Thinking of Starting a Riding School

[CHT]

Clanter, I am guessing you didn’t have the expense of liability insurance? Even back then I am thinking insurance would have required an Adult (18 or older) to teach.

I do think though, that her plan of doing both theory and riding classes would be a good way for the OP to increase how much she can teach with only 4 horses.

Adults might be a good target market: people that just want to ride weekly/casually and that don’t have the goal of one day having their own horse.

I agree on the synthetic saddles, although I mostly bought used leather saddles off ebay or from local tack shops. I had a mixed variety of close contact and all purpose saddles. (I do not recommend the Wintec AP). By sticking to mostly adults, you don’t need as many saddle sizes.

[roseymare]

Insurance varies a great deal by state.

[nashfad]

Check with Jarvis for your commercial liability ins. Not that expensive. Fit your saddle to your horse then worry about it fitting the student. Both do-able but horse most important. Remember it is all about the horse.

[nashfad]

Check with Jarvis for your commercial liability ins. Not that expensive. Fit your saddle to your horse then worry about it fitting the student. Both do-able but horse most important. Remember it is all about the horse.

[Chall]

[QUOTE=mroades;8067186]
I would say that would have been possible pre-2008
Now…almost no way to charge enough to make it worthwhile[/QUOTE]

Sometimes I think the recession only hit certain people, I notice it but others seem to be unaffected.

[LauraKY]

Have a good long talk with your insurance agent about providing loaner helmets. I’ll bet he/she talks you out of it. Kids should come prepared with a well fitting helmet and shoes with a heel.

[rugbygirl]

Teach if you genuinely want to teach and really enjoy dealing with difficult people.

So many people become equestrian “professionals” because they are sure that they can make horses pay, somehow. That’s not a good reason to do something, especially something that can impact kids in a big way. People in it for money are the ones who end up on COTH and Facebook bemoaning the state of riding and humanity in general. Those instructors aren’t fun, or effective.

You want to make your farmette pay? Do RV/equipment storage. Passionately want to share the gift of riding education and have a limitless supply of patience and a cheerful outlook on life? Open a riding school.

[RhythmNCruise]

[QUOTE=rugbygirl;8068650]
Teach if you genuinely want to teach and really enjoy dealing with difficult people.

So many people become equestrian “professionals” because they are sure that they can make horses pay, somehow. That’s not a good reason to do something, especially something that can impact kids in a big way. People in it for money are the ones who end up on COTH and Facebook bemoaning the state of riding and humanity in general. Those instructors aren’t fun, or effective.

You want to make your farmette pay? Do RV/equipment storage. Passionately want to share the gift of riding education and have a limitless supply of patience and a cheerful outlook on life? Open a riding school.[/QUOTE]
I did mention I teach high school freshmen, right? LOL. Dealing with difficult people is pretty much my life from 8:30am until 3:30pm. And I’m a very passionate teacher, even though the struggle is motivating students in a class (English) they all HAVE to take and the majority of them dread. Even so, I am often told I’m their “favorite teacher”, and when they leave my class they inevitably return saying how much they miss me and the class.

I was pretty much born to be a teacher. That doesn’t mean I’m all sunshine and rainbows while at work. It’s a stressful job, and thank goodness for long vacations or I’d be fit for the asylum! LOL!

The reason I haven’t taught riding lessons much so far is because after a day of teaching 60-70 15 year olds, the last thing I want to do is rush home so I can teach for another couple of hours. It’s “me” time when I get home.

I’m thinking when I retire though, I might enjoy teaching lessons.

Ah, well. You guys have given me a lot to think about. Thanks for all the replies and any that are yet to come.

[rugbygirl]

The “me” time is why I have never felt any urge to turn horses into something financially viable. Also why my husband keeps his mechanic/shop work confined to his own projects. We love those activities, and never want them to become "a job. "

Some people can do it, and I totally respect and appreciate them…many of the best people I’ve learned from work/play/sleep and breathe horses, and their passion is unflagging. It’s definitely worth taking a while to mull over which category you fit into. Sounds like you are planning to do that, so that’s good.

[kdow]

[QUOTE=LauraKY;8067781]
Have a good long talk with your insurance agent about providing loaner helmets. I’ll bet he/she talks you out of it. Kids should come prepared with a well fitting helmet and shoes with a heel.[/QUOTE]

No loaner helmets is going to immediately limit the population of potential students, though. It sounds like this would be really aimed at very new newbies, and those are the people who are least likely to want to drop $50+ on a helmet they may only end up using once or twice, if they decide riding is not for them. It’s not like there’s a helmet resale market, so then they’re stuck with the thing - which means that you’re going to end up with a lot of people either not doing it, or trying to argue their way into being allowed to ride in an unsuitable helmet from another sport.

For sure talk to insurance first and make sure you understand all the ins and outs, but for absolute beginners I think having helmets if it can be done sensibly with insurance is the way to go, especially if many are likely to be kids. (Kids change interests enough that parents get leery of buying specialist equipment right away because then you just end up with stuff sitting in your garage/closet/attic.) Also, if you are going to provide helmets for the absolute newbies (I’d still expect someone who was definitely taking lessons regularly to get their own eventually) make sure to budget for replacing them. They will get dropped, fallen in, and otherwise just used and abused, so you plain and simple will have to replace them every so often. In interests of safety, I’d probably just budget on replacing them all every X months/years no matter what condition they were in, to allow for the fact that they will be used by people who may not be as careful as one would like with them, and something might have happened that you aren’t aware of.

[IronwoodFarm]

[QUOTE=LauraKY;8067781]
Have a good long talk with your insurance agent about providing loaner helmets. I’ll bet he/she talks you out of it. Kids should come prepared with a well fitting helmet and shoes with a heel.[/QUOTE]

As kdow says, this requirement will ruin a program. We teach a beginner program and have no problem offering loaner helmets under our insurance policy. Some kids do come with helmets – sometimes it’s Mom’s old velvet helmet from the 90’s that falls over their eyes or bike helmets. Maybe 1 in 8 has their own riding helmet. Nobody rides without a helmet at my place, so I make sure we have a selection to fit them. Dial-a-fits are your friend. And yes, I look for sales and replace helmets regularly.

Don’t get me started on shoes. I require hard sole shoes with a heel. I still get sneakers. I also get an array of fashion boots, snow boots and loafers. I consider myself lucky if they get the kid some cowboy boots.

We teach a max of 4 in a class and find that workable. We teach because we want kids to get exposed to horses. Most of them don’t go much further than posting the trot, but that’s fine.

[poltroon]

Lots of places have loaner helmets, IME.

[fordtraktor]

Loaner helmets are fine, IMO. As an instructor, make it part of your routine to check girths, stirrups, bridles and helmets before you start to teach every time, every ride, for everybody. Make it a habit and you can save yourself and your kids a potential serious accident. It takes about 15 seconds per rider (once they are at the point where they tack up themselves) and should be like second nature when you run a beginner program. when I taught, I did that and gave the horse a pat while chatting with the kids about the agenda for the day’s lesson.

[CaitlinandTheBay]

Are there any private schools in town? You might speak with them about setting up an alternative PE option. You could contract directly with the school ( school pays X per semester for you to coach Y hours) and then let them figure out if they want to charge parents extra for it.

Also, nobody has mentioned this, but you should consider picking up some sidepulls for the horses (provided they’ll listen to them). Beginner lessons can be hard on horses and sidepulls can at least save their mouths. Once a child has learned not to hang on the reins reliably, they can graduate to a bit.

ETA: I don’t think there’s anything wrong with requiring a student to have their own helmet. You can pick up a starter helmet for $25-$30. That’s cheaper than a bat or a glove or a good basketball. Now, is it prudent to have one or two available for the kid who shows up in a bike helmet? Yes. But I don’t think it’s necessary.

[rugbygirl]

^on the topic of having kids poorly outfitted…lots of sports programs supply a shopping list for parents and have deals set up with local stores. Whatever the bare minimum requirement is going to be, give them the name of a local store (with hours and an address) where they can buy it as a package and get a discount. That leads to better compliance. Most of the riding schools around here require boots with a heel, a helmet, and some require gloves (the cotton ones with nubbly palms that cost like $3.) The discount tack store offers these items as a package from time to time, and lots of instructors deal with the store…so if you say you’re taking lessons with Mrs. X, they tend to know what Mrs. X wants her riders outfitted in.

While rubber boots are no fun to ride in once you get to a certain point, they aren’t a bad starting point. At least they are safe in the barn, have a heel and a decent sole, and most kids have a pair. When I used to get the much-begged-after chance to go to “summer riding camp” they always wanted rubber boots. These kinds of camps were for non-horsey city kids, on trail strings…but still.

[Daisyesq]

The three horses you have right now, they could give how many lessons per day? How many days a week?

Lets say each horse can give a maximum of 10 lessons per week and you can charge $50 per lesson. That’s 30x$50= $1500/week. That’s the maximum amount you could make on your current horses, and you are putting full time hours in the barn to get that, and there are a LOT OF ASSUMPTIONS built in there (ie, you can actually find 30 clients, your costs stay the same, all horses stay sound, no vacations and no weather related cancellations).

I’m not saying don’t do it. I say go for it. Start with your insurance carrier and hire an equine lawyer to help you draft contracts and releases. You might also need to confirm that your property is zoned for commercial use and whether you need any town approvals for this usage.

[pheasantknoll]

You might consider becoming a Pony Club center. You pay an annual fee, get insurance through PC, get a prepared curriculum, and some of your marketing is already done for you.

[Dressagelvr]

How long have your horses been out of work? If you don’t have a saddle, I’m guessing it has been a while.

It will take a lot of work before they are fit and safe enough for lessons.

I agree with those who say you should focus on non-horsey means to earn income.

[roseymare]

I think she has saddles just not ones she feels are suitable for lessons.

[roseymare]

Maybe you could incorporate GSUSA and BSA/Explorers badgework into your program…