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Pricing on lessons

I recently asked my coach when she was going to charge more (inflation and all) and she told me she raised the boarders already, but for those of us who haul-in she wasn’t raising ours because we already were taking a bite with gas prices. I decided on the way home last week to go ahead and raise her myself. So i’ll be adding another maybe 10/lesson on Thurs.

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same here (Northern VA)

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Don’t waste your time or the horse’s legs with “casual help sessions”.

Either teach a real lesson and get at least that level of commitment from the barrel racer, or staying home on the sofa with a Netflix would be a better use of your friend’s time.

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If she isn’t doing it for the money, and isn’t sure she even knows the needs of the sport, she might want to just do some friendly help sessions for no charge (or gas money) to see if this is something she wants to do/can do, before worrying about insurance and such. Barrel racer will likely be teaching dressage rider as much as the other way around the first few rides.

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That’s nuts. I don’t know a single BNT here who charges more to the pros they teach than they do to amateurs. I’m talking Olympians here when I say BNT.

Maybe that’s how it works in Morganland but in my experience that’s not at all how it works in Dressageland. If anything, it’s the opposite. Teaching people like me is way harder, and more tedious and soul-sucking with little payoff for the trainer. Teaching a talented pro, on the other hand, can enhance the trainer’s reputation when that pro gets great results at big shows, makes teams, etc.

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Re: insurance.

This is a huge issue for non full time instructors. I was quoted $800 a year for insurance, but I might only teach 10 hours a month some months. There’s not way I can charge a going rate ($50. to $60) and cover the cost of the insurance. Adding a portion of the premium to the lesson fee would price me out of the market.

My solution is to only teach out of a friend’s barn where I’m covered under her farm’s liability policy. I make a little less money, but I’m still better off than trying to pay for a stand alone insurance when I’m not doing this full time.

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I’m not familiar enough with barrel racing to know if the trainer is usually the rider, but in any case where there is big prize money (horse racing, elite show jumpers) and the owner is not the rider, then the rider/trainer (or both if different) would get a cut of the winnings, 10% each typically.

Now if they are coaching a rider on their own horse and they get a cut of the winnings that would be different than I’d expect.