Farm management & trainers

[trail_blazer]

Oct. 21, 2020, 01:26 PM
Circumstances are changing and our barn will have a barn manager and a separate trainer for the first time in a long time. There likely won’t be enough students for daily lessons, but a few days a week and a solid show group. What arrangements have you had that worked successfully? Should we expect to pay the farm or the trainer directly? Should the farm get a cut from boarders? We haven’t had to pay that in the past. Everyone wants to work together and be fair, so we are lucky to have such a considerate group. Any advice on how farms are handling this now is appreciated.

*** cross posted

[IronwoodFarm]

Whatever you do, put it IN WRITING. Go over the agreement clause by clause together in advance to be sure everyone is on the same page. There is no right or wrong way to do something, but you need to have an agreement in place. Good communication and a clear understanding of what the agreement means is the key to avoiding problems.

[jawa]

As IronwoodFarm said, it can be anything, everything and nothing. I’ve seen places that allow any and all outside trainers, only allow outside trainers if they are insured, only allow outside trainers if they pay a ring fee, allow outside trainers to use their facility for outside clients and pay a ring fee AND a facility that allows outside trainers to bring in outside clients and the ring fee is waived.

[furlong47]

This will depend on how the trainer and barn decide to set up their relationship. If the trainer is an employee you might pay the barn for everything and then they pass on her portion to her. If she’s renting the facility you may pay everything directly to her and then she makes her rent payment to the barn. You might end up paying the barn directly for board and the trainer directly for lessons. Fees may or may not go up depending on how they work out the financial end. Unless you are the trainer or the barn owner/manager you don’t really get a say in how things work.