Who Covers Competition Fees for Horses in Training?

Recently this question was posed in a group I’m in and it got me thinking. To me, it really doesn’t matter who covers competition fees. What matters is clarity on it between a client and their trainer.

Managing expectations up front is key. It will save you a lot of headache, prospective lost income, and your reputation. 

A few things to consider:

• Make sure your agreement or contract states up front whom will own these costs

• If you will be owning the costs as the trainer, set bounds on the amount and expectations based on what is feasible as part of your training fee. (If you choose to do this, it is imperative that you build the expected fees into your training cost. To make this easy you can look at all of the event costs for the year next to how many horses you typically have in training and would take at a given time. Total the expected costs to take them and then divide by the number of horses you expect to train that year to get an average. Add this amount to your base training fees. If you show seasonally you may choose to add this during one season but not the other.

• If you do set bounds on covering competition fees, consider adding a caveat that if the owner wishes to have their horse entered in more classes they must notify you in writing prior to your doing so and that they will be invoiced for the associated additional costs at the end of the competition/event. (This ensures that you have a record stating both what you will cover and what they will pay for to follow up on if you need to. I recognize that it’s not unusual for the owner to be absent at the event, which is why covering the costs yourself and then invoicing the client may be easiest.)

If you do decide to invoice clients separately for all or some of their horse’s competition related fees, StablePro is a great app that will enable you do so quickly and seamlessly. It’s definitely worth checking out.

No matter which approach you decide to take, ensure it’s covered in your training program agreement with new clients and keep communications simple. Here is what I mean in practice:

You will be covering fees up to a certain point: 

While X is in training with [Your Program Name], exposure to competition is key. X will participate in a minimum of # events. Fees associated with each event (trailering, entry fees, stabling, etc.) up to $$$ will be covered as part of X’s training program. Additional fees will be at owner’s expense, agreed upon by both parties in writing before, or during, each individual competition/event and to be expensed following the conclusion of the event.

You will not be covering fees for a horse in training:

[Your Program Name] is a competitive program. While horses in training are not required to attend competitions, they will have the opportunity to participate as a way to gain exposure and experience at owner’s expense OR All horses within the program will be expected to participate in competition regularly. No fees related to competition (trailering, entry fees, stabling, etc.) are included in our standard training rates. All competition fees will be at owner’s expense, agreed upon by both parties in writing before, or at, each individual competition/event.

You will be covering all fees for training horses at competition:

While X is in training with [Your Program Name], exposure to competition is key. X will participate in # events. Fees associated with each event will be covered as part of X’s training program. 

I don’t recommend taking this last approach unless you are in a discipline where you are unlikely to see much change to a horse’s competition entries or fees. I can’t express enough the importance of ensuring you know what those costs look like and include them when calculating your program’s training fees, or it will be a loss that you will incur at the expense of profit from your time training at home. 

Does it depend on whom is riding the horse? That's up to you and may depend on the situation. Either way, I recommend getting it in writing ahead of time. Perhaps you want the exposure for your program and it's worthwhile for you to ride the horse for free but have the owner pay the competition fees. If your clients is asking you to ride the horse for the horse's exposure and this is not covered in your program, you may wish to charge a fee (per event, per class, per hour, or per day are all acceptable. Just strive to be consistent) along with the hard costs related to competition.

So, which approach do you prefer for your program and why? Share in the comments below.

Need help figuring out what will work best for you and your training program? That’s what I’m here for. 

Hugs and Happy Riding,

Kristin

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Blog posts from Equestripreneur are not meant to replace individual professional advice, which will best inform personal circumstances.