I am wanting to get a feel of the base line for what constitutes full training. How many rides, works per week, including or not including a lesson being considered a ride, etc.
This would be effected by age of horse, or previously trained or not, I would assume.
I need to be able to explain this to a complete dummy.
Thanks in advance for input.
Horses in full training with me work 5 days per week. Some days may be lunging or hacking, not every day is 45 minutes of hard work. But the horse will be exercised in a manner fitting to its individual needs. Most horses I’ve had in training board were absentee owners, so lessons were not applicable. I wouldn’t likely charge any different for the owner to have a lesson instead of a training ride; she paid for the horse to have my attention that day, regardless of who is in the saddle.
With my current situation full training includes:
A previous situation:
Questions you might ask besides the obvious - how many days a week will horse be worked? And how much is board?
Is there added charge for:
Blanketing
Feeding supplements/grain (owner provides)
Turn out
Grooming
Holding for farrier/vet
Showing
Lessons
Coaching at shows
What happens if:
Trainer is gone or can’t ride (at a show, clinic, vacation, sick, weather issues) - does the horse just stand in its stall
If training is less then 5 days/week, do I still pay full price
Horse is injured (do I still pay for full training)
Other questions:
Do working students/assistants ride my horse
Will my tack be cleaned when trainer uses it
If horse is for sale - what is the commission/charges situation
It is just best to know up front what you are paying for and what will cost extra. Every trainer does it different. I’ve found the biggest issues, assuming you are comfortable with the trainer’s riding/training usually relate to money, either directly or indirectly. And for good reason - in most cases, training and board are the equivalent of a nice house payment each month!
One of the trainers where I currently board: Full training is 4 days per week. A usual training day is 15-20 minutes with a warm-up rider and 20 minutes with the trainer - though can vary day by day. Owner signs up for the desired amount of training (1, 2, or 4 days per week) at the beginning of the month and pays in advance. Lessons, if desired, are scheduled and paid for separately in addition to the training.
My trainer: does not work at the barn every day and does not take full training clients. She teaches lessons, and there is the option of training rides scheduled 1 - 2 times per week in addition to lessons. Payment for lessons on the day of lesson, payment for training at the end of the month based on actual # of rides.
At another barn I work with: Full training is 5 days per week. Most of the training is done by the trainer, but 1 or 2 of the days may be ground-work, hacking, or riding done by an assistant. Training sessions are generally 30 - 45 minutes including warmup and cool down. Up to two sessions per week can be substituted by lessons (by prior agreement) for the same fee. Various partial training packages are also available. Payment in advance at the beginning of the month.
[QUOTE=MysticOakRanch;8869623]
Questions you might ask besides the obvious - how many days a week will horse be worked? And how much is board?
Is there added charge for:
Blanketing
Feeding supplements/grain (owner provides)
Turn out
Grooming
Holding for farrier/vet
Showing
Lessons
Coaching at shows
What happens if:
Trainer is gone or can’t ride (at a show, clinic, vacation, sick, weather issues) - does the horse just stand in its stall
If training is less then 5 days/week, do I still pay full price
Horse is injured (do I still pay for full training)
Other questions:
Do working students/assistants ride my horse
Will my tack be cleaned when trainer uses it
If horse is for sale - what is the commission/charges situation
It is just best to know up front what you are paying for and what will cost extra. Every trainer does it different. I’ve found the biggest issues, assuming you are comfortable with the trainer’s riding/training usually relate to money, either directly or indirectly. And for good reason - in most cases, training and board are the equivalent of a nice house payment each month![/QUOTE]
Those are all good questions. To clarify. I am not asking as a potential client.
I am trying to collect evidence based professional standards to present to an beginner owner of a horse ranch, who has no experience, and thinks that all horses in his barn must be ridden every day.
The responses here so far have been quite helpful to make my case.
I have never been in a barn where we worked the horses all 7 days. But most programs I have been in work the horses 6 days a week, then take Mondays off. Occasionally a made horse will go 5 days a week and get another day off too, like Thursdays.
As an ammy DIYer with horses at home but who likes to keep things as professional as I can, my horses tend to get ridden/worked 4-5 days a week. I never seem to manage 6, something always comes up.
Remind him that everyone needs a day off to relax, decompress, rest muscles and not burn out.
My barn is full training only. It includes 1 45 min. session per day (ride or lesson) 6 days/week.
That said, no horse in the barn does hard work more than 5 days/week, and most do it 4 days. The other days are hacks, cavaletti, or conditioning.
Everyone is off Monday.
I’ve got a horse going into full training next month.
Horse is worked 5 days/week, ride duration dependent on condition of horse and how the session progresses.
Trainer/staff get horse up and hold for farrier/vet and will handle any medical treatments/drug administration required
All feed/hay is included and feeding is done by trainer/staff
Horse will be in individual paddock with run-in shed, which I prefer to a stall/turnout situation
On lesson days (1-2/week), trainer does brief ride first, then I ride
I have worked with this trainer before and no price breaks were given for brief interruptions in training (e.g. trainer is gone to a show for 2 days), but if he is gone for a week or more, price for the week drops to regular boarding rate.
A previous experience at a different place:
Full training board got me 3-4 trainer rides/week plus the regular full board amenities. Any lessons I took were extra, charged at the standard lesson rate.
I have one horse in full training right now as well. He is worked 5 days a week with intensity dependent on what ever the goals for that day are. Trainer is the only one allowed on the horse, no assistants (I pay for the pro to ride him, not anyone else). Regular full board amenities.
As he’s just now being started I have no plans to take lessons on him for a while yet. When I do, they will be half price as long as he’s in full training and any rides will be in addition to trainer riding 5 days a week.
As far as time away, contract states the horse will be ridden 20 rides a month so missed days are made up on days off or at the end of the training period.
Have worked w/ two trainers; both define full training as 5x per week. Trainer to ride, or owner to ride. And sometimes trainer to hack or lunge.
Regarding time away: Both of these trainers are diligent about tracking the # of rides, and if not around for a couple days, they are made up on the remaining days. Generally measured by the month. (20 sessions/month).
The taking care of the horse varies outside the riding. Some trainers have a groom and manage all facets of the horse care. Others just deal with the groom/tack; vets, farriers and other things are up to owner. Depends.
The norm for most of the clients at my barn is 5x a week–can be any combo of lessons or training rides, and sometimes a lunge day is included in the 5x if appropriate. They do the grooming and tacking if a training ride, but if it’s a lesson, then the client is responsible. They also schedule all farrier, vet, chiro (if wanted by the client) and any other needs (but they do that for everyone, regardless of whether they take weekly lessons or are in full training). If they do a training ride, they also clean any tack used.
[QUOTE=Wirt;8869540]
I am wanting to get a feel of the base line for what constitutes full training. How many rides, works per week, including or not including a lesson being considered a ride, etc.
This would be effected by age of horse, or previously trained or not, I would assume.
I need to be able to explain this to a complete dummy.
Thanks in advance for input.[/QUOTE]
Full training at the barn where I ride is 5x/ week. It can be a combination of pro / rides/ training sessions and lessons, depending on the horse and rider’s needs. Most people seem to opt for 2 lessons and 3 pro rides, some do 1 and 4, some have no lessons and the horse is only ridden by the trainer
Out of curiosity, wonder how long the training ride is training. The barn where I board I am increasingly seeing the trainers doing a lot of walking on a long rein looking at a cell phone. The barn is a multi disapline, the h/j trainers being the worst when it comes to cell phone riding. The dressage trainers are better, but still looking at emails or texts. It makes me wonder if clients are getting their monies worth, especially when full training plus board is $1500 a month.
My full training is 20 rides or lessons a month. There’s no set time per ride. It could be 20 minutes if the horse does something brilliant, like learn a flying change or an hour if they are having a difficult time with something. I don’t think training should have a time frame. If a horse is with me for more than a month, some of the rides will be hacking, trotting poles or hill work in the field. All work and no play makes the ponies dull boys.
I NEVER look at my cell phone while on a clients horse. I’ve been paid to train the horse and that’s the client’s time, not mine.
[QUOTE=Wirt;8869540]
I am wanting to get a feel of the base line for what constitutes full training. How many rides, works per week, including or not including a lesson being considered a ride, etc.
This would be effected by age of horse, or previously trained or not, I would assume.
I need to be able to explain this to a complete dummy.
Thanks in advance for input.[/QUOTE]
IME, it depends on the trainer and discipline.
Most trainers outline exactly what “full time training” means for the client, so the client knows what is involved.
Most full time training situations I know of range from 5 days per week ride with the trainer to 5 days per week with the owner riding in a lesson situation with the trainer, or something in between. Some dressage riders who want to move up the levels will opt for up to 5 days per week of lessons with the trainer riding when they can’t get out. Others with difficult horses might opt for the trainer to ride 5 days a week and eventually they’ll take a lesson or two or three per week. Others are happy being owners and having the rider train and show.
Other trainers will do ground work for some of those days, or hack out. Some consider 4 days a week to be “full time”. Some will credit the client when they travel.
As long as the trainer can put in writing what the trainer considers to be “full training”, s/he should be OK.
[QUOTE=Calhoun;8870534]
Out of curiosity, wonder how long the training ride is training. The barn where I board I am increasingly seeing the trainers doing a lot of walking on a long rein looking at a cell phone. The barn is a multi disapline, the h/j trainers being the worst when it comes to cell phone riding. The dressage trainers are better, but still looking at emails or texts. It makes me wonder if clients are getting their monies worth, especially when full training plus board is $1500 a month.[/QUOTE]
IME, this can vary. The good trainer will give the horse what it needs. For example, if training flying changes, the ride might last 25 minutes after a good warmup. It teaching an obstinate horse how to load on a trailer, it might take 1.5-2 hours on some of those days. I think it’s best to reward the horse for doing well, but not stop if the horse needs more time. I think its not as productive to slot every horse for a 45 minute time slot every day.
Full training is four services (trainer rides or lessons) per week, with turnout or lunge or handwork (or owner rides on own) two additional days. There are some lessons on Sundays, mostly for people not in full training (but does include some of the training people who can’t get out enough during the week); otherwise, you can come out and do something–ride, turn out, walk–your horse on Sunday. Many people do.
Full training plus is one additional service per week.
A typical scenario for full training is that one of the rides is a trainer ride and the rest are lessons.
FWIW this is a HJ barn.
[QUOTE=Wirt;8869764]
Those are all good questions. To clarify. I am not asking as a potential client.
I am trying to collect evidence based professional standards to present to an beginner owner of a horse ranch, who has no experience, and thinks that all horses in his barn must be ridden every day.
The responses here so far have been quite helpful to make my case.[/QUOTE]
How often horses are ridden or taken out for other kinds of work depends a lot on what kind of living situation they have.
Assuming that the diet of the horses is such that they aren’t obese, and don’t need to lose weight:
Horses who live on big fields in a herd that has daily gallops don’t need as much riding to maintain health and fitness.
Horses that live in stalls or small paddocks or pens need to get out and stretch their legs every day, even if they are not being ridden.
I rode my stall-kept horse pretty much every day as a kid, mostly trails with some training work at venues away from the barn. But as I recall, our level of activity in those rides varied a lot depending on how both of us were feeling. Some days we went out and galloped a mile, other days just long trail rides walk and jog.
My current horse is kept in a stall with runout paddock, and for a long time I was riding her every day when I could, with a day off whenever it happened (heavy rain, heavy day at my job, etc). Often had ten day stretches of riding. Then I started paying more attention to her fluctuating energy levels and attitude, and found things went much better when we did five days on, one day off (easier to do in the summer holidays than to fit into a seven day work week). But if we don’t ride, I still get her out for a handwalk, turnout, longe, grass walk, something to keep her from stocking up or getting too bored.
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