We recently connected with Allie Sarnataro and have shared our conversation below.
Allie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
Katie Cram, Wayne Jackson and I met at a therapeutic riding center in San Diego. Throughout the years we worked together and transferred to different therapeutic riding centers in San Diego. We had always talked about starting and creating our own riding center but never thought it would actually come true! We became friends over the years and we all had a passion for the students and the horses and what they could do for the riders. Seeing the students face when they horseback ride is truly amazing. Wayne is a retired marine and when he was coming out of the military he really was the starting force behind Ride Above Disability TRC. Katie and I had always talked about it and dreamed of creating our own center and Wayne was the one who brought it to a reality. He handled all of the business aspects of creating a nonprofit, becoming a 501(c)3, finding a location and getting the horses. He also worked on connecting with the community to help promote, spread the word and raise donations.
Allie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Allie’s passion for horses began when she was very young. At 12, Allie began taking riding lessons. She competed in the local jumping shows for a few years and then changed disciplines to dressage riding. Allie soon became a working student, helping and teaching others to care for and tack their horses.
At 16, Allie began volunteering for SPUR Therapeutic Riding Center in New Jersey. On her first day volunteering, Allie knew this was something she wanted to be involved with for a very long time. Allie continued to volunteer with SPUR for 8 years and was also camp director for the Girl Scouts of the Jersey Shore’s horseback riding program.
In 2008, Allie moved to California and began volunteering and eventually working at a therapeutic riding center in San Diego. Here she met fellow friend and colleague Katie Cram who shared the same passion for horses and therapeutic riding as she did. In 2010, Allie began her journey to become a PATH Intl. certified riding instructor and passed her certification that same year. In 2014, Katie, Allie, and fellow horse and therapeutic riding enthusiast Wayne Jackson, finally decided it was time to open a new therapeutic riding center for the community. Allie is always looking for ways to further her knowledge and help grow the therapeutic riding community, in 2017 she became a PATH Mentor to help teach others with a passion for therapeutic riding.
Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?
For us it has been word of mouth. We are active in the community and have many students riding with us already. In fact, 75 per week. They tell their friends and the word spreads. We also do a lot of community events and community booths to help spread the word too.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
I believe people started following us because they like to see the horses and students and all the fun things they are doing at the ranch! Be authentic. Don’t repeat posts or create generic ones. Share at least 4 times a week. 6/7 days of sharing is too much I think. Create your posts based on your heart and passion. Every post we do is created each time and never repeated. We have figured out a good timing system for our posts usually at night during the week. We do not use generic posts and try to switch it up weekly highlighting different aspects of what the center is doing. Such as the students, horses, grants or donations we receive and then current happenings.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://radtrc.org
- Instagram: @rad_therapeutic_riding
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/radtrc
