Birthday Parties

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Tony

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We keep getting requests/inquiries about taking our horses to birthday parties. Do any of you do them? What do you charge and do? Thanks.
 
I haven't done birthday parties, but I have done some church functions. I can't really help you on what to charge, except that I've seen such services offered for anywhere between $75 and $350 (the higher end is usually riding ponies, or driving horses, and depends on the number of horses involved as well). I'm in California, so the prices might be a bit higher here than elsewhere. I don't have any horses trained to drive yet, so we only do in hand activities when we do things like this at all.

I bring brushes, glitter, and ribbons, and let the kids go to town. You could probably also bring horse safe body paints, hair spray and things like that. Each horse only gets a few kids at a time, and breaks if needed. The amount of kids surrounding any horse is always controlled, and the kids are always warned to be quiet and careful. I also make sure any horse that needs a break is given one. It's usually the girls who stay with the horses longest... they just can't resist braiding the horses manes and tails.

I also bring carrots and treats for the kids to give to the horses. The amount given to each horse is strictly controlled, and because I brought the treats, I know exactly what the horses are getting. Each horse has a handler for safety, and to make sure the horses aren't fed something that could hurt them.

I know I don't have to tell you this, especially since many of your horses are used to being handled by kids, but the horses chosen should be well accustomed to noises, children, and that kind of thing. You never know what kids who aren't used to horses will do. I've had kids run up behind a horse to give him a hug before they went home (as in ran full speed up to Danny's butt and hugged his behind, and then ran away), and I've had kids sit in front of horses, and behind horses (and in one memorable occasion, try to sit underneath Holly).
 
I don't do birthday parties either, but do a lot of volunteer visits with my minis, to help promote the breed. We do 4-H horse science school, animal fair day, farm safty day, and have taken them to church. We take portable corrals and the calmest ones. They need to be Ok with baloons, little kids, strollers, bikes, and in the case of the animal fair they need to stay calm while the police dogs sniff out an exploding bomb, and gun shots.

I do have a friend that makes her living doing pony rides, but I don't know what she charges. Maybe you could look in the phone book for pony rides or stables and call for price quote. Also I'm sure you would need some type of expensive insurence.
 
There was a farm nearby who had tours from the local schools, thru their farm.

One of the children had their finger bitten completely off by a horse.

It wasn't a miniature horse, nevertheless, that put all thoughts of allowing those kinds of activities out of my mind.

I guess as long as you have insurance coverage to cover every possibilty it might be another way to produce a revenue from the business.
 
I have but only did one birthday party and it was for a close friend and didnt charge her anything. I dont do the birthday party thing. I had Robbie all dressed up in his bday hat it was really cute but it was a one time deal only.
 
I have also took my minis to the school for deaf twice but did that just for the kids.
 
I would pass on it if I was you.

Too much can happen. Kids getting hurt, horses getting hurt, partents having attitudes, property damage, bratty non listening kids, the list goes on.

I did it once for folks I didnt know and what a nightmare. My mare was on a long lead and was intreaged by the home owners Mercadies, needless to say she tuched it with her halter and scratched it. Then when not looking, kids there was throwning sand in the horses eyes and poking them with sticks. I said something to the parents and some was concerned about it, others said we paid you so the kids are just having fun. Non of them offered a drink, it was about 90 degrees out, kids fighting over the ponies, just a real headach. Not worth it in the end.

OH and they use pesticides and cemicals on their lawn! The same lawn my horses where eating.
 
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I have been doing birthday parties, and other functions with my minis for 5+ years now. We carry insurance and are an LLC. We charge by the hour and depending on how far we have to drive it ranges from $100 and up. we do cart rides and sometimes just take them for the kids to brush and pet. but mostly cart rides. We do them on the street or safest place close by the clients home. We have a blast doing them, most parties last about 1 to 2 hours, I dont have any go longer than 2 hours and even then I take 2 horses so they dont get board. I think it is an awesome idea and we love doing it.
 
I have done it in the past, but it just wasn't worth the hassle. If it was local it was $60 an hour with a two hour minimum. Farther away would be more...anything beyond 20 minutes driving time would go up to $75-$80 an hour. It included me bringing a portable round pen and brushes and some very calm minis. Kids seemed to do best when they could warm up to them on their own without being pushed. I didn't worry about the kids/horses interacting as much as I would emphasize the NO TREAT rule. They could give them a handful of hay if they wanted, the horses never get overly excited over hay. I did try the cart rides, but it always seemed to have the Santa Clause effect on the kids....they waited and waited for their turn and were so overwhelmed when it was their turn they wouldn't get in the cart or would start apprehensively crying....or you have the one horse lovin kid that wont get out of the cart (God love them, I ate, slept and breathed horses as a child, morning, noon and night, I get it
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All in all it just wasn't worth the prep time before hand, the loading and unloading of the trailer and supplies, the "what if" risk, not to mention going there ahead of time to make certain there was a safe/suitable area to set up, and so on. I did do nursery school visits and elementary school visits along with a demo of my boy Omega jumping, walking up stairs, allowing them to form a line to pet him, and a little fact session for the kids. He is so good, he would go classroom to classroom if animals were permitted in the building. If I could find horse/pony stickers and/or mini coloring books/pages I would give them to the teacher to hand out. I preferred this much more to parties, no kids hopped up on sugar running and screaming, always one or more (usually several) respected adults there to keep kids in line, if my kids were in the class, it gave them their moment to shine when they would come up and help demo or tell the class about the minis, and best of all, no money was involved, pure community outreach, period. The schools always appreciate when parents donate their time and service.
 
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You know your horses and how they will behave. Go for it. I would not let the children give treats of any kind, however.

I would not do it for free, either, as it would set a precedent. At least $50.

It is a fun way to enjoy our little horses and introduce them to other people.
 
Tony, I too have been asked often, not for riding, but for a petting zoo scenario with the tiniest horses. I've not done it because of the HUGE liability involved. If you were going to do it, don't do it without insurance. You are well aware of all the what if's that could happen and God forbid, something does, you will need insurance, I guarantee. Providing fun for a child's birthday party is NOT worth the rist to your assets. So do your homework.
 
We used to set up at carnivals,and local town heritage days under a tent.the minis were under a tent on a merry go roumd type deal.the man I worked for charged $3 per ride....i know he didnt have insurance...he had one of the equine law signs posted....we never had any mishaps thankfully.

Personally I wont do it.we took a few full size horses to a local church...those kids,were brutal....
 
We do saddle and cart rides for parties. We charge enough for the first hour to cover the cost of fuel plus $90. Each hour after is $90 and we work in half hour incriments. This is for one horse. If they want two, we charge the first hour fee plus the $90 for the second horse. We ALWAYS have someone with EACH horse. We have very strict rules about not allowing anyone to feed the horses or hurt them in any way. If our rules are not followed, we load the horses and leave--period. We never allow our horses to eat the grass or anything off the ground. Not sure what is safe.

That being said, the kids love it and we do a bunch of parties. We love doing it also.

Angie
 
We have one mare; now 19 years old; who is our "little ambassador".
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But our adventures with have usually always been the same ones over and over. She visits an elementary school every year. She is outdoors (though she is a "potty trained" girl)-due to one incident where it turned out one student was very allergic-unknown to the teacher. Only two classes come out at once. The children sit quietly (for the most part) back quite aways from her. The teachers keep things in hand. We talk about minis and horses in general and have an question/answer session (I always wondered how many times we've answered the same questions over the years! LOL!). Then the children line up and come up one or two at a time to pet her neck and shoulder or face. (we have had a child or two who WAS allergic yet who were unable to come up to pet-feel bad about that). She gets a "show prep" before going! And of course, curly ribbons in her mane (the kids love that!). My husband made a portable pen for a couple events at church where she and her team-mate went for "petting". Halter and leads were left on. One of us where IN the pen and one outside to move around. It has worked well. They have been to the Library (outdoors) like that twice too for summer reading club learning events. But I think having insurance to cover as much liability as possible is very important. People are very "sue-happy" these days
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. But there is such joy in sharing our small equines. Just try to make it as safe as possible.
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If you can get extensive insurance, then look into it. One injured or killed kid/person and the few hundred dollars won't be worth it. Seems simple enough from the outside, but think hard about the risks.

Good luck to you!

Andrea
 
I used to do birthday parties back when I had my riding school. They came to me and I charged $100/hr with the parents providing their own refreshments and decorations. I provided "pony rides" with my lesson horses and ponies (we led them around the riding ring), a place (barn lounge) for the refreshments/gift opening, etc. Of course you need a restroom. Sometimes we did a hotdog roast, again the parents provided the food. Sometimes they just brought the children out for the pony rides and went back home for the rest of their party so they only paid for one hour.
 
Tony, i don't advertise that we do Birthday parties but word just seems to get around and we have done quite a few . We usually take a couple of horses and a person for each horse. Depending on the place that they are going I will take one for riding ( for the really small kids) and one for driving or sometimes two that can be ridden. Then I take a lot of brushes and combs, the little girls love to groom and braid . People are usually great and feed you lunch and bring plenty of drinks out for the handlers. I usually charge $150 and am there about two hours. If I had to go very far I would probably charge a little more because of the time involved hauling. People have told me that we don't charge enough but I think that is a fair price. After doing some Parties you will find that kids who attend the Party want you to bring the horses to their Party. As long as you Know which of your horses can deal with a bunch of really excited kids it is not a bad thing to do. Most people are surprised at how great the horses are with the kids.
 

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