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Does your barn have more than one regular trainer?
Im curious to see how common or uncommon this is. -
If you do have more than 1 trainer, how do you all handle scheduling lessons? Does each trainer or student verify if another lesson is being scheduled (if a ring has to be shared)? If rings are shared, how do you go about riding around each other or hearing your trainer over the other?
We just share. We also tend to know other trainer’s schedules, so that if trainer XX tends to teach in the mornings on this day, so we decide either to share, or pick a less desirable time.
My trainers uses a headset, so I can hear her fine.
We also just use the international standard for sharing rings - left hand to left hand, if you’re walking come off the rail (or go around the perimeter, if you have one). If what’s going to happen is ambiguous, call it (e.g., “outside!”).
I am at a facility that is quite busy. One particular training program has 4 trainers who teach and ride. Its a big lesson factory type program. The two “head trainers” and I have a group chat going. Since I teach the least amount I typically know the others schedule but also send a quick confirmation text to avoid conflict. But really when it comes down to it, we all get along great and have no issues sharing the ring.
Ive been at two barns that both had two trainers. One had multiple rings and they just used different places. The other the BM assigned each days. In both cases the trainers had multiple students for all or part of their whole lesson program.
The one with assigned days the one trainer was a traveling trainer who had been teaching lessons their for ages with a solid client base. The other trainer had moved her horses, boarders and lesson program in after the owner of their last barn decided to sell. Even though the new trainer had more students the BM gave the old trainer first choice since she’d been there longer. The only issue we ever had as boarders in this case were weekend lessons not sharing the ring well.
Love the answers!
one more to add:
3) How would you manage to share the ring if one lesson is jumping and the other is doing dressage?
In winter (when our barn’s two instructors both have to teach inside, due to weather) the arena is typically segregated into “jumping area” and “flat area”. This works because our arena is quite long (20mx80m) and you can do a fair bit of a course in a 20x40m space.
Other facilities I’ve been in that have smaller arenas (20x60) that has a course set up throughout the entire arena will have all instructors being conscientious that space still needs to be navigable regardless of the course set up - no limiting access to the rail, leave space for circles of various sizes at least at A. Instructors will also stagger lessons - so if one starts at 6:00, another starts at 6:15 or 6:20. That way both lessons haven’t gotten out of warm-up and introductory exercises at the same time - which when that happens, you have someone trying to do coursework a few times and the person on the flat might be trying to school an intricate pattern that may interfere with the flow of the course.
Ultimately, aware instructors are key. Even starting at the same time can be managed, so long as the jumping instructor won’t go and run a course 3x back to back, or the dressage instructor doesn’t command the space to run a dressage test twice in a row, for example. Taking breaks, break down the exercise into something smaller before returning to the “full” question, to allow for more space to be used more easily by other riders - that degree of mindfulness makes it easy to work with.
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Are the trainers doing private lessons or groups?
The barns I know who have multiple trainers give “priority ring time” to a certain trainer at certain days/times. The trainer who has priority can choose if they are okay with having other riders in the ring with them (typically only a problem if there is a group lesson). The barn owner splits up the time and allocates arena usage.
I have run my program out of a boarding facility. I do group lessons for beginners, so I know I’m a burden for others in the arena. I post my lesson and camp times and the boarders can plan accordingly. Really only a problem in inclement weather when everyone wants the indoor!
You don’t. You schedule these at different times.
At our barn each instructor gets a chunk of time each year and while they can also teach outside of that, most stick to their official hours.
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- Does your barn have more than one regular trainer?
Yes, we currently have 3 different trainers.
- If you do have more than 1 trainer, how do you all handle scheduling lessons?
We have a whiteboard where all the scheduled lessons are posted. If you want to add an additional lesson you can see what time is available.
Does each trainer or student verify if another lesson is being scheduled (if a ring has to be shared)?
We check the whiteboard.
If rings are shared, how do you go about riding around each other or hearing your trainer over the other?
There is usually only one lesson at a time.
I do not think I have ever been to a barn with only one trainer.
All the lesson barns have multiple trainers.
Any boarding barn that allows outside trainers has multiple trainers.
For the average lesson barn I have always seen it done where certain trainers are assigned certain blocks of time to teach in. If they need to overlap the time allotted to someone else (say a student really needs a private and that is the only time they can make it), those two trainers just coordinate.
At a boarding barn with multiple trainers there is usually a calendar where people sign up for lesson times.
I would think a dressage lesson and a jumping lesson (past the level where the dressage rider is only working in a small area and the jumping rider might be doing one or two crossrails) would have a hard time sharing the average sized ring.
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What would you do if the jumping lesson was scheduled during a dressage lesson (when the dressage lesson is always at the same date/time)?
Suck it up and deal with it unless you are one of the trainers and even if you are you might have to deal… That’s your option. Things won’t change if that’s the way the barn and trainers operate.
Multiple trainers giving lessons really only works if there is at least a person responsible for keeping a posted lesson schedule or, better, pre determined times for each trainer to teach and, you know, somebody in charge of the trainers so they don’t just do whatever they want whenever they want.
Its something to ask when selecting a barn and, IME, very much can have a negative effect on your learning curve and even safety.
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For heaven’s sake, I’ve never heard of having the arena for your very own during a lesson. I board at a barn with 6 trainers and a busy lesson program. Granted, our arena is large, probably 100 x 200, and at any given time there are at least 2 people riding. The far end is for jumping, the close end for flatwork. I’ve ridden in that arena with 12 other people, 3 of those jumping, one lunge line lesson, a handful of up and downs, and the rest hacking around. This weekend there was a show, so 6 stalls in the arena, people and their dogs in and out, 4 lessons going on, the hose being dragged around.
I suspect the OP’s ultimate statement is “someone is having a jumping lesson during my dressage lesson.” Learning to share an arena makes one a better rider.
Shouldn’t happen if the trainers involved are professional and coordinate schedules. That’s what is supposed to happen at our barn, unfortunately, we have one passive-aggressive trainer who doesn’t always play by the rules.
Case in point, at our barn, the front arena is set with the dressage court for Saturday lessons. As luck would have it, lessons were cancelled this week due to the trainer being out of town, however, the court was still set up as usual because many of the clientele only ride on the weekends including yours truly who had a show on Sunday.
While I was tacking up, PA trainer announce to his crew of 4 that they would ride up front because the dressage trainer was gone. I pointed out that I would be practicing tests in the court shortly. PA trainer said nothing, but one of his associates who was not riding said we could all share. I tried to explain why that didn’t work for a dressage test, but that person felt attacked and suggested I might be happier if I moved to another barn. Yeah, someone who doesn’t ride and just hangs out at the barn said this to someone who has been a good client with multiple horses at that barn for close to 10 years.
Vent over, it all ended well and the show went well too.
Anyway, it can work with multiple trainers if there is professional behavior and coordination. Alas, that is too frequently lacking.
You must be a jumper and I do not mean that pejoratively in any way.
I understand your position and agree to a point on learning how to ride in a crowded ring, however, it depends on how large the arena is and which disciplines are in play. At our barn, we can barely fit in a full dressage court so having someone set up jumps in the same space makes it pretty much impossible to ride a dressage test.
Similarly, it would be hard for a reiner to run a pattern through a bunch of trail obstacles.
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As an FYI, several “assumptions” made about myself in the most recent posts are not correct at all, nor do I plan on clarifying the wrong assumptions as I am not looking for advice. I am asking purely out of curiosity and understanding how other barns handle these situations.
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We have three trainers and they each have specific days that they teach on.
There is a session package of lessons that you buy a few times a year. During each session, your lesson is on the same day and time (unless other arrangements are necessitated) for the duration. Next session, your lesson MAY be on the same day and time as the previous session, or it might be at a new day and time that will remain the same for the duration of the new session.
At my current barn there is only one trainer. Lessons and training rides are written on the board. This makes it easy to figure out when you want to ride if you aren’t in a lesson. People can ride during lessons, that’s no problem, but for people with young horses or those needing to practice a test, they might use that info to choose to ride when there isn’t a lesson going on, or to use a different arena.
One barn I used to board at a few years ago had a calendar that people would write their lessons down on. The rule was only one lesson going on at a time. That’s fair and since all the boarders were adults it was easy to manage.
Another barn had a calendar and the same rule about only one lesson going on at a time, but you couldn’t take more than 2 lessons per week. Most people didn’t but some people abused the system which made it difficult for those who stuck to the rules.
I’ve been at factory type places years ago where you’d have two lessons going on, both jumping and it was a mess.
Nope, I ride dressage, although for pleasure. I don’t show.
I have had outside coaches at my place. When I allowed that, they could only teach on days I didn’t, and it had to be scheduled ahead of time.
At the larger barn I used to assist at, we had multiple outdoor rings, but in the winter we had to share the indoor between our jumping program, and the dressage coach. The dressage coach did most of her serious lessons after our jumping was done on Saturday, and before we set jumps back up on Tuesday. I taught beginner lessons in the evening after our jumping groups on the jump nights. Week day, daytime private jumping lessons were rare, but if they did happen they might coincide with a dressage lesson, in which case the jumping lesson worked on exercises rather than a course, and we stayed out of each others way. It probably helped that the dressage coach was the BO, so it was clear to all involved that she and her students had the right of way, and we were all quite polite about it. If the dressage rider was going to run through a test, we would sit out of the way until done, and the dressage ride would have to work around the jumps.
I think it helped that the barn atmosphere was more that we were all a team even though we worked with different coaches, so we worked to make sure everyone could enjoy their lessons even if they rode with a different coach.
