With computers it’s fairly simple… and now that at some shows an added $100 - $150 “office fee” has now crept onto our showbills… they can absolutely do some work to help trainers with show splits. A big barn the weekly total could be $25,000 or more… over an 8 or 9 week circuit, that’s a LOT of cash output. Let the show office transfer those charges to the horse’s account… trainer will be busy enough billing out all the other expenses (hotel, transport, meals, day fees, set up charges etc)
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Yes, sorry, I just meant that it’s not something the trainer bills for after the fact.
Like someone else mentioned, it’s a cash flow problem for the trainers. If you have a big barn, you could be looking at a substantial bill at the end of the week (stalls, bedding, hay, grain). There is one trainer I worked with who did just write one business check for all her client’s bills at the end of each week. BUT, this trainer required each customer to have a substantial amount in a show account that she had access to. When the balance in that account dropped below her required minimum, the client were required to replenish said account or the horses didn’t get on the trailer for the next show. I was told they had to keep $10K minimum in that account. And, in all the shows I worked, this was the ONLY trainer who did this.
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BTDT, and found it infuriating. It can make it really hard to budget for horse shows, too, since your costs in this situation depend so much on the proportion of trainer-owned vs. customer-owned horses in attendance. (Imagine a situation with a large barn where the trainer might bring four or five personal horses…)
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Oooh boy I wouldn’t like this.
My participation in horses is dependent on how much money I make and how I personally choose to budget that money. If I can afford it, great. If I can’t, then too bad. I have to keep saving or get a higher paying job and hope I can afford it next time.
The trainer doesn’t need to ride their personal horse at a show - they want to. It’s a personal choice, not a business expense, and should be treated like the trainer is just another client to themselves. If the client (themselves) can’t afford to participate in the show or with as many horses as they’d like, then their horse(s) shouldn’t be stepping onto the trailer.
I’m not even going to touch the “dog stall” bit. How utterly asinine to charge clients for bringing Fido to the horse show.
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I left my last barn over this very problem. Trainer’s wife’s daughter’s 2 horses would routinely be left out of the splits. We would have 14-16 horses at a show so I guess they thought the difference wouldn’t be noticed. It wasn’t for a while because I don’t do the office stuff myself and on my receipt it would just say like, splits $X. When I brought it up I was basically told 1) everyone does it, and 2) we “had” to have the kid showing at the shows bc she was good for business. So I left, with my 3 horses at that time (I was younger then!) and never looked back.
For those asking, it’s its everything from the show involved in the splits. Hay, shavings, grain, grooming/ dog/ whatever stalls, paddocks, camper hookup, VIP passes, gas for golf cart, I’m sure there’s other stuff I’m forgetting too. At a “normal” show usually a horse’s share is like $340-500.
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That seems unfair to have everyone else paying for the trainer’s horse unless that was something agreed to beforehand.
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Regardless of what may be “common” - IMHO it’s extremely unprofessional for a trainer to leave their horse, their kids’ horses, or a favored client’s horse out of the splits.
The cost should be accounted to their personal horses for grooming stalls, shavings, etc, and carried forward to the sale or whatever other accounting they do for it.
The trainer should imagine their day fee and whatever value/money they are getting for their personal horse to cover those costs. It is more professional and more appropriate for the trainer to set their day fees to cover their needs (perhaps spread over the year) than to expect the clients who happen to go to a particular show to subsidize the trainer’s horse.
If anything, for a client, there’s less value if the trainer brings a personal horse because they may have less access to the trainer’s time and attention. There is no way clients should be paying extra for that.
If the clients are sponsoring the trainer’s horse by paying some of those expenses, that should be an explicit agreement. Not under the table by making the show office do it, not a surprise after the fact.
Honestly, this is basic business ethics. I wish trainers had a place where they learned business ethics.
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It gets even better when they hire grooms and part of the compensation is they don’t have to pay hay and shavings. Guess who pays. And who also tips.
I’ve tried to get detail from the show office and they say ask your trainer.
When my bills only went up and not down with additional clients coming in for some weeks of circuit, I got pretty dang annoyed and no one would give me answers. Trainer nor show office.
I do this stuff myself now. It’s a lot of work but per horse it’s a lot cheaper.
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That seems OK because those riders are using that horse. The OP is questioning the trainer essentially passing all of their showing expenses on their own horse to clients.
IMO, the trainer is paid to train horse and rider and oversee care of the client owned horses at shows. If they choose to bring their own horse to the show to compete, they should do so at their expense, not that of their clients. Typically these are sale horses and it’s not like they are sharing any profits with the clients. If it is a horse that the trainer bought to help them “make a name” for themselves, thus attracting new business, that is an investment that they-the trainer- should pay for, not existing clients.
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This is one of the things that always makes me scratch my head - the implicit assumption that the clients have an interest in the overall perceived success of the trainer’s program, to the point where clients will subsidize the promotion of that program.
It’s like going to a gas station, buying gas, and then seeing a fee tacked on at the end for the gas station’s advertising.
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Shady. Extend the analog. How many trainers horses is it reasonable for clients to “carry”. Three? Five? Just shady.
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I would resent the implication that clients are expected to pay for the privilege of basking in the reflected glory of the trainer’s success on their personal horse.
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Yeah, how is your kid showing your horses good for me? I get that it’s good for you… but just because it’s good for you doesn’t mean it’s good for ME. That doesn’t make sense (unless the kid is showing MY horses and adding value, which is a whole different ballgame).
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This. I am a generous client and have and will continue to pay show bills for my trainers or their working students on occasion, but the expectation that I am obligated to do so and be happy about it? No, thank you.
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I feel like this is one of those things that becomes normalized in the horse world because the trainer’s trainer did it, their fellow trainers are doing it, and very few have enough exposure to what happens in the outside world to understand that what has traditionally happened in the horse world is not always how things should be done.
Am I understanding correctly that at some shows, the splits are their own non-itemized amount on the show bill? At every show I’ve competed at or worked for, the hay, shavings and stalls are itemized on the bill so I can do the math myself to see if the trainer did the splits properly.
I.e., four horses plus a tack stall would show up as 1.25 stalls on my bill if split between all horses, and if 20 bags of shavings were split between the four horses, I would see 5 bags of shavings on my bill.
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I think a lot of clients don’t bother to do the math. Stalls are easier, but shavings/hay is more opaque since you might not necessarily know how many bags or bales your barn ordered.
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Then theres the fact most trainers really dont have time for true “ personal” horses and what they bring along are sale horses whose absentee owners are probably also getting billed for their fair share of show expense splits. Unless you get an itemized bill, neither sellers or in house clients can spot the double billing.
Ask for an itemized bill. No excuse in this digital age not to be provided one. If trainer refuses, go elsewhere, If a client prefers not to be bothered with one? That opens the door for fleecing on top of already stupidly expensive competition costs.
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Yep. And fleecing can be so easy. I have a good friend who worked in a BNT barn. At shows the clients were all billed for x number of tubes of Perfect Prep per day. The number of tubes that actually went down the horse’s throat almost never matched the number on the bill, by design. At $30+ per day per horse, that added up to a nice bit of padding going straight to the trainer.
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IME, trainers don’t bring anything to a show somebody else isn’t paying for. Ever. Its a business, no time or money for a hobby horse. Most clients assume too much about ownership and billing arrangements of other horses in any trainers barn as its really not public information.
Get an itemized statement, you are entitled to know exactly what you are paying for, that is very much your business.
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