I’d love some input on an idea I’ve been toying with for several years. Good, bad, and everything in between.
I live on a small farmette of 7.5 acres with a nice barn that originally had 8 stalls but has been converted to two double-sized stalls on one side and a large loafing shed type set-up on the other side that allows horses to come and go into my largest pasture. I have a good 100 X 150 ft. area where I would like at the least all-weather footing and ideally all-weather footing plus a covered so that weather would not affect lessons (heat and rain are our only real threats here in eastern NC.
I am a high school English teacher, and occasionally I fantasize about early retirement from the classroom to pursue my dream of starting my own riding school here on the farm. I’ve got 27 years experience with horses (including hunters, eventing, dressage, and AQHA breed shows), and have given beginner lessons on occasion over the years. I have taught school for 13 years, which I do think of as an asset. Teaching is teaching.
My idea is to have no more than 4 horses on the property at a time, ideally all useful lesson horses (the three I have right now would be good, 2 retired show horses, one current show horse, all quiet, easy-going, well-trained geldings). I am not interested in expanding to boarding, training, showing, buying/selling, etc. I would teach basic horsemanship/care/management as well as a good foundation of riding (I’ve seen the term “balance seat” used) that would involve basic equitation and dressage. I have some jumps, so I could incorporate that if I had a horse that would jump (my current trio has no interest, LOL). I also have access to some trails right off my property, so there would be opportunities to take students out on hacks down the farm paths and into the woods nearby.
Here are my questions.
What is the best way to go about obtaining affordable saddles? I’m thinking all-purpose saddles would be best, but how many different saddles would I need? I’m guessing I need a variety of sizes to fit a variety of students.
What about helmets? As best I can remember way back when I started riding, there was a helmet I could borrow, but my parents were advised to purchase one for me ASAP. I’d like to have some on hand for new students, but again, I’d need a variety of sizes I guess.
What minimum age should students be? 8? 10? I’m not interested in offering a babysitting/pony ride service for extremely young children.
What is a ballpark figure of what I should charge?
What would YOU want to see included in a lesson package at a riding school for your child or yourself?
Insurance may nix that, other than a large enough riding center to carry enough students and activity to pay those higher premiums.
I would drive around where you live and see what other is offered to the public, summer horse camps, trail riding outfits and riding centers that put on shows.
Once you know what people like in your area, what your market may be and figure how to accommodate it, why not give it a try?
With only 4 horses, it won’t cost you too much to see where your program goes.
There are several people around here that have horses and train for the public and give lessons here and there to mostly kids, that complement that with other part time jobs, like barn and baby sitting or commercial jobs, to make ends meet.
Without diversifying, just lessons and no boarders, sales, training and taking clients to shows, or offering trail riding to the public, it will be a little harder to sell yourself, but maybe as a starter barn for a few clients you can get started.
Don’t know if that will pay for setting up and your time, have to try to see what happens.
I don’t see why you could not start with the horses you have now, a few lessons a week, maybe in the weekends, while you are teaching also and see how it goes and you like it?
Agree with maybedog above, but if that all works out…
What is the best way to go about obtaining affordable saddles?
I would go with synthetic saddles (thorowgood, wintec) with changeable gullets so that you don’t have to go too crazy. You can often find them for cheap on kijiji/craigslist/tack classifieds. If they’re synthetic, the students can abuse them a little and they wont be ruined.
What about helmets?
Some smaller establishments require you bring your own helmet. You can always buy those cheapie Troxels in a few different sizes, to have on hand. I believe there are some around the $50 mark.
What minimum age should students be?
I’d go with 10. They have the strength to ride and aren’t just going to be a babysitting lesson.
What is a ballpark figure of what I should charge?
To make it worth while, I’d charge $35-40 for a group, $50 for semi-private and $60 for private. Make them all 1 hour.
What would YOU want to see included in a lesson package at a riding school for your child or yourself?
“Intro To Horses” aka Level 1. You could do 10 lesson sessions over ten weeks, first few lessons working on grooming, tacking etc and working up to walk/trot by the end. Go on from there Level 2, Level 3 etc. You could also do mom/child classes.
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She used our horses (which we leased to her), a few had been shown extensively others had been training mounts for our kids
Advertised locally and by word of mouth… had full sessions after the second month …was even highlighted by local news paper as “fun things to do during the summer” …second/third years she had clients come back from out of state
We were surprised at the response and this was not a baby setting service…these kids after a week could tell you the differences between a paint and a pinto, id horse colors at a glance and learned riding from the ground up starting with safety… many continued riding long after our daughter stopped the classes
Since you will only have 4 horses available, sit down and figure how many lessons a day/week each horse can reasonably do. Write down all the expenses you think there would be for those 4 horses each month, feed/hay, vet, farrier, supplements, shavings etc. then factor the expenses incurred by the barn, repairs, electricity, and of course insurance. Once you see what the monthly costs will be then, look at the recommended prices to charge for lessons and see how you fair.
[QUOTE=Chall;8066995]
Clanter, how lon, heck even breeding! I’ve dabbled in all of it at other people’s farms, but I’m not sure what I would want to do with this place. I’ve been here 15 years and except for the occasional boarder (as favors for friends) here and there and a couple lessons (again, for friends’ kids) here and there, I’ve never attempted to run a business out of the place.
I feel like there has to be SOMETHING I can do here to at least off-set the costs of keeping my own horses? Or am I dreaming? By the time I qualify for early retirement, my mortgage will be paid off, my truck will be paid off, and other than one credit card that I’m trying to pay down (and isn’t too terribly much anyway), I have no other debts. I have no kids either, so my money is spent on me and my critters. I’d also be substitute teaching to earn some extra income.
Is the liability insurance really going to be so much that it wouldn’t be worth it?
Why not trying doing something not horse related, raising chickens organically and selling the eggs at farmers market, sewing quilts or horse show outfits. Make painted, jeweled horse tack - have you seen what that stuff sells for or painted western hats. Pretty sure anyone and everyone that has horses realizes at some point there isn’t much money to be made with them. You need to find an alternative source of income to support them.
Clanter points out she was in the middle of a very large population center. Is there enough population within, say, a 40 min drive of you with enough discretionary income left at the end of the month to pay for a lesson program?
Clanter also mentioned that was done over the summer? So would the program still be bringing in that amount of cash flow during the other nine months when school is in session?
Clanter - How much was she charging and how many students did she have to clear $10,000 after expenses in just 3 months?
Start writing a business plan & see where that takes you. There’s no reason you can’t give some lessons to keep you busy and offset some of the horses’ expenses, but you’ll want to know if you can actually run it as a profitable business.
[QUOTE=RhythmNCruise;8066877]
I live on a small farmette of 7.5 acres with a nice barn that originally had 8 stalls but has been converted to two double-sized stalls on one side and a large loafing shed type set-up on the other side that allows horses to come and go into my largest pasture.[/QUOTE]
Great size of farm IMO - enough for several horses and space to ride, but not a vast area to mow/harrow/fertilise/maintain. Would you leave your barn as-is, or convert it back to stalls/tie ups so riders have somewhere safe undercover to handle, groom and tack the horses?
A good size arena, though getting that width covered in clearspan is very expensive (six figures). Even getting 60’ clearspan is very costly. Unlikely that it would pay for itself via a lesson program, but if you have the funds to do it and additional motivation (e.g. want to be able to ride in it yourself) then that’s great.
You sound like you have an ideal background, and proper teaching technique is a big part of teaching beginners well, creating well thought out lessons and tracking progress. Teaching riders in a riding school is much nicer than teaching high school (in my experience) because almost all of your riders are absolutely delighted to be there and want to learn everything you can teach them.
Sounds ideal. You can just about be full-time busy with that number of horses if they are happy to do two lessons a day on work days.
Yes, AP is best. How similar are your horses? Are you wanting to teach group lessons? You might be able to get a couple of small saddles to use for your smallest riders, but if you are doing groups of young children you do need small saddles for each of them. 16-17" works in a pinch (or initially) but they do so much better in a saddle that fits. I have 13.5"-14.5" saddles for my 4-7yos, 16.5" for 7-14ish (depending on child size) and 17.5/18" for teens and adults. I don’t have one of each for each horse (I wish!), but we can make most groups work with saddles that can be used on different horses with or without pads etc.
Get in the habit of scouting eBay or craigslist or wherever your second-hand saddles are listed so you can snap up any bargains as they come along.
I have found the adjustable dial ones quite useful. Get a S/M/L in two different brands/shapes and you should be fine, and can top-up with with extra in whatever you find is the most popular size once you’re up and running. Wait for a sale or special, or ask for a bulk purchase discount.
I do 30- and 45-minute lessons for my 5-7yos. There are a lot of keen kids at that age, and for my business I think it’s good to capture them now, but there are plenty of places that start older and that’s fine if that’s your preference. I think 8 is a good age; many 8 yos can become quite capable and independent. I think 10 is making them wait too long and you might find the go to and stay with other riding schools who will let them start sooner.
This is the formula I use: (teaching time + horse prep time) x [whatever your time is worth], + [arena hire] + [horse upkeep].
The horse upkeep portion covers my time doing day-to-day care for the horses, their feed, farm maintenance etc. I worked out approx how much it cost to run and maintain the farm each year, divided that per horse per lesson (average how many lessons each horse might give in a week), and added a bit for my time. It works out around $5 per horse per lesson for me.
I pay to use an arena currently, so this is a direct cost to me, but you’ll want to calculate how much you need to spend on maintaining your arena so that this is covered in your fees.
You can tweak what your time is worth, but I think it’s important to have a dollar figure on that because using that formula will tell you immediately whether it is worthwhile doing it for that price. It might be ‘nice’ to charge $20 for a lesson, but it’s certainly not worth your while and you will lose money and feel burnt out (lots of work for no return) after doing it for a while. This is a professional job requiring a large skillset, so I try to keep my hourly return at $25-35 before tax.
I have a spreadsheet set up so I can plug in different numbers for private and group lessons and see the effect immediately - has really helped my decision making.
Safety, a structured program, varied but systematic (everything ties in but different activities/exercises for the riders to try), good ponies, a warm and patient coach, teaching solid foundations that allow the riders to go forth competently into a variety of areas.
I started doing mostly private lessons, and have got to the point where I have so many ponies and riders I have (and want) to start group lessons in order to fit everyone in. But starting with private lessons let me get to know the riders really well and to bring them up to a level where they will get a lot from group lessons.
If you just want to make side money, you can probably be successful. If you are trying to make pay-your-expenses money, four horses is not going to be enough. Your students will need more different choices in order to advance, and saturdays especially tend to be busy. You need to be able to give a horse a day off due to lameness, etc.
Once you get them started, kids thrive best in small group lessons. The social aspect is part of what keeps them coming back.
“Summer camp” programs can work well too, whether they are day camp or overnight.
Used saddles are generally pretty easy to come by. Some places choose to have helmets available and at other places it’s always bring your own.
[QUOTE=js;8067327]
Clanter also mentioned that was done over the summer? So would the program still be bringing in that amount of cash flow during the other nine months when school is in session?
Clanter - How much was she charging and how many students did she have to clear $10,000 after expenses in just 3 months?[/QUOTE]
She was charging $250 a week per student, max of about 12 students per week. Half were with the horses in the morning while other half had course work, they switch in the afternoon.
The ones that came from out of state we housed here at home so there was about $100 to $150 board per week. She only had four or five sessions a summer. There were a couple of winter sessions also.
We are as said in the middle of the city on a hair over five acres, a $2B mall is less than 3/4 mile away (we have ridden the horses to the mall to Christmas shop as you couldn’t get there by car)… we can see downtown Ft Worth, the Cowboys Stadium in Arlington and if you know where to look can see downtown Dallas… but just in our area (five or six miles) there are over 500,000 people.
Her course outline is still used by a training barn in Oklahoma
Expenses were minimal as all but one of the horses were ours; she had a school friend working with her.
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