I started at an ASB barn, but the beginner horses were 4 QH that went nose to tail w/t only for 2-3 lessons with plenty of stopping to talk about position and mechanics, they rarely broke a sweat. Once you could w/t safely, steer, no stirrups, and two point a couple laps, you could move up to the next level school horses, who were ASBs or ASB/morgan crosses. Then once you met the check box you moved up to Academy show horses or your own show horse.
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I have been on some level of involvement with different barns offering lessons for years. I donât think anyone objects to a walk/trot horse doing 2/3 1/2 hour lessons.
Here is my issue: quality lesson programs that provide the entire industry a valuable service by feeding the pipeline and creating new horsemen getting little respect in the industry. Whether or not people mean to, even on this board, people can come off as disparaging âup downâ lessons, or not appreciating that there can be as much art and skill in developing brand new riders as there is starting young horses (lots of similarities, actually). I get that not everybody does it well, but for the people who do it wellâŠthe larger industry does not seem to give much thanks, and offers very little recognition. There is a lot of veneration of wealthy owner who will sponsor a junior hunter or pony hunter or two for an up and coming rider. But not much respect/recognition for folks who may be starting dozens and dozens of new riders well and effectively each year, and may be personally subsidizing their lesson program because they have a calling to do so. It carries over when the local show barns will poach some of the riders coming out of the lesson programs and try to convince them that they were âsmall timeâ when riding a nice collection of varied lessons horses, but are âbig timeâ now that they are riding a single overpriced aged 2â6" horse. A lesson barn that does not emphasize taking students to shows gets punished in a sense because the local show barns have been able to convince people (who may not know any better) that the hallmark of riding success is to win an oversized ribbon at a year end local banquetâŠas opposed to developing a super sound riding education and the feel and capacity to ride all kinds of horses, made and green, sensitive and sticky, etc.
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Absolutely 
Or the local lesson barn ends up with kids like me, who canât afford their own horse or even a lease. My mother was never happy about the cost of my lessons â I took one a week from age 11 to age 17, and went on 2 or 3 Sunday trail rides a month. I donât remember exactly, but this was something on the order of $100 to $120 per month, and yes the family could afford it, but she thought it was frivolous and made me whiny about not having my own horse. She never would have agreed to provide transportation if things had been like today, where the parents are expected to stay for the lesson. I got dropped off by one parent, and picked up, usually sweaty and happy, a few hours later by the other.
My pediatric endocrinologist apparently took her aside when I was 12 or so and she was grumping about the riding lessons, and told her in no uncertain terms that the barn was keeping me alive and she had better not make me quit. She still complained, but didnât try to end the lessons anymore. (I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age 11 and was an absolutely horrid patient, and just a horrid kid in general, especially to my mom. My only redeeming feature was the straight A grades and the bond I had with my father, which to some degree kept him â and me â out of momâs hair. No, we were not a happy family for that period and itâs something of a miracle that my parents didnât split up. It all changed as I got into adulthood. we became the best of friends, and one of my biggest griefs is that she died when I was 36 and I feel like I just didnât have enough âgood yearsâ with her.)
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The lesson programs I know that are making it are having to be shrewd at businessâthey make parents pay for a âblockâ of lessonsâusually monthly, but I know a trainer that has a quarterly model. Itâs like 10 lessons that are pre-paid. You have to use them in X time or they expire.
And then every barn should have a cancellation policy, and they should make every parent sign it and acknowledge it. Itâs not just riding lessonsâitâs astounding to me how bad sooooooo many people are at cancelling things last minute or donât turn up because they donât feel like. Blows my mind a bit because I get stuff happens, but then at least let the other party know.
Last thing, none of the 4 barns I have in mind have lesson horses that jump higher than 2â6ââ. Maybe they have a horse or two that could jump higher⊠but like not worth the risk.
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As a junior I rode at a local lesson barn that ran on a semester basis. You had to pay for the semester in advance and since we had no indoor, we had ground lessons on days where we couldnât ride. If you had to cancel the director did her best to reschedule but it wasnât guaranteed. There were four semesters, winter, spring, summer and fall, also a summer camp which was 4 days a week for 8 weeks.
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The barn I grew up at, used them 2-3 full hour lessons a day (never more than two hours back to back though). Maybe 4 if there was a school group during the day. They went 7 days a week, 48 weeks a year. They were mostly stocky ranch types or all purpose Arabians, and some lasted as lesson horses into their 30s and one was still a lead line therapy horse into his 40s. Unfortunately that type of all around stock horse just isnât that common any more (around here anyway).
We also had 9 students to a lesson, but now insurance limits to 6.
I am not saying it is better or worse, but it is definitely a change that affects profitability.
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I both do and donât agree with this.
I know so many local âup downâ people who do a terrible job of educating new riders such that if they move on to someone who actually knows what theyâre doing, they pretty much have to relearn how to ride from square one and being put in that position also makes a lot of people quit who mightâve stuck with it otherwise if they had a genuinely competent instructor. Itâs hard for me to respect them when their lack of self-awareness regarding their own skill set is putting their students in legitimate danger because they donât have a correct foundation.
On the flip side, there are people like my old barn owner, who absolutely do deserve all the respect in the world for the programs they run. My old barn ownerâs specialty really is people who are new to the sport (regardless of their age), and she makes sure to instill a legitimate foundation so that they can go off and do whatever they want in the broader sport even if itâs not with her (sheâs primarily H/J, an old student of hers is off running barrels now). She also doesnât begrudge anyone outgrowing her skill set and happily sets them up with her connections who can help them in the next phase of their riding careers. The first few years when she got started were a little rough but sheâs absolutely plugging along now and has IEA and IHSA teams to show for it too.
My trainer has huge respect for her because of how professional she is about the whole moving on thing on top of giving the kids the basic skills that they need, and also because she knows that she doesnât know everything and is always looking to further her own education, be it with my trainer or riding with whomever else she can slot in with. Because of all of that, all through our slow season (winter and early spring), those kids get a (usually) monthly visit from my trainer and get the privilege of riding with a 5* eventer for the equivalent cost of a couple of their normal lessons. If theyâre really serious about riding, down the line they then have an in with my trainer to move on to the âbig stuffâ once theyâve outgrown my old barn owner.
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This is unfortunately true, and way too common. I had two horses growing up who came out of severe situations like this, the first one being completely neglected to the point of starvation and overgrown hooves (they thought horse keeping was as simple as just turning the horse out to pasture with some water), and the second having severely foundered at a young age due to over-feeding. I saw other examples over the years from people I met with horses as well, and it never ended well, for the horses and often for the owners as well.
Any Watchung Stables graduates here? This was basically my intro into horseback riding- a county run, no frills lesson program that was much more affordable than any other barn in the area. Looking at their site now, it looks like âSpring Troopâ is $325 for a set of 12 (?) weekly hourly lessons. You show up (wearing a blue button down shirt and mustard yellow tie), grab your tacked up horse from its tie stall, pick out the correct length stirrups, and mount up. I think the horses were sourced from nearby auctions, so some were saints (Bishop) and some (looking at you Twopher) would dump you six times in a lesson. You would advance one level each semester, starting at walk trot (D4), and moving up the the âAâ levels where you might pop over a crossrail once in a while. The instruction was decent enough that I transitioned fairly easily into a different lesson program when I moved states. There was very little horsemanship to be learned unless you attended the summer camps, but it was an effective program that allowed a much wider range of incomes to participate.
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As someone who was a rerider in her late 30s, I agree with this 1,000%. Also, sometimes those types of instructors have a barn full of horses that just arenât suitable for lessonsâeither totally green or mentally and physically unsound, which, combined with bad instruction can actually end up making the rider quit or learn bad habits.
I agree with @McGurk that the ideal school horse is usually a 14h-15h grade unspookable horse with a flat jump and a flat canter who isnât dead to the leg, but a little lazy, who can live on air, go barefoot, and hack around a trail or the property with minimal drama. They do seem harder and harder to find, alas.
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I started at a similar barn. At a county park, donated horses, about 8 riders in a class. As you progressed you got to do a variety of things. My favorite was drill riding to music. Also cavaletti and maybe crossrails. The occasional trail ride. Saddle club on Saturday mornings was free and open to students. We got to do a variety of non-riding activities, free labor for them in exchange for learning and horse time for the kids. Junior Saddle Club, 12 and under, cleaned tack, swept the aisle, and other non-horse handling activities. We couldnât wait to move up to Teen Saddle Club where we got to groom and bathe horses and eventually learned to clip, braid, and even clean sheaths and wrap legs and other routine first aid. I remember a few sessions on lunging (one horse and 4 or 5 kids, we each got a 5 minute turn). We helped fix fence and raked the arena footing. Once you were 16 and had a driversâ license you could learn to drive the tractor and drag the arena. That was a huge thrill for me! After I was grown and gone they (the Saddle Club kids) built some trail obstacles and mini cross country jumps in one of the fields. There were usually about 15-20 kids there on any given Saturday. More in the summer, fewer in the winter. Although there was no official differentiation other than junior and teen, the die-hards were noticed and given extra opportunities and mentoring. It was a wonderful way to start out. That program produced about half a dozen future professionals from my era and even more die-hard lifetime amateurs. Some of us are still in touch, decades later.
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#5 is so overlooked
I am also of the âI will die on this hillâ mindset that lesson horses should be safe, sound, and enjoyable without needing to be drugged.
More and more, Iâm finding barns that are drugging horses to participate in lesson programs. Iâve personally ridden horses who, unbeknownst to me, were drugged at the time. I find this highly inappropriate, especially when going over fences.
I also know of a barn or two whose mentality is âthe lesson kids get what they get, and if they donât like it, they can buy their ownâ. Rather than being inclusive and finding lesson horses that are appropriate, they turn the blame onto the riders who arenât investing what they feel is enough money into the program. I strongly feel that these people shouldnât run lesson programs if they have that mentality.
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It depends on what the customer feels is appropriate.
Able to jump 3â?
Competitive at local shows?
Can take them foxhunting?
Iâve had students and their parents who expected that lesson horses should do and be these things, because these were the things that the students wanted to do.
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Correct, 2bayboys. I find that the students and parents expect a really easy experience. They are unable to ride a âfreshâ horse At All. So this is where Iâm struggling with the lesson horse situation. What they would like is a kind, perfectly trained school master. The economics of that are staggering even for a lower level horse. I have not been very successful buying greener animals and making them up for the school program. My better Owner riders are too busy to ride them regularly and if you teach lessons on them they develop bad habits. So they donât pay their way and I end up selling that horse. The best lesson horses are 15 plus years old but even those are really expensive!
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And then the 15+ year old schoolies are needing expensive maintenance, which they deserve, but it makes the economics even harder to balance.
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And if youâre a nice human, you commit to retiring your schoolies when theyâre done- another cost which has to factor in. It doesnât make a whole lot of sense to pay 15k for a 15 year old horse to teach $60-75 lessons on. They require a lot maintenance and they have a limited shelf life at that point.
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Respectfully, I disagree, depending on the level of the student. A student who is learning to canter shouldnât be put on a âfreshâ horse, and some students temperamentally will never be able to handle one. And thatâs okay. Not every horse is appropriate for every student. Itâs stressful for the horse as well as the kid, if a rider is hauling on the horseâs mouth because she was put on a horse that was too forward for her.
I realize the ideal lesson kid is the kid who comes in, guns blazing, wanting to jump on an OTTB and reschool ponies, but everyone has to start somewhere, and hopefully there is a place for timid or less coordinated students. In fact, one of the problems of hurrying students into the show ring is a lot of kids have holes in their skill sets from being hurried past their comfort zone.
Now clients who complain they canât jump high or the horses arenât fancy enough? Thatâs a whole 'nother issue. Then I agree, itâs totally justified to tell them to lease or buy that horse they want.
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