Are the days of lesson horses over?

[DawgLady]

Here’s what I wonder.

Someone pointed out above that people wouldn’t pay $100+/lesson, which is what it would take to support a schoolie. I wonder if that’s true. Obviously it would limit the field, but there are lots of wealthy families out there who want Little Suzie to start riding lessons…even at $100 a pop, I would wager to guess.

If the horse could give 4-5 lessons per week at $100/lesson, then that would be a viable business model, would it not? (IF the horse stays sound, which is always a big IF).

ETA: I get that, in this model, the trainer is making beans for their time teaching. It’s more of a customer acquisition strategy in that some of these kids would eventually lease/buy their own horses.

[Angela_Freda]

@DawgLady

If the horse could give 4-5 lessons per week at $100/lesson, then that would be a viable business model, would it not? (IF the horse stays sound, which is always a big IF).

When I was a kid the horses did more than a one hour lesson a day.

My question is how trained do horses who are ridden by lesson kids stay if a better rider doesn’t routinely hop on to remind them to stay trained.

Further, If the horse gets ridden poorly, primarily, they also lose fitness which is key to soundness.

It certainly ain’t easy.

[DawgLady]

@Angela_Freda

My question is how trained do horses who are ridden by lesson kids stay if a better rider doesn’t routinely hop on to remind them to stay trained.

Back in the day, this was a job for the older kids/barn rats. But you raise a good question, because for the most part, I don’t see barn rats anymore. At least at my barn, the kids come, ride their horses, and leave. I’ve asked many of them to ride my horse when I travel for work, and I’m often turned down because they’re so busy with other things.

[quietann]

I wonder about this too. Not saying the lesson program I was in as a teen/tween was ideal, but the school horses were in 2 lessons a day, 5 days a week, and often used for trail rides on the 6th day. Most lessons except for true beginners included some jumping of low courses, gymnastics, etc up to 2’6". Project/sales horses had no more than 1 lesson a day. Everyone got Mondays off. Lessons on the trail instead of the arena were a regular thing and made the program really special. I have no doubt that if I time-traveled back, I’d find some of those horses were unsound, but for the most part they handled the workload fine. Most of them were lesson horses for years. The ponies were all barefoot, as were the sturdier horses. The whole herd lived out in a huge dry lot with a generous supply of alfalfa hay, but no grain unless they were hard keepers.

What changed?

[Angela_Freda]

I was that barn rat.
And I learned so much from it too.

Let’s not forget the limitation of today’s world, the liability of having unpaid barn rats working with big animals prone to moments of nonsense that can get people and kids hurt, largely unsupervised…
.

[beowulf]

I find lesson programs are going away. They are being replaced by training programs. The difference being the former caters to clientele that may be beginning in this industry and/or do not have a horse. The latter caters towards individuals established in the industry that own a horse or lease a horse.

In many of the barns local to me that shift happened decades ago. Most of the serious competition barns (eventing/dressage) around me do not have lesson horses. The trainer/instructor may have a personal horse that is available to fill in if a client’s horse is lame or out of commission, but it seems to be expected in my area of the woods that you lease the horse you ride.

I am very fortunate I can keep my horses at home, because otherwise I would have been priced out of the industry a long time ago.

[trakehners]

@beowulf

Most of the serious competition barns (eventing/dressage) around me do not have lesson horses. The trainer/instructor may have a personal horse that is available to fill in if a client’s horse is lame or out of commission, but it seems to be expected in my area of the woods that you lease the horse you ride.

This is how the (eventing) barn that I’m at operates. My trainer has a couple of people who don’t lease who will borrow boarder or one of her personal horses for occasional lessons, but those individuals are people who were boarders for a long time and no longer have their own horses (the primary case I’m thinking of, the horse was sold due to the owner having some medical issues). My trainer also told me that her liability insurance premium is significantly lower because she doesn’t keep lesson horses and 98% of the rides on the property by people who aren’t her are boarders riding their own horses.

The barn I left in January has a full lesson string (all but two horses in that barn are owned by the barn owner or her mother, and one of those two is still used in lessons a few times a week) and her schedule is absolutely packed. There’s actually a decent number of lesson programs in my area, but it’s also fairly LCOL, you can get a decently-sized amount of land for cheap within 45 minutes of the city, and there’s a lot of local hay which keeps those costs down, so the math works out a bit differently here than a lot of other major metropolitan areas. Nobody around here is rich from running a lesson program, but it’s certainly doable in a way that it isn’t in a lot of other places.

[NancyM]

I think that “The Equine Industry” that a lot of us knew as youngsters 50 years ago is dying. Barn rat children, whose free or nearly free labour isn’t possible any more. Because of the insurance necessary, feed costs and real estate values. Costs for the barn owner have increased so much at the same time to simply price a lot of the “base” of our sport out of reach for most families. The only people who can afford what it costs are the rich, and those folks don’t want their kids exploited for free as barn rats. Besides, kids don’t see horses as something attractive any more… they’d rather have their own cell phone, and post videos on tik toc for fun, then everyone is surprised when bad things happen. Society has moved on from what many of us knew as our formative years. And the Equine Industry is a casualty. The majority of the population now lives in cement towers, in boxes in the sky, or boxes in a line on the street, in the city which functions as a human factory farm, and only see horses in picture books and movies. Our society has moved on from what it was decades ago, and people’s desires and interests have changed.

[Angela_Freda]

I’ve wondered about reaching out to the home schooling community, offering lessons during the day to those kids, as a way to add students in an off peak time.
Anyone see that in their area? Thoughts?

[Jackie_Cochran]

My riding teacher has several home schooled kids that come for their lesson during the day often a private lesson. Sometimes the kid’s mother is getting her lesson at the same time.

[OverandOnward]

One demographic change from the era of many lesson barns is simply the greater number of activities in schools - more sports, more clubs, more interests. Kids are busier and more scheduled. outside of classes and homework.

When I was a teenager in riding lessons most of us were on the 3X per week program. Now most of the lesson kids I know ride once a week. That’s a normal schedule for riding lessons in several programs. Only a few riders in the program ride more frequently.

And going back far enough, probably the beginning of the downward slide of lesson barns was Title 9 mandating more sports for girls. I think most people of a certain age are aware of the era when riding lessons gave girls an activity when there were few or no girls’ sports through the schools and community.

Had all of the Title 9 sports for girls been available while I was a teenager, there is a very good chance I would not have gotten into horses. That time would have gone to softball or volleyball or something else. I’m sure my parents would have steered things that way.

[libgrrl]

IEA is becoming more and more popular, however.

[Mander]

There’s also a huge emphasis (at least in the last decade or so) on being “well rounded” for college applications. It leaves kids/parents feeling like they can’t commit a huge portion of their time to one activity.

[Viranh]

In my area, there seem to be programs with ponies and elderly horses targeted at beginners, but not any with horses appropriate for an adult. When my mare went lame, I could not find anywhere with an appropriate horse for lessons, so I ended up going without riding until I was able to buy a second horse. That has made starting my 3yo under saddle ~exciting~ since I’ve lost fitness. Maybe that’s not terrible since it led me to do a ton of walking early on, but I would have happily paid more than the going rate for lessons on a decent sized, sound horse capable of doing basic w/t/c. I guess there just isn’t enough demand to justify the cost of keeping that kind of horse.

[2bayboys]

I have a handful of homeschoolers who ride with me during the day.

I have two lesson horses, actually one pony and one horse. They don’t provide an “income”but I kinda sorta break even in the barn supporting my two personal horses in addition to the schoolies. But I don’t have a mortgage or vehicle payment. All the infrastructure is paid for and in place. I don’t allow either of my schoolies to jump higher than short stirrup level, even though the horse is perfectly capable of tooling around at 3’ with changes. But I won’t use her up and she can do the short stirrup job with her eyes closed and on the buckle.

When the 20-something year old pony retires I won’t replace him, and I’ll probably stop teaching altogether. It makes less and less sense to invest in horses so someone else can ride them.

[lenapesadie]

I’m not sure that there isn’t enough demand for that kind of school horse so much as there is more demand for that kind of horse from AAs looking to buy a pleasant horse for their private use.

If I’m a seller with maybe a older horse, one with limitations, show horse needing to step down several levels am I going to under price him so a lesson barn can buy him or let a well heeled AA scoop him up and keep him like a prince?

[Against_All_Odds2]

I own a lesson type horse that I lease to a local barn. These schoolies are all worth their weight in gold, have an auto stop when things get rocky and handle different situations without a fuss (indoor, outdoor, trail ride etc). There is both a need and barns out there.

I agree with up thread that I think the 3’ auto packer is no longer a viable schoolie because of a growing AA crowd.

[lenapesadie]

Heck even pleasant horses that can WTC, do a little leg yield and pop over some cross rails fetch decent money to folks looking to buy

[OverandOnward]

@Mander

There’s also a huge emphasis (at least in the last decade or so) on being “well rounded” for college applications. It leaves kids/parents feeling like they can’t commit a huge portion of their time to one activity.

Good point. I know several parents who insist that their young riders do at least one school sport.

And not for nothing, as a riding program is rarely associated with a high school, it is probably not considered to be the best source for recommendations to go with the college applications.

Likely the educators at all levels feel that other educators, including sports coaches within or closely associated with the educational system, have more credibility and are known to others in the school system who can vouch for them.

Probably few riding programs have instructors/coaches in that network. A college admissions specialist might consider them ‘outsiders’ and people with unknown motivations and bona fides.

Especially comparing candidates when there is a limit on admissions. When one applicant has a school-associated sports background and one does not.

And horses may also be thought of as expensive and elitest. Not the image that a student wants to project in this day & age.

I can attest that in many ways school sports are also expensive and elitest, but that’s not the way they are viewed by those within the network. It is very hard for a student from constrained financial resources to be as competitive in almost any sport, given that the parents who can afford it are providing so much extra equipment and outside coaching.

[Foitin]

There is a very busy lesson barn in my area (east coast metro area) that offers lesson packs to kids and adults on horses and ponies, some of which it half-leases to students looking for more. They also offer additional lessons for more advanced riders looking to ride more frequently. For 32 lessons, for instance, it is about $3500 paid up front. Some boarders’ horses are used in lessons in exchange for lessons. The horses seem well-cared for, each has his own tack, including saddle, and they look serviceably sound doing different levels of flatwork and jumping up to 2ft. This place really has it figured out, I’m gad it works for them.