I wasn’t sure where to post as this isn’t discipline specific.
What are the pros and cons of boarding at a facility that requires you to be in training with the trainer? In practice - what happens during injury? What would happen if your horse had a career ending injury or was at the point of retirement? Are you forced to move?
This isn’t common in my area. So I’m curious how it plays out in practice.
Thanks!
Clearly it is facility specific, but in my experience the question about what happens during an injury is typically handled by the money you have paid for training/lessons is used for hand walking and bandage changes.
A career ending injury would likely cause you to be asked to take the horse elsewhere so the stall can be used by a person who wants to do training.
They might let you stay and pay for the training/lessons and not use them I suppose. Probably not, but they might.
It all depends on how the contract is written and how the barn owner wants their barn to be managed.
I would think this definitely varies, so ask your facility directly. At my barn we’re required one lesson a week. If I can’t do it (away traveling, injured, whatever), I can usually either double up the next week if possible or swap in a training ride instead. If horse can’t do it, I ride a schoolie instead.
Of course it’s facility specific. I was just hoping for some real life examples.
This facility is considering moving to this business plan, so there are no specifics. I’m trying to get a feel for what people think that have experienced it.
I have not experienced it personally as I don’t think I would like all the downfalls, but I know someone who is in this position. Her barn just changed over to this new policy as well. It has some pluses, especially if you are retired, but too many negatives if you ask me. Especially for the high cost.
Lessons run from M-F and you can go any time between 8-4pm. If you can’t make those days/times, you don’t get lessons. Horses are ridden by the trainer or trainers assistant every day from M-F. So your horse could be ridden 2 x day if you go up for a lesson.
If you don’t go to the show, your horse stays home and does not get ridden that week(s). Most people show so no big deal, but if your horse isn’t ready for a show and stays home, no training is done at this time. If your horse is injured, it is cared for and you can take lessons on their schoolies.
Your horse gets well trained while in their program, which is great for those greenies, but then takes a hit in the summer while they are away at shows (though this is short lived as eventually the green horse will be ready to show), but its so limited on everything else. Lots of people do this so it must work for them, but I would have a hard time making it work for me personally.
If your horse is permanently lame, they would ask you to leave. Short term is no problem as it did happen to someone I knew and they just took lessons for a few months on their school horses while their horse recouped and stayed there on stall board for no extra cost.
Most show barns near me - if a horse is injured they need to go to rehab. Barns need to make X amount per stall per month to make ends meet. I winter boarded at a training/lesson barn once and paid the lesson rate but didn’t take lessons. It was worth it to me to be at a nice facility for the winter and fair to the other boarders who had to pay for lessons and/or training.
This is going to vary wildly based on the program, of course.
Full-training programs will have a different approach than those that just require one lesson a week.
IME, a full training program will use the “training/lesson fees” portion of your monthly board towards any rehab labor they agree to take on, such as wrapping, hand walking, etc. But, they may not all agree to take on such rehab labor. The ones that do agree to provide rehab services, usually limit how long they’ll do so. I’ve seen mostly three to six months, some will go to a year. If the injury will require a longer time than that, they’ll recommend you go to an actual rehab facility. Some may be willing to hold your stall for a dry-stall fee. Most won’t hold the stall, period. If the injury is career ending, they’ll recommend you move to a retirement farm.
Programs that only require something like one lesson a month, it seems the COTH consensus (from other threads) is that they don’t let you use any monies paid towards training or lessons in another month, and they won’t discount you if you’re unable to take lessons. They may rehab the horse for you, at an additional cost. So, you can be okay with paying for unused lessons should an injury or something occur, or you can find somewhere else to go.
The ones that do not want to (or don’t have the capacity to) take on the rehab, will ask you to move the horse to a rehab facility. Same as above - some may be willing to hold your stall, more won’t.
I understand that this is a simpler business model. Personally, I don’t really like the idea of paying for services not received. I don’t board at training facilities that require any amount of training, I’m definitely none of these types of barn’s target demographic.
The demographics at this facility are not supportive of this type of plan IMO.
The barn is not a heavy show barn and is also not really set up to be. The facility is lacking in arena/footing. It’s mixed use and has some eventing, with an area to school XC. But there are a lot of people that do not do eventing. There is a wide range of horses at this barn including many seniors that are retired. The barn offers full care stall board and pasture board. So I’d estimate close to 40 horses. I don’t even know logistically how one trainer could handle that, even if it was a simple requirement of one lesson / month. Many of the owners work full time, daytime hours. This would apparently be applicable only to incoming boarders to start with. so that would limit the strain on the schedule. But it seems to me there would need to be more than one trainer over time. I don’t think the facility really supports this business plan. But since it’s really rare around here (seems to exist at some H/J barns) I’m just trying to grasp all the implications. Thanks for the replies!
Yeah, that’s seems weird, and a great way to create “bad blood.”
Susie comes in paying for training, finds out 40 other horses don’t have to. Susie wonders - Why does Susie have to?
IMO, they need to make it a full-barn change (which would obviously end up in losing some existing clients), or not do it at all.
If the facility is big enough to have a “retiree barn” and a “training barn,” I could see those two separate groups having different rules. I have seen that before.
Or saying that stall-boarded horses have a training requirement but not pasture-boarded. Have also seen that before.
But actively riding persons not having to pay for lessons, with other actively riding persons having to, doesn’t seem set up for success.
I require training at both of my facilities. However, the requirement is not that a horse be in “full” in training in the traditional sense. I do rehab myself so some horses are only getting hand walks or one lesson a week or nothing at all depending on their physical situation.
I think it depends on the barn’s motivation for requiring training as to how it will go for them. Happy to answer any other specific questions via PM.
Oh thats interesting that it would be for only new people coming in. That might make for bad blood for sure.
The barn that I know made the change to everyone. So it was a huge change for current boarders. Board went up over $500/month for full training on all horses. Even if they were season pros, they went into full 5 x week training plus they are ridden every time the owner comes up to ride as well. No if and or buts about it. You didn’t like it, there was the door.
I’ve been in two barns that required some degree of training (but never a barn that required “full” training).
Barn 1: Minimum dollar amount of services required per month (lessons, training rides, hand walk, etc). It was a fairly low dollar amount equally about 3 lessons or 4 training rides per month, but you could mix and match any way you wanted. There was some limited opportunity to lesson on other horses if yours was out of commission. Significant long term rehab it was expected that you went to a rehab or other facility. Horses who moved to retirement got a pass for 3-6 months as long as the fee was paid but were then encouraged to move to a retirement barn.
Barn 2: Minimum training commitment of 8 sessions (lessons/training rides) per month. Sessions that weren’t used were forfeited, however there was flexibility to receive lessons in groundwork, long lining, horsemanship skills, etc if riding wasn’t viable. Very limited opportunity to lesson on a different horse. However, no issues if you want to pay the training fee and not use services for a retiree. Trainers were not reliant on shows to make income so there was no pressure there. Long term rehab expected to relocate because the barn was not setup to allow extended stall rest or restricted turnout.
I should clarify that I don’t know that it would be full training. I’m expecting it would be a lesson requirement. There are very very few lessons horses - especially for adults. So that would pose issues if your horse wasn’t available.
The “bad blood” issue is legit I think. I could see that happening for sure.
If it ends up being a partial training thing like requiring one lesson a week, that’s pretty possible for one instructor even with 40 horses. That’s 40 hours per week with one-hour lessons, a typical work week. Less, if they let people do group lessons together.
Good luck, let us know how it turns out!
I suppose but when many people work that limits the number of horse people are available for lessons, I’d think. But maybe I’m over thinking. That would be bare minimum and I’m sure some people like more than one per week. Or potentially full training. The arena is tiny. So that limits as well.
For sure, daylight hours and availability is another story. I just meant, total work hours needed.
Like the poster above that said a barn they know of only offers the lessons 8a-4p M-F. Um that nixes like, all working adults and kids in school. So what they’re really doing is raising their board rate with the facade of lessons being included.
In my experience it’s always been flexible for clients who have a horse that is injured. There’s the assumption that the client will return to lessons/training when the horse recovers. But it’s probably going to depend on some of the specifics like how many stalls there are, what the trainer’s situation is, etc.
Same for retirements, actually, but in most cases I’ve experienced it’s not practical to retire a horse in a training barn - not enough turnout, pricey stalls, etc.
Training and lessons have been billed separately in every barn I’ve been in.
Before my husband and I bought our own facility, I was usually in farms that had some kind of training requirement. In my area, that’s the norm for facilities that have indoors (a must for about 6 months out of the year), travel to competitions, and have good footing, safe jumps, etc.
The fees I paid at these facilities were not just for training. They included things like bandage changes, medication administration, hand walking, etc. in the event of an injury. If you have a horse requiring multiple hand walks a day during layup, and you don’t live on or near property, that’s definitely a valuable service.
For me, the biggest trade off with facilities like this was access to turnout. Some barns had only a handful of paddocks, so horses got maybe 45 minutes outside all day. Others just didn’t believe in turnout at all. Many didn’t have the land to have enough paddocks because the farms had been sold off piecemeal to developers over the last decades. It was a real struggle to find programs that got the horses outside for a meaningful chunk of time in safe conditions.
Every program is different, and every boarding barn will have compromises. You have to decide what your priorities are, what you can sacrifice, and what is a trade offs you can live with.
Around me, the majority of the nicer facilities have some sort of lesson/training requirement.
Mostly I dont know the details. The once I know most about charges something like $300 per month on top of board and you can spend it on lessons or clipping, etc. Use it or lose it each month. Other barns that show hunters only take in horse/riders in full training so no basic board at all.
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