Ideas to expand/improve riding school services/lessons....

ditto birthday parties, also has the advantage of gaining some more clients, though might be a bit limited by number of ponies.
My old RS has always run a number of extras in the holidays
jumping, gymkhana games, treasure hunt, a longer hack (couple of hours), half days and full days which got all the ponies and tack cleaned (day included riding once or twice too). They are running all the same things now they did 15 odd years ago so they must still be popular!

Do you have the option to run your own yard pony club or become a pony club centre? Said yard used to have it's own club and 'tests' so people did training then the tests, they are now PC centre.
 
If you are looking to expand the time that is profitable for the school, how about a "Mums" group during the week, during school hours?, maybe combined with a coffee and cake session after the lesson/ride, with maybe another similar group after normal working hours?
 
What about doing a covering of what happens when you own your own horse.
Different ailments you might come across
Abcess, sweet itch, laminitis, colic, feeding to the workload and body not just because, abit on bitting and saddles......and anything else I've missed.
 
When I first started riding the RS I went to did a monthly thing where each Saturday was designated to a different group so the first Saturday was beginners then when you were good enough you progressed to the 2nd Saturday of the month (the novices) then 3rd Saturday was intermediate and 4th Saturday was advanced. You spent the full Saturday there and had a morning and afternoon lesson and the rest of the day doing stable management. Also as you advanced you could return to your old group as a "helper".
Also have seen a local RS advertise on meet up groups for adults to have lessons together then coffee and cake afterwards - always thought that would be good for people new to an area or shy people short of friends.
 
What about linking up with a local business and offering an employee group lesson? My stables does this for a business headquarters near me - lesson is apparently always full, and clients then go on to book privates etc (more money!). I think it's all advertised internally and the RS just keeps a group lesson reserved for employees. A bit of an unusual thing (to me anyway!) but seems to be working out extremely well for my RS
 
YorksG said:
If you are looking to expand the time that is profitable for the school, how about a "Mums" group during the week, during school hours?, maybe combined with a coffee and cake session after the lesson/ride, with maybe another similar group after normal working hours?
Click to expand...

I've also known of riding schools that provide a free crèche on some weekday mornings so parents with pre-school children can also ride without having the hassle of arranging separate childcare.
 
See if you can get a "real" sj/dr instructor in, do clinics for either people on their own horses, or rent yours out out to clients/people who can't get their own horses there at a "discount" rate
 
Not sure about insurance and stuff, but a lot of riding schools have a loan scheme thing where children pay a set amount to come X (usually 3) days a week and look after/groom/have a supervised ride or hack on 'their' pony and often have a lesson on that pony included in the price. It seems a good idea to me as you get extra help with mucking out etc if you have children willing to do that, and ponies get pampered more!
 
I think that you really need to sit down and decide who your target clients are and what facilities are available to you in relation to the number of horses you have and controlling their working hours.

With 9 horses/ ponies and two staff members I would imagine that you would need to attract new clients with the intention of widening the stable management instruction at weekends and the ridden element during the week.

Are you affiliated with anyone?
The pony club is a good start and you may be able to become a pony club centre, which in turn opens up training rallies and examinations as a minimum.

The ABRS offers a very good, but easily worked training route that would open up to a wider age range and could be worked so that daytime or evening adult groups would become more attractive to adult clients.

Putting on bi monthly events, such as farrier demonstrations, side saddle demonstrations etc. can introduce new clients to your yard.

Dressage shows on the opposite months would allow your exiting clients to gauge their improvement and can encourage local horse owners in if you allow outside entries. They are fairly basic to set up and entry fees should cover the out going cost of rosettes and external judges if desired.

Social events such as bbq's and fun days encourage parents and children to attend together, and hacks to local pubs in summer are usually well received!

With regard to an earlier posters comments about weekly lessons being replaced by events, discounting events for people who have paid for the event and their next lesson at the same time helps with this issue and offers regular riders a fair reduction.
 
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