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?
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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.
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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.
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IEA is becoming more and more popular, however.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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I think about this often when I hear the “there are no more barn rats” complaint. I can’t remember the last time I was at a barn that allowed kids to be unsupervised (as I so often was). Older teenagers, sure, but no kids who might be hanging out and looking for something to do. I fully support this requirement, because otherwise the rest of the barn adults end up having to keep kids in line. I think the culture around it has just changed a lot since 20+ years ago, and when you previously might have had a bored kid happy to help out, you now have a parent waiting and eager to get on with the rest of their day. And rightly so!
I totally support requirements to supervise kids, and I find it interesting how much we all agree the horse world changes without the barn rat culture. I guess camps are the only other way this happens, and those seem alive and well in my area, if not exactly abundant.
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I agree, also, with kids being supervised. This can be taken too far,though. I was reading in the Washington Post that children under 18 should not be allowed anywhere alone. Well, I graduated from high school at 17, worked full time, and had bought a car (from my Sunday School teacher).
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Re: barn rats, liability is a big concern today. When I was 12 years old galloping Connemara ponies in halters double bareback up and down hills and drinking whiskey at 15 with my trainer and her adult children and traveling to shows in her horse trailer, she wasn’t afraid of getting sued by my parents. I guess some would say “those were the days,” but over my dead body would I knowingly let me kids do any of this. Maybe an extreme case, but I’m not so sure. Early 1990s
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I’ve been looking at opportunities when I retire from my day job to stay active and help fund my gaggle of animals with my farm.
My best bang for my buck is having a morning program for homeschooling groups that incorporate learning how to manage a farm, after school program with no riding but able to have supervised time with animals, then having summer camps with pony rides and structured learning activities.
Anything with actual riding is a loss leader in my spreadsheet due to insurance and horse upkeep cost. So in my mind trainers have lesson horses are either subsidizing the care of that horse or just using it to get butts in the door or their overhead is low enough and charge accordingly.
I’d make more $$ turning my business into a storage facility in actuality.
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I am in Seattle WA. Basic board at a decent place is $1,200, many are higher. Shoes $300. $100 a lesson is common with a trainer that has a clue. 5 lessons a week grosses $2,000 = $500 leftover. That’s assuming the horses are constantly booked. Now factor in paying an assistant to teach, any vet work, cost of buying the horse, supplies, etc. School horses just don’t pan out much anymore.
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Good grief, WP. I was babysitting well before I was 16, alone with kids I was in charge of. I was driving at 16, alone or with a friend or two; shopping at the mall, going to movies with friends, swimming, etc. I wonder if the WP meant “alone” alone, or kids alone together with no adults around.
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Agreed re: barn rats. When I was a kid, we could only be unsupervised at the barn if we were 12 or older (although the barn owner let me be “unsupervised” when I was 11 and started half-leasing a horse—I put unsupervised in quotes because there was always someone around but it’s not like they had eyes on me at all times), because I guess that was where they decided the line was for being old enough to not be completely stupid. Whether or not that’s an accurate assessment is up for debate.
At my previous barn, there are a few kids who do get to have somewhat of a barn rat experience in that the barn owner is more than happy to have parents drop their kids who are regulars in the lesson program off on weekends or during the day on school breaks for however many hours so that they can help barn owner and her mom (and sometimes me) with the barn work (and maybe get some extra rides out of it), but they definitely aren’t running around totally unsupervised and I wouldn’t say that it’s a particularly common opportunity anymore.
My trainer has essentially no kids that she teaches aside from random one-offs here and there so I’m her adult barn rat when she needs something haha—spent the last two nights playing jump crew for her after my lessons just because I was there. Some things never change.
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Be careful assuming what keeping a school horse actually costs. It’s not just hay and shavings. It’s a percentage of all costs included in operating the barn including rent / mortgage or property taxes, staff salaries, utilities, fuel for tractors etc. and insurance. The feed bill, vet, farrier and facility maitainance get added on top of the fixed cost to operate the barn itself. Note owner getting so much as a penny is not included
As a private owner, once figured if I rode my own horse in my own tack 8 times a month it cost me 150 or so a ride. NOT including a percentage of horse purchase price, pro rides to keep horse trained up or taking a lesson. Just riding the horse.
That’s a lot of lessons for a schoolie to work off it’s expenses. Most folks don’t use horses that hard these days.
The old theory that lessons were a step in moving up in fence height and to leasing or ownership no longer works. They don’t take enough lessons or ride often enough to get off the speed bump level and are happy to stay there, great for the student, baaad for barns based on advancing riders.
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