Working off lessons?

[SoCalTransplant]

I moved from Southern California to Northern California last year. I am in college now, and have taken a few years off from riding due to injury and subsequent surgeries to correct it. I am finally feeling like I am ready to ride again, but my parents aren’t so sure about it, and therefore are not incredibly willing to fully support this venture financially.

I am a more than competent rider who has ridden lots of green horses and “problem” horses. With a few years off I am, understandably, a little rusty. Since I was used to riding 6 days a week and several horses a day before I quit, the approximate one lesson a week my parents are willing to support is going to be a big change for me, and I was hoping to get back in the saddle a little more often.

So here’s my question. After I start at a barn as a (paying) lesson client (and get back into good riding shape), how common is it for a trainer to be willing to let a student work off some of their lessons? I have ZERO desire to ever set foot in a show ring again, but I would love to be able to ride more, or even do things like clean tack. Basically anything.

Now, if this is something that ever happens, what kind of barn should I look for in order to set myself up for success when I ask about this? I really am totally lost on this as I was a client at my previous barn for many years and the progression to riding lots of nice horses all the time was a natural one.

Sorry for the novel.

[CHT]

I think it is unlikely you will be given the opportunity to RIDE to pay off lessons (or did I misunderstand?), but other tasks such as weekend barn help, helping in the barn with beginner lessons (tacking up and such), cleaning tack and other barn chores may be possible ways to work off lessons. BUT…it may make more sense to just get a part time job and pay for these additional lessons.

At a bigger barn, once you prove your worth as a rider, there may be opportunities to exercise horses for clients that can’t make it out enough, a horse coming back from an injury, or for the trainer when they are away at shows.

Good luck and I hope you are able to make it work!

[french_fry]

[QUOTE=SoCalTransplant;7359557]
I moved from Southern California to Northern California last year. I am in college now, and have taken a few years off from riding due to injury and subsequent surgeries to correct it. I am finally feeling like I am ready to ride again, but my parents aren’t so sure about it, and therefore are not incredibly willing to fully support this venture financially.

I am a more than competent rider who has ridden lots of green horses and “problem” horses. With a few years off I am, understandably, a little rusty. Since I was used to riding 6 days a week and several horses a day before I quit, the approximate one lesson a week my parents are willing to support is going to be a big change for me, and I was hoping to get back in the saddle a little more often.

So here’s my question. After I start at a barn as a (paying) lesson client (and get back into good riding shape), how common is it for a trainer to be willing to let a student work off some of their lessons? I have ZERO desire to ever set foot in a show ring again, but I would love to be able to ride more, or even do things like clean tack. Basically anything.

Now, if this is something that ever happens, what kind of barn should I look for in order to set myself up for success when I ask about this? I really am totally lost on this as I was a client at my previous barn for many years and the progression to riding lots of nice horses all the time was a natural one.

Sorry for the novel.[/QUOTE]

I’ll be blunt (and possibly controversial?) If you’re not talking about a working student position most reputable trainers aren’t going to go for this. Letting clients work off lessons is not how you run a successful business. Like the above poster said, maybe once you are established you will find some free rides, but I’d count on paying for the lessons themselves.

That said, while I understand the impulse, it’s probably not the best option for you either. I would get a part-time job and pay for your lessons out of pocket. Working at a coffee shop, restaurant, work study, etc. pays better and is often much easier than working at the barn.

If you find someone who is willing to let you work off lessons make sure that you get an hourly “wage” even if you never see a paycheck. It’s all too easy to work like a dog for 8 hours and maybe get half an hour of ride time.

[SoCalTransplant]

[QUOTE=CHT;7359573]
I think it is unlikely you will be given the opportunity to RIDE to pay off lessons (or did I misunderstand?), but other tasks such as weekend barn help, helping in the barn with beginner lessons (tacking up and such), cleaning tack and other barn chores may be possible ways to work off lessons. BUT…it may make more sense to just get a part time job and pay for these additional lessons.

At a bigger barn, once you prove your worth as a rider, there may be opportunities to exercise horses for clients that can’t make it out enough, a horse coming back from an injury, or for the trainer when they are away at shows.

Good luck and I hope you are able to make it work![/QUOTE]

I think what I meant to say is that I am willing to do all of the things you listed, but would also love the opportunity to help hack horses as you stated above. I guess a more accurate representation would be that I am wondering how common it is to need people to help hack, not necessarily to earn lessons. I have a part time job, but riding is expensive and I’m in school as well.

I just feel out of the loop on all of this because it has been a few years and I am coming from a loooong time client with long time client privileges and an amazingly generous barn owner situation. I moved away for school and knew absolutely no one here and have no previous connections here. I know what I had isn’t so common, but I just wondered about other barns’ policies on people hacking horses for them.

[french_fry]

Up to a certain level (ie Lillie Keenan is exempt from this :D) free rides tend to come to people who are willing to make the commitment to the trainer’s program, not people who show up at barns asking if there are horses that need to be hacked. There are always exceptions, of course, but I still think your best option is to save up some money and start taking lessons, earn the trainer’s trust, and THEN make it known that you’d be happy to hack.

[Meliora]

I was going to say that you would have an easier time finding horses to hack if you are a strong rider that was also a lesson student. I have a few of those at my barn and it works out quite nicely

[SoCalTransplant]

[QUOTE=french fry;7359594]
Up to a certain level (ie Lillie Keenan is exempt from this :D) free rides tend to come to people who are willing to make the commitment to the trainer’s program, not people who show up at barns asking if there are horses that need to be hacked. There are always exceptions, of course, but I still think your best option is to save up some money and start taking lessons, earn the trainer’s trust, and THEN make it known that you’d be happy to hack.[/QUOTE]

Which is exactly what happened in my old barn and was how I “earned” all the nice rides I got. I know that this is the most common practice, hence my mention of starting as a consistently paying client and working from there. I was just wondering how common it is at other barns for people to be given hacking privileges at some point (down the line). I’m not expecting anything immediate or even soon, but I am wondering about once I can “prove my worth” somewhat.

[showidaho]

If the trainer sees you are a hard worker and you ride well you could quite possibly get the opportunity to hack. I’m no pro, but when my trainer asked (after several months of lessons) if I had time and wanted to ride an extra, I heartily agreed and it spun off into lots of rides and some showing on horses other than my own. It can happen, but maybe don’t expect it? Just be a sponge, offer to do anything extra, pitch in when you can and be agreeable and you never know! Best of luck to you!

[SoCalTransplant]

[QUOTE=showidaho;7359635]
If the trainer sees you are a hard worker and you ride well you could quite possibly get the opportunity to hack. I’m no pro, but when my trainer asked (after several months of lessons) if I had time and wanted to ride an extra, I heartily agreed and it spun off into lots of rides and some showing on horses other than my own. It can happen, but maybe don’t expect it? Just be a sponge, offer to do anything extra, pitch in when you can and be agreeable and you never know! Best of luck to you![/QUOTE]

This was basically exactly what I meant! I don’t know why I couldn’t express it properly in my original post, ugh. Thank you everyone!!

On that note…I have two great options. One a very nice show barn that travels a lot, and the other a sales barn with nice horses that moves a lot of horses. Both offer lessons. I know I should go and see which trainer I like better, etc, but given equally good facilities and horses, which is the wiser choice to try out?

[french_fry]

[QUOTE=showidaho;7359635]
If the trainer sees you are a hard worker and you ride well you could quite possibly get the opportunity to hack. I’m no pro, but when my trainer asked (after several months of lessons) if I had time and wanted to ride an extra, I heartily agreed and it spun off into lots of rides and some showing on horses other than my own. It can happen, but maybe don’t expect it? Just be a sponge, offer to do anything extra, pitch in when you can and be agreeable and you never know! Best of luck to you![/QUOTE]

Yes, this! If your trainer is open to it, come early/stay late to watch lessons, set jumps for him/her, etc. My barn has a large adult ammie contingent and many of them are novices when it comes to basic horsemanship. An extra set of eyes/hands is invaluable when it comes to helping them safely lunge, adjust a piece of tack, take their horses out to turnout, etc. If you help one of the “ladies” lunge their recalcitrant horse you will win my trainer’s undying affection. :lol: This is assuming that you are a quiet, competent, and most of all TEACHABLE rider.

If you were to ride at my barn (unfortunately not in CA) and you came early to your lessons, tacked your own horse, were knowledgeable about horsemanship but not a showoff, put the horse away in better condition than you found it and watched a couple lessons after your own you would soon find some small ways to pitch in, show the trainer you know what you’re doing, and the opportunities to hack would come rolling in. :yes:

I think a lot of barns are like this as long as you don’t come in with assumptions that you won’t have to pay to ride for long.

[TSWJB]

It really depends on if the new trainer likes y ou a lot or not. It can happen for people the trainer really wants to help. But for most people this is not going to happen. I would get a part time job and pay for lessons.

[Belmont]

I think starting as a paying client then moving into a regular rider is possible. I say this because I did it. I was a paying client who got asked to go work for a barn one summer. After that, I never paid for another lesson. Were the lessons all on 3’6 packers? HELL NO. Some lessons were terrible but some were awesome.

You become sort of a WS. I was that person who would stay after and audit other lessons and “jump crew”. My trainer freaking loved it. She loved to talk about what she was making the rider do and ask if I saw it. I swear I can learn more on the ground then in the tack sometimes.

It is possible, you just have to land in the right place. A lot of people also understand that young adults go to school and work, but they also want to help. Don’t let people tell you no. You are going the right way starting as a paying client! Your trainer will likely ask you to take additional lessons like mine did, when you say you can’t afford it, many will offer you that kind of thing.

I’ve done it at multiple barns, and I’ve also done the grunt work to help show my worth and willingness to do anything to get into the saddle more than once. As for barns? The show barn might be nice because some horses stay back. A lot of times those horses still need to be worked and if they don’t have an assistant then no work. At the same time, a lot of big show barns have assistants and don’t need that.

The sale barn is where I would start out, IMHO.

[Luseride]

You would probably get more rides at a sale barn. Of course you might also get more challenges than you would like.

[hoofbeats]

I agree with the others. I clean stall on Saturday in
exchange for lesson. My trainer rides her own horses during the day, and gives lessons to kids once they get out of school. She has quite a few to ride in a day, so once I proved to her I am capable, she let me hack her horses. Even though we both benifit from my riding (she gets horses worked, I get to ride more), I often clean her tack if I notice it’s sitting around dirty and generally go out of my way to help make her job easier. I know it’s appreciated, and a little extra hard work can go a long way with time.

[lrp1106]

Also, make friends with the owners at your barn. I’m an ammy so I don’t get paid, but a lot of the people in my barn travel for work, and I ride their horses when they’re out of town. I get a surprising amount of rides on reaaaaally nice horses this way. Next week, I’ll be riding a very, very nice horse just because I told the horse’s owner if they ever needed any help, I’d be willing to hack for free.

Now I understand you would like to be paid/work off lessons. Maybe going the route of “assistant trainer” so to speak would be a good starting spot? Or even hacking for free for owners/trainer may show your trainer how dedicated you are. However, if you want to be paid, you need to be upfront with her and make sure you’re not getting taken advantage of.

I would probably start by mentioning it to your trainer. You’d like to work off lessons in any way you can - mucking, cleaning, hauling, etc all the way up to hacking/exercising. You probably need to prove your loyalty to a trainer, starting with grunt work.

[SoCalTransplant]

[QUOTE=lrp1106;7359815]
Also, make friends with the owners at your barn. I’m an ammy so I don’t get paid, but a lot of the people in my barn travel for work, and I ride their horses when they’re out of town. I get a surprising amount of rides on reaaaaally nice horses this way. Next week, I’ll be riding a very, very nice horse just because I told the horse’s owner if they ever needed any help, I’d be willing to hack for free.

Now I understand you would like to be paid/work off lessons. Maybe going the route of “assistant trainer” so to speak would be a good starting spot? Or even hacking for free for owners/trainer may show your trainer how dedicated you are. However, if you want to be paid, you need to be upfront with her and make sure you’re not getting taken advantage of.

I would probably start by mentioning it to your trainer. You’d like to work off lessons in any way you can - mucking, cleaning, hauling, etc all the way up to hacking/exercising. You probably need to prove your loyalty to a trainer, starting with grunt work.[/QUOTE]

I have no interest in being paid, just in earning extra ride/barn time. Hacking for free is the absolute goal, but I fully understand that takes time and trust. I’m not worried about being taken advantage of because as someone getting back into the sport I need to work and get back into it, not to mention that I am looking to continue to really learn.

Thank you!

[CHT]

I would guess that at the sale barn you are more likely to get extra riding time, and that you are also more likely to be able to expect the coach to be around vs on the road showing… but of course it depends on how both programs are set up.

I would want to know (with the sales barn) are the lesson horses sales horses? If so, the benefit is you may be riding nicer than typical lesson horses, but the downside is that you may not have any consistency on who you ride. You also may be doing more training of the horse than working on yourself…which may or may not work for you.

[lintesia]

What part of Northern California are you in?

[SoCalTransplant]

[QUOTE=CHT;7359847]
I would guess that at the sale barn you are more likely to get extra riding time, and that you are also more likely to be able to expect the coach to be around vs on the road showing… but of course it depends on how both programs are set up.

I would want to know (with the sales barn) are the lesson horses sales horses? If so, the benefit is you may be riding nicer than typical lesson horses, but the downside is that you may not have any consistency on who you ride. You also may be doing more training of the horse than working on yourself…which may or may not work for you.[/QUOTE]

I’m not sure about sales horses being lesson horses. I would assume it might change based on rider experience levels and agreements with the owners. And honestly I really don’t mind riding difficult horses, I just want to be back in the saddle. Like I said, I don’t want to show at all ever so just riding works great for me.

[SoCalTransplant]

I’ll PM you lintesia!