How much do you pay for lessons?

[robcl]

Just wondered how much people pay at the moment for a freelance instructor. Qualifed but not specilising in anything particular, iv not had any for a while but would £20 an hour be about right?

[GinaGeo]

I pay £25 for a half hour Dressage Lesson. My instructor's an "up and coming" so doesn't charge as much as the top trainers; but she's very talented and gets me and my horse. I expect the price will increase as her portfolio expands.

If I were to have lessons through BYRDS I'd be looking at anywhere between £45 and £65 for 45mins. I wouldn't pay that much currently as niether me or my horse are advanced enough to benefit from that level of training. But in the future I would pay that for one off lessons with my trainer's trainer if I thought it would be of benefit to us.

[09rebel99]

I think it depends on who you use and how far they have to travel. I think £20 an hour would be reasonable for someone who is just teaching in general. As Ginageo has said the more specialised the more expensive.

[Kerbeck]

I pay £20 for 45 minutes, my instructor teaches all levels and abilities but in the past has won the Yorkshire show and been M&M WHP champ at HOYS, she is brill.

[josie]

£30 per hour - BHSI and she travels to me.

[LMSmith]

Im VERY lucky that the lady who owns the yard I livery at is fully qualified to teach. She is absolutely fantastic Im not going to tell you how much she charges as you will probably all hate me haha!

[Deleted]

I pay 35 for 45 mins, can't argue with that as they are very informative and I see results

[lfd]

I pay 20pounds for 1 hour - allthough its usually longer as she wont go until she is satisfied!

In mine and alot of other peoples eyes shes the best person ever! My boy was terrible when i bought him (im not sure why i did at the time ) he had been backed and shoved straight into a big awfull pelham (you can imagine ) after some time with my instuctor he has now been un beaten (bar once where he was 2nd) in every elementary dressage test hes entered

I think from a top well known trainer you would be looking around 60+ for 30-45mins x

[Louise Dixon]

I pay £25 for an hour, I travel to my instructor's and get to use her excellent facilities - arena, show jumps, working hunter jumps, cross country jumps, dressage arenas on grass in the summer. She is a BHSII and has years of experience eventing, showing and producing youngsters. I think it is a bargain, and it is the same price if I ride my pony or she does.

[vikki85]

I pay £35 for an hour quite happily - I've had the same instructor throughout my mares ridden career.

[lulah]

Our instructor is BHSAI who used to event, he comes to us and charges £15 for half hr private flat. He spends the whole saturday morning here usually teaching 4 or 5 of us so I guess thats why hes such a good price. We also have him do a group jumping lesson for just £10 per person also.
Thier was a showing clinic I wanted to go to with katie jerram but it was £90 for a 45 min individual!

[pipandwill]

20 for half hour, 40 for an hour
He's a bsja accredited trainer, ridden at hoys, workers and showjumping.
So happily pay that much x

[shpony]

I pay £25 for an hour and a half with the best trainer I have ever had! Shows at top level in showing and dressage and sj

[horses100]

I pay £20 for 45 mins

[tbmare]

There are two instructors that do lessons regularly at the yard.. one is stabled there and is very reasonable.. she s fully qualified and has judged brilliant for the showing side.. and the very basic of riders for confidence, on yarders get discounted rates... she is there all day on sat from 9am till app 4pm sometimes later if horses no going very well.
the other lady is more the dressage she is double the price per 1/2 hr sessions but again she rides BD and judges to a very high level.
I think we are very lucky for the choice and can rate both of them very highly.
as both me and oh and child have used the on yard in for some years now.. and hubby as moved over to the other for dressage.
I think it comes down to .. what you are wanting from your lesson as to how much you are willing to pay and are charged.
I am happy with the cost we pay .

[silverc]

I pay £25 for 45 mins with a BHSII who is also a Level 3 British Dressage judge. Worth every penny.

[mara]

BHSI, list BD judge & still competing.

Has 40 plus year's experience (probably getting on for nearer 50 years)

Has shown, done high level endurance, Western, show jumped, evented although she left the eventing to her rather good eventing sister in the end as she was the braver rider ;D, bred, dealt, re-habilitated/re-schooled some very difficult horses, I think the only thing she hasn't been involved in is racing.

Willing to work with all ages, shapes & sizes or rider & horse or pony, is great with adult riders on ponies.

Very patient but also gets cross when needed

£30 for 45 mins and we achieve an awful lot in those 45 mins!

[Deleted]

That all seems incredibly reasonable, I paid £45 -- 1/2 hour 10 years ago with a dressage instructor for my daughter.

[hs]

I pay £27 an hour for BHSAI who specialises in dressage and also nervous riders. I do flat and jumping in my lessons. She goes to quite a lot of dressage conventions to keep up to date with her knowledge and also goes abroad for a few weeks a year to ride too. She is a mature lady not a just qualified person and she does a bit of dressage judging as well which I think helps loads. She says she does not like to charge loads as then it might restrict lessons to those who are rich and she wants to help all levels of riders.

I don't have loads of lessons normally one every three weeks but my instructor is really good and I took up dressage a few years ago something I thought I would never do my original aims were showing related and I went from being very nervous and doing intro's to winning open prelims' on a pony who had not done dressage before and was not very well schooled and occasionally threw a tantrum as he is not keen on flatwork. This was quite an achievement as I don't have much time to practice due to working full time and also I like doing jumping and hacking so don't normally school more than once week if that and some of my lessons are jumping lessons too. Sometimes the lessons overrun as she likes to always end on a positive.

I have a long way to go in terms of learning and we work on all sorts of things in our lessons, friends who have watched say we tend to do more in our lessons than they normally do. I think this is partly because my pony can get naughty if he gets bored so have to keep doing different things and also because there is so much to learn as both of us are learning together so she is teaching me to teach him to do new things that neither of us have done before so quite a challenge. She always gives lots of feedback and explains things in details rather than just say good or bad she will say that is good because so I always know what I am doing right or wrong and why and what the impact of doing something less good is on my pony. If for example he working really well or improved she will ask me to tell her what I am doing that is making him go well.

The lessons are challenging and not everyone likes detailed critism but then I am paying to learn not to be told I am great!

She is also very horse focused so does not recommend gadgets or short cuts in order to win, so we work on the scales of training in dressage so collection is the last thing that is asked for after being able to work in a rythm with suppleness and straightness being more important than working in an outline. This is quite interesting as my pony does not work in a consistent outline yet but he does well in dressage often beating horse that look like they are going in an outline all the time. My instructor says that alot of people concentrate on getting their horses in an outline without mastering the basics and then the horse may look like it is working on the bit and in a nice outline to the untrained eye but they are not supple and are very tense and good dressage judges will mark down especially at the lower levels if they think a horse is showing tension.