Good, bad, and everything in between. I live on a small farmette of 7. I have a good X ft. I am a high school English teacher, and occasionally I fantasize about early retirement from the classroom to pursue my dream of starting my own riding school here on the farm. I have taught school for 13 years, which I do think of as an asset. Teaching is teaching. My idea is to have no more than 4 horses on the property at a time, ideally all useful lesson horses the three I have right now would be good, 2 retired show horses, one current show horse, all quiet, easy-going, well-trained geldings.
I have some jumps, so I could incorporate that if I had a horse that would jump my current trio has no interest, LOL. I also have access to some trails right off my property, so there would be opportunities to take students out on hacks down the farm paths and into the woods nearby. What is the best way to go about obtaining affordable saddles? What about helmets? As best I can remember way back when I started riding, there was a helmet I could borrow, but my parents were advised to purchase one for me ASAP.
What minimum age should students be? What would YOU want to see included in a lesson package at a riding school for your child or yourself? Before considering doing this check to see what your Liability Insurance will be. Your plans may come to a screeching halt. Insurance may nix that, other than a large enough riding center to carry enough students and activity to pay those higher premiums.
I would drive around where you live and see what other is offered to the public, summer horse camps, trail riding outfits and riding centers that put on shows. Once you know what people like in your area, what your market may be and figure how to accommodate it, why not give it a try? There are several people around here that have horses and train for the public and give lessons here and there to mostly kids, that complement that with other part time jobs, like barn and baby sitting or commercial jobs, to make ends meet.
Without diversifying, just lessons and no boarders, sales, training and taking clients to shows, or offering trail riding to the public, it will be a little harder to sell yourself, but maybe as a starter barn for a few clients you can get started.
