What do you pay for a lesson on a lesson horse?
Please indicate if lesson is private or group.
Please indicate horse’s specialty, i.e. beginner lesson horse or show horse.
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I just increased my lesson horse use fee. I want my lesson horses to be well cared for and to work smarter, not harder!
Thank you!
The barn where I used to ride is $65 for a group lesson on your basic school horse. A bigger-name barn I know the rates for is $85 for a group lesson; they have a mix of schoolies and show-appropriate horses. Both are in Zone 3.
I’m in New England.
Most recently, I was paying for 30 to 45 minute dressage lessons with an assistant trainer using school horses, $85.
Another barn I rode at during the spring was $75 for a one hour group lesson on a school horse, max group size was 4 but mine was usually 2.
N = 1
Private one hour on a schoolie, $75, PNW
I paid 55.00 on a safe but older school master type for 30-40 minutes. Semi private lesson. Focus was on no stirrup work and my position. Paid weekly.
I also paid 85.00 on a younger dressage horse with more “buttons” that was for a 30 minute private lesson. Paid per lesson.
For my kids. I pay 80.00 for 1 hour weekly w/t group lesson and that’s with a small discount as I supervise getting horses ready for the group. Stuck with a monthly plan which I hate.
Not sure if you’re looking at a particular type of lesson, but I take private lessons at a western/all arounder kind of barn and it’s $50 a lesson. This is in the southeast (not Florida).
Edit:that’s 1 hour
Where I board, all lessons are the same rate. Private, group, lesson horse, personal horse. All ~1 hour (sometimes quit early to end on a high note). $45. Western PA.
ETA: discipline is hunters.
NC.
My lesson stable charges $45.00 for a hour long group lesson on a school horse. Private lessons are $55.00 an hour on a school horse. They have a discount for boarders (riding their own horse I presume.)
Due to my MS I do 30 minute private lessons on a school horse. I pay $30.00 and my riding teacher catches, grooms and tacks up the horse with a little bit of help from me. She does this just to help me because every single other student who has ridden there for a while is expected to do all the pre-lesson work themselves. She prefers that I have enough energy to do more than a slow walk for 30 miinutes.
I have been riding there for 12 or 15 years (bad memory). During that time I keep an eye on her payment chart and when she goes up for the regular students I voluntarily pay more when I finally can pay for it (I clear this with my instructor.)
Since my riding instructor is the best riding teacher I have run into in over 53 years of riding seriously I am utterly amazed that I pay so little. I often tell her that she is worth every penny and that she could legitimately charge more. This is because I have had lessons from riding instructors that leave me thinking silently “WHY am I paying you to teach me?” like the teacher that told me she could not teach me any more about riding on the flat because I was pretty good doing it, like 30+ years ago long before I learned (from a book) how to time my aids to get the best from the horse.
My lesson horses are usually elderly (since I am not galloping or jumping), often abandoned by their owners at her stable, with gaping holes in their training deeper than the Grand Canyon. I have become MUCH BETTER at effectively schooling a horse since I started riding with her. Quite a few of our lessons end up being seminars at a grad school level, deep into theory, illustrating the theory in real life, with the horses improving from my riding them in my lessons.
I LOVE my riding teacher!!!
$195. Private on a schoolmaster. Wellington, FL. Everything horse-related is ridiculously expensive here.
Maryland, but in a more rural area with lots of farms
Barn A: $50 for a 45 min group lesson or $65 for a 45min private on basic lesson horses
Barn B: $75 for a 60 min private (often longer) on a show horse
Neither give discounts for lessons on your own horse, but both give small discounts for buying a block of lessons at once.
SE PA
$55 for a group lesson (up to 5 riders in the group, runs roughly an hour, sometimes a bit shorter if the group is small). Same price for a private, but then it’s 30 minutes. There are also several bigger name outside trainers who come in on a regular basis and run from $95-150/lesson. Deduct $10 from all of the prices if on your own horse instead of a schoolie. There are a variety of school horses from super beginner safe to more advanced. Barn does a little bit of everything in the eventing/dressage/HJ spectrum.
Massachusetts.
Most recently paid $100 per 45-60 min private lesson on low level dressage schoolmaster. Had to pay monthly in advance, so was lease-like. Had to give 30 days notice to end.
Before that, $85 per 60 min private dressage lesson.
Northeastern MD-- $75 for an hour private, the instructor is an UL eventer and the horse is a very nice lesson horse and a solid citizen local show type (had done some low level jumpers and CTs mostly at home, has more recently done some unrecognized events and schooling first level dressage shows with me). I am allowed to also hack/flat once a week for no additional charge currently in exchange for occasionally helping with lessons/shows. It’s both the outer limit of what I can afford expense- wise and and an extremely sweet deal I have been lucky to find.
When I had my own horse I paid $75 for a half an hour private lesson with a 5* eventer (plus a ring fee).
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