Interesting article on doing less (trainers)

[fivestrideline]

@rulex

30k is a good chunk of change to a large percentage of middle class folks

I agree with your whole post, but it stands out to me that $30k is a decent new car (or most of one). $30k is a down payment and closing costs on a small house. $30k is a lot of money.

And $30k is “cheap” these days for a sporthorse - usually green, or stepping down, or has a major maintenance or quirk. Lots of leases for $30k on what people would call a starter-type packer. This is the reality of horses right now. Yes, you can “have a horse” for less, get lucky, etc, but this thread was originally talking about trainers restructuring their businesses to cater to fewer, (essentially) wealthier clients. When $30k is realistically a “small” budget… it’s no wonder that the “middle class” rider may simply not be the target market for a lot of programs these days. And that is a hard pill to swallow for those of us who used to fit competition horses (boarded, in a program) into our average lifestyles.

[kaya842]

I came to this thread to post this exact screenshot and comment. Word for word. I make much more than $60K and my take home is roughly what they have listed there. The healthcare amount is about what I pay for my portion of employer provided healthcare (does not include any prescriptions, thankfully not on any, or any actual visits or care). Everything else is wildly off for my real world cost. Our gas and electric alone is nearly $300/month, which doesn’t include our water/ sewer/ trash/ internet under the “utilities” amount, all of which total up to another ~$250/ month. The transportation amount covers our car insurance and one tank of gas for the hybrid which we typically fill up 4-6 times a month (so add another $150 to that). We have no car loans, thankfully. Our grocery bill is typically ~$80/ week for 2 adults shopping at Aldi for most of our items and making most meals ourselves (vs buying premade frozen meals). So maybe that category is fine too. Anyway, point is 1. That is certainly not a $60K salary before taxes and 2. You can see how quickly that gets eaten up by costs we have little to no control over even when trying to be budget conscious and make compromises.

[nutmeg]

Y’all are making me long for the good old days when we brought gates and plywood to the horse shows, when instead of getting bled dry for internet, phone and the cheapest streaming we had Walter Cronkite and Huntley Brinkley coming in for free and getting hay was not a weather-related full blown ulcer causing panic attack. The ever resourceful Dutch, looking ahead, have come up with a solution.

[Amberley]

Agreed. That post has real “It’s one banana, Michael. What could it cost, $10?” energy.

The personal stuff is far too low: I guess no-one every gets their hair cut and colored or buys sunscreen or needs to go to a wedding or other event. And no-one has any hobbies, or at least no hobbies that cost more than $100 a month. No one has pets, goes on vacation, buys Christmas presents, throws dinner parties or bbqs, never repairs anything around their house (their very cheap house), never buys plants for the garden, needs furniture or a winter coat or new shoes or has a gym membership or wears contact lenses or needs a new phone or or or… anything that people do.

A survival wage is not something to aspire to. We need a quality of life wage. Comfortable living, even thriving.

[Ghazzu]

@Texarkana

Who is still living without air conditioning in the summer?

Me.

[Ghazzu]

@rulex

I lump feed in as part of board costs, so in my mind your board has gone up because I highly doubt your feed costs are the same as they were 15 years ago. Where I am feed is at least half or more of the cost of board.

Want to cry?
I still have some of my childhood 4-H records.
Oats were $4.50/cwt.
Hay was 25 cents /bale off the field if we picked it up.

[dags]

@Ghazzu

Want to cry?
I still have some of my childhood 4-H records.
Oats were $4.50/cwt.
Hay was 25 cents /bale off the field if we picked it up.

School horse lessons were $12 when I started

[2bayboys]

@dags

@Ghazzu

Want to cry?
I still have some of my childhood 4-H records.
Oats were $4.50/cwt.
Hay was 25 cents /bale off the field if we picked it up.

School horse lessons were $12 when I started

Mine were $8 per lesson, paid in advance at the first lesson of the month.

[awaywego]

Circling back to the original blog post…I have a horse in temporary training in a program priced similarly to the blog writer’s. It is positively crippling, but it is the only program that I felt comfortable with as far as facilities, care and training. And really truly, my standards are actually not that high: I am ok without an indoor or a barn bathroom But I do want knowledgeable care, safe fencing, night check, and clean water at all times. If this is the price that I have to pay to achieve these seriously minimum standards, then it really is alarming. And if trainers feel that they are still not able to sustain a business at this price point, then it is game over.

ETA: to clarify, this program is at the very top tier of local pricing, and we are in a moderate/high COL incredibly horsey area

[Texarkana]

@awaywego

If this is the price that I have to pay to achieve these seriously minimum standards, then it really is alarming. And if trainers feel that they are still not able to sustain a business at this price point, then it is game over.

Or change the game.

Maybe it’s time to abandon the “this is how we’ve always run a training business,” and really rethink how professional horsemen fund their operations.

(Not saying I have the answer, just posing the idea)

[cayuse]

I remember hay that cheap out of the field. We’d load up the El Camino, I forget how many we’d fit on, maybe 20 with the gate down and bales hanging over the edge ? We’d make a bunch of trips. Luckily the hay field was 10 minutes away.

[Jackie_Cochran]

Gee, I am truly ancient.

When I was a freshman or sophomore in High School one hour long group riding lessons were $2.00 US, at well regarded stables (including a stable which had Pony Club) in Fairfax Co. Va, near to Washington, DC.