It seems to me that barns where this practice is standard is one where the trainer is the Big Star and the clients are merely the bit players who provide background color and fill the stage.
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By standard I mean I suspect you’d find more barns that did it than not, unless things have changed in the past decade that I’ve been a professional and not a Junior or amateur client. I think if anything has changed it’s likely that it’s fewer of these personal horses exist because it’s even harder and more expensive now for a professional to bring along a personal horse on the road, which is part of the reason why we don’t develop horses in this country.
The justification is that these are the expenses of being a part of this particular barn. The client may not particularly want the show tack rooms floored in bluestone or landscaped, or the aisles matted, or think their horse needs that many shavings, or whatever, but the expectation is that the clients cover these expenses in exchange for being a client.
But that’s a cultural expectation, and this particular trainer obviously has misjudged the status of her barn. If shows are a financial reach for her clients and she wants to encourage them to show more, then it needs to be as budget friendly as possible. She’s not operating a barn that matches her clientele. Maybe she comes from a background with different expectations, maybe it’s wishful thinking, maybe she just simply can’t afford to show her horse and was hoping to sneak by, but obviously her clientele needs to have a chat with her about expectations.
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flame suit on
As an aside, while I’ve never been of an income to ride at high-end barns, I admit I always found the elaborate landscaping, luxury tack room decorations, show setups and such to be a bit much. I’m all for (in an ideal world) spending money on better quality fencing, footing, materials that don’t attract dust in the barn, and making everything as well-lit as possible and easy to care for humans as well as horses in rough weather. It always makes me wonder how many clients really like all the bells and whistles stuff, or if they’re just at the barn because it’s a good match for their horse and trainer, and criticizing the investment is bad form.
But making the argument that carrying the trainer’s show horse is part of being at the barn–again, this seems unlikely to be mentioned when someone first goes to a show, and who would dare complain?
Re: taxes, it would seem a better argument that the trainer could write off some of the expenses of showing (at least sales horses) as a business expense on her taxes, versus expecting her clients to foot the bill. I’m not an accountant, though.
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It also occurs to me that this is hugely barn size specific. In a 15-25 horse barn, which is my experience, the difference to the client in including the trainer’s horse versus not including the trainer’s horse is a negligible amount. The client pays an extra $10 or so if you do the math. Whereas if the trainer paid a portion of the split, the trainer would have to shell out or eat much, much more, basically for their own services. If you have an 8k split, for instance, for 25 horses it’s $320; take out the trainer’s horse it’s $333.
In a small barn, obviously, it makes more of a dent even though the expenses are smaller.
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That’s the thing! In my own personal experience, trainer was bringing 3-4 of their own horses and there were only 3-4 client horses, so it meant that we were all essentially paying for an extra horse. I suspect that many clients still don’t even realize it’s happening.
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I mean, if the trainer wants me to pay for their horse’s stall, should I also chip in for the farrier and the vet? If you divide the farrier by 15 clients it’s only about $10 per client so why not throw that on too? Since I’m paying for the horse show stall do I get to ride it in a class?
It would not be a financial strain in the slightest for me to start chipping in to the farrier bills for my trainer’s horses, but I don’t pay the carrying costs for horses I don’t own.
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Well, you never know. At large barns where the barn bills the client for farrier services and the clients don’t pay the farrier directly it seems like it would be easy to slip in that $10 extra to cover the trainer’s horse. 
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No doubt that it happens.
More common than not in my experience.
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If it really is an issue of “these are the expenses of being part of that barn”, the trainer should be explicit and transparent about it and give the clients a menu of clear cut prices: full training is $x and does/does not include coaching at shows. If not included in full training, coaching at shows is $y per day, plus hotel divided by number of clients.
The trainer could increase her monthly fee for full training by $200, and use the higher fee to campaign her personal horses. But trainers fear, rightly, that clients will go elsewhere is the explicit fees are too high, so they keep the explicit fees low and have the show management send out the bills without making the subsidy obvious.
I’m a strong believer in the idea that the trainer and barn owner can charge whatever they want, but I want them to be explicit about it rather than playing games to stick me with additional expenses.
There are lots of ways trainers do this. Insist all clients pay for full or part grooming at $z per month, use the funds to hire a groom of the trainer’s choice, and have the groom spend 50% of his time on her 3 horses, and 50% of his time on the clients 6 horses (while the trainer contributes nothing to the groom’s salary).
I think this is a short sighted strategy on the part of the trainer, as the clients eventually do realize what they’re paying, and at that point are fed up at not only the high costs, but also the underhanded nature of the deal.
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Good point. Trainers can deduct all their showing costs from their taxable income, while clients have to pay the trainer’s showing costs with after tax dollars.
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I’m a trainer. And I think it’s crooked.
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High possibly that they are doing that. Collecting the money and using the receipts to make money off the taxes… wink wink. Maybe a few innocent inquiries with the IRS about sending 1099’s would ask the right question.
Once again, why would a client send a 1099??
Any cash payments over $600 is reportable income.
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1099 are sent by businesses, not by individuals.
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The IRS 1099 Form is a collection of tax forms documenting different types of payments made by an individual or a business that typically isn’t your employer. The payer fills out the form with the appropriate details and sends copies to you and the IRS, reporting payments made during the tax year.
File Form 1099-MISC for each person to whom you have paid during the year:
- At least $10 in royalties or broker payments in lieu of dividends or tax-exempt interest.
- At least $600 in:
- Rents.
- Prizes and awards.
- Other income payments.
- Medical and health care payments.
- Crop insurance proceeds.
- Cash payments for fish (or other aquatic life) you purchase from anyone engaged in the trade or business of catching fish.
- Generally, the cash paid from a notional principal contract to an individual, partnership, or estate.
- Payments to an attorney.
- Any fishing boat proceeds.
In addition, use Form 1099-MISC to report that you made direct sales of at least $5,000 of consumer products to a buyer for resale anywhere other than a permanent retail establishment.
P.s. I know an attorney who requests large cash up front payments as a retainer, hmmmm.
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Do I need to issue a 1099 to my cleaning lady?
You don’t issue them any tax forms such as a 1099-MISC unless you are a small business yourself and your business has hired this person. … Your expenses for cleaning are not deductible if they are personal expenses, they may be deductible business expenses.
Who do you not have to send a 1099 to?
The general rule is that you must issue a Form 1099-MISC to any vendors or sub-contractors you have paid at least $600 in rents, services, prizes and awards , or other income payments in the course of your trade/business in a given tax year (you do not need to issue 1099s for payments made for personal purposes).
Do I have to issue a 1099 to my gardener?
You must issue a 1099-MISC if you paid a non-employee individual or business (other than an incorporated business) $600 or more to provide services in the course of your trade or business. … For example, if you hire a landscaper to maintain your lawn at your home, you do not issue a 1099-MISC.
In your quote above, I believe ‘individual’ refers to sole proprietors.
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Actually, with the dollar amounts involved with purchasing/owning/showing horses on the higher end circuits, there are plenty of horses “owned” by a LLC or partnership. So long as the horse is not being shown in a A/O
Just a thought - aren’t there quite a few horses shown on the A circuit that are owned by LLCs or partnerships? Wouldn’t this add a whole additional level of issues when it comes to 1099s and what is leisure expenses vs business expenses?
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An LLC is a business. They send 1099s.
