Booking a lesson (riders and owners)
Four steps on the barn’s page - Lesson, Time, Rider, Pay - with credits, card, your account, or in person.
Barns that take bookings online have a Book a lesson section on their public page at stables.co/f/their-barn. Booking runs in four steps: Lesson, Time, Rider, Pay. In the Stables app, choose Book a lesson on My Facility, or the + on My Appointments.
Step by step
- Lesson - pick what you want to ride. Each lesson shows its length, how many riders it takes, its price and who teaches it, and when its next opening is, or “Fully booked · join a waitlist” when every time is full.
- Time - the dates open on the first day with a spot left. Days with openings have a dot, days where every time is full say “Full”, and the arrows move a week at a time. If more than one instructor teaches the lesson, you can pick one. Each time shows its spots left, and a full time says Join waitlist instead. Pick more times to book several (up to 12 in one booking), or select + Add another lesson to book the same time for a number of weeks.
- Rider - if you aren’t signed in, give your name and email (a phone number is optional); this browser remembers them for your next booking. Then say who is riding: you, one of the riders the barn has saved on your account (shown when you are signed in), or Someone else by name. If the lesson needs you to bring a horse, name it here, or pick one of your own horses when you’re signed in. There’s also room to tell the barn anything it should know.
- Pay - use your lesson credits if you have enough, pay by card, have it put on your account with Bill my account, or choose Pay in person, depending on what the barn accepts for that lesson. A free lesson skips this step.
The barn’s policy is shown before you pay: when bookings close, how far ahead they open, and how late you can cancel. Some barns ask you to tick that you’ve read the cancellation policy.
After you book
You get a confirmation on screen and by email. Where the barn approves each booking, you’ll see “Request sent” instead, and hear by email once the barn decides.
From the confirmation you can select Add to Calendar or Book another lesson, say for a second child. The confirmation email has the lesson attached as a calendar file, an Add to Google Calendar button when you booked one lesson, and View lesson details, which opens the lesson’s page at the barn. Where the barn approves each booking, the calendar file comes with the email that confirms it. In the app, Add to my calendar puts it straight into your phone’s calendar.
The evening before, everyone with a confirmed spot gets a reminder by email and in the app, saying when the lesson is, which barn it is at, who is teaching it and, once one is set, which horse they’re riding. Answer it with Will attend or Can’t attend so the barn can plan - see Will attend / Can’t attend: answering a lesson email. If you’ve booked more than one rider into the same lesson, you get one email for all of them, with Both will attend (or All will attend) and Choose who will attend. You can turn the email off under Account Settings → Notifications → “Lesson reminders”.
Cancelling
If you have a Stables account, open My Appointments and select Cancel appointment on the lesson. Or select View lesson details in your booking email: it opens the lesson’s page at the barn, no sign-in needed, where you select Cancel lesson. You can do this until the cancellation window shown when you booked closes. After that, contact the barn and they take you off the lesson.
Cancelling in time gives back what you paid: a lesson credit is returned, and a card hold that hasn’t been charged yet is released. A card payment becomes a lesson credit for another lesson of the same type, or is refunded in full to your card, depending on the barn’s policy. The barn’s policies on the booking page say which, and so does the cancel screen before you confirm.
Changing the time
Need a different time for the same lesson? Choose Change time on it - in My Appointments, or from the link in your booking email - and pick one of the barn’s open times with a spot left. What you paid moves with the booking: no new charge and no refund. Where the barn approves each booking, the change is a request and you keep your current spot until the barn confirms. You can change the time until the same cancellation window closes; after that, contact the barn. To switch to a different lesson, cancel and book the new one.
Booking a service from an independent provider - a trainer, farrier or vet - works differently; see Booking a service (owners).