That’s not often easy to determine. Location is a major factor in pricing training for any discipline, along with the level and type of your competition, the temperature of your prospective clientele, and your relative position in the market. Here’s our informal survey of who is charging what. (Note: Some barns combine board and training fees; others break them out separately. The majority of the fees listed below are for training and other services and DO NOT include board, unless otherwise noted.)
Hunter/Jumper
Just north of Orange County, Calif., Kelli Clevenger of Countrywood Farm in Chino Hills charges $525/month for training and full care: That includes five lessons or professional rides a week, grooming, show clipping, bathing, turnout, longing, lunch and supplements, wrapping, blanketing, and medical treatment. Horses are turned out the two days they are not ridden. Clevenger uses her website to ensure clarity, and let clients know what they are and aren’t getting.
Not that many clients have questions. With 25 horses in training, Clevenger says almost three-quarters of her customers have been with her for a decade or longer. “I think I’m fair, maybe even low,” she says. “I give a great lesson, my clients are happy, and our horses are healthy.”
In the heart of northern Virginia, we found a rate of $550/month, based upon two lessons and one training ride or one lesson and two training rides a week. For $700/month, a rider pays for five sessions in any combination of rides and lessons.
Shawnee Acres in Lacama, N.C., charges $675/month for board plus training, which includes five rides per week. Riders can have a lesson in lieu of a ride each week. Lessons alone are $140 for four lessons (a private at 45 minutes), while separate training rides are $35 each.
Charges in Texas are higher. One AA show barn charges $1,250/month for all the private lessons and training rides needed at home and at shows. Another barn charges $900/month for four lessons a week and necessary training rides.
A rider in St. Louis, Mo., told us about fees there: $45/training ride or lesson (group or private). Additional training packages are available, and the price is customized upon request, says our reporter, with ranges from $175 to $300 “on top of board.”
Finally, in the nation’s capital, we found $700/month board that includes amenities like supervision of vet/farrier/dentist visits, laundry service, no extra charges for private turnout/hand walking/or care for any injury, and an owner/trainer who is onsite 24/7. Riding costs are $30/training ride and $45/lesson (group or private).
EVENTING
Holly Hudspeth Eventing of Equiventure Farm in Rougemont, N.C., charges $700/month for full training or rides, five to six days a week.
Robyn Fisher, who bases her eventing and jumping training business at Mill Creek Equestrian Center in Topanga, Calif., slates her services this way: Full training includes 18 to 20 half-hour private lessons or training rides at $1,000/month. She also offers weekly and monthly “full care” at $400/week or $1,500/month, with individual rides at $80.
Capstone Training offers eventing, jumping, and dressage training in Snohomish, Wash. Full training is $500/month with either training rides five days a week or four rides plus one lesson. Partial and half-training rates are $400/month and $300/month, respectively.
At Holling Eventing, based at Willow Run Farm in Ocala, Fla., United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) Eventing Committee member Jonathan Holling charges $800/month for training. Lessons and training rides are $85 each. Holling runs his business with his wife, Jennifer, who is also a top-level competitor.
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