Almost Heaven said:

I played here for a long time several years ago, so I have a bit more insight than my stable start date indicates. I found arenas to be a waste of money for new stables. You make a show. Other players must seek out the show and pay what you're charging for entry fees. 3 days later you can make another show. It takes a long time to recoup what you paid for an arena. Most of the show entries in member shows seem to be in the shows run by and exclusive to entries from club members. Go to "Member Shows" and look at all the empty arenas.

If you're looking for money and have the cash to afford an arena, buy a barn instead. Go looking for cheap single-E geldings to fill it and show your buns off. Don't worry about breed, just buy the cheapest you can find. Don't capture anything. Don't breed anything. Show only horses that have 4 weeks' training (3 after levelling up) or have been doing well in shows. I made $45,000 in 3 days just on showing this month. I sat out of shows one month when I started to get training going. The second month I made over $100,000 and I'm on track for $200,000 this month. And I have maybe 2 horses out of 48 (not counting the 24 yearling geldings in my new barn I bought yesterday) that are over level 3.

What people overlook about this game is that the economy is based on showing. Breeding is a means to get better show horses. Not to say that people who play to breed are wrong. But they are probably chronically poor if they don't have a big, strong show gelding army to earn them the money to buy good stock and LB studs/broods. Good luck.