Business Considerations For A Riding Instructor

I did not plan to have a riding program for kids. Thirteen years ago I had a handful of horses and I did several clinic on natural horsemanship. Attendees at this program began To ask if I would teach their kid to ride. Now we have a huge riding program. I should have started with corporate paperwork, insurance and good legal advice.

I am setting out these thoughts for those who are considering beginning their own riding program. Sometimes things seem too daunting when one looks in from the outside. None of the steps that I set out below are as difficult as they might sound.

1. Get a lawyer. Seek out the services of a local lawyer who can tell you about any business licenses or zoning issues that you could possibly face.

2. Incorporate your business. An LLC that is taxed as a Sub-Chapter S corporation will likely be your best best. Discuss your options with your lawyer. Incorporation is easy and inexpensive.

3. Get insurance that will cover you, and the corporation. You might have to dig around a bit to find such companies. Our Farm Bureau agent found a company that suits us well. Insurance is the most important thing that you can do to protect yourself as an instructor. It is no hugely expensive.

4. Ask your lawyer to draw up the waiver form that you will use for all of your students. Get both parents to sign the waiver. Check your state's law on the signs that are to be posted to give the written waiver its full protective effect. Put up the signs, several of them.

5. Make sure that your riders and their parents understand that one who works with horses will go to the hospital. Injuries will occur. Everyone needs to understand that up front.

6. Make your training area as safe as possible. Make sure that all of the tack that you use is in safe working condition. Require helmets and boots every time a horse is mounted. Write out your safety rules and have parent and children read and sign them.

7. Set reasonable fees and insist that you be fully paid unless you have a sliding fee scale. (I encourage you to slide it all the way down to zero as the case needs be. I have never turned away a kid because of inability to pay.)

8. You likely will have little problem with kids that are reckless. The most dangerous kids are those filled with anxiety and who have parents that do nothing to help the kid overcome that anxiety. Teaching riding is not a hobby or a job. It is a calling. Always keep that in mind. Just because the parent will not work to fix the kid does not relieve you of your responsbility to do so. Teach kindness, but also teach courage.

9. Insist that people be on time. Have emergency numbers for all riders. Keep a first aid kit on site. Be careful yourself. Teach prudence, not fear.

Do not get intimidated by the legal costs and insurance. It is the best investment that you will ever make.

As someone who is going to teach people to ride you are about to bring light into very dark lives. You will have clients suffering in ways that you never imagined and you will make their lives better.

Weigh that against the costs.

Sure makes it all seem very cheap to me.