NEIGHHBOR: Taking the Chaos Out of Riding Lesson Scheduling
Alanna Sayer, Founder, Neighhbor spent years as an assistant trainer at a show jumping barn in San Juan Capistrano, California. She worked from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. with a dedicated lesson phone, and then spent her evenings confirming lessons, shuffling times, and assigning horses. Her conclusion: “there has to be a better way.”
She built one. Today, Alanna is a law student in Oregon and the founder of Neighhbor, a scheduling and management app designed specifically for horse trainers.
Why existing apps fall short
Alanna grew up riding in Orange County, California, and studied data science at Chapman University. She found that existing scheduling tools did not fit the realities of a training program.
Consider a typical barn:
A mature teenage assistant is cleared to teach adults, but another assistant is not comfortable with kids.
Some assistants cannot teach higher-level lessons.
Only certain horses suit certain riders.
“A lot of the apps out there felt like they were created by dads whose kids rode. The Neighhbor app is designed specifically for horse trainers.”
Alanna Sayer, Founder, Neighhbor
Neighhbor took about two years to refine, with input from show jumping and eventing trainers, high-level show barns, and lesson-focused programs across Orange County.
Designed for people who prefer pen and paper
Alanna is candid about her audience. “Many horse people prefer a whiteboard to software and are wary of anything that feels like ‘AI in your face.’” Her approach is to cover everything trainers need without overwhelming them.
What Neighhbor does
Smart booking. Trainers assign each rider a level (beginner, intermediate, advanced, or by jump height). Head trainers set which levels each assistant can teach. Riders book only open slots, and they are not charged until the trainer approves.
Optional smart scheduling. With one large horse and one pony, the app blocks a time that would put a heavy beginner on a horse already working earlier. It can also suggest back-to-back lessons for trainers who drive long distances and need several lessons in one trip.
Safety information. Waivers, medical history, allergies, and emergency contacts live in the app. Alanna learned the need firsthand when a grandparent mentioned, in passing at drop-off, that a young student has seizures.
Payments and credits. Neighhbor handles payments for single lessons and discounted packs, and riders can see their remaining credits. This ends the “where am I in my lesson package?” texts.
Assistant pay tracking. Rates differ by activity, such as teaching, riding, or tacking up. The app records the work, so trainers can see what they owe each assistant at the end of the week.
Training ride tracking. Training rides, lunging, and other horse care are logged, so owners know what they owe and trainers know which horses need work. Full-service options reduce the amount of check-in required.
The business model
Neighhbor has two revenue streams:
Lesson bookings: a 3% booking fee. The trainer keeps 97%. The fee drops further with ACH payments, and Alana plans to lower it as the user base grows.
Training clients: a tiered subscription based on the number of training clients a trainer has (for example, 1 to 9, or 10 to 20).
Alanna set pricing through conversations with trainers. “It is expensive to be a horse trainer,” she notes, and the industry is often less lucrative than people expect. Her goal is to show trainers analytics proving that Neighhbor brings in new riders, on top of handling back-end management.
Building a solution
Neighhbor is live on the App Store with several Orange County trainers using it including being integrated into Lane Clark’s program. Alanna plans to spend the rest of the year polishing it. In January, she intends to attend Thermal and then travel east to horse shows to market the app and learn what riders and trainers want.
Balancing law school, riding three days a week for a barn in Oregon, and running a startup is not easy. Alanna credits her transparent Orange County network, which has followed the app’s development and given feedback at every stage.
