High prices

[carmen]

I am wondering why some places charge so much in order to allow people to ride, it seems to not just be a peak season type of pricing scale either. We called around to a few places and I can not find anything under 150.

[Pathfinder1]

[QUOTE=carmen;61599]I am wondering why some places charge so much in order to allow people to ride, it seems to not just be a peak season type of pricing scale either. We called around to a few places and I can not find anything under 150. :tinysmile_hmm_t





Hi...


What are the "some places" that you were referring to?

[Grandpa]

I am assuming (bad I know) since this is in the equestrian section, you are talking about horseback riding. Since we can saddle up and ride right into the forest, I had no idea people charged that much for a place to ride on private property. But the first thing that came to my mind was liability insurance. One person rides and drops a sandwich wrapper and just as the next person comes along, the wind blows that wrapper and spooks a horse, the rider gets dumped, hurt and sues. An incident like this may be out of the land owners control, but the lawsuits still happen.

There are a lot of outfitters in our area that take people on trail rides or pack them in to remote locations in the wilderness. These same outfitters set up hunting camps in the backcountry for the fall hunts. When they obtain new horses, those horses are used for packing hay and grain into those backcountry camps to get them acquainted with mountain trails and being a part of a pack string. They do this to select only those horses or mules that can be trusted to haul people into the backcountry.

Not everyone that owns a horse has that horse well broke enough to be riding on those kind of trails. We recently came across a dead horse in the creek, saddle removed but the panniers were lodged under the horse and still there. About a 100 yards up the trail we saw the shoe marks on the rocks where the horse had spooked and gone over the embankment, through the trees and into the rushing waters of the creek. The trail was a good six feet wide, no reason that a good horse should have done that. I also recently posted about finding a saddle deep in the Frank Church wilderness, probably from a horse that was killed or seriously injured back there. If these incidents had been on private property where money had been payed to ride, you know a lawsuit would emerge.

[CozInCowtown]

Originally Posted by carmen

I am wondering why some places charge so much in order to allow people to ride.........

Well, lets start with the initial multi-million dollar investment for the property large enough to ride on.
Next we gotta build fences, barns and other improvements.
Now lets buy a tractor, lawn mowers and other required equipment.
Hire some staff.
Add on some liability insurance.
Now the unreasonable desire to keep it from being forclosed on by the bank....

$150 sounds like a bargain to me.

[JeepThrills]

My guess is that the liability insurance is a big part of it. As a horse owner, however, I can tell you that food, hay and care (vet and blacksmith) are a big expense too.

[carmen]

Oh sorry, we are looking at some horseback riding for both us as fun exercise and also for our youngest. I am wondering now if insurance was always the issue. I know we found other places a few states over that were much cheaper.

[Grandpa]

Originally Posted by carmen

Oh sorry, we are looking at some horseback riding for both us as fun exercise and also for our youngest. I am wondering now if insurance was always the issue. I know we found other places a few states over that were much cheaper.

That would depend on the location. If the riding is on private property, look at Coz's post above. If it is on public land, then the insurance and horse upkeep would be the biggest expense as I and jeep commented.

Out here in the west with so much public land, I had not considered the expense of private land like Coz did.

[Sagebrusher]

150 for how long?

[carmen]

Not nearly enough and I lost the paperwork for that one. I am still on the hunt though I have a ton of places bookmarked that I need to call back tomorrow, many sites I am coming across are "call for details or prices", no one actually states anything on a page anymore.

[Sagebrusher]

It does seem kind of expensive!


Pricing: 1 hour - Adults: $33, Children under the age of 12: $28

2 hour - Adults: $45, Children under the age of 12: $38

1/2 day (includes lunch): $120

Full day (includes lunch): $195


Things To Do :: Custer State Park Resort