You know those winter downpours that leave everyone soaked, mud-spattered and miserable? Those pop-up summer thunderstorms that come out of nowhere, throwing lightning at your mounted lessons? The days you walk into your arena and hear the telltale crunch of footing frozen solid?
Horseback riding is an activity frequently affected by weather – but the same doesn’t have to be true for your lesson business.
Owning and caring for horses is an all-weather activity. We still have to feed our horses and pay for their hay when it’s pouring rain or the winter winds are howling.
As a business, your financial well-being simply cannot be dependent on weather. Everyone is depending on the stability of your income, including your horses and your students.
You’ll need to adopt the mindset that you are in the business of providing education, not just saddle time, and come up with creative ways to teach regardless of the weather. You’ll also need to fill your student roster with clients that appreciate this, and look forward to their horse time every week – no matter what form it takes.
This means teaching lots of flexible unmounted lessons that your students find relevant, interesting and FUN!
Your toolbox of inclement weather lessons will need to be customized to the goals of your clients and your answers to these three questions:
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What kind of covered space do you have to work in? Does your barn have a covered aisle protected from the elements - and can you work there without disrupting your boarders or feeding routine?
Alternatively, is there an office or lounge with plenty of seating? Rain on a metal roof can drown out even your best instructor voice, and if wind or lightning is in the mix, you’ll need a fully enclosed building to keep students safe.
We’ve taught plenty of impromptu lessons in tack rooms and feed rooms and have learned to keep folding chairs handy. We've also learned the value of creating a designated classroom area - see the link below for a tour of our current learning space! -
Can your horses participate? If you have spacious aisles, or accessible stalls or tie areas with good lighting, your school horses can still get their hours in by assisting with lessons in anatomy, conformation and first aid.
If you have enough covered space with a nonslip surface, you can even practice groundwork, an often-neglected skill that encourages empathy and communication between horse and handler.
If space is tight, however, or your horses get nervous during a storm, you’re better off planning lessons without them. One of our best school horses was not a fan of rain drumming on a roof, and tying her alone during a storm was a recipe for a meltdown! -
Can you practice social distancing if necessary? The past few years have reminded us that packing a large group of people into a small room is not always the safest business practice.
Scout out - or build - open air locations such as a covered porcch or pavilion, and keep hand sanitizer at the ready.
Once you have a clear picture of your logistics, start a notebook or binder of lesson plans and ideas.
You may also want to assemble some props and teaching materials in portable plastic tubs.
We use a lesson-in-a-box system that provides “grab and go” unmounted lessons: we keep printed worksheets and games, Stuff Happens cards, Level Up question sets and flashcards, and hands-on materials such as braiding bands, farrier tools, or mini-bags of horse feed in storage boxes organized and labeled by topic.
Make sure your rainy day lesson program achieves these five essential goals:
Goal #1- It should make unmounted HorseSense lessons fun and engaging
These lessons can take a bit more preparation and creativity to teach successfully — nobody wants to hear you lecture about equine parasites for an hour.
Unmounted lessons should include hands-on practice and review along with plenty of visuals and demonstration. Incorporate games and challenges whenever possible, especially for young children!
Goal #2: It should help parents and students see the value of unmounted education
There’s a lot more to horses than looking good on their backs – but sometimes helping new students understand this can be a bit of a project.
We explain that even our mounted Horsemanship Levels have unmounted objectives covering essential ground skills and riding theory, and that rainy day lessons help students progress toward their next Levels ribbon.
It helps to build incentives and community into your unmounted programming through group classes and in-barn challenges. For more tips on getting your students EXCITED about rainy day lessons, check out Why Unmounted Lessons Fail.
Goal #3: It should relate to the horsemanship skills our students are learning in the saddle
No matter how carefully you communicate your philosophy during the on-boarding process, you may still end up with a few students or parents that “only want to ride,” or don’t believe they should pay full price for a lesson based around “barn chores.”
You may not share their viewpoint, but you CAN meet in the middle by teaching unmounted lessons designed to boost riding skills.
Aspiring jumpers can practice walking distances and set miniature grids for Breyer horses.
Students can design conditioning programs for horse and rider and practice off-the-horse exercises tailored to their own strengths and weaknesses.
Teach the biomechanics of correct equitation and equine movement through video and simulations, and practice positioning for lateral maneuvers using pool noodle ponies.
Our hobbyhorses get a workout teaching on-foot dressage tests, course design, and canter leads – especially on a frozen winter day when the movement keeps everyone warm!
Goal #4: It should be communicated as clearly as possible
We can’t emphasize this enough: we have our inclement weather policy printed on every newsletter, info packet, web page and barn wall. Without this excessive amount of communication, the phone starts ringing as soon as the raindrops fall.
If you aren’t careful, you’ll find you have a new part-time job as a meteorologist… and you definitely aren’t getting paid well enough for your predictions!
We recommend outlining exactly what will happen if the weather goes south during a lesson appointment:
- Will you delay mounted lessons for pop-up storms, cancel the remaining time, or switch to an unmounted lesson?
- Should students still arrive early in hopes of tacking up, or should they arrive at their scheduled time?
- What exactly will rainy day lessons cover?
- What is your policy for severe weather such as icy winter storms or a tornado watch?
We do NOT recommend offering a discount for unmounted programming taught in place of a mounted lesson. This communicates that unmounted learning is less valuable, and you put just as much time and effort into off-the-horse lessons (if not more!). Simply make sure that students get their money’s worth.
We’re also clear that if we’re still open for lessons and a student chooses not to come due to inclement weather, no refund is offered on monthly tuition.
Goal #5: It should encourage flexibility and perseverance
When it’s thirty-five degrees and raining, or a hundred degrees in the shade, nobody wants to be outdoors. We get it, and we try to also consider our horse’s perspective – they’re not exactly thrilled to work in inclement weather, either!
But if all we’re dealing with is a summer shower, or some sloppy footing? It might be a good opportunity to practice cheerfully tackling some tough conditions.
If we waited for perfect weather, we’d never get anything done, and we want our students to learn how to adapt, not make excuses. (This is particularly true for aspiring show team members – in our experience, the show must go on, rain or shine!)
Teach your students how to dress for rain, wind, heat and cold – and how to keep on working with a smile on your face.
Would you like a book with HUNDREDS of student-approved unmounted lesson activities, games, and revenue-boosting activities… plus sample lesson plans and tips for running unmounted programs? You’re in luck: THE BIG BOOK OF BARN LESSONS is available in paperback and Kindle e-book through Amazon, or you can purchase a PDF version directly from us!
Amazon reviewers say it’s a “must have,” “godsend” and “treasure trove,” among other really nice things.
