Kind of an interesting debacle.
Years ago when I was training, I trailered the majority of the horses to the horse shows. I would have a vehicle on the grounds and the use of the truck was covered with the trailering charges to the clients.
Now… All of my clients have their own trailers and trailer their own. For the last several years, I have just been riding with one of them to whichever (long distance) show we are going to. It has been slightly annoying because I do not have my own transportation, but it saves money for them.
I keep my daily rates slightly below industry standard for the area.
Here is my question, we have a show coming up shortly and there is not room to travel with the one trailer going for myself and my working student. It is 400 miles one way, what is fair to charge the two clients that are going?
We need more info! I’m assuming: Clients are riding their own horses and traveling in their own trailers. You will coach clients. Whose horse are you riding? Whose horse is working student riding? Or are you both not bringing horses, but need human transportation to get there to coach?
Clients trailering and riding their own horses, they are taking one truck and trailer with the two horses.
Neither WS or I are riding that week, just coaching/grooming.
This is the first time in YEARS this has come up, aside from being unable to separate ourselves from the customers for “free time”.
I try to keep things as economic as possible for our small stable, and while I don’t want to charge for driving myself down there-I don’t want to eat 800 miles worth of fuel and wear and tear either.
What does everyone else do?
While keeping your fees low is a noble endeavor, you also need to set your fee high enough that it is worth your time to go or you’ll get resentful and burn out. I would not expect a trainer to be without a car at a show unless its a one-day up and back sort of thing.
I would set it up as:
Per Day Coaching Fee: $X
Mileage Fee: $Y per mile (to be split evenly amongst all horses attending the show)
Expenses: TBD (hotel/food to be split evenly amongst all horses attending the show)
*Mileage Fee is waived if round trip is less than 50 miles OR if trainer travels to a one-day show with client.
Thanks!
That has been the case with all of the other expenses.
The travel thing is a new issue and was wondering how everyone else handles it. All of my trainer buddies trailer the clients horses still-so it is not something they have run into.
I do flat rate daily travel fee that’s the same for all shows within x miles. I forget what the number of miles is but I picked the farthest show I consider “local” and decided that would be the radius for the fee. Day one fee is roughly a tank of gas + food and every day after just covers food.
It’s not perfect… if everyone offers to buy my food that day it’s a little high, but if I’m running to the food stand by myself for all three meals it’s a little low. It works out and saves me from having to save all my receipts and do a bunch of math. For hotel rooms I do save receipts and divide evenly.
I’d charge the cost of gas plus a day fee. at 400 miles, you will be doing nothing but driving for those days. So estimate how much you would usually make per day and charge that.
The only exception I’d make to that is if I was showing at the venue or if I was benefiting in some way from the show (they are showing a sale horse and I’m going to make a profit on that, it’s a big name show like pony finals that looks good on my resume, etc) in which case I may provide a big discount.
Could you and WS fly into the nearest airport and have someone pick you up from there? Not sure if that would be any cheaper lol
My trainer charges the standard IRS vehicle mileage rate for having to drive to shows that are further away if we trailer ourselves. None of us have an issue paying it. If there are multiples of us going to the show, we split the mileage between.
I was going to suggest both of these. 2021’s rate is $0.56/mile.
What is a “debacle” about this? I came here expecting drama, LOL 
Back in the day, my old trainer would charge us mileage for driving plus day fee plus hotel room cost if any. I think her day fee already included cost of meals.
If we went to a nice restaurant to celebrate, we all split trainers and grooms meal cost or took turns paying.
Compensation for trainer travel expenses aside. Is it viable financially for a trainer to drive 400 miles to a show with only two horses that complete? Unless these horses are expected to win big money classes?
Seems a long way to go for only two? Or very expensive for the owners of the two horses?
Yes on both counts, probably, but I believe earlier in the thread OP said this doesn’t happen very often. Depending on the area, there might not be a lot of shows at a particular level that are much closer. If a trainer wants to build or maintain a certain type of program, it might not really be a choice to just not go even if they only have two clients going that year.
So you are driving yourself 800 miles to coach two people?
I mean, is this worth it? If you can charge enough to make not doing anything else for whatever duration of time this takes place over, ok, I guess, but it seems like a lot of time, and your time might be more valuable than a coaching fee might compensate for.
The answer is no, it is not financially feasible to take two horses to one show. Negating the car rental situation and the fuel-I was still out about $250 in just lessons I could have taught vs day fee money I actually made. However, when we put it on our calendar, we had 6 going. Horses being horses and still have some interesting Covid restrictions with some of my clients, by the time the final stall count was due, I was down to two-who really wanted to go.
