Trainers who come to you

[VBOpie]

Just curious to know what you are experiencing in your area, but it seems to me that trainers who come to you are starting to be a thing of the past. I understand that it takes time to drive from farm to farm, but I'm sure there are a lot of people out there w/o transportation. What's your experience?

[calvin]

If the trainer travels an hour each way, and teaches for an hour, three hours have elapsed. I pay travel time at the same rate as teaching time, because I think that is fair. Others may not have the same view of what time is "billable". This approach provides an incentive for the trainer to come to you, as time is being converted to revenue.

[VBOpie]

Agreed, Calvin, but I can't find anyone locally who will even do that.

[AmityBee]

Here in Germany, it seems to become more and more popular to have trainers come to you.

I think people are more critical about training and are looking for different things, different riding and training styles, especially in the non-showing, leisure riding crowd. A barn that has a trainer on property and does not allow outside trainers to come in is an absolute no-go for me.

The barn I board at has about 50 boarders and at least 4 different dressage trainers, one jumping trainer and three western trainers coming in. Some are from the area and come in for just a single rider, some have a longer comute and will only come in for for multiple students.

My trainer has a long comute and does "tours". She teaches at 4 different barns in the area and usually does multiple lessons at multiple barns on the same day.

[DJR]

I have two instructors who come to my farm. They travel for other lessons so I'm grouped with others in my area, which helps the instructors make more efficient use of their time. Another instructor I ride under lives 4 hrs away but comes to my area once or twice a month, so I trailer to where she's teaching when she's in my area (sort of a mutual "come to you" arrangement).

[Fatcat]

I have had two trainers who traveled to my place, both an hour away, and both I pay for their travel time. I'm coming out of a protracted health crisis, and was so grateful they were willing to travel to help me keep my horses going when I was too ill to trailer to them. I don't quibble about their rates, I just asked what it would take to make it worth their while, and totally understand if that's 3 hours of billable lesson rates. It hasn't been that much, but I would understand if it was.

[ElaPe]

The not so great trainers come to my barn such as a five-minute trainer or weirdoes such as the "whispering hooves" trainer. The better trainers do not come to my barn - they either want you to come down to them or give several lessons on a chosen day a month in a different barn.

[musical comedy]

The not so great trainers come to my barn such as a five-minute trainer or weirdoes such as the "whispering hooves" trainer. The better trainers do not come to my barn - they either want you to come down to them or give several lessons on a chosen day a month in a different barn.

Same would be true in my area. Good trainers here are very busy with many of their own horses to ride/train plus a barn full of students in full training.

[KathyS]

Mine will come to me, but I am only about 10 minutes from where she normally teaches. I am generally her last lesson.

[leheath8]

Seems to be rare in my area now too. I offered to pay travel time to multiple trainers who were anywhere from 5-30 minutes from my boarding barn, and none would do it no matter how much money I offered. Most trainers now seem to teach out of one or two barns (certain days or times at each) so I moved to a barn where my jumping instructor regularly teaches (I take weekly lessons with her) and trailer back to my previous boarding barn where my dressage instructor teaches because she only comes to the area once every 2 months or so and only in the summer.

[Chisamba]

I do travel to a couple of places, it is inordinately time consuming. Training and teaching is often multi task oriented. a ride between lessons, etc. travelling is limiting, there is always ten minutes spent saying hello, saying goodbye, etc, not to mention travel time, and that ninety percent of the time the rider has not warmed up ore even completed tacking up before the trainer arrives.

It always takes longer than expected, even with travel time.

[Code3]

Fatcat and I have the same trainer, and she's less than ten miles from me. She does still travel, although I trailer to her place for my lessons. many other trainers in the area also travel.

[StraightForward]

I think traveling to give lessons is a bit more common that traveling to train the horse at your location. It makes sense, since many trainers have grooms/assistants who can be getting their horses ready for them at their home barn, so it's much less efficient to travel somewhere, catch up the horse, get it saddled, deal with it if it's sweaty, etc. For lessons, the owner/rider is doing all that, and trainer simply shows up with little to no equipment, gives the lesson and leaves.

I have been taking lessons from someone who comes to the area once a month and travels barn to barn within about a 10 mile radius around the valley giving lessons. I was also using a traveling trainer to start my mare, but he was young and not totally established, and that came around to bite me in the butt, so now I'm sending her out to a trainer with his own facility who doesn't have time to travel.