How Are Trainers Paid?

[RedHorses]

@dmveventer

Just my 2 cents, but I would narrow down what type of program and clientele you’re targeting first.

This is key. You need to decide what services you will offer at what price and let potential clients decide if it works for them. The biggest mistake I see new barns making is attempting to be a barn for everyone.

Especially if you intend to have hired staff to do the work, you need to limit available services or risk the time to do the work ballooning. That will either increase your payroll costs, or increase staff turnover as the work exceeds the paid time. Something that “just takes a minute” actually takes longer to set up, perform, and clean up, and then needs to be multiplied by 30. A genuinely five minute task costs two and a half hours in labour each month (double if it’s twice a day).

As a kid I learned to ride at a city owned barn that ran six eight week sessions per year. I paid each session before it started, and there were no make up lessons. When I was going to miss two or more lessons I didn’t ride during that session. That sucked. If I’d been able to make up one of the eight lessons within the same eight weeks then I would have paid for the lessons. Something to consider.

[kingranch]

We have an excellent accountant and tax advisor for another business we own, so I’m confident they will help us navigate the ins and outs of the 1099 vs employee discussion. I imagine that there will be a mix of both.

However, I do lean toward more employee relationships because the stable’s reputation and the way the facility is run is extremely important to me. I think the best way to ensure a stellar reputation and customer experience is to be able to ensure that the barn staff can be (legally) managed and held to the business’s standards and protocols.

[kingranch]

@OverandOnward

There are a lot of decisions to make about the kind of program you want to run – just teaching basic riding; progressing to showing; actively showing X weekends per year; schooling shows or rated shows?

I’m finding that this is one of the most complex issues to solve. So many variables. And there is not much in the way of local resources to establish what the market wants. I’m also not an expert and have a ton to learn about all of this. My passion is to restart this historical facility and reinvigorate the local equestrian scene, and to build a business. But in many cases I don’t know what I don’t know.

That said, the existing facility has historically done H/J/E, dressage, ponies, trail rides, etc. and I want to focus heavily on horsemanship, and beginner to intermediate because I don’t think there are many people locally looking for advanced training. We will have to build the market we want to serve. We will probably stick to home base for the first couple of years, but offer camps and clinics in the nicer weather seasons. I expect much will be determined by the skills of the trainers we are able to attract.

We are in the Pennsylvania, so I’m not sure what bearing that will have on horse availability. Between PA and NY, we have some pretty serious horse country, so maybe we can find what you’ve described.

[OverandOnward]

This is getting into the weeds a bit, but it will become a critical factor.

How likely are your first child lesson students to have parents with horse experience? Will most have it, or not? This alone can shape your approach.

How likely are you to have majority children, or majority adults?

How likely are your early students, whatever age, to be absolutely new to horses? Vs having previously had exposure or lessons? Quality lessons, or the other kind, where they spent one to three years leaning nothing? Basically, past lesson experience was babysitting with a horse rather than learning to ride (a problem in the U.S.).

Strongly recommend starting with a minimum age for students of 12 years old. They are (probably) strong enough to turn and whoa a 14h+ horse, which newbie younger students usually are not. Much, much easier to find suitable mounts for a tweener+ that their parents will see progress with.

The parents seeing the kids progressing, and adult students feeling they are progressing, is the make or break bottom line. Honestly that is at least 50% down to the ability of the horse to be able do the things that equal ‘progress’ to the paying client. Be it dressage, jumping, trail riding, even cantering all the way around the ring on arthritic legs, etc. If the horse can’t do it, the student can’t learn to make them do it.

Our opinion doesn’t matter to the success of the program. The paying client’s opinion makes it financially successful – or otherwise. Being able to justify, and sometimes to frame their progress, is everything.

[poltroon]

12 is pretty high for a minimum age. I more typically see 8. 4-H uses 9.

By age 12 kids are much less available to start a new avocation, also, these days.

[OverandOnward]

Have you ever taught in a lesson program full of younger kids, on horse-sized horses? It’s hard to get them off the longe line. The paying parents don’t see that as progress.

Ponies limit the program to people sized to ride ponies.

Horses need riders strong enough to ride horses.

To start the program needs a wider clientele, as they learn what demographic is their best market.

Horses and ponies are expensive, even for lesson purposes. New programs need to set up for wider success. Then they can decide the range that works best for them.

It’s a business. Business decisions are necessary.

[fivestrideline]

@poltroon

12 is pretty high for a minimum age. I more typically see 8. 4-H uses 9.

By age 12 kids are much less available to start a new avocation, also, these days.

Agree. It was 10 where I learned to ride, and they bumped it down to 8 eventually. This of it this way: by 12, they’ve missed the entire 11-and-Under Eq division and kids their age are jumping around 2’9" for the 12-14. If a program doesn’t want to cater to younger children or compete, that’s entirely fine! But clearly younger children are capable of riding independently - with the right start.

If the potential client base doesn’t have a lot of options for learning to ride, this business will need to think about how they will cater to that market - GOOD, sound lesson horses become imperative, especially if there is a trail riding component.

I’ve “taught” kiddos as young as 6. 6 would be my personal cut off, and yeah that takes a quiet, well trained horse. Another option is to offer camps for ages 6-9, and at 9 they can start “real” lessons. Or whatever age chosen. Gets families in the door and introduced to the idea of riding before committing to lessons.

ETA: most other sports and activities have options for kids younger than 12. Tee-ball around here starts at 5 I think? Martial arts as well, swimming, even soccer. By age 12, most families have a roster of after school activities lined up. Not that it is OP’s program that has to carry the weight of “the next generation of riders”, but it is something to consider.

[kingranch]

I expect that we will be dealing primarily with inexperienced kids. Given the limited availability of horse facilities in the area, I can’t imagine there being a lot of teen and adult riders with experience but no place to ride. The previous tenant of the farm was running a pony operation for kids and apparently doing very well serving that market. She moved to a new location. Uncertain if her clients went with her.

[kingranch]

I started horsemanship and trail riding at age six, my sister at four. Granted, we weren’t jumping, but we were on horses, not ponies. We did fine. 12 does seem a little old to start—particularly because it’s a late age to get them interested. Plus we’re competing with other sports, so the sooner we can get them interested, the better.

[poltroon]

@kingranch

I expect that we will be dealing primarily with inexperienced kids. Given the limited availability of horse facilities in the area, I can’t imagine there being a lot of teen and adult riders with experience but no place to ride. The previous tenant of the farm was running a pony operation for kids and apparently doing very well serving that market. She moved to a new location. Uncertain if her clients went with her.

We had a wonderful Pony School program about 75 minutes away that I drove my daughter to for many years. The lesson horses were mostly ponies, the program was restricted to kids 7-16, and it thrived. They did day camps over breaks, you paid monthly, and it had a powerful community of kids having fun together. There were regular in-barn shows just for the pony school, maybe 3-4 times a year.

It benefitted from being adjacent to an urban area, so it was easy for parents to get to and drop kids off. It also had a covered arena so lessons could take place year round, rain or shine, which I think was also critical to its ability to generate regular, reliable income. For many years, it was a powerful feeder into a powerhouse eventing barn, as the kids were moved into horse purchases.

The Pony School survived one sale of the property and at least one change of lead trainer, but alas the property was sold again and I believe no longer has horses at all.