Cost of having someone exercise your horse?

[PeachesD113]

Okay gunna keep this short as feel I have a tendency to ramble on these posts.
How much would you look at/ be willing to pay someone to come exercise your horse? Not talking about a ‘professional’ I.e a professional rider or instructor, more someone who is competent paid sharer as such.
New yard offers the service of someone (but I don’t know them or their riding but they have a horse at the yard) but the costs seem high - £30 for 1/2 hr schooling, £20 for 1/2 hacking? Horse needs someone confident and semi competent to hack alone and I’d be looking at x3/4 a week which equates to three times actual livery costs. Is there a market for freelance people to keep your horse fit and ticking over when the days get short? And last question if such a market exists where would you find said not ‘professional’ but payable person?
Sorry ended up still being a long post! Gin for all who made it through

 

[iknowmyvalue]

My yard ride a lot of horses for the liveries, and will do a variety of things with them depending on what you want (hacking, schooling, jumping, XC...). I pay £15 per day for that service, and they usually ride for 1/2hr to 1hr, depending on the horse and what they're doing that day. So for me, those costs do sounds a little bit steep! There is definitely a market for freelance people to keep your horse fit, I've seen quite a few adverts for people offering that service on our local horsey FB page, and I know that one of my friends used to do it too. So I'm sure if you have a search around on fb and places like that, there'll be some options for you

 

[claret09]

sounds expensive

 

[OrangeAndLemon]

I pay £20 for mine to get 30mins of schooling with a very experienced rider. I suspect this is a little cheap because I can feel an improvement in him after every session.

 

[SEL]

I pay £25 for 30 mins schooling by an experienced rider.

 

[PaddyMonty]

I'm assuming for the 30 minutes of riding the person would also have to tack up / untack etc so total time would be around an hour. Still perhaps a little steep for a non pro.

 

[stencilface]

I paid someone £10 last week to sit on my pony for 20 mins to continue his backing. I thought it would be more given it takes her 20mins to drive to me too.

 

[Myloubylou]

Makes full livery where exercise is included seem really reasonable. Am lucky that have managed to find friend of friends at yard who are happy to ride for free during the week for me so worth asking around. Although some YO are funny about this if you are taking potential income away from them,

 

[honetpot]

I think if they are making a living from this they have to think about insurance, not everyone is honest about their horse and if you get dumped and spend two months off work, you are not going to make a living.
I do not see how you can charge for less than an hour unless you on the yard already, as you have to tack up, check over, turn out etc,

 

[splash30]

I pay £40 for schooling for the session 30mins to 1hr depending on behaviour and £20 for a hack.

 

[Auslander]

I charge £10 per session for exercise (lunging/loose schooling/hacking) and £20 for ridden schooling - and I'm a pro with recognised qualifications at a decent level and correct insurance. No travel for me, as it's my yard. That seems a bit steep to me, for someone who is presumably unqualified/not a professional rider/trainer.

 

[stormox]

Remember 1/2 hour schooling or hacking is probably an hour. Assuming they are already at the yard. Brush over, tack up, ride, brush over and rug up, put tack away...... maybe bring in and turn out -and of course thetes insurance and fuel!!

 

[PeachesD113]

Thanks all. It seems it’s probably about right if a tad expensive. I wonder if there’s a deal to be done for a longer term arrangement for the next three months. Guess asking won’t hurt?