Lessons - cost per minute

vallin

Well-Known Member
Joined
10 April 2009
Messages
5,016
Location
Cambridge
Visit site
Out of interest who do you train with (and what are there accreditations), how much is your lesson, how long is your lesson and what is the cost per minute training time?

I.E.
B. Meningen (local BE accredited trainer), £25, 45min private, £0.55/min

Victoria Panizzon (4* event rider), £45, average seems to be 75min private, £0.6/min
 
Last edited:
Usually £1 per minute for my SJ coach who is UKCC level 2 I think and out there "doing it" himself and able to communicate how I should be doing it, which is the important bit.

However having been teaching my own child and setting up fences for her all Summer I now feel instructors are underpaid by about a million pounds a minute. I couldn't do it!!
 
Usually £1 per minute for my SJ coach who is UKCC level 2 I think and out there "doing it" himself and able to communicate how I should be doing it, which is the important bit.

However having been teaching my own child and setting up fences for her all Summer I now feel instructors are underpaid by about a million pounds a minute. I couldn't do it!!

Haha, me neither - I hate lugging fences with a passion!
 
level 2 coach for SJ - £20/30 mins so 66p a minute.
old level 2 SJ coach - £40/39 minutes so 1.33 a minute.

dressage coach (GP rider, reserve on overseas Olympic team) - £40/40 mins so £1 a minute.
her partner (represented his country at olympics) charges £40/30 minutes so £1.33 a minute.

I find that I get more out of my lessons with the 'cheaper' SJ coach. Similarly, I paid £85 for a 45 minute clinic with a top dressage rider and got nothing out of it.
 
Last edited:
Up here in the North East:

30 mins with GP rider for £35 = £1.16/minute

Back in Fens, 45 mins with PSG rider = £35.
However, with this one, she wouldn't care about the time. I've been on the horse for an hour and 20 minutes with her trying to get things sorted, no extra charge. And she'd come and support at competitions without the need for payment, with a 'I managed to wangle a gap in the schedule'. Her dedication to her pupils counted for everything.

I am perhaps being unfair about GP rider - she is good, but it's 30 minutes. I haven't been with her long enough to establish a relationship yet, I don't think.


In fact, Vallin, I think you could get on very well with 2nd on my list. She's based Wisbech.
 
Last edited:
Up here in the North East:

30 mins with GP rider for £35 = £1.16/minute

Back in Fens, 45 mins with PSG rider = £35.
However, with this one, she wouldn't care about the time. I've been on the horse for an hour and 20 minutes with her trying to get things sorted, no extra charge. And she'd come and support at competitions without the need for payment, with a 'I managed to wangle a gap in the schedule'. Her dedication to her pupils counted for everything.

I am perhaps being unfair about GP rider - she is good, but it's 30 minutes. I haven't been with her long enough to establish a relationship yet, I don't think.


In fact, Vallin, I think you could get on very well with 2nd on my list. She's based Wisbech.

Nikki crisp?

I've actually moved to the other side of the country in early August - am in Gloucester now :o (hence having a couple of lessons with VP, loving them but can't afford them weekly :( )
 
£25 for 30 minutes with UKCC level 3 SJ coach. Mostly doing flatwork though. He is my YO or it would probably be more. Takes no prisoners but my riding has improved faster over the last 6 or 7 months he's been training me than it has for ages. His partner is a very good dressage rider, don't know what qualifications she has but she's out there doing it at premier leagues etc. and is also excellent. I'm very lucky to be able to get lessons with both, they help with slightly different things.

I have paid a lot more in the past for training that IMO hasn't been half as good.

If I am getting results I would be happy to pay a bit more if I had to and maybe have slightly less frequent lessons if money was an issue. If I am not getting results then however cheap it is, it's a waste of money.
 
£40 per hour for a 4* Olympic event rider (probably because I am on her yard Vallin.....)

£45 per hour for a FBHS who teaches me on the flat and jumping
 
I currently only have flat lessons. Go to someone who has ridden at Inter 1 or 2, German trained (I'm sure anyone who's reasonably Iocal can work out who it is). £35 for an hour so £0.583 / minute and worth every penny without a doubt.

When I'm jumping I usually go to a friend who evented at Intermediate & was on European pony teams when they were younger. £20 for an hour so £0.333 / min.
 
Er... my sanity could have done without working it out tbh but at least I think it's worth every penny... £1.56 per minute :o

FBHS trained and ridden many to GP. Bit overkill for a sec d at elementary but in some respects he's absolutely perfect, because with that depth of experience he can see the potential, beyond the flying mane and feather.
 
Lévrier;13352386 said:
£40 per hour for a 4* Olympic event rider (probably because I am on her yard Vallin.....)

£45 per hour for a FBHS who teaches me on the flat and jumping

Are you at Vittoria's yard? If so a) I'm very envious as it always seems a lovely place and the fields look AMAZING and b) say 'Hi' if you ever notice me there! (Maroon lorry with 'Larry the Lorry' on the cab)
 
Are you at Vittoria's yard? If so a) I'm very envious as it always seems a lovely place and the fields look AMAZING and b) say 'Hi' if you ever notice me there! (Maroon lorry with 'Larry the Lorry' on the cab)

Yep - my horse will be the one in the row of stables overlooking the car park, a skewbald lightweight cob-type in the end stable :) I'll keep an eye out for you and Larry the Lorry :D :D
 
Lévrier;13352440 said:
Yep - my horse will be the one in the row of stables overlooking the car park, a skewbald lightweight cob-type in the end stable :) I'll keep an eye out for you and Larry the Lorry :D :D

Next to the fleabitten grey? I'm so envious! If anyone ever leaves you'll have to let me know, I'm desperate to move yards!
 
FBHS trained and ridden many to GP. Bit overkill for a sec d at elementary

Is it overkill, though? Surely if your aim is to compete/improve, then you would, in an ideal world, try to train with the best (most experienced?) rider/trainer available to you? :)

Btw, I'll see your Section D at Elementary and raise you an IDx who's still struggling to carry himself consistently (and one rider who could never find the right blimmin' buttons to make said horse work properly). :o
 
B_M actually I completely agree, it's worth every penny. Having a trainer that looks at your first steps of collected canter and says "she'll find pirouettes easy" makes it worth it. Someone without that level of experience might just see a horse learning to collect thats still a bit against the hand and not honest in the rhythm yet. He saw a horse that had a quick hindleg and who knows how to tilt her pelvis to sit.
The cob is all I've got now so she's got to be my competition horse, therefore i always want to have an eye to the future so we develop the best we can :)

Still eyewaterinly expensive though!
 
Er... my sanity could have done without working it out tbh but at least I think it's worth every penny... £1.56 per minute :o

FBHS trained and ridden many to GP. Bit overkill for a sec d at elementary but in some respects he's absolutely perfect, because with that depth of experience he can see the potential, beyond the flying mane and feather.

I don't think it is overkill. I'm only doing P/N but I get so much more from a high level DR rider than I've ever got from any other teacher. She is unbelievably picky & perfectionist - nothing is ever allowed to be 'just ok', it has to be spot on. Lessons from someone like that has transformed me & horse.
I'd rather pay for someone advanced to sort out my basic foundations correctly that be glossing over the cracks with someone without that in depth knowledge.
 
I pay 40€ for an hour or 20€ for 30 mins for a Saumur trained instructor (at one time all instructors in France were trained in Saumur, but things are changing - not entirely sure if that's a good thing or not).

Her focus is dressage, and she is a perfectionist, but also does crazy generous things like come out to me at 7am so I can avoid riding in the heat.
 
I have two levels of trainer. Regular (list 3 judge) cost £1 a minute. This is to keep me and horse on the right track
Then when I have an issue I want some additional help with then I turn to trainers like Gareth Hughes, Steven Smith and Yogi. With travel costs you are looking at £2.40 a minute upwards but worth it. Wish I could train at that level all the time but budget wont permit :(
 
I am astoundingly lucky to count a former Irish Olympian as my best friend - but if they weren't free, it would be £40/hr
I have a tune up with another local rider shared with a friend & we pay £15 each. I am riding alone a lot & don't like jumping if there is no one about so that £15 ensures I get jumping once in the week at least. She doesn't have oodles of qualifications, but she 'gets' my horse (took the time to get to know us maybe)
I have had lessons with other more qualified persons who absolutely didn't get me or my horse and in some cases did more harm than good.
Sometimes it's about fit as much as what they have on paper
 
Top