
Two show horses, a winter home in Wellington, and private school. This is what Shawna Doran was told it would take for her daughter, Bennett to be competitive at WEF over the winter. So, she filed it away as a pipe dream for the moment.
“Our family life isn’t such that we can just pick up and live in another part of the country for half the year and our finances, although healthy, weren’t going to cover the cost of it either,” says Shawna. “When a friend referred me to Next Step to talk about our goals for Bennett, I figured they would tell me to change our goals. But that’s not what happened.”
Next Step specializes in solving problems for people who need the benefit of an outside perspective, one with no conflict of interest. To solve Shawna and Bennett’s needs, Next Step broke down their problems into smaller, more manageable pieces.
They started by helping the Dorans to use their budget on more than great show horses. They would need one dedicated showhorse that would stay with their trainer in Florida and Casual fit that bill. Experienced and show-ready, Casual would stay sharp with Bennett’s trainer in Florida awaiting her arrival on the weekends.

Secondly, to save Casual’s legs and give Bennett the practice she would need at home, they would lease a horse for the winter, Calvin. Calvin would give Bennett the opportunity to train most of the week in Illinois and fly down on chosen weekends to compete.

“The day that Bennett won the Low Childrens on Casual in a class of 40 kids is a priceless memory for me! We had all worked so hard to give her the chance to prove her skills, that I felt like we all won that day!”
Moving forward from WEF, Next Step has helped the Dorans to make their budget work harder for them by introducing them to fractional ownership, a form of collaborative ownership where the overall cost of a property is split among a group of users, allowing them to keep Bennett on higher quality horses.
Along with the business of fractional ownership, Next Step guided the Dorans into developing a business within the equestrian world that utilizes all of Shawna’s current experience in corporate America to establish extra income. And since her new business ventures are equine related, all her horse acquisitions become a business venture for the IRS.
“We are so excited to see what results await Bennett this winter. I know this is just the beginning for her,” says Shawna.
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