How much to reschool a horse?

[katieB]

Just out of curiosity how much does it cost to reschool a horse? And for those of you who have had it done, can you tell me why you decided to send your horse away for schooling, how long it took and how much it cost. Thanks

[intouch]

We charge £85 pw, £60 for full livery and £25 for schooling 5/6 days a week. We keep the horse till it is working satisfactorily for us, then ask the rider to have a few lessons on him,(£10) to ensure as far as possible that they understand how to prevent any difficulties from happening again. We also check back, feet, teeth, tack fit etc, and advise if horse needs any help there. Does that sound reasonable?

[raggydoll]

Hi - sorry to jump i nbut im quite suprized, i think it sounds very reasonable. How long do you generally need to keep the horses for?

[rache]

ours is £110 a week for schooling and competition livery. This include the horses feed, straw hay etc. It does not cost wormer or shoes.

They get ridden every day for the purpose of she/he being there and we even take it to competitions (this is added to your bill) you also have lessons to see the progress .

[eventerbabe]

i was quoted £200 a week for intensive schooling of Toby, and that was full livery and schooling 5-6 days a week. i wasn't going to be allowed to see him during his time there. it was gonna be a case of drop him off and pick him up 6 weeks later. hence why i didn't bother and did the work myself :)

[andreaB]

£100 a week is the going rate round here , you are generally encouraged to go for lessons once they are underway , dpending on what the issues are

[katieB]

That sounds very reasonable intouch, id definitely be interested if you werent so far away. I only know one person in my area that does reschooling and they charge £250 a week, seems very expensive to me.
Eventerbabe, why do you think they didnt want you go and see him?

[Lindsayanne]

I don't really believe in sending a horse away for training. Think of it like your dance partner, and the difference between sending your partner off to dance school and you and your partner going, and learning, together.

In may I bought a western trail horse. Dead-broke, but had never been asked to work in the aids or really put forth an effort other than carrying his rider around and enjoying the scenery. He had good movement and I wanted him as a dressage horse. I took him to a dressage trainer and that trainer gave us private lessons 3x a week for three months (I'm sure we could have accomplished it faster had I not been a total beginner myself) The trainer trained me to train my horse, and occasionally stepped in when things got really hairy. Coming away from that, I have a horse working solid training level dressage, I'm 10x the rider I was when I started training him, and we have a bond we wouldn't be close to had I just shipped him off to a trainer.

And lessons were much cheaper than training, I actually got all 3 months of lessons for under $600.

[Cheeky]

I agree - I would rather work the horse at home than send it away. I also reschool myself :P Have done it several times, and even though its not 'pro done' I get the results I want, and I get the horse to do what I need :P I also have many knowledgeable people around me who are pro's who I may seek advice from. :) but thats just me . .. I prefer to bond with the horse while schooling :P Maybe if you want to get a trainer in, you might be able to find someone who can invite you in to help them - after all, your gonna be the one riding, not the trainer :P

[eventerbabe]

Eventerbabe, why do you think they didnt want you go and see him?
sorry, its taken me ages to reply! :o i dunno, the place had a good rep, i think they thought that owners coming in and out might upset the horses. as i said, in the end i really couldn't bring myself to do it. probably cost me a bit more to keep him at the yard and bring in an instructor but he'd have never forgiven me if i'd sent him away! he's a funny wee chap. i think me doing all the work certainly strengthened our bond aswell. so much so that now he will dump any other rider but me :rolleyes: ;)

[katieB]

Lindsayanne and Cheeky - thats great youve been able to school your horses at home, this is also what I have been trying to do but there comes a time when you have to admit defeat. If you have dealt with behavioural problems as well as schooling issues then I really admire you both but I myself am at the point where im fed up of landing on my backside every session. I am also able to see when I am doing more harm than good by continuing.
I dont think either of you are aware of my story but a few months ago I would never have considered sending my horse for schooling but now im willing to try anything if it leaves me with another option other than selling her :(

[eventerbabe]

how is ellie doing? i remember your previous threads very well. tbh, in your situation i see absolutely no harm in seeing if professional schooling will help. best of luck. hope to see an update soon!

[katieB]

Eventerbabe, ill PM you shortly :)

[Bertie]

katie - Hi ya, I only PM'd you the other day to fiind how you were getting on, I will have a word with my instructir and the Yard owner to see if they can reccomend anyone around the Cheshire area - would you consider sending her over my way????

I'll see what information I can get and let you have the details.

take care and chin up :)

[Bertie]

Hi Katie, I've PM'd you with a possible place which you could look into and I'm waiting for some more information from my YO.

[bexj]

Katie, I can recommend somewhere near the M62 in Leeds, pm me if you are interested.

[Volvic]

I looked into sending the pony i used to loan away for reschooling, but in the end we decided on getting Micheal Peace out for a day (mainly because she was a pain to load & hated being stabled so she would have hated going to another yard). He showed me what I needed to do & although it wasnt a miracle cure, she never took off again after the session with him. The "Eureka moment" came a couple of months later & I didnt have any problems with her (that I couldnt work through) until I stopped riding her regularly.

I can understand why you want to send her away for schooling - it is extremely difficult to deal with a horse with behavioural problems without some professional help. I was lucky in that I just needed to learn how to & to have the confidence to ride her through one of her napping sessions & Micheal Peace helped me to find the best way to do this in a couple of hours, although I knew the only thing I would be able to do with her was hacking (I value my life too much to argue with her about schooling), so I had to compromise. However I have learnt the hard way that once you have worked through the main problems you need to put in regular & consistent work to maintain this as when I thought I had "conquered" Cloudy's problems I started looking for another horse to progress with & stopped riding her & when I did start riding her again & the novelty of hacking out again had worn off for her, her nappiness came back, but worse until she wouldnt even let me get on.

Have you checked out Project Horses? (http://www.projecthorses.co.uk) This has got details of trainers who may be able to help as well a lot of other useful info

Good luck - I hope you do manage to sort out the problems you & Ellie are having so that you can start to enjoy riding again :)

[Tinger]

hey katieB, ellies not doing so good hey, if only you weren't so far away, and i could drive, i wouldn't mind popping down and seeing if i could do anything to help! Professional schooling is good, theres a few good places around here, but there so expensive your looking at £200-£250 a week!! I think about £80-£140 in about right to be honest!
What is up with the little madam, i haven't been on here in ages so just catching up so i think ive missed alot fo your threads!!!!
Arrianne! x

[Mehitabel]

i wouldn't touch anywhere with a barge pole that wouldn't let me be involved with the process. i used to reschool and rehab difficult ponies, and the most important part is making sure the owner can carry on once they get home. we actively encouraged the owners to watch and be involved, have lessons on our others and on theirs when they were ready, and visited for lessons when they went home if we could.

[katieB]

I think my main concern is that sending her away wont have any effect. We werent doing so badly up until her behaviour changed, I was having weekly lessons and each week my instructor would comment how much progress we'd made in a week. Im not sure whether sending her somewhere would have a lasting effect and considering how much its looking likely to cost I honestly think it could set me back £750 - £1000!
Ive done a bit more thinking this week, hopefully will have some sort of plan of action within the next few weeks...
Volvic, I have visited project horses before but I wasnt aware they had trainers on there, ill take a look. Cheers :)