Lesson barns disappearing, or my imagination?

[Knubbsy]

@centaursam

Could it be that younger generations now just simply aren’t all that engaged/interested in outdoor activities? Or perhaps they are but not to the extent of something that requires hard work and life-long practice?

Same age as you but I vehemently disagree. I think it’s multiple levels of barriers to people getting engaged with riding and other high-commitment activities and you need to look at the whole socio-ecological system that we’re in, in the US.

• At the larger system level and community level, there isn’t a systematic investment into adult activities. How many rec programs are there still out there with activities for adults? What outside sports fields are being maintained and leagues offers? Land is getting more expensive, horse care is getting more expensive and the COLA isn’t matching. There’s lack of easy physical access to dedicated sports or activities. Even in DC where we have a history of rec league-type clubs for soccer, rugby, softball, bocce, etc there are fewer and fewer spaces (the rugby fields behind USHMM are likely going away for new museums, others get gobbled up by other reservations, etc). And I know in my hometown in PA, a much smaller college town there are zero adult sports teams outside of ice hockey, cycling, and triathlons and even then you have to drive 30+ minutes, and hockey is EXPENSIVE (as are tris, and road bikes). In northern NJ there was a decent trail system and other than when I went for a lunch hike I was always dodging people of all ages at the trail heads. A lot had no idea what they were doing (flip flops, really?) but they were trying.
• At the family level, early and mid-level adults who have partners are either driving to see them, or trying to spend time with them. Sure this is a complaint for everyone, but it’s still a barrier. I dated in college because I had some time, I can’t imagine dating in my 30s now. People with kids need to balance kid time, decompression time, and what workouts they can squeeze in.
• At the individual level, they might not know sports are out there (see system and community), they might be burned out from over-commitment as youth, they might be burned out because we keep getting more and more stressful world and national events, they might be overcommitted now (multiple jobs to pay for student loans and COL plus the family-level commitments), they just can’t afford it (not including purchase costs and show fees, I spent over $15,000 last year on the care, keeping, and training of my horse - I can think of maybe 2 non-riding friends who could afford that!). I’m riding 4 days a week, lifting 3 days a week, volunteering 1-2 days a week, plus I have a herding dog who needs 10-17 miles per week to keep healthy and sane. And I’m married and we split chores so that’s a house I half clean each week. And I have a full-time job. I wouldn’t have time for all that except I work from home and have flexible work hours.

Are we more connected to our phones, more than ever? For sure, but I wouldn’t say that’s a reason lesson programs are going away. Lots of things are working against us.

edit I should add, part of my job is analyze uptake barriers - albeit not for riding or in the US so I tend to really dig in

[AllSport]

Where I live, I do think it’s all about the economics of it. It’s a high COL area, and boards just go up up up. There are, or I should say, were waiting lists for kids to get into any of the half decent lesson programs in our area. Families were definitely on the committed side because it’d be too easy to lose your spot in the lessons. I guess horses are just getting pushed out of our area …and any experienced riders / owners will disappear too.

[Jsalem]

As for kids learning to ride now, Honestly, I think that the whole concept of “get back on the horse when you fall off” is not popular anymore. Failure is not popular. Parents want achievement. They don’t want overcoming adversity to be a part of a sport. They want steady and measurable progress. When can we canter? When can we jump? When can we show?
So providing reliable animals is really hard. Providing the sort of experience that people want is really hard.
I find that it’s easier to give lessons to kids whose parents rode.

[Janet]

I can’t comment on the population of lesson barns, but I wanted to comment on the value of group lessons.

When I was junior (many decades ago) my only lessons were through Pony Club, and they were all group lessons (typically 4-6 riders). Everyone was riding their own horses, which were of varying quality.

Those instructors, some of which were volunteers, were very good at addressing each rider’s needs, in a group context. Personally, I went from just starting to jump to jumping 3’6" courses through those lessons, as well as learning real dressage. I particularly remember one group dressage lesson where I was preparing for my B testing (so working on lateral work, connection, balance) at the same time that another horse in the group WOULD NOT take the right lead canter. The instructor (who had ridden with the Spanish Riding School) managed to improve my riding, the no-right-lead rider, and the other 3-4 riders in the group, all within the context of the group lesson.

More recently (for at least 10 years leading up to COVID, when the series was cancelled) I had bi-weekly group jumping lessons. The groups were set up based on the height we were jumping, but there was a lot of variety within the group (e.g., the 2’6" group might include an experienced and talented rider with a green horse, as well as a rider just moving up to 2’6"). Again this instructor gave all of us the instruction and exercises we needed, within the context of a group lesson. (We were each on our own horses.)

This doesn’t give much insight into the business model, or prevalence, of lesson barns, but my point is that group lessons are not a “waste of time” as some of the posters have suggested.

[DawgLady]

@Bebe_Falcon1

but group lessons are running $70 a week there!

This is by no means astronomical if you’re riding one of the barn’s horses.

[DawgLady]

@centaursam

Could it be that younger generations now just simply aren’t all that engaged/interested in outdoor activities? Or perhaps they are but not to the extent of something that requires hard work and life-long practice?

Oh, I disagree. I have teenage daughters, so I have a front row seat to the “younger generation.” Mine both have a passion (not horses) that requires hard work and time commitment.

The thing is, there’s a lot of pressure on kids today to get involved with different activities for the sake of looking good on a college application. So they’re spread thin across school (a zillion AP classes), clubs, musical instruments, sports, volunteering, part time employment, etc.

Riding is not a good fit with this model because it requires so much time. To become a good rider, you’re ideally getting saddle time almost every day (or even multiple horses a day). So (A) kids don’t have the time for this and (B) When they don’t see progress from once a week lessons, they’ll reallocate that time to something else.

It’s not because of phones or social media or work ethic or whatever.

ETA: Let’s also not forget that lesson barns are scarcer now, meaning that kids today sometimes have to drive 30+ minutes to get there. That’s another barrier.

[Impractical_Horsewoman]

I personally don’t thrive in group lessons, but just to clarify–I don’t think all group lessons are a waste of time, but IMHO, for a student to progress, they either need 1. occasional privates OR 2. saddle time hacking their own or a lease horse. At minimum, I do think an instructor needs to be more skilled to balance the dynamics of a group lesson (which hopefully a Pony Club instructor should be, though that depends on the program).

Unfortunately, the types of lessons many of us were talking about were just the opposite–a less skilled instructor not focused on teaching skills but just putting as many students as possible into a lesson, to ensure the least work possible for all the horses. I also note I understand why it’s economically more sense to teach this way, it just doesn’t necessarily inspire kids who want to pursue the sport, once they take a couple of weeks of once-a-week beginner lessons. But even lots of clinicians who are UL riders struggle to teach very mixed, large groups, FWIW, it’s a common complaint many people are disappointed with clinics and feel they would have just been better off getting an extra private lesson with an instructor that week.

I don’t think it’s so much cellphones as it is time, money, access, and ease. There are fewer barns, especially fewer middle-of-the road barns that offer something between showing and full training versus very sketchy nose-to-tail pony rides. People have higher standards (rightly so) for horse care and maintenance. The costs of living have gone up, and the costs to run a barn (I don’t blame barns for raising rates at all, btw)! And they’re harder to get to, and kids tend to want to do what their friends are doing.

[red_mares]

Most ASB barns that I’ve been around have a lesson program with their own horses. The thing is there aren’t all that many ASB barns in most parts of the country; in many places never has been.

My trainer has a 4 or 5 horses of his own, several boarders with horses that are used in lessons and most of the horses in training are often used in lessons. I’ve never seen the consternation over a horse in training being used in lessons in a ASB barn that I see on COTH. The reason is simple - most trainers cannot ride like an amateur. A perfect ride 4 days a week doesn’t teach a horse how deal with an amateur jockey. I’m not talking about up-downers riding someone’s 6 figure gaited horse, but solid intermediate to advanced riders.

This a solid high B/low A level barn. There are several shows we skip because a) they’re too expensive and b) we’d get our posteriors handed to us. We’ve got one owner who has played in the big leagues (with questionable success) and has the bank account to do so. The rest of us would rather win at a smaller, cheaper show.

[spottedprincess]

I am in my 30s, but I pretty much ALL of my friends are at least moderately outdoorsy: hiking, backpacking, skiing, horses. And those who “do” horses all either own or lease, so they’re riding at least 3 days a week. I do wonder how much of this is geographical: I’m in the SF Bay Area, so generally a pretty outdoorsy place.

I grew up riding in lesson barns and was very grateful for the opportunity to be around horses but not have my parents go broke in the process. I joined the show team and went to small local shows all through high school, and while it certainly wasn’t a luxurious program, it was safe and fun and gave me the foundation to come back to horses after college when I could afford more. While I definitely see fewer horses driving around these days, most of the barns I rode/showed at as a kid are still in existence, so I’m hopeful that the model can still thrive here. The one thing I have noticed as I got older was that these barns seemed to be offering a declining quality of instruction/horse (and I don’t mean to disparage the saintly schoolie - more that I’m seeing many horses that get inferior care and are consequently lame/skinny/unhappy). I’m not sure if this is a factor of my own knowledge increasing with time, or if it’s a result of the increased cost of horsekeeping from when I was a kid.

[hillary_again]

@DawgLady - you hit it. Riding …requires so much time.

This whole thread depresses me. I rode at a lesson barn more than 40 years ago. It was a super-thriving business: great location, plenty of demand - lessons 3:30-7:30 Tue-Fri. w/4-8 students per lesson. I was in that program for 4 years before getting my own horse. It was a lot of fun memories.

I think these programs are on the way out for all the reasons cited. That’s a darn shame. I agree that riding requires so much time. Girls have a lot more options today - back then, where I lived, not so many sports for girls like there are today.

I’m constantly talking to my riding buddies about this. It’s like the scene in “Gone With the Wind” - a way of life, gone with the wind.

[trakehners]

There are a number of lesson barns that are thriving around me (I just moved my horse from one to, you guessed it, one of those barns where nearly every rider owns their own horse). Currently I can think of seven off the top of my head that I would classify as true lesson barns and I’m sure there are more. The barn that I just left has a string of six solid lesson horses, plus a couple more that can be ridden by the more advanced kids. Most nights consist of three to four group lessons (small, not more than three riders) and the kids also have the option to join IEA if they want to. My former barn owner also coaches the IHSA team for a local university.

This year she’s mandating that anyone who wants to show be taking two lessons per week and is probably switching to a tuition-based system for lessons because she’s tired of people flaking on her and is also in sufficient demand to be able to (literally) afford to lose the kids whose parents won’t be happy about not being able to be refunded. That wasn’t the case before as she only started her program in 2019, but it is now. Quite frankly, I almost wish that there were fewer lesson barns in my area because a lot of them are operations run by “trainers” who are really not qualified to instill solid basics in any rider and most of the parents don’t know riding well enough to be aware of that.

I should caveat, however, that where I live is hardly a horsey mecca in terms of big show barns and access to competitions, it’s relatively low cost of living as it is a metropolitan area but not anywhere near the scale of NY/Chicago/Philly/LA, and all of those barns that I can think of are at least half an hour outside of the city where land is still pretty cheap. I also live in an area that has a pretty high amount of hay production so it’s not as expensive to feed a whole barn here as it is in other parts of the country. All of that definitely contributes to the ability to a) start a lesson barn/program and b) maintain one.

My trainer taught up-down lessons at one of those barns for years after a (short) career as a vet tech (that’s how I know her, she taught me from 10-13, and is now teaching me again in my mid-20s) and ended up striking out on her own in the early 2010s based out of her family’s farm. Her target market these days is adult amateurs with their own horses who are serious about training (not necessarily showing, but you do have to be in her program to board at her barn), but that’s primarily because she already paid her dues teaching the beginner lessons, dealing with parents is a pain, and she’s an Advanced eventer whose skill set is better-suited to more advanced riders at this point. She still teaches kids from time-to-time (the children of her adult students, mostly, and occasional “clinic” days at some of those local lesson barns) but they just aren’t the focus anymore.

I only moved because I could only lesson with my trainer every month or two due to her schedule/me not having my own hauling setup to get to her, as well as the complications of me trying to school a gigantic baby horse in the same (not very large indoor) arena as a bunch of kids who were learning how to steer and not stare at the big Thoroughbred quite literally trotting circles around them. I love my former barn owner and fully support the success of her program, but, as we liked to joke, she needed to get rid of me to fill the stall with someone who she can actually make money off of, because I wasn’t lessoning with her (she rides with my trainer as well, we’re pretty comparable in terms of experience) and she wasn’t profiting much off my board payments.

[She_s_Pure_Gold]

Same! When I was a lesson kid in the 90s, I rode at a barn where there were 2 group lessons on Saturday mornings. 9:00 for the advanced beginner kids, and 10:00 for the more intermediate/“advanced” kids. Whoever showed up showed up, and if you missed that week, there were no make ups, you just showed up the next week. If no one else showed up, you got a nice private lesson at the group lesson rate of - wait for it - $17! Everyone ride the school horses and it was fabulous. Did we become expert riders? Nope! But did we get the basics down well enough to then go on to more advanced programs and refine our skills and techniques? Yes!

I wish programs like that still existed. My son is 6 (7 next month) and I would love to try him in some lessons, but very few barns near me have lesson programs and I have a hard time justifying the cost of $60-70+ per lesson just to see if he even likes it

[ShenanAnna]

Yes. Those lesson programs I was in were pretty informal, and were group lessons “taught” outside. I always wanted to do everything right, but there wasn’t much individual attention/instruction. If a kid couldn’t get their horse to canter, the “instructor” would pick a weed from the edge of the ring, strip off most of the leaves, and hand it to the kid as a crop.

Pretty crude as lessons go, but it paved the way for my first horse at age 12, which was boarded at the same barn, gave my father, who had basically zero horse knowledge (we bought my first saddle at a Sears-type store, in their hardware section), “professionals” to consult, and we were off to the races!

[Jackie_Cochran]

Oh, I remember Sears selling saddles. Up in NoVa in the mid 1960s the Sears we went to had a little section of horse stuff, with an English jumping saddle and a Western Saddle. I bought my first hoof pick there for $1.00, I did not own a horse, my parents did not believe in riding lessons or letting me ride, so I did not NEED one.

I just wanted to get a piece of horse gear I could afford, thus the hoof pick.

EVERY time we went to Sears you could find me in that tiny horse section of the store.

[Garythesquirrel]

@Jackie_Cochran

Oh, I remember Sears selling saddles. Up in NoVa in the mid 1960s the Sears we went to had a little section of horse stuff, with an English jumping saddle and a Western Saddle. I bought my first hoof pick there for $1.00, I did not own a horse, my parents did not believe in riding lessons or letting me ride, so I did not NEED one.

I just wanted to get a piece of horse gear I could afford, thus the hoof pick.

EVERY time we went to Sears you could find me in that tiny horse section of the store.

I love this story.

[ShenanAnna]

My first saddle was from Montgomery Wards, a Sears type store, in NoVa in the mid 1960s. It was a saddle seat and I rode hunt seat, but we didn’t know. My first horse came with a western saddle and we tried him out by riding around a circular path in a cornfield. So we had TWO saddles. And the saddle seat saddle came with a double girth. Two saddles and two girths. Bursting with pride.

And that desire for a piece of horse gear, any piece, was strong. I had a semi-indulgent father, so my first was a crop for $3. Which I never used; it was long before I started lessons (except for the brief series when I was 5), but I had it. I was so thrilled.

[Horse2019]

This!!! So all that’s left in my area are you g girls gifted barns by their parents and all of a sudden at 20 with no apprenticeship they are trainers!!! So with 35+ years and the fact I ride with many great trainers, I end up knowing more and it gets awkward because did I mention they’re been told they are the best their whole life? Well I quit owning horses recently after decades and decades bc there’s no where left that provides safe proper care, feed, water etc. I literally had no where to go after the last 6-7 years saw half the places around here close or change hands to idiots. It’s over for me until I buy a farm. I’m saving hard core to get my budget up higher. Nothing has been on the Market…

[Horse2019]

I was driving 75 miles round trip to my last barn. I have up lessons years ago bc of the distance. 7 hours door to door to door. And back again.

[Horse2019]

Our barns started closing by the droves around 2017. 2 inna row closed the summer of 2019 and everyone was scrambling to find a stall somewhere. It became a huge “sellers” market where barns could cut corners and be a holes to clients and stalls would be filled. I fought a good fight on the chess board but found myself with no where left id trust my horse to after he’d been nog fed properly, stressed, beat, you name it and my vet bills were crazy from ulcers. I finally gave my horse away and got him the hell out of this area to save him. I’m horseless now. I had an unlimited budget for boarding, didn’t matter. No where provided a competent service now. The landscape changed sooooo much so quickly.

[Jsalem]

Still on the subject of lesson horses, Here are several of my observations (as someone who has been doing this for 40 years in the North Atlanta area):

1. People in my area are interested in learning to ride, both children and adults.

2. The “new to riding” parents think this is very expensive. We are $75 for an a la carte lesson or $260 for monthly lessons. Because they think it’s expensive, they want to be able to reschedule All The Time at their convenience, despite the fact that we have a well communicated cancellation policy. They have no concept of horse work load and no concern for the instructor’s work/life balance. They want their money’s worth. We have a really good group now but we do have to be really strict and say No a lot. The PIA ones drift elsewhere.

3. Parents of these beginner children are interested in competing, which is great. What’s difficult is getting them to do more than just lessons, so their competition opportunities are pretty limited. Because they want to compete, the students and their parents are keenly aware of the quality (and lack thereof) of our lesson horses. They are always wanting to ride and show the easier, better horses and can be dismissive and rude about the “stubborn”, “sour”, “jerk-like” ones. We’ve had to shut down some pretty ugly comments.

4. We get many inquiries from Adult Re-Riders. They want quality lessons from a “real” instructor, on real horses. They want to “start with lessons and Maybe lease something down the road”. What that really looks like is this- they want to take a lesson and then they’re on vacation and then they want to call you a few weeks later and take another lesson. I’ve learned not to offer a trial lesson on a horse that is available to lease because they just want a lesson horse, they don’t want to step up and lease any time in the near future.

5. As I stated in an earlier comment, we cannot find affordable, kind lesson horses like we used to. The ones we used to buy for 2500-5000 are now 20k. And of course, the cost of their keep has skyrocketed.

So yes, lesson barns are disappearing, not because there is no demand, but because it’s not financially feasible anymore. No lesson horses + challenging clients + no profit. There you go.