Equestrian Theme by CurlyThemes: Expert Setup Help

About Equestrian WP Theme

Equestrian is a WordPress theme by CurlyThemes built for horse-related businesses. It suits riding schools, stud farms, equine therapy centres, and competition yards. The design leans into clean typography, full-width imagery, and a warm earthy colour palette that fits the horse world well.

Out of the box you get a homepage with hero slider, services section, team profiles, and a blog. It runs on the WPBakery page builder, so most layout changes happen through a drag-and-drop interface without touching code. It also includes WooCommerce support, which is useful if you sell riding gear, supplements, or lessons directly through your site.

CurlyThemes kept the codebase relatively lean. Page load times are acceptable on a decent host. Documentation covers the basics, though it assumes some WordPress familiarity. Overall it is a solid starting point for any equestrian business that wants a professional web presence without building from scratch.

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Equestrian looks polished out of the box, but most businesses need changes the theme options panel cannot deliver. A developer who has worked with CurlyThemes before will know where the limits are and how to work around them without breaking the design.

Through Codeable, you get access to vetted WordPress developers who can handle anything from small tweaks to full custom builds on top of the Equestrian theme. Post your project, get a free estimate within 24 hours, and only move forward if the scope and price work for you.

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Pros

Designed specifically for equestrian businesses so the default layouts and content sections make sense for the industry
WooCommerce support built in, making it straightforward to sell products, supplements, or lesson packages
Full-width hero slider handles high-quality horse photography well without needing extra plugins
Includes team, services, and testimonials sections that riding schools and yards use regularly
WPBakery page builder included in the theme price, so no additional licence cost for the front-end editor

Cons

WPBakery shortcodes lock your content to the builder, making it hard to switch page builders later without rebuilding pages
No native booking or appointment system included despite most equestrian businesses needing one
Documentation is thin in places and assumes WordPress experience that newer site owners may not have
Limited demo content means setup takes longer than themes with more complete starter sites
Updates from CurlyThemes have slowed, so compatibility with newer WordPress versions and plugins is not guaranteed

Who is Equestrian for?

Riding Schools

Riding schools need a site that handles class information, instructor profiles, and lesson enquiries. Equestrian covers the basics with its services and team sections. Add a booking plugin like Amelia and you have a functional site that lets potential students browse programmes and request a session without picking up the phone.

Stud Farms and Breeders

Breeders need to showcase individual horses with photos, bloodlines, and availability. Equestrian does not include a horse listing post type by default, but a developer can add one. The theme’s visual style suits the premium feel most stud farms want, and WooCommerce handles sales or deposit payments for foals and started horses.

Equine Therapy Centres

Equine-assisted therapy centres need to communicate trust and calm. Equestrian’s clean layout and large image support work well for that. You can add a referral enquiry form, programme pages, and therapist profiles. The blog is useful for sharing case studies and educational content that builds credibility with prospective clients.

Competition Yards

Competition yards benefit from an events section and a results archive. The Events Calendar plugin fills the first gap. A developer can build a simple results post type for the second. The theme handles multiple horses and riders well across service and team-style pages, which can be repurposed as yard profile sections.

Equestrian Retail

Tack shops and equestrian retailers need a clean WooCommerce setup. Equestrian’s built-in WooCommerce support means the shop pages inherit the theme styling without major adjustments. Product photography displays well in the default grid layout. For larger catalogues, a developer can add filtering by discipline, horse size, or brand.

Customizing Equestrian

Equestrian gives you a reasonable amount of control through the WordPress Customizer. You can change colours, upload your logo, adjust fonts, and switch layout options without code. The WPBakery builder handles most page-level layout changes through visual editing.

That said, deeper customisation gets complicated fast. WPBakery shortcodes pile up in your content, which makes future changes messy. Custom post type adjustments, header modifications, and anything beyond the default sections usually require PHP and CSS work.

An Equestrian expert can help you go further. Whether you need a custom horse listing system, a booking form for lessons, or a results archive for competition yards, a developer who knows this theme will save you hours of trial and error. They can also clean up WPBakery dependencies if you want to move to a more flexible page builder long-term.

Recommended plugins for Equestrian

Equestrian works with several popular plugins that extend its core functionality. WooCommerce is the obvious one for selling products or lessons. For booking, plugins like Amelia or WP Simple Booking Calendar integrate cleanly with the theme’s layout.

If you run events or competitions, The Events Calendar adds a proper events system the theme does not include natively. Contact Form 7 or WPForms handle enquiry forms well.

On the technical side, pairing Equestrian with a caching plugin and an image optimisation tool makes a real difference. You can read more about that on our WordPress performance page. For better search visibility, structured data and proper on-page optimisation matter too. Our WordPress SEO service covers both.

Not sure which plugins to use? This WordPress plugins directory covers the most popular options with reviews and setup guides.

Equestrian common issues

Equestrian theme not displaying correctly after WordPress update

This usually happens when a WordPress core update changes something the theme relies on. Start by checking your PHP version in the site health tool. Equestrian may not support PHP 8.x fully. A child theme helps insulate your customisations from update conflicts. If the layout is broken, disable plugins one at a time to find conflicts. For persistent issues, our WordPress bug fixing service can diagnose and resolve it quickly.

WPBakery builder broken on Equestrian theme

WPBakery issues on Equestrian usually come from plugin version mismatches or a bundled version of WPBakery that has not been updated separately. Go to Plugins and check if WPBakery shows as a standalone plugin or is bundled through the theme. If it is bundled, you may need a theme update or a separate licence to get the latest version. Clearing the browser cache and any server-side cache often resolves display glitches in the builder too.

Equestrian theme slow page loading on mobile

Slow mobile loading on Equestrian is almost always down to large uncompressed images in the hero slider and WPBakery loading assets on every page regardless of whether they are used. Install an image optimisation plugin and enable lazy loading. A caching plugin like WP Rocket reduces initial load time significantly. For deeper fixes, read our WordPress performance guide or hire a developer to audit and optimise the full stack.

Equestrian theme WooCommerce pages not styled properly

Unstyled WooCommerce pages on Equestrian usually mean the theme’s WooCommerce support files are not loading correctly. Check that woocommerce.css is enqueued and that you have not accidentally overridden it in a child theme stylesheet. Running the WooCommerce setup wizard again can also reset default page assignments. If cart, checkout, or product pages look broken, a developer can add the missing CSS in a child theme without touching the parent theme files.

Equestrian FAQ

Is the Equestrian theme by CurlyThemes still supported?

CurlyThemes has not released major updates to Equestrian recently. The theme still works with current WordPress versions but may need manual fixes for PHP 8 compatibility and newer plugin integrations. If you are building a long-term site and want ongoing support, pairing the theme with a developer on retainer or using our WordPress maintenance service is worth considering.

Can I add a horse listing or horse for sale section to the Equestrian theme?

Not out of the box. Equestrian does not include a custom post type for horse listings. A developer can register a horses post type with fields for breed, age, price, discipline, and photos. This integrates cleanly with the theme’s existing design. It typically takes a few hours of work and gives you a fully manageable listing system through the WordPress admin.

Does the Equestrian theme work with Elementor?

Equestrian was built for WPBakery, not Elementor. You can install Elementor and use it on new pages, but existing pages built with WPBakery will not convert automatically. Running both builders on the same site is possible but messy. If you want to move to Elementor fully, a developer should rebuild the pages cleanly rather than trying to force a conversion.

How do I add a booking system to the Equestrian WordPress theme?

The Equestrian theme does not include booking functionality natively. Amelia, Simply Schedule Appointments, and WP Simple Booking Calendar all work well with it. Amelia is the most capable for riding schools with multiple instructors and services. Install the plugin, configure your services and availability, and embed the booking form on a page using the theme’s standard layout.

Can I migrate my existing horse website to the Equestrian theme?

Yes. Migrating content from an existing site to a new Equestrian setup is straightforward in most cases. Posts, pages, images, and WooCommerce products can all be exported and imported. The main work is rebuilding the page layouts inside WPBakery and matching your existing branding. Our WordPress migration service handles the technical side and reduces the risk of losing content or breaking links.

Hire an Equestrian WordPress Developer

If your Equestrian site needs more than the default theme can offer, working with a specialist developer is the straightforward option. Whether it is a custom horse listing, a lesson booking system, or a full site build, a developer familiar with this theme will get it done cleanly.

Post your project through our free estimate form. You will hear back within 24 hours with a clear scope and price. No obligation to hire, no upfront cost.