Schooling livery prices?

[AlphaBites]

I have a pony I've decided I want to send for schooling livery as she needs a bit more education before her next rider (off lead). I've sent horses off for schooling livery before at around £150ish a week.

The prices I'm being quoted now though are a bit frightening! One well regarded place is £90 a week grass livery but 3 hours away.
All others I'm looking at are £190 - £220 including being ridden every day. , I'm not looking for Grand Prix training just a a rider to hop on and give pony some confidence some 'ridden away' experience. Not for PC use, but enough to potter around in a school without the need for a leader (pony does this already but still looks for the leader) and to comfortably let a child have a nice canter in a field with a jump or two.
Are these prices average?

The way to look at it is how much would you charge someone to stable, muck out, feed, hay and exercise/train their horse per day? Taking in to consideration the cost of bedding, feed, hay plus your time. I wouldn’t get out of bed for any less than £30 a day!

In the South East we pay £130 - £160 a week for schooling livery, very reputable yards who specialise in schooling childrens ponies. £200 plus seems steep.

I'm currently paying £190/week for full schooling livery & Western training for my boy. He's in Nottingham. Previously I've paid anywhere from £150 - £200/week depending on who it is doing the schooling and what we're having done.

Is there a local lightweight rider who would school if you paid them? In terms of livery it seems steep but actually I doubt they're making very much on it. Might be worth contacting a local riding club or PC branch and see if there's a light adult or capable teenager who would help.

I'd definitely contact your local PC branch and see if anyone is working towards their B or A test as they have to ride a variety of ponies in the tests, and probably happy to ride yours to a reasonable standard for a very small sum.

Good riders aren’t cheap it’s supply and demand.

Is there a very good teenager who could do it if you aren’t willing to pay the going rate for schooling livery

I used to do this sort of thing as a lightweight teenager (much braver back then!). Good time of year to try to get an A-level aged student for a few sessions a week. For what you're budgeting you could probably find someone that would be willing to have lessons on your pony as well, so not only would you have a skilled rider they would also have a set of eyes on the ground, if you see what I mean. Although you may well want to do that yourself it could be good to have a third party looking on once a week and I should think would be well within budget.

I would be very careful about getting just anyone to ride - insurance and all that

Where abouts are you ? I’m in SW and prices round here are about £150 percent schooling livery. However iif you break it down you’re prob looking at maybe £120 ow full livery then maybe £20 per go for each ridden session so that’s maybe not far off what you’ve been quoted