If you do a google search online, there seems to be a lot of riding lesson programs, but when you dig deeper, you find many of them aren’t operating for lessons anymore, or they downsized and don’t have school horses available anymore, etc. There ARE still good programs out there, don’t get me wrong, and I know a few around me that are doing great.

However, there is always a theme, everywhere, and the theme is: closing down/selling/instructor went to college/etc, etc. I have received several emails stating, “my daughter/son was riding but they closed down.”

I have been everywhere on the lesson program spectrum from “making it” to “still under” to “SUPER SUCCESSFUL”, and…. guess what guys?? I have closed my doors twice as well.

So why is this happening? What’s the problem?

THESE are the problems that some programs solve some of, but hardly any solve all of them:

They fear the liability, or can’t afford the insurance
Good kid’s horses are hard to come by, and hard to maintain too
Doesn’t themselves want to teach anymore/other life plans or career goals
Can’t find instructors to stay on board with them/their program (for their own personal, time or money reasons)
HORSES are expensive – so to furnish school horses for students, you first have to make enough to pay for the horses AND still make something for YOUR life too, so most people burn out of trying to furnish school horses (and more than money reasons for this… instructors get burned out with their clients’ entitlement about what the horse should provide as a ‘lesson horse’, and their lack of awareness or gratitude toward the financial burden the school horses can create.)

THE DIFFERENCES IN THE TYPE OF PEOPLE WHO ARE IN THE HORSE BUSINESS
Programs that can run off the pocketbook of someone independently wealthy outside of the horse business is rare. I’m trying to become one of these people eventually lol, but for right now, my own money is made THROUGH the horses.

I have even done my own mini-surveys and also from my own observations, 90% of people that own and show horses, do so with money made outside of the horse world, at a “regular” job.

People, like me, who are cray cray enough to try and make a LIVING with horses have our work cut out for us.

MY OWN EXPERIENCE WITH RUNNING A LESSON PROGRAM
I tell you what…. it’s HARD. I have had the lesson business be my sole income making thing since I entered adulthood. At first, it was fantastic. I was young, no kids, didn’t have to pay rent to my parents and for a long time they didn’t charge me board or any sort of stipend either… I was super spoiled. Then, for a winter, I wanted a covered arena, so I rented a barn and paid full care board for $500 a month on TEN horses. But I was making $10,000-$13,000 a month with absolutely no other living expenses (still spoiled.)

But then….. let’s just say…. I did NOT marry for money. So, I needed to keep running the business to make ends meet.

It was a struggle, but it always built up. But I remember distinct moments where I was so excited after the bills were paid and I had nothing left, that I could get one new student, and their $140 for the month (this was back then), means I could fill up my gas tank and go buy groceries!

Now I always have money for gas and groceries when I need it (mostly lol), but I just had to ask a client to prepay a package of lessons because I really needed dental work done.

This is another major problem, and it’s a problem with the entire horse industry having a shortage of new trainers and instructors. It is way too hard and way to expensive to have medical and dental insurance. For a while, I qualified for state medical insurance, but there are no dental programs like that. So, there aren’t a lot of trainers and instructors because this is not a job that provides benefits.

Maybe, maybe it could be, in what I want to build? We will see. I know that was cryptic lol.

CAN LESSON PROGRAMS BE RUN WELL ENOUGH THAT MORE GOOD FARMS AND GOOD PEOPLE WILL WANT TO RUN ONE AND MAKE ENOUGH MONEY DOING IT?
So, here is my task. HOW do we make enough money, to provide for the horses themselves, PLUS regular living expenses, PLUS money for medical/dental/emergencies, PLUS having a bit of a life?

Because of the absolute large magnitude of all those above things, most programs don’t make it. They literally CHOOSE to close down.

**Unless** they have a spouse who provides so this is more of their “heart” project (most of these instructors burn out too), or unless they have another means of income and medical benefits, it just can’t be sustained for long term.

**Unless!!!!!** You do it differently. And I am finding a way!

Because, for me, it has done… MOST of those things, maybe not the medical care part lol. It will keep having to do this, and it will keep having to get better and better, because I like to provide lessons for horse-crazy kids, and I have my own horse-crazy kids to provide for!

HOW CAN IT BE DONE?
An instructor that tries to teach private lessons a few days of the week or everyday a week can’t make enough money. ESPECIALLY if they have their own school horse. The horse itself, with all it’s expenses for good care will cost you around $800/m (Washington State area, I averaged board, feed, farrier, supplements, and bodywork. I didn’t include vet care in this number). That’s 16 lessons a month. Then you need more than that to pay for your living expenses.

Teaching people on their horses, ok awesome! But getting enough clients to pay all your bills takes TIME. Advertising one day and getting to teach 30-50 lessons a month right away doesn’t usually happen.

So, my burden to solve becomes… how can I make enough money for the program to pay it’s bills, to take care of the horses and equipment, to hire instructors so I can be a parent to, to pay my own living expenses with 4 kids, etc.

THE STRUGGLES GO BEYOND MONEY STRUGGLES:
This business is HARD. We are combining a LOT of energies together. Instructors, students, horses, their parents, their families, students all together, other helpers and barn friends.

Let me reiterate putting HORSES in this mix. Do you see how many personalities, needs, quirks, attitudes, moods, health, emotions that is to manage? And HORSES… prey animals, herd animals.

We try our very best but horses will ALWAYS be horses. Always. Even the best ones will have their perfectly-natural-instinct “moments”. So, we don’t have perfectly UNPREDICTABLE machines. Then we have to teach PEOPLE how to speak horse, and be leader of horse and each of these people have their own nerves/anxieties OR unawareness/overconfidence.

SO THIS IS WHY. This is why most lesson programs don’t make it:
Money. Horses. People.

All those things are wonderful. All those things can be as equally terrible.

I am learning all the time, getting better all the time, growing and evolving. I am also still making lots of mistakes.

LUCKILY… I love it! I love this business so much. The good things I see and the magic that is created between people and horses much outweighs the struggles for me.

And, luckily, I stay one step ahead of the mistakes by not quitting, and always learning and pushing on. I’ve had a couple decades of making it work really well all the way to closing it down twice, and back again.

It’s working and paying all those things, as I have done my best to create a way to get it sustainable. I have also solved problems with instructors, horses, different client’s personalities/needs, and with students confidence levels and varying goals. Now, I want to teach all of these things to people, so we can get MORE successful lesson programs in this world.

I am making myself available as a consultant, and also my curriculum, instructor training, lesson horses training, and management services will be a recourse that any future (or current) instructor/trainer/farm owner can sign up for.

featherequestrian@gmail.com to get a hold of me!

I was a very very very very lucky kid! I got to ride several dozen horses and ponies in my childhood. I have never kept count but I am sure I have sat on around 100 different horses. And thousands more I have been near, around, watched, interacted with, etc.

Most people won’t own 50 horses or have their kid go work for horse trainers/etc.

But, you CAN provide this type of life experience for them in lesson programs.

HOW HORSE RELATIONSHIPS TEACH US ABOUT HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
In human relationships, it’s important to meet MANY people right? To interact with, get taught by, be friends with all sorts of personality types? Because, life is varied. College professors will all be different. Work colleagues will be various personalities. Boyfriends/girlfriends, all different.

It’s a personal goal of mine that my kids date A LOT instead of getting in early relationships and sticking with someone without even knowing what else might be out there that their own personality type might do better (or worse) with.

Such it is with lesson horses. There is so much to be gained learning how to ride/handle horsES, not just A horse.

WHAT’S IMPORTANT TO LEARN IN RIDING LESSONS?
Many students focus on what they want to do each ride. They want to canter and jump, or whatever it is. Then they might get disappointed if, because of the horse’s energy that day, they only get to walk and trot.

As the parent, ask yourself, what do you TRULY want your child to learn by riding horses? Yes, you want them to have fun and do as much as they can, but, in life, would you want them to disregard intuition and do more than what they should just because they want to and then potentially get hurt?

And what’s more, don’t we all want our children to be kind and in tune with the needs of others rather than just themselves?

On the flip side, do you want them to stay on a school horse where they have plateaued in learning, when other horses are pushing them out of their comfort zone?

WHAT THE INSTRUCTORS TRY TO DO FOR THE STUDENTS AND HORSES
As an instructor, there is no perfect formula for making the right horse choices all the time, but we do try our best, pay attention to the cues of each rider and horse and rider and horse PAIRING and will make the best decisions we can.

Sometimes, when a pairing doesn’t mesh right away, we will continue on, as we know that what can be gained is what both horse and rider are ready for and it will be an ultimately positive journey.

Then sometimes, when a pairing doesn’t mesh, or a pairing that has happened for a while has taken a turn for the worse, we will change it, when we sense that it will only go in a downhill direction for the rider, or the horse. We’ll back up, fill in foundation holes, work on certain anxieties, etc with the goal of going back to that horse in the future.

LESSON HORSES ARE DA BOMB!!!!!
I’d like to again, stress what an INCREDIBLE blessing that is for you/your kid. That there is an opportunity for multiple experiences and relationships with horses.

School horses all deserve the highest honors.

Imagine what it’s like for the school horses. They are non-vocal, sentient, energy sensitive, herd animals. And they get to encounter multiple energies, anxieties, attitudes, personalities, cues, riding abilities and knowledge/skill sets daily. Wow. I just got overwhelmed with appreciation for my school horses. What a working ranch horse puts in in physical effort each day, the school horse matches or exceeds that in mental and emotional effort each day, and they are working physically too.

In conclusion to you, parents:
No matter what kind of experience your kid has in each lesson, encourage the fact that they are learning life skills. That your agenda doesn’t always go according to plan, and that learning to be adaptable, and learning to listen to the needs of others is more valuable than learning heels down at the canter. Yes, most often those are the types of things we work on. But, 100%… learning to ride horses is learning how to communicate (two-way!) and be the leader of a different species. Period.

In conclusion to you, students:
You are so so so so so so so so so blessed to be able to ride multiple horses. You might be jealous of a kiddo who owns a horse. And that could still be a noble goal of yours to have your own. But, until that happens, you need to REALIZE what a unique opportunity you have to ride more than one horse. Even to be able to ride one horses in lessons is MORE than most kids get. Got that? Let me repeat. Many kids are jealous of you, that you even get to take horse lessons. So, as you’re busy wishing you had more and better in lessons and horse ownership and shows, there are those out there wishing they were you. So, please stop what you’re doing right now and say, “I’m thankful.” I, Leslie, am pretty good at riding ANY horse, because of the opportunities I had my whole life to ride ANY horse. Yeah??? Your agenda should be to bond with ALL horses, and to learn from each and every second of your time with any horse you get paired with.