Pricing/structure of Horse Summer Camps and Clinics at your barn

[evelynthemare]

Currently in the process of writing my own business plan to open my own boarding facility one day. Have SO many questions, but I would be so thankful if I could get you guys’ input on two things:

How do you structure your summer camps? Mornings only? How many days? How much do you charge? Do you still have lessons during that week too? How many sessions do you do? Any input would be much appreciated.

What about holding clinics at your barn? How much do you charge the clients and how much do you charge the clinician for using your facility? Do you do one day or multiple days? Is it open to other barns or just yours? How do you make it worth not doing lessons that day? How often do you have clinics?

Any other input would be great on events and ways to make money and keep your boarders and lessoners happy throughout the year would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

[Ready_To_Riot]

I used to teach riding camps at the barn I worked for. We did 9am- 1pm because I had another job. Camp was $375 for the week and they rode once a day. The year before it was from 8-3 and they rode twice a day. It was $500. When they weren’t in the saddle they were learning horsemanship or doing crafts.

If you bring a clinician in, you don’t charge them anything. They charge you. Not sure if any money is actually made when hosting a clinic. I’ve never hosted one, so I’m not fit to answer the question completely. I just know that you don’t charge them. Lol

[clanter]

this was ten years ago but my daughter’s summer camp was 9AM to 3PM… there 16 students a week with eight each in a A or B session each day… one session rode the in the morning and other did book work they flipped in the afternoon

In the book room Classes they learned every part of the horse/tack/horse care.

She did this for several reasons, the kids knew what she was telling them to do with the horse as they knew the parts of the horse/tack, there was less stress on the horses and fewer head were needed to handle the number kids

Weekly sessions at the beginning were at $250 per week which was increased to $300. She earmarked some money for scholarships to offset costs for some worthy students or even full covered some others (this was her learning community responsibility)… this worked well for her as the offsets were she never needed to advertise as all sessions were full.

[kalidascope]

Mornings only? How many days? I do a range of sessions in the holidays - from half days to five whole (9am-4pm) days. Some sessions are limited by age group (e.g. 5-7 years).

How much do you charge? $60-$500.

Do you still have lessons during that week too? I try not to but the occasional one still sneaks in.

How many sessions do you do? Every weekday. I have weekends off during the holidays.

Any other input would be great on events and ways to make money and keep your boarders and lessoners happy throughout the year would be much appreciated. Our five-day courses have a mini horse show at the end, which is very popular and gives a lot of direct purpose to what the riders learn during the week.

[poltroon]

Something to realize when structuring day camps is that even though the prime attraction may be horsemanship, for most families, they will also be day care. Thus, there’s some demand during any school holiday and you want to set up your hours to be compatible with parents dropping off and picking up. Lots of day camps will let you do half day (morning only) or full day. You’ll want at least one if not two assistants around to help.

You can also do in-barn fun days like gymkhanas and mini horse shows and games and costumes as a way to build barn cohesion and make money.

Clinics are not usually a moneymaker for the facility, unless maybe you are offering something special like a cross-country course. Getting the clinician in is expensive enough. The benefit to you for hosting one is:

• your own personal learning
• a fringe benefit/opportunity to your students and clients to access world class instruction at home
• a bit of an open house so that other people who come to ride or audit get to see your facility.

Unless you have zoning/CUP restrictions, it’s typical for in-barn clients to have first priority at slots but then to allow outside people to come in to spread the cost over more people. Other clinics are set at regular intervals, like monthly, and organizers give priority to people who are consistent about attending. There isn’t only one way to do it.

[Timex]

[QUOTE=evelynthemare;8476428]
Currently in the process of writing my own business plan to open my own boarding facility one day. Have SO many questions, but I would be so thankful if I could get you guys’ input on two things:

How do you structure your summer camps? Mornings only? How many days? 9-5, M-F.

How much do you charge?
last year was $300/kid

Do you still have lessons during that week too?
before and after camp, not during the camp day though

How many sessions do you do?
only 2 weeks during the summer, I have enough students that ride during the day that I actually LOSE money doing camp weeks, but my students enjoy it, so…

Any input would be much appreciated.

What about holding clinics at your barn? How much do you charge the clients and how much do you charge the clinician for using your facility?
clinicians don’t get charged. they charge YOU, and you make your profit by charging riders an extra $x on top of the clinician’s fee, should you decide to.

Do you do one day or multiple days? Is it open to other barns or just yours?
depends on the clinician and the numbers of riders interested. I keep clinics open to riders from other barns, as we’re a smaller barn, allowing outside riders can allow us to get more and different clinicians.

How do you make it worth not doing lessons that day?
see above re: charging riders

How often do you have clinics?
well, my dressage trainer comes up every 6-8 weeks (mar-dec, we let him take the winter off. ) to teach, and then clinics are generally scheduled around the local schooling show series that is popular with my lesson students, so, besides my dressage trainer, we generally either hold or attend 3-4 clinics each year. I try to space things out to allow folks to budget accordingly.

Any other input would be great on events and ways to make money and keep your boarders and lessoners happy throughout the year would be much appreciated.

Thanks![/QUOTE]

you will also want to keep in mind what sort of niche you want to fill. for example, there is a barn literally around the corner from me that could be considered ‘competition’. we both do training/lessons/boarding, but she does mostly stall board, most of my clients do pasture board. she does a lot of kid’s group lessons, I do almost exclusively private lessons, and have a lot more adults. and when we end up at the same shows, we are all friends, help each other’s students out, and our kids, who go to the same schools, all get along really well, and we both have successful businesses. which we wouldn’t, if we didn’t realize our differences, and how we offer different things to different people.

[ElementFarm]

the one I worked at, granted this was 20 years ago…

Camp was 0900-1600. usually 15-16 kids, split into three groups according to experience level. Each group rode as a regular lesson in the morning, and in the afternoon was another riding/horse session, but instead of a lesson, they’d take turns on the luge riding with no hands or stirrups, or taking turns riding a smooth, slow pony bareback, or taking turns driving, or we’d do a trail ride. In between horse riding, they learned things like leg wrapping, tack cleaning, working with young horses, and we also did arts and craft activities (painting/decorating horse shoes etc). There was a pool, so at 1500, after the last horse activity, the kids had to clean up the barn, and then they could swim until their parents picked them up. Usually the last day of camp was a little “show” where they’d compete in front of their parents, and also do a drill team or exhibition thing.
Sessions were either one week or two, M-F, and I don’t remember how much they cost.
Regular lessons ran during camp, in a different ring, or after camp hours. When the camps were full, the BO had 3-4 full-time instructors to do camp plus regular lessons.

[yellowbritches]

Regarding clinics, yes, typically, you contract with the clinician and pay them/their expenses, then charge the participants. It is then usually up to the host (you) to fill it. Most clinicians have some requirements over group sizes, length of sessions, etc.

You can RENT your facilities to others to host clinics. In that case, you would charge a flat fee for the use of whatever facilities you agreed upon, and they do the rest.

I have done both and I would say I would rather host clinics than rent out my facilities. Clinics are hard work for minimal cash benefit, but even boarders and students who don’t participate usually enjoy the experience, and they have often brought in some amount of business afterwards. Renting out facilities usually leads to grumpy clients (what do you mean we can’t use X this weekend?) and often leaves you dealing with weirdos.

[NancyM]

I don’t do camps.

Clinics, it really depends on who you get to come to give the clinics, and the purpose of the clinics. Here, I am remote, and English disciplines are not popular. (Western clinics and barrel racing clinics are run at other facilities, and I hear that the main advice involves a tighter tie down, bigger spurs, bigger bit, and the clinician yelling “Hit him, hit him”). I need to run my clinics for my OWN use, to get skilled and helpful eyes onto me and my horses every now and again, and as schooling for my green ones and advancement for my competitive horses. Otherwise, I just ride alone and bad habits grow. The clinics are also just a public service for the local riders who are interested, in a generalized push to advance the sport, and educate those who have not ever heard of “free forward motion” and “a soft hand and balanced seat”, whether they ride English or western. So the clinician I bring in does not charge me, and I do not charge him for use of the facility. Instead, we work together, I do the organizing and promotion, and IF we get enough entries to make it worth his while to make the trip and give us 2 or 3 days of his time, the clinic runs, and we all benefit. I ride for free, as many times as I can fit myself into the lessons throughout the days and not die of exhaustion. We feed and care for the clinician at our farm. We make it an enjoyable experience for everyone, a social event, cheering for a good ride. Everyone helps each other prepare for their lessons. Jump crew and poop scooping crew is recruited from the audience. There is no auditing fee. Many people stay and watch other lessons other than their own. Lessons range from kids/beginner/recreational to advanced h/j/e riders. The clinician makes valuable contacts with members of the equine community in our area that he would not otherwise meet. This way, we keep the cost of the clinic to a minimum, which encourages more participation and general advancement of equine skills among the local population. The fee is the same as for a regular riding lesson charged at his home barn, $50. Two day clinic is $100, 3 day $150. If people need overnight accommodation for their horses here, I can do that and the fee is $10 per night. You must find exactly the RIGHT clinician to do this for you, one that HAS the skill and experience, has a good way with people, but is not a well known international superstar. Rare, but this one fills this bill for us.

I tried another clinician once… got no further than being asked to advance his $4000 fee for the weekend. Um, nope, not in this reality.

[Mango20]

If you’re catering to kids whose parents both work, you’ll want to make your camp all day. Usually, that’s 9:00-3:00, with extended care offered before, after, or both, for an additional fee. As a single parent, my son has missed out on some summer camp opportunities because they were only offered for 1/2 day (non-riding camps). For him to go to camp from 9-12, I’d have to take the whole day off work, and what’s the point of taking a day/week off if I’m just going to send him off somewhere?

[toxicity]

The camp I worked at ran from 9:00-4:00 and had an extended care option (drop off as early as 8 and pick up as late as 5) for $10/hour/kid. It cost $350/wk and there was a camp every single week of summer. The barn had two rings so boarders could still ride and have lessons while camp used another ring.

We had 40 kids per session split into 5 groups each with a lead counselor over 18 y/o. Younger volunteers helped throughout the day catching/tacking horses, helping kids get on, leading younger groups, etc. so that the adult counselors could be with the campers at all times. There was also a camp director who would be on site during camp who was in charge of all the applications, being the contact person for parents, making schedules, ordering supplies, etc., a dedicated riding instructor, and certified lifeguard. Adult supervision is something that lacks at many camps so be sure you have enough help to do a camp correctly and safely.

Campers rode once a day for an hour, had two 30 min sessions for tacking/untacking, did a barn lesson, swam for an hour, arts and crafts, and game time. The camp was really more of a day care type camp than a horsemanship camp, but the kids did learn about horses, topics varying by age and experience. The schedule had to be run to perfection for everything to run smoothly (the schedule was really a work of art, very impressive). Friday’s riding time was a “show” for the parents to come watch. The kids warmed up and then did a pattern one at a time, had their name announced when they came in, and then given awards for things like “most improved”, “best attitude”, “best two-point”.

The barn is in a prime location for working parents to drop off and pick up their kids; most weeks of camp would be full by spring break. Truly an impressive business, I learned a lot just being a counselor. A lot of campers become lesson students afterwards so it’s a good marketing tool. Some barns will discount their camps for boarders and lesson students too.