Competing/Hunting people's horses for them - what do you charge?

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spotty_pony

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Question in title.

I am a freelance groom/rider and am riding for someone who wants me to compete one of their ponies at a few unaffiliated shows and hunt some of their horses this coming season - haven't done this before so can't decide what I should charge?! They are paying for all entry fees/hunting caps and taking horses there, I will just be going with them and riding.

I was thinking a fixed fee for a show of £25 to cover some of the time but without it being too expensive. It is likely it will be a couple of show jumping classes which I will be doing.

And Hunting I generally have no idea?! Should I be charging a normal hourly rate and it varies how long you are out for or a fixed rate again?

Experiences please, does this sound reasonable?
 
If someone is riding my horses as a favour I would not expect to pay. I sometimes loan PC Ponies for competitions, hunting etc.

But if I have asked a professional to ride for me I would expect to pay their usual hourly rate. So what do you usually charge per hour when you teach, school or ride out? You are using the same expertise for each activity.

Hopefully I'm singing to the choir - but make sure you have the correct insurance. Especially for hunting.
 
I normally did this as part of the livery deal but as a freelancer you need to cover your costs in a different way, a day out competing or hunting means no income for that day other than whatever you get from that client so an hourly rate for hunting, in winter your working hours are limited so you cannot afford to get just a token for the best part of the day.
Then maybe a set rate per class for competing, I used to pay £??, cannot remember exactly, for the first class and less ££ for the second when I employed a pro SJ to ride a tricky one of mine, you need to see what you may get out of it in other ways, will being out there bring in more clients or are you so busy you dont want more, will it bring in more competing/ hunting work or is that not adirection you want to go, at the end of the day it is their hobby and your livelyhood dont sell yourself short they should expect to pay a professional rate for a professional job.
 
How much time is it likely to take? You could easily be looking at several hours, including travelling time- it's going to be almost impossible to charge a fair rate without putting yourself at a disadvantage.

To try to make the sums work i'd charge a reduced rate per hour of time you're committed, plus X amount per class - but I would have thought at least £50 was more like it for what you describe. It would be different if you were going anyway and they literally wanted you to ride and nothing else, but your time has a value whether you're sitting on a horse or in a car!

For hunting - no idea what the going rate is, but at least £75 feels like what I'd expect to pay, regardless of the time spent. If the horse goes lame in the first five minutes, you've still committed the time - you can't just go off and find other work to fill a suddenly empty day!
 
I charge £30 for 1 class + warm-up + £20/additional hour started (includes additional classes if relevant).

Mileage is extra. Sometimes I will travel with the horse/owner in which case the hourly fee applies.

Any time the client is paying for belongs entirely to them. I will groom, prep, muck out the box, anything they want on their time :)
 
I pay £15 for a young girl to take my pony in some xc and jumping classes. I pay all entries , take the pony and tack up etc, she just jumps on board . Also she hacks out for an hour a week the same cost.

She doesn't travel specially to shows for me . She would be there with her own so no traveling costs involved , I also take pony to her yard to ride from .
 
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I suppose the thing is, what is it worth to you?
I completely get that you need to earn a living and that being away at a show/hunting is time consuming and takes you away from other potentially more lucrative work.

But speaking as an owner I would not be prepared to pay some of the costs quoted here unless a seriously good rider and I could be sure value was being added to my horse.

For example a service I'm quite likely to use is a local rider who basically takes out a subscription to a local big name hunt, then charges people £50 to hunt their horses. She gets a free seasons hunting, on horses that are essentially groomed for her. Owners get their horses done for less than the cost of a day cap. I'm planning on one of mine using this service in preparation to sell.
 
I used to event and hunt a horse for a local woman - I rode the horse 3 days a week at home. Every time I rode, whether at home or at competition, it was £25, which averaged out quite well. The owner paid everything to do with the days out - from horse registration, my registration with BE, and I hunted off her subscription. It was useful in terms of added advertising - people would see me out, and that generated more teaching and rides.

Also, it was fun - really smart horse and I got paid to take her out - bonus! I'd've taken her for free to be honest
 
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