Frequently Asked Questions

Lessons

Each lesson takes about 2 hours from your scheduled time: 30 minutes to prepare your horse, 45 (private) or 60 (group) minutes of riding, and 30 minutes to untack and clean your space. For your first lesson, please come 5-10 minutes early so we can complete waivers and check that your equipment is suitable. Riders are welcome to come early or stay late, but children at the barn outside of their lesson time are expected to be supervised.

What do I need to bring for a lesson?

Each rider needs:
– Long Pants: No jeans please! Leggings or riding breeches both work well.
– Boots with a heel of at least 1.5cm: Approximately the width of a finger.
– An ASTM approved helmet: Different from a bike helmet. If you don’t have your own, you can rent them from us for $5 per helmet per ride.
– Clothes for the weather: in the winter, our arena and barn are protected from the wind but not the cold.
[Optional] – An apple or carrot for your horse!
Open toed shoes are not permitted in the barn. This applies not just to riders, but also anyone else in the barn.

If you are looking for riding gear, we have a small selection of used riding equipment for sale. This includes tall riding boots, paddock boots, half chaps, breeches, show shirts, show jackets, and safety vests. Ask your instructor if you are interested in checking things out.

What ages do you teach?

How do I book and pay for a lesson?

How do I cancel or reschedule a lesson?

If you have to miss a lesson, please let us know by email at least 24 hours in advance. We will schedule a make-up lesson within the next two weeks. Lessons that are not cancelled 24 hours in advance, or made up within 2 weeks, are forfeited. If you frequently miss lessons, you may be asked to choose a different time slot that works better for you.
Lesson packages only ever include 4 weeks of lessons. The 5th week of each month (29th, 30th, 31st) is set aside as rest days for our horses, and there are no lessons on these days.
Lessons may be cancelled day-of in the case of road closures or weather below 20C (excluding windchill). In that case, notice would be sent out through Facebook and the mailing list, and lessons would be rescheduled for a later date. In the case of dangerous weather, riding lessons may be swapped for theory lessons on the ground.

What does it really cost?

Where can I park when I get there?

Do you travel to give lessons? How far?

Can students bring their own horses for lessons?

Horse Training

1. Can you train my horse to do tricks?

2. What kind of training do you offer?

I get this all the time. I want to let everyone know that English/Western/Saddleseat/Driving or other styles of horse sports to me are all the same principals. I want my horse confident, willing to please, happy, and trained so well that the rest of the world thinks the horse is doing all the work and I’m just sitting there.

That is one of my favourite things to say to my students, make it look easy, make your friends think “I could do that, it looks so easy!”. This concept is what I try to apply to everything. My horse should steer completely off of my seat, weight, eyes and legs, and my horses do! I take the bridles off all the time and ride without because I can. This is what I want all the horses I train to be able to do. It means no short cuts, the horses learn everything thoroughly. We don’t just hop on and ride for hours one day and expect the horse to absorb it all by the end. Short but frequent lessons are the best and the horses learn and enjoy learning.

I train mostly dressage. I had a clinician dare me to make a horse go round and do upper level dressage moves without a bridle, he said it was impossible, and I’m out to prove him wrong.

I specialize in dressage training, however I have also competed in hunter/jumper as well as the western disciplines both performance and speed events. I bring a well rounded knowledge to my training and I have picked up tools and techniques from each discipline that I have ridden through.

Boarding

1. Do you have indoor and outdoor board?

2. Do I have to pay a deposit?

3. What about the extras?

Boots, blankets, fly masks are all included in the indoor board price. The barn staff will put on and remove as required. It is up to you to keep them in good repair, and replace them as needed if your horse requires them.

Extra grain or supplements, if your horse requires extra grain (outside of the grains we already feed) or extra supplements for it’s health, we are happy to feed it. You must include it in your contract so that all barn workers can be made aware of dosages. You do need to provide these extras but we are happy to feed them at no extra cost to you.

Testimonials

I have been taking lessons at Fire Fly Stables for a year now. I absolutely love my lessons. Jenn is so knowledgeable and detail oriented I have learned more than I could have imagined there was to learn. Jenn is relaxed, easy going, the lessons are fun but she is also able to motivate her students to do better each time. Thank you Jenn, I promise someday you won’t have to remind me to keep my heels down and fingers closed!Happy Rider, Tracy Ann

Hi Jenn, I just wanted to put it out there that out of all the other barns I’ve been to, yours tops the list! You are the BEST trainer I’ve ever had and I can’t wait to see where we go from here. I am always excited to come out and ride, I sometimes have a lack of confidence but you have a way of telling me I can do it! Your teaching style is awesome because you don’t teach everyone the same way, you pick out our flaws and work on them in a way that is really fun and easy to understand. I don’t know how you remember which person has which style. I love coming to every lesson and I always walk away extremely happy and I learn something every time, even if it was small… thank you so much!Thrilled Student, Morgan

I have been riding for a year and a half now and it has been amazing. Sometimes I can be scared around horses and Jenn is really helping. She doesn’t push us to do things, but she doesn’t do the work for us either. I really like it at Fire Fly. Jenn is very laid back and easygoing. Our lessons are always different too!Happy Student, Jordyn

You have been the best teacher ever! Your horses are nice, you are nice, and thanks for everything. Because you trusted me I believe in myself no matter what happens.Excited Rider, Paige