How to Set a
Horse Training Schedule

You’re a horse trainer by trade, which means that you help people become better riders and horses become better athletes. You can fix behavioral problems and solicit the correct responses from your mounts.

The problem is your schedule. No matter how hard you try, you always feel like you’re behind, or maybe you wish you could fit more clients into your workday. You like that every week is different, but you don’t like the instability that comes with freedom of your chosen profession.

I hear complaints like this one all the time—if it doesn’t apply to you, feel free to skip this post. Most people who come to me with issues like this one are lacking one simple skill set: the ability to schedule.

Your Time is Valuable

Whether you charge $10 or $400 per hour, your time is worth something. Every minute that you spend agonizing over the paucity of time in a day is a minute you don’t earn something, and in the horse business that’s a problem.

A horse training schedule irons out all the kinks and allows you to anticipate every hour of every day. This might seem contrary to The Cowboy Way, but it will allow you to make more money and please more clients.

Starting with Services

A horse trainer does not have a specific job description. You create your job description based on your skills, knowledge and time availability.

For example, some horse trainers take on clients by the month. Horse owners pay X amount of dollars every thirty days for X number of rides, and they get what they get. This allows horse trainers to plan out every day of a month, resulting in better consistency.

Other horse trainers take on clients by the ride. They focus on solving smaller problems for competitors and other horse owners. Clients can book more than one session at a time, but business is still conducted by the hour.

You might conduct your horse training business at your own equestrian facility, or perhaps you visit your clients’ farms to render your services. Some horse trainers use their own equipment while others do not; some offer supplementary services while others are horse trainers alone.

None of these options is better than any other. However, if you choose not to make a decision about how you offer your horse training services, your schedule will always be out of whack.

Blocks of Time

One of the major mistakes I see with horse training schedules is that horse trainers often schedule rides throughout the day, with huge breaks in between. Not only is this inefficient, but it makes horse training much more difficult for you, the professional.

Block out a period of time each day (or on days that you train) specifically for horse training. During this time you will do nothing but work with horses, and when that time is up you will stop.

For example, let’s say that you’re a horse trainer and riding instructor. Most of your riding lessons are conducted in the afternoons, when kids are out of school. Therefore, the most obvious block of time for horse training is in the mornings—for example, from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.

This is the time dedicated to horse training, and you can’t go outside that time limit. When a client comes to you for horse training, you assign them an hour (or whatever) between eight and twelve.

Keep a notebook, planner or calendar on your person at all times. In this reference will be recorded all your scheduled horse training. This way you’ll never be running around the barn like a chicken with your head cut off, frantically trying to remember where you’re supposed to be and when.

Back-to-Back is Better

In a perfect world, your horse training schedule would be filled at all times. But this isn’t a perfect world, and there will probably be times when your schedule has a few gaps.

In this case, don’t schedule an hour training ride from eight to nine, then nothing from nine to ten, and another from ten to eleven. It isn’t efficient.

Instead, strive always to book your training rides back-to-back. No time is wasted and you can feel free to move on to other things when your horse training schedule is over for the day (or before it starts).

Emergency Rides

The final thought I want to leave you with concerns emergency rides. This is an instance where a client says: “Hey, horse trainer, I’m having this horrible problem and I need your help now.”

This will happen to you—probably more often than you think—and you need to have a policy for dealing with it.

Emergency rides throw a proverbial wrench in your horse training schedule. They disrupt your routine and make life more complicated. Therefore, emergency training rides are more valuable—both to you and to your client.

You have one of two choices: 1) Don’t take emergency training rides. If you don’t have the time, simply institute a policy against it; or 2) Take emergency training rides, but add a surcharge to your bill. For example, a training ride initiated with less than 24 hour notice costs $20 extra. It’s a fair exchange for disrupting your horse training schedule.

You might also like:

1. Farm Freebies: Riding Instructor Schedule(s)
2. Hacking for Horses in Training
3. How to Keep Your Horse Training Overhead Low
4. Do You Need a
   Horse Training Assistant?
5. How to Refuse a Horse for Training

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About the Author: Laura Jane Thompson is the Chief Equestrian Officer of Riding Instructor University and the Feature writer for the horses section at Suite101. She believes that any horse business can succeed provided its owner practices smart strategy.

Tagged as: horse business, horse trainer, horse training, horse training schedule, schedules