I spent the next week building the proposal. I visited the riding club in Briar Glen, met with the instructor I knew, and priced out the liability coverage. Tom let me see the stable's maintenance records. I called every former student who had once asked whether I planned to teach again.
The response was better than I expected and smaller than I hoped. I had commitments for six regular lessons each week, two evening arena bookings, and a clinic for the first weekend of May. The instructor, Dana Price, agreed to teach two days a week if the program survived its first month.
I drafted a budget with three possible outcomes. The best case would give us a small profit by the end of the first season. The middle case would cover operating expenses, but not the deferred roof work. The worst case
