How much should you pay for a lesson horse? This is the question on every riding instructor’s mind, and it can have an enormous impact on the bottom line. After all, the amount of money you pay for lesson horses comes right out of your profits from teaching riding lessons.
I hate to be the one to shatter your illusions of Riding Instructor University, but I have no tried-and-true method for determining how much (or how little) to pay for lesson horses. This is an extremely subjective decision that takes into account:
- How much money you have available.
- The amount of training the horse needs to have
- How old the horse is.
- Where you live.
- How much you’ve paid for other lesson horses.
- The number of lessons you teach each week.
- And myriad other factors.
Some lesson horses are literally worth their weight in gold, and will generate countless dollars over the next several years. I’ve met several of these “magic” lesson horses over the years, and their owners wouldn’t have put them on the market for millions.
Yes, a lesson horse can wield that much power.
The real question when buying lesson horses is not how much does the horse cost but is the horse worth his price tag. Obviously, the price does matter if you’re operating on a strict budget, but most riding instructors will make the price work for the right horse.
My advice is to start your search for lesson horses with a price ceiling already in mind. For example, if you’ve only got $5,000 to spend, you might want to set a ceiling of $4,000, to leave room for the vet check and transportation costs, and any other expenses you might incur.
And to make sure that you don’t exceed your ceiling, you might only want to look at horses that fall within your price range. If you go see a horse with a price tag of $5,500—hoping that the owner will drop the price during negotiation—you’re setting yourself up for either disappointment or exceeding your budget.
It is also important to realize that the price of a lesson horse is completely separate from the cost of the lesson horse. The cost takes into account how much you will spend:
- Getting him home
- Ordering the vet check
- Shoeing him
- Purchasing tack and other equipment
- Feeding him
- Curing (or lessening) bad habits (such as cribbing)
- Housing him
- And more
Make no mistake: Some horses are cheaper to keep than others. A cheap lesson horse that requires a special feed or needs a particular saddle, or presents behavioral problems might cost you much more than an expensive lesson horse that’s easy to keep.
And, as I’ve said over the course of this series, it’s always a gamble. You might purchase a lesson horse that turns out to be a money pit, and all you can do is bite the bullet or re-sell him.
The best advice I can give—and I say this in all seriousness—is to trust your gut. If something deep inside tells you to walk away, by all means look for another horse.
More in the Lesson Horse Evaluation Series:
- Introduction
- Behavioral Suitability
- Physical Ability
- Student Compatibility
- Equine History
- Vet Check
- Disposition
About the Author: Laura Jane Thompson is the Editor in Chief of Riding Instructor University and the Feature writer for the horses section at Suite101. Follow her EquiTips on Twitter.