Michelle Young Horsemanship
A WooCommerce membership site for a horsemanship coach, combining free strategy sessions with a gated virtual community dashboard.
Business
Horsemanship coaching practice
Built
WooCommerce site with membership dashboard and remote coaching
Stack
WordPress, WooCommerce, Elementor, API integration
Engineering focus
Membership access, remote coaching delivery
Why this project matters
Why this project matters
Horse coaching is traditionally an in-person discipline, so building a virtual membership dashboard alongside live coaching lets riders who can't access in-person sessions regularly still progress through structured content.
Who this is for
Who they are
Michelle Young Horsemanship is a coaching practice specializing in relaxation, connection and biomechanics-based riding instruction.
What they do
They offer groundwork, liberty work, freestyle, dressage and young-horse development coaching, delivered both live and through a virtual membership program.
Who they serve
Riders and horse owners seeking structured, biomechanics-informed coaching, whether locally in person or remotely online.
What the live site required
Not a wishlist from a kickoff call — what the delivered site visibly had to solve. Every requirement here is paired with the evidence that makes it true today.
A gated membership area distinct from the public site
TechnicalA "Community Dashboard" exists as a virtual membership area, separate from the public-facing coaching pages.
A low-commitment first step before a paid membership
UXA free strategy session (booked via Calendly) and a free training video email signup both exist ahead of any paid commitment.
Commerce built for a coaching business, not physical products
CommerceA cart system is present but built around session/membership purchases rather than physical inventory.
Why this stack, not just what stack
Every technology on this project was a specific answer to a specific problem — never a default.
- 01
WordPress
Chosen so coaching content, blog posts and program pages can be managed directly as the curriculum evolves.
- 02
WooCommerce
Chosen to handle membership and session-based purchases through a cart and checkout flow built for a service business rather than physical goods.
Trade-off — WooCommerce handles session and membership purchases through a standard cart, but tracking a rider's actual progress through the coaching curriculum isn't something the cart or checkout does — that's the community dashboard's job, a separate piece of the stack.
- 03
Elementor
Chosen for the coaching-program landing pages and the free strategy-session conversion path.
What the site can actually do
Community dashboard
A gated virtual membership area for enrolled riders.
Free strategy session
Calendly-based booking for a no-commitment first call.
Free training video signup
Email capture in exchange for a training video.
Program-based cart
Purchases structured around coaching programs and memberships.
What the finished build shows
Specific, verifiable patterns in how this project is put together — not a feature list, but how the pieces fit.
Free session booking kept apart from checkout
The free strategy session is booked through Calendly rather than the WooCommerce cart — the no-commitment first step runs on a separate scheduling tool from the paid program purchases.
Two lead-capture offers run in parallel
The free strategy session and the free training-video email signup exist as two separate low-commitment paths, rather than one funneling into the other.
The live experience
Every screen, captured directly from the live site — desktop, tablet and mobile.
How this project's engineering applies to your business
Combining a free low-commitment entry point with a gated membership area applies to any coaching or education business transitioning part of its delivery online — fitness coaching, music instruction, or specialized skills training.
If you remember three things
Gated membership area
A dedicated dashboard separate from public coaching content.
Low-commitment entry
A free strategy session ahead of any paid program.
Service-oriented commerce
Cart and checkout built around coaching programs, not physical inventory.
Related work
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