Hello all! What are the going rates in your state [and what state are you in] for:
Private lesson on your own horse where the trainer travels to you?
Private lesson on your trainers horse in their barn?
How are those rates adjusted within a package, and how many lessons are you paying per package?
Full training folks excluded this time [sorry!], this is solely for people who want lessons a la carte style.
Thanks!
I pay $50 either way and sometimes more depending on trainer. It also depends on their experience. I’m in NC
Single lesson prices mostly in $40-50 range with a $5 discount per lesson for pre-paid packages. More - up to $75 for big names in the area. School horses are a rarity, but add $5 to $20 per lesson. Usually a mileage charge if trainer travels to you unless the trainer doesn’t have a home training barn where he/she is based.
$45/lesson for private lessons is the going rate around here - a little cheaper if it is a group lesson, but not many trainers offer anything other than private and semi-private lessons. Not many trainers (none?) offer package discounts that I am aware of, but I’ve never really asked as my work schedule is rather erratic. Almost none of the trainers in this area have school horses for anything other than maybe very beginner/low level students (and even that is rare). Most of our trainers will not travel to your location unless there are several people taking lessons back to back at the same location. If that is the case, cost is the same as lesson at the trainer’s facility on your own horse. I’m in eastern WA.
Lesson rates in NY run all over the map. Affluent areas are considerably more expensive than rural areas.
If you are using a BNT, lessons are $150 and up and they won’t travel to you as their day is full running their own barn. You’ll need to ship in for lessons and you’ll be using your own horse.
If you are using a MNT, lessons start at $75. In many cases they don’t keep lesson horses, so again, you’ll be shipping in. Some MNT will travel to you, but most won’t if it is only one horse. If you can find someone to travel to you, you’re likely to be charged for travel time which will be distance dependent. $25 is not unusual if the travel time is 15-20 minutes each way.
The local trainers might start at $50 a lesson on their horse but these are schoolies and they aren’t asked to jump more than 2’3" or 2’6". If you are looking for someone to come to your barn for a single horse, you’re probably going to be looking at $50, plus something extra for mileage. You may need to consider reaching out to a free-lance trainer as anyone running their own farm is likely to have a full day at home.
Package prices are usually only offered at the local lesson barn level and must be used within a specified period. I would expect a 10-15% discount off the regular lesson price if a package was offered.
Lessons are usually based on the skill and reputation of the trainer combined with the local cost of doing business not just what state. It’s always more if they come to you due to travel expenses and it’s more if you need to rent their school horse. So it depends on many factors.
Generally, you get what you pay for in trainers.
Do you board somewhere with a group of people interested in lessons? It may be easier to get a trainer to come to you if you’ve got a group of people willing to take lessons. When I was at a more eventing/dressage focused facility, it was fairly common to have a trainer with their own barn come over and teach at that barn for a morning or afternoon for a group of clients; I did lessons with both a dressage and event trainer that way for years. We paid slightly more than you would for lessons at that trainer’s own barn. You don’t see it so much with h/j trainers.
I’m in the DC area of MD, and with both my current Hunter coach and the eventing and dressage folks (all very competent & respected mid-to-upper level but not BNT folks) lessons ranged between $50-75, depending on whether I was taking a lesson at home on my horse at trainers barn, or trainer was coming to my barn, or I was hauling to a trainer’s barn. I do expect to pay more if I’m using a trainer’s horse, or if I’m paying for a trainer to come to me.
Chicagoland area.
I am very fortunate to have affordable professionals. Prices here for all disciplines can run much higher, especially if you look at any of the bigger/more popular show barns.
Extra lessons are $45 at my New Hampshire barn.
Thank you for all the replies! I should have clarified; I am a professional who has moved well, well out of my stomping grounds and am trying to do market research. Making some short and long term plans and trying to figure out where we will end up long term, so attempting to see how saturated and expensive different states are for free lance coaching. Thanks again!
edited for punctuation
I paid $60 per lesson when my trainer traveled to me (an hour each way) and $40 since I moved my horse to her barn. I’m in the Fort Collins area of CO.
I have lived in a few states over the past 5 years, so figured I would include all of them 
Private lesson (own horse):
Private lesson (school horse/trainers horse):
Lesson package:
For reference…All trainers are well-respected within the local horse scene for their respective area and had clientele that were successful on local through AA level. Mostly at the 2’6-3’6 hunters and through 1.20m jumpers. I am unsure through what level each competed on their own (I would guess at least through 3’6 hunters/eq and jumpers. I don’t think any have competed through Grand Prix). The only Grand Prix level trainers I have consistently lessoned with were based in Indiana and NC. Indiana trainer (a different trainer from the prices I listed above) was $60/half-hour and the NC trainer was $75/hour.
It still depends on the level your students have competed successfully at. I paid, in the Midwest, 60 for an assistant or 75 for an hour private ( give or take depending on how the lesson progressed) with the head trainer on my horse in a AA barn with clients going to WEF, Indoors, Medal Finals, Pony Finals, Junior Jumpers and a nice group of 3’ Adult Hunters. Groups were less, maybe $20 lower, don’t remember as during the show year it was hard to set up a group at anything but the lower, novice levels. Either those were not what I needed to work on as my peer group was gone or they resting the horses between shows.
Another barn locally doing well with the smaller A shows and the few locals left charges about 10- 15 less. That barn is pretty successful but tops out at 3’.
Far as free lancing, not real popular here because of the need for an indoor arena and lights 4-5 months out of the year. Private places lack one and many boarding barns don’t have one big enough to host a jumping lesson. Then there’s the issue of decent jumps. They are expensive but jumping plain, simple jumps does not prepare riders for colorful, overstuffed, freshly painted show jumps even in the real low divisions. It’s something nobody thinks of but most barns can’t build 6 fences including oxers, faux walls and roll tops with ground lines let alone 8 (or more with combinations) as riders will see when they show once they get to 2’6" and certainly 3’.
These things are more likely to be provided by barns with resident trainers. People are more likely to haul in for decent jumps a roof and lights rather then host a free lancer.
If you want to slide your focus over to Eventing, you might find more opportunity to free lance however many of those clients don’t take frequent lessons or want to invest as much as a Hunter, Jumper trainer typically charges.
Obviously there are exceptions but their numbers are dropping as the cost of doing business keeps rising, even for a free lancer.
I’m in Southern California and private lessons on your horse or a school horse are $65-85.
$45 for private lesson haul in to trainer’s barn. $55 if he has to travel to my farm. I’m in central VA.
Northern California reporting:
$45 is the cheapest I’ve found on a lesson horse, $35 if you have your own horse/lease though this trainer was definitely not on the same level as others in the area.
$80 most expensive, although this is without purchasing as a part of a lesson package. $60/lesson is most common for 1/2 hour private or 1 hour group (2+ students).
$60 with using a school horse (Oregon)
In Central Ohio most lessons (h/j barns) were between $40-60. Occassionally someone would be $75. For privates on your own horse. Usually a $10-15 additional fee to use a school horse.
Some places would give a package discount, usually like 5% or something.
In Florida I’ve only gotten a few quotes, and IMO they’re absurd. Several jump instructors quoted me $95-125 for an hour private on your own horse.
Have not asked about packages.
That’s not as unreasonable as it sounds at first IMO. I stopped riding six years ago with a good, well respected local trainer who charged $65 for a half hour lesson at the time, and other trainers at the same facility were charging $75-85 for a half hour. Very limited school horse inventory. And an excellent, but local dressage trainer at the same farm charged $140 and he was booked solid. I’m in New York and BNTs in this area get a lot more.
With very good instructors (imo), but not your BNT (we have a core group of trainers in my area of KS/MO that are similarly talented with hunters in the “A” ribbons or eventing juniors making it to AECs and all are similarly priced).
$35-$45 group of 2-5 riders hour
$50-$65 private half hour
$50 show coach fee per day
No extra fee for school horses (at least nowhere that I’ve ridden at or researched out here). Some require horses to be owned/leased by the rider and do not offer school horses. Some barns give a bit of a discount to boarder horses that are allowed to be used in lessons.
Two places that I am aware of have packages that you can buy. One you can only do lessons if you purchase them as a package. One offers packages with a minimal discount ($10 savings on purchase of 4 lessons or $50 off 10 lessons).
ETA: There is one farm I’m familiar with in a more expanded area (still in KS) that does go to AA shows. They are $50 for an hour group or ~45min private. Head trainer is $75 private. There are discounts if you purchase packages - pretty significant if my math is right. When I rode there there was no horse use fee.
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