Organising Riding Club Lessons

[BAAR]

Looking for ideas on what other riding clubs do for their members for lessons.

We hold lessons for the members but struggle with numbers I'd say if there are 20 members in the club only 10 are super active and only 5 (the regulars) always attend lessons.
Lessons are getting cancelled when not enough members if the cost isn't covered in the past the rule of thumb has to been to cancel, times rearranged to consolidate when not enough are booked into different time slots, and low entries. We want to continue running lessons for those interested but as you can imagine when a regular has something else that day the numbers fall short etc.

We also have a few shows a year open to all other clubs and previously to Covid numbers were not an issue,, we have found coming back from Covid numbers and interest in things just don't seem the same?

looking for ideas - What do other clubs do?
Clinics maybe 6 a year?
Bursary each year put aside to cover costs?
Open all training to other clubs?
Weekend-only lessons?


Looking for anything or everything other clubs do to make the best experience for members

 

[shortstuff99]

We have the clinics open to members at a discount rate and non members at full rate, that helps to fill them.

 

[Surbie]

My local club has a variety of clinics (poles, jumping, dressage, trec, learning showing) as well as lessons and competitions. It's quite an active club so doesn't have the numbers issue as often as a smaller club does - there are fewer things on in winter though and most of those are on the weekend rather than the evening to cut down on indoor school hire. Most are open to non-members too for a slightly higher rate.

 

[Britestar]

We run regular training in the winter, occasionally struggle for numbers, but we do allow non members at a higher cost.

We have flat, poles and jumping in rotation on a weekday evening. That in itself gives people to motivation to come out once in the week.

Weekends clinics tend to be one thing, ie flat or poles/ jump but thats for convenience of setting up.

We have tried alternative ideas, but they tend to be the ones that are under subscribed .

 

[The Xmas Furry]

We too have the facility to open up to non members at a higher cost if not filled, weekends only from Oct to April, then some evening ones as well as weekends in summer.

Also, 2 x neighbouring RC's open theirs up a week or more before to any paid up member of a RC if theirs isnt full. I sometimes have booked on, especially when they have had SJ or Arena eventing indoors, or a day camp.

A big problem is weather conditions tho at this time of the year, or folk not being able to keep horses ticking in between.

 

[BAAR]

Thank you for all your input for the clubs that allow non-members to enter can I ask insurance-wise wise are you on the instructors or the venues? We are in Ireland and I believe this we have not previously done as then we could not avail of the rc association's insurance.
It has been something that has floated in the past and would probably help fill numbers even if people join the club to avail of the cheaper cost

 

[BAAR]

We too have the facility to open up to non members at a higher cost if not filled.

Also, 2 x neighbouring RC's open theirs up a week or more before to any paid up member of a RC if theirs isnt full. I sometimes have booked on, especially when they have had SJ or Arena eventing indoors, or a day camp.

A big problem is weather conditions tho at this time of the year, or folk not being able to keep horses ticking in between.

I think this is a good idea it helps keep us all as an associateion member which is easier for us as well!

 

[LEC]

I have spent a bit of time this week working out that if people are already a member of a RC then the 2nd club is better to charge a training membership of which 100% can then go to the club rather the the large cut that BRC now takes. We have a lot of joint memberships over here. I have run 3 RC now and been on area committee and 2 of the RC went onto be the 3rd largest in the country with 350 members(could never overtake Solihull but that’s due to their structure around use of the equestrian centre) and the 3rd was in dire straits with 20 members and now has 70. People want decent training and you need to be really good at advertising it as well. FB, website and make it easy to book and accessible with what is on. What people want is good value training with good trainers. Preferably in an indoor in winter so then doesn’t get cancelled. A good mix of training - flat, poles and jump. The sweet spot is not running too much but running enough that people see the club is doing enough.
Opening it up helps. Most round here run £5 more for non members unless subsidised then the difference is charged.

 

[SEL]

I pay £5 extra as a non member to attend some training sessions of one of my local RC. Some of their events are members only but quite a few get offered up to non members

 

[little_critter]

Same here, I have attended lessons as a non member and paid the extra £5
I believe another (smaller) club has buddied up with a neighbouring club to share lessons.
The bigger club does (I think) 3 lessons a week with 3 different, popular instructors. They seek out indoor venues for winter (I think this makes winter lessons particularly popular with those with no school / no lights etc as it could be their only opportunity to school each week)

 

[Rowreach]

I have spent a bit of time this week working out that if people are already a member of a RC then the 2nd club is better to charge a training membership of which 100% can then go to the club rather the the large cut that BRC now takes. We have a lot of joint memberships over here. I have run 3 RC now and been on area committee and 2 of the RC went onto be the 3rd largest in the country with 350 members(could never overtake Solihull but that’s due to their structure around use of the equestrian centre) and the 3rd was in dire straits with 20 members and now has 70. People want decent training and you need to be really good at advertising it as well. FB, website and make it easy to book and accessible with what is on. What people want is good value training with good trainers. Preferably in an indoor in winter so then doesn’t get cancelled. A good mix of training - flat, poles and jump. The sweet spot is not running too much but running enough that people see the club is doing enough.
Opening it up helps. Most round here run £5 more for non members unless subsidised then the difference is charged.

Can you explain more please! We're a small club that nearly died out, but we're now getting back on our feet but hamstrung by the amount of money we have to pay to BRC. We can't justify too big a membership fee at this point but there's nothing then left for club funds.

In answer to the OP, we get a better uptake for the one day clinics (both week day and weekend) than anything we run in the evenings, especially at this time of year when nobody wants to go out in the dark. We do open up spare spaces to our neighbouring club in a reciprocal basis, no extra charge.

 

[LEC]

Can you explain more please! We're a small club that nearly died out, but we're now getting back on our feet but hamstrung by the amount of money we have to pay to BRC. We can't justify too big a membership fee at this point but there's nothing then left for club funds.

In answer to the OP, we get a better uptake for the one day clinics (both week day and weekend) than anything we run in the evenings, especially at this time of year when nobody wants to go out in the dark. We do open up spare spaces to our neighbouring club in a reciprocal basis, no extra charge.

If you offer good training and people who are members of other clubs wish to join in then they are already covered by BRC insurance and affiliated so the 2nd club could do a training membership which would then mean they keep 100% of membership but they wouldn’t send info off to BRC.

Unfortunately BRC costs of £24 a member are unavoidable if member not already affiliated. Most clubs round here charge £32 but doesn't leave much for the club so fund raising is essential. Our club has a Christmas sjing show every year which runs between Christmas and NY and it’s hugely popular. Makes a lot of money as sweet spot for entries.

 

[Britestar]

I have spent a bit of time this week working out that if people are already a member of a RC then the 2nd club is better to charge a training membership of which 100% can then go to the club rather the the large cut that BRC now takes. We have a lot of joint memberships over here. I have run 3 RC now and been on area committee and 2 of the RC went onto be the 3rd largest in the country with 350 members(could never overtake Solihull but that’s due to their structure around use of the equestrian centre) and the 3rd was in dire straits with 20 members and now has 70. People want decent training and you need to be really good at advertising it as well. FB, website and make it easy to book and accessible with what is on. What people want is good value training with good trainers. Preferably in an indoor in winter so then doesn’t get cancelled. A good mix of training - flat, poles and jump. The sweet spot is not running too much but running enough that people see the club is doing enough.
Opening it up helps. Most round here run £5 more for non members unless subsidised then the difference is charged.

I like this idea re multiple membership, something heavily discussed in our area.
I'm still battling with the set up .

 

[LEC]

It’s where RC membership is a bit odd as the success of a RC is down to the club and not the national body. If someone is insured with club 1 then being insured with club 2 won’t make any difference as you can’t get better insurance by being insured twice. The £24 cut taken by BRC is predominantly for insurance as prelim fees cover competing. You can’t compete for 2 clubs within 6 months anyway so no benefit to being registered with BRC unless you want to switch competing clubs.
Clubs keep their own records anyway so hence why I think they should run training membership. Access to all lessons and fun but can’t compete providing you are already a member.

 

[Rowreach]

It’s where RC membership is a bit odd as the success of a RC is down to the club and not the national body. If someone is insured with club 1 then being insured with club 2 won’t make any difference as you can’t get better insurance by being insured twice. The £24 cut taken by BRC is predominantly for insurance as prelim fees cover competing. You can’t compete for 2 clubs within 6 months anyway so no benefit to being registered with BRC unless you want to switch competing clubs.
Clubs keep their own records anyway so hence why I think they should run training membership. Access to all lessons and fun but can’t compete providing you are already a member.

It sounds a great idea, but don't other clubs mind if you half pinch theiir members?

 

[LEC]

You aren’t though… it’s the RC members choice. You can be a member of as many RC as you want. This just helps the club with the good training receive 100%

 

[Wishfilly]

One of our local riding clubs runs really well attended low key shows (fun showing and showjumping). Members get discounted entries, but non members are also welcome. I imagine it helps them a lot with funds and may help subsidise some less well attended lessons etc?

I also wonder if transport is an issue for some members- I've thought about RC membership, but I don't have my own transport, so difficult to get to things. Could you ask members with transport if they are willing to buddy up with someone without (I appreciate issues with this) and bring them along to events too? As someone without transport, I'm very keen to take up any opportunity to get out and about, as long as it's within our ability!

 

[ThreeFurs]

The Club I'm chair of pays about AUD 200 per year for affiliation with Equestrian Australia, [covers our insurance] and all our coaches have their own public liability insurance. We have 12 rallies a year, [4th Sunday every month] 10 of which are at the same indoor arena so we're not limited by weather. The other two rallies are more 'fun' an xc one, and a visit to the Horse Playground with a groundwork expert coach.

But in a 'normal' rally members can book for flat, poles and/or jumping, up to two lessons, or people can get day memberships. Lessons are one hour each, for small groups of 2-4 riders, and we try to put groups at the same level together. Coaches are all qualified, and members get a big discount on a coaches usual hourly private fee. We usually have between 20-25 members at any one time, and an active committee.

Venue dates are all booked 6 months ahead as are coaches. I don't think we've ever cancelled, except for weather over 36C. Might sound a bit OCD but the Club's been running a long time [20+ years]. I think its important to meet members' needs, and figure out a small team of coaches you rotate regularly that everyone gets benefit from. That way the coaches get to know the riders and vice versa and can see improvements when they happen. x

 

[abbijay]

Can you explain more please! We're a small club that nearly died out, but we're now getting back on our feet but hamstrung by the amount of money we have to pay to BRC. We can't justify too big a membership fee at this point but there's nothing then left for club funds.

In answer to the OP, we get a better uptake for the one day clinics (both week day and weekend) than anything we run in the evenings, especially at this time of year when nobody wants to go out in the dark. We do open up spare spaces to our neighbouring club in a reciprocal basis, no extra charge.

I took on the role of treasurer after our little club nearly folded. We had a small amount of money in the pot but we had no idea how much money we would need to actually run. So I approached the organisation of finances as if it were a commercial enterprise - i.e. we couldn't afford to run an event if it was unlikely to break even. When we set lesson prices it was based on about 75% attendance. so we would run group lessons for 4 and calculate the prices based on only 3 attending. To put it in context if it costs £20ph arena hire and a coach was £40ph our lessons were charged at £20pp. If we didn't fill every lesson we didn't lose money, if it was full we had money to go in the kitty for other stuff. If we only got 2 people per lesson we would cancel or combine classes or open it to non-members at say £27 (enough increase that if they do 4 events in a season it was better value for them to join us). Prices remained low enough that people couldn't get a lesson with arena hire for anything like that price so it represented good VfM to our members.
We also looked at some low outlay fundraising events - online dressage was £9 per class but it only cost us £2 per test for judging, used BRC tests so we didn't have to pay for test sheets and pennies on rosettes (which had to be collected so no postage costs). Even if we only had 10 entries across all the classes it added at least £60 to the coffers. You could do a pub quiz - plenty of pubs will let you have a function room on a week night if you're keeping the bar busy - maybe charge £5 entry and ask if the bar will put on half portions of chips for £2 so you make £3 per participant.
The other thing is to promote and expand your membership. More people make it easier to get funds in!
Once we had good money in the bank we were able to start giving back to the members - we only charged £5 for attendance to our AGM but we provided a 2 course meal, loads of drinks, entertainment, awards, etc. It did not cost £5!

 

[Rowreach]

I took on the role of treasurer after our little club nearly folded. We had a small amount of money in the pot but we had no idea how much money we would need to actually run. So I approached the organisation of finances as if it were a commercial enterprise - i.e. we couldn't afford to run an event if it was unlikely to break even. When we set lesson prices it was based on about 75% attendance. so we would run group lessons for 4 and calculate the prices based on only 3 attending. To put it in context if it costs £20ph arena hire and a coach was £40ph our lessons were charged at £20pp. If we didn't fill every lesson we didn't lose money, if it was full we had money to go in the kitty for other stuff. If we only got 2 people per lesson we would cancel or combine classes or open it to non-members at say £27 (enough increase that if they do 4 events in a season it was better value for them to join us). Prices remained low enough that people couldn't get a lesson with arena hire for anything like that price so it represented good VfM to our members.
We also looked at some low outlay fundraising events - online dressage was £9 per class but it only cost us £2 per test for judging, used BRC tests so we didn't have to pay for test sheets and pennies on rosettes (which had to be collected so no postage costs). Even if we only had 10 entries across all the classes it added at least £60 to the coffers. You could do a pub quiz - plenty of pubs will let you have a function room on a week night if you're keeping the bar busy - maybe charge £5 entry and ask if the bar will put on half portions of chips for £2 so you make £3 per participant.
The other thing is to promote and expand your membership. More people make it easier to get funds in!
Once we had good money in the bank we were able to start giving back to the members - we only charged £5 for attendance to our AGM but we provided a 2 course meal, loads of drinks, entertainment, awards, etc. It did not cost £5!

It was the training membership I was interested in, and which we're now seriously considering offering from January. We've increased our membership tenfold since taking over the club in August which is fantastic but as we are still building the club back up from the dead, we want to keep our membership rates as low as possible (which means it all goes to BRC at the moment). Everything we are offering so far seems to be popular with our members and we'll be trying out a few new things during 2024.

 

[LEC]

It was the training membership I was interested in, and which we're now seriously considering offering from January. We've increased our membership tenfold since taking over the club in August which is fantastic but as we are still building the club back up from the dead, we want to keep our membership rates as low as possible (which means it all goes to BRC at the moment). Everything we are offering so far seems to be popular with our members and we'll be trying out a few new things during 2024.

I don’t think training membership would be huge in take up as already need to be a member elsewhere but even 3 or 4 could boost the coffers and I think a lot of clubs will have to put up prices. A lot round here have dual memberships though and I am trying to get one sorted for another club. Most membership is £30 for the year so leaving just £6 for the club after insurance isn’t enough really. Mind you PC membership is extortionate due to the insurance but that’s comprehensive 3rd party for the member at all times.

 

[HayleyUK]

Where are all your clubs? There is very little RC training in this part of Cheshire!

 

[abbijay]

Where are all your clubs? There is very little RC training in this part of Cheshire!

Obviously depends where you are in Cheshire but there are several that cover my area (m6 corridor). South Cheshire, Cheshire, BBA, ECCTG all do training, there’s Macc who do lots of comps but I don’t know what training they do.