Nearly every parent who brings a kid in for lessons requests for their child to have extra time at the barn and/or exchange some work for lessons.

There are things we love about doing this on occasion, but here’s why so many instructors do this on a very limited basis or not at all.

INSURANCE/LIABILITY: unless a minor has a MASSIVE amount of time at a specific barn, they cannot do any job without supervision. This ties the instructor/owner to the area that the child is in. Insurance companies do NOT LIKE CHILDREN AROUND HORSES. Just ask anyone’s liability premiums who give riding lessons.

TIME: I can feed all the horses and clean all the stalls in about an hour and a half. It often takes new people that much time (or more) to just clean stalls, so the time commitment is a LOT when someone else is doing that work. Add in that person being a minor and needing some instruction, and the time generally lengthens a bit (ok, a lot). Then add in specific things to know about specific horses in specific stalls…and another layer of trickiness is added in. At the time I’m writing this, nearly half the stalls have horses that come with specific warnings and or things to be mindful of.

Think about the first times you taught your child to do the dishes – it took you SO MUCH LONGER to explain the job than it would have taken you to DO that job. Add in an animal who can kill a person on accident, and the time needed to explain how to do a job safely goes up exponentially. Yes, it is nice to be able to do other farm jobs in the area where the stalls are being cleaned, but I can do both the youth’s job as well as my jobs in that area, in less time. This will be true for nearly all stable owners/regular staff.

ALL THAT BEING SAID…

When I was growing up, I was very fortunate to be at barns and with instructors who allowed me to work to help cover board and lessons. As a kid in riding lessons 3-5 days a week, this was a big deal. I will always be grateful for those experiences, and this is why I try to offer it up on occasion. Even though the time necessary is more than I’d normally spend, I do this because I love horse people. As a former middle and high school teacher, I love spending time with the teens when we’re all doing things we love.

Some days, I end up playing with MORE horses, simply because I recognize what those particular horses have to teach students who are hard-working enough to jump at the chance to work off some riding time.

Also, your kids generally crack me up. 10/10 entertainment value. And I don’t take lightly the fact that I get to live somewhere your kids want to spend time. I love that. And I teach because I loooooove it.

Hopefully this gains some insight into why so many horse and barn owners hesitate to bring in teenage helpers. And also why many of us do it when we can make the time.

~ Jolene