I am the primary trainer at our farm, though I’ve always been chill about allowing outside trainers to come in at no charge. There is a local trainer who I have invited in to do clinics at our farm for my riders in the past, and still do every few months. Some of the riders, including my training clients, are interested in riding with her more frequently and have begun scheduling her themselves. Should I ask said trainer to start paying an arena use fee when she comes to teach the riders who board at my farm?
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Yes and proof of insurance for trainer and students and you as co-insured.
Ask your insurance agent.
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Yes, it’s usually 10-15%.
Some places charge a flat fee too. Usually $20. I’d ask the trainer what they want. The % is good if the trainer is ok with eating the fee, but the flat charge is good if the trainer would like to pass along that cost to the clients.
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Yup, $20 for non boarding riders to use your arena, per day. Or for an outside coach to use your arena, per rider.
This is what I’ve paid, and come to expect.
In general yes, someone using your infrastructure to make money should pay a fee or a percentage, as well as prove that they are properly insured with you explicitly named on the policy.
But you might have a perception problem here, if you’ve historically allowed this, even had this instructor in for clinics (was an arena fee part of that contract?) and now you want to start charging.
Haven’t we also had threads like “why do I have to pay an arena fee if I’m already paying board”?
Your barn, your rules of course! I would definitely make this a policy for everyone, in writing, to all of your boarders.
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You could consider giving the outside coach specific days/times they can teach to help somewhat control the scheduling, and charge them a flat fee per month if it looks like they will be teaching consistently at your facility. This will make it so you don’t have to try to track lessons. You can “sell” the fee as being a benefit in that you won’t allow other lessons to be booked during that same time slots/days. Charge per use for haul ins.
Make sure they have insurance. Many years ago a local barn and indoor burned down in about 10 minutes. Fortunately there was only one horse inside in a stall. He was by the door so rescue was quick. They never figured out what caused it. Probably some sort of electric appliance like a coffee pot that was plugged in. Several of their boarders moved to our barn. The owner started coming on Sundays to do some lessons. She had been around for years so the BO didn’t ask about insurance. Turns out she didn’t have any and she wasn’t going to get any. Needless to say, she never returned.
I have been a professional instructor, who travels, for 5 years and have only had one facility ask me to pay a fee. I roped it into my lesson fees and then paid the facility owner directly.
It is not unusual for an outside trainer to pay a ring use fee. You are paying for a facility for them to make a living in…they need to pay for that.
Now, like was said above, the only catch is that you have allowed this in the past. So adding on a fee now will likely make your boarders grumpy.
You are not wrong for wanting a fee though.
And yes, be sure they have insurance.
I think that existing boarders shouldn’t have to pay you more to use the arena. But I would charge the instructor a fee to use the facility. If the instructor decides to pass the cost onto the students, that is their business.
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I think it depends on what kind of vibe you want your barn to have. As a boarder, it’s nice to have that kind of charge baked into board, rather than having to feel it more directly. You’re in a bit of a tough spot thinking about changing the policy for current boarders - much easier to sell to someone up front and then they can just decide whether they want to board with you or not.
Easy to give people freebies, not so easy to ask them later to pay for the same.
Lesson learned, be more careful up front with your business plan.
That is your sticky problem, keep permitting free use or try to make them pay for that use now.
No good solution, may end up hard on your end no matter what you decide.
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In my area it’s really common and the same fee generally as a “haul in fee”. I’ve seen it anywhere from $10 to $15. Since it’s your boarders, what I’ve seen done is the boarder pays the fee directly to the barn each time their off-site coach comes in for a lesson. In my area it’s pretty widely accepted and people don’t complain about it. It’s fair.
