Ben's 1x1x1 - You thought golf was expensive? Check this hobby out - September 11, 2026 🚀
For those of you that are new here, every week I send what I call a 1x1x1.
One thought from my week. One interesting find/tool from my week. One image from my life.
Let’s dive in 👇
Thought from the week
My aunt and uncle are professional horse trainers.
Specifically, they train cutting horses.
If you’re unfamiliar with cutting horses, the basic idea is this:
Put a bunch of cows in a pen.
Pick one cow.
Separate it from the herd.
Then have your horse basically say, “Don’t worry, I got this.”
The horse has to anticipate the cow’s movements and prevent it from getting back to the herd.
It is legitimately incredible to watch.
Parker was stoked on the action
I hadn’t had much exposure to this world until my aunt told me she was coming to a show in our area last weekend.
So naturally, I was excited to go check it out (added bonus that my daughter got some saddle time).
What I wasn’t prepared for was discovering an entire economic universe.
I pull into the event and there are probably:
100+ horse trailers.
Except these aren’t your dad’s horse trailers.
Basically, if your RV and horse trailer had a child together, this would be it.
There were probably 400+ horses.
And an absolutely incredible amount of denim, cowboy hats, spurs and positive vibes.
But the part that really caught my attention was the economics.
A few things I learned:
Some of these horses are REALLY expensive.
The horses at the event ranged from $50,000 - $500,000 each.
And that’s just the purchase price.
Because apparently horses have a lifestyle budget.
Each horse on average costs $30,000-$50,000 a year when you factor in training, food, veterinary care, transportation, boarding, competition fees and everything else.
And that’s where it gets really interesting.
Because I got to witness an entire ecosystem around these people.
Horse trainers.
Veterinarians.
Farriers.
Horse chiropractors.
Horse massage therapists.
Feed companies.
Trailer manufacturers.
Trailer repair.
Breeders.
Groomers.
Transport companies.
Insurance.
Event organizers.
And, presumably, someone whose entire business is figuring out what to do with approximately 400 horses’ worth of poop (my next startup).
So I made a lemon ginger tea and went down the rabbit hole to see how big this space is.
The U.S. horse industry contributes $177 billion to the economy and supports 2.2 million jobs.
There are roughly 6.65 million horses in the country.
And the economic impact has actually grown substantially.
The industry’s economic contribution increased from $122 billion in 2017 to $177 billion.
A roughly 45% increase (thank you Yellowstone).
Even crazier:
The American Horse Council estimates that roughly 39 million Americans live in households with some connection to horses, whether that’s owning, participating in activities or simply attending events.
And this is where I think there’s a bigger lesson.
There are entire economies hiding in plain sight.
We tend to think about business opportunities in the industries everyone is talking about.
AI.
SaaS.
Healthcare.
Fintech.
E-commerce.
But there are thousands of little economic bubbles that most of us never see because we aren’t the customer.
I had never thought about the cutting horse industry.
I didn’t know there were people spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on horses.
I didn’t know there were professional horse chiropractors.
And I certainly didn’t realize there was a massive ecosystem of businesses making money every time someone says yeehaw.
So if you’re looking for a business idea, find a group of people who are unusually passionate about something and follow the money.
Because passionate customers tend to have two characteristics:
They spend a LOT of money…
…and they don’t particularly care if you think it’s reasonable.
Anyway, the weekend was an absolute blast.
And I left with four new business ideas.
One of which involves manure hauling.
So if you see me driving around Bend in a truck full of horse poop six months from now…
Just know the newsletter told you first.
Image from my life
My brother-in-law, nephew, Aunt Kim, Parker, and I had a blast at horse world!
Oh, and the horse is Otto (short for Octavius).