her rider didn’t understand that thing about an “inside leg to an outside rein”, she wasn’t staying in the ring. It is very difficult, impossible even, to sell a hunter pony with such an attitude. So, I decided she would be my dressage pony. And that is where my “struggle” began.
Both of my medals have been accomplished while riding non-traditional horses. In fact, a lot of it was done on an Arabian gelding named LJR On The Wild Side. At the time I started this blog, I was working on my last two scores for my gold medal.
When I was eventing, I hated dressage. Dressage was that part I had to do in order to go cross country. I remember my instructor making me ride endless 20-meter circles for “no reason at all”. I could not understand how all those circles were going to help me on cross country. And why the hell did it have to be so exact?? But I think I have finally outlived my ADD. And now have a good case of OCD kicking in. I find the theory of dressage very interesting. Maybe my instructor explained it to me back in the day. And I just couldn’t hear it. But now my brain is finally ready for it.
This blog is to share my experiences as an instructor, a dressage rider, and a financial coach. I hope to explain some things in terms we can all understand. Hopefully, I can help you with your riding, and your business. I hope my experiences, as a rider and business owner, will help motivate and inspire you. I hope to make you laugh and help you realize that we all get frustrated on this journey. Hopefully, I can explain some things that I have struggled to understand so you won’t have to work quite as hard.
