From: Susi
Dear Jessica and Horse Sense: I have been wondering about the cost of taking a lesson in a clinic. My instructor charges $30 for an hour of private instruction. The clinicians who come to my area always seem to charge at least two or three times this much, and some of them charge each rider $300 or $400 for a weekend clinic (two group rides, one hour each, sometimes there are five or ten riders in a group). Do you think that this experience can possibly be worth the price? And since you are a clinician, I'm sure you can tell me exactly why clinic lessons are so expensive! I don't mean to be rude but I have been wondering this for a long time. My instructor says that clinicians charge less at home than they do when they go somewhere else to teach. Why would this be? If they are somewhere else, they don't have to use their own horses or maintain their arenas. Please help me understand this. I would love to participate in a clinic or two, but I feel very annoyed about the cost and maybe if I could understand why, I wouldn't feel this way. Do farms just sponsor clinics to make money?
Thanks and I hope you aren't angry!
Yours Truly, Susi
Hi Susi! Of course I'm not angry, this is an excellent question and I can understand why you would wonder about clinic lesson prices.
Clinics are the way clinicians make their living -- so the clinician has to be able to make a certain amount of money per clinic, whether it's a weekend, two-day clinic or a six-day intensive training week! You're right about the school horses and the arena, but consider this: a clinician who travels on Friday, teaches on Saturday and Sunday, and travels home again on Monday has put FOUR days into that two-day clinic, and been paid for only two of them. And those four days away from home cost money -- during those four days, if the clinician is running an active home farm, someone else has to be in charge there (and get paid). The home horses still have to eat, get exercised, have their stalls cleaned -- the home arena still has to be watered and raked. The barn aisles still have to be swept, water buckets still have to be cleaned -- almost everything at a barn goes on whether the clinician is there or not. Lessons are the exception -- with the clinician away from home, those lessons either don't take place (and the clinician loses regular income), or they DO take place but are given by someone else (again, the clinician loses regular income).
Clinicians don't get rich from clinics! At the top, there are a few clinicians who do quite well, making, as you say, $300 or $400 per rider for one weekend, and teaching those riders in groups. But these clinicians make very good money at home, and when they are on the road, they aren't at home (see above). Most clinicians charge a good deal less than that.
Remember that not all of the money you pay goes to the clinician. Some of it goes to pay the clinician's travel expenses -- usually airfare, sometimes mileage if the clinician is willing to drive. Clinic organizers usually add to the clinician's suggested lesson charges, so that they can cover their expenses. The lesson check you write for $85, for example, may represent $75 for the clinician and $10 for the host barn, to offset clinic expenses.
This doesn't mean that the host barn is making a profit, though. A barn hosting a clinic often makes nothing at all from the clinic. The organizers will usually add enough to the lesson charges to pay the clinician's travel expenses, food, and lodging. And there are other expenses -- special-event insurance, While the clinic is in progress, the barn manager or owner is usually present to ensure that the clinic runs smoothly. There are a lot of jobs associated with putting on a clinic. Just organizing one is a lot of work; on the day, there's more work. Assigning stalls, checking Coggins on the incoming horses, providing feed and bedding for incoming horses, grading and watering the arena, renting porta-potties, arranging for snacks, etc. -- all these tasks are standard when you're putting on a clinic. And someone has to be there to answer questions -- everything from "Does the clinician allow martingales?" to "My horse eats straw bedding, do you have shavings?" and just about any other question you can imagine.
Many barn owners will host clinics, NOT because they hope to make money, but because they want to offer their boarders and other local riders the benefit of a particular clinician's ideas and insights. A good clinician can benefit a host barn in many ways: providing publicity for the barn or for its lesson program, bringing in potential students or boarders to view the barn and ride in the arena, bringing in local riders who have a particular interest in that clinician's ideas or methods.
Many riders who are looking for a boarding or lesson barn are savvy enough to ask "Do you hold regular clinics?" or "Who are your regular clinicians?" when they are comparing several local facilities. This is good information to have! Since regular clinicians are likely to be people whose style and methods are compatible with those of the barn's regular instructors, a potential client might choose, for example, a barn that has regular Centered Riding clinics, or a barn that has regular jumping clinics with a particular clinician.
Now, as for the issue of whether the clinic can be worth several hundred dollars for a weekend -- especially if the riders are in groups. It's a good question, and my answer is that yes, it CAN be worth that, but you work hard for your money, and you need to be careful with it.
AUDIT before you RIDE. Most clinics will allow auditors at a minimal fee. You should know something about a clinician before you ride with that person. An individual's techniques, methods, philosophy, and personal style can make your lesson a wonderful experience, or they can leave you feeling that you never want to ride with that person again. If you have audited a lesson or two, and find that you really dislike a particular clinician's style, then you will know that you don't want to sign up to ride -- for you, the experience would NOT be worth the money. But if watching a lesson or two makes you decide that this clinician IS for you, you'll be able to sign up with confidence.
I hope this helps!
Jessica
Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE is a free, subscriber-supported electronic Q&A email newsletter which deals with all aspects of horses, their management, riding, and training. For more information, please visit www.horse-sense.org
Please visit Jessica Jahiel: Holistic Horsemanship® [www.jessicajahiel.com] for more information on Jessica Jahiel's clinics, video lessons, phone consultations, books, articles, columns, and expert witness and litigation consultant services.