| The Fraser School of Driving is open year round. We have lots of places to drive with awesome
views of the mountains, but if the weather turns bad we have a spacious indoor
arena where we can conduct your lessons. |
|
Rates: our rates have changed
for 2008; the old rates will be honored to anyone who has already booked their
lessons.
|
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The Experience: $100 per hour for 1 to 2 hours driving horses.
This is for the people who want the experience but have no intentions on doing
more.
-
Basic Training: $75 per hour up to15 hours of lessons.
Fifteen hours of lessons
is our minimum
recommendations for learning the basics. We suggest a three hour lesson per
day which will include plenty of hands on driving, harness & hitching and
informal class room to include question and answer time. This is about as much as most people
can absorb in a day. There is a lot to learn!
-
Advanced Training: $50 per hour. This rate applies to
our students who have completed the Basic Training and want to continue
developing their skills.
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Commercial drivers should consider at least 40 hours of professional
training before you risk the lives of the trusting public.
-
$400 per day clinic for one person or several people in your
private group. For people who want to spend the entire day learning as much as
they can about harnessing, hitching and driving horses. This will include lots
of hands-on driving experience; how to get a better response from the driven
horse; question and answer time; harness choices; vehicle selection; safety
considerations; horse types and abilities; the horse's way of thinking and
responding; what the horse needs from the driver; and other instruction that
might include a video review.
|
| Partner Rates: |
| Partner rates can apply to a spouse, family member or friend who will share
the lesson time. The first person pays the full rate and the second person pays $30 per hour of shared time. |
| Room and Board : |
| We can offer our nice bunk-room
and meals to a limited number of people, or there are motels and restaurants
very close by. Go to the Links page and scroll down to the Deer
Lodge pages for Motels. Call for resident student rates. The benefit here is
additional question and answer time and conversational |
| Schedules: |
|
We can be flexible in our class times and dates, so call and talk with
us about what schedule works best for you.
|
| Lessons: |
| The lessons vary with each
student. Everyone has different interests and levels of ability so we work
with each individual to offer them what they need the most. We teach driving
with contact - this is the safest and most
responsive way to drive a horse or multiple horses. We will briefly cover
harnessing, fitting and adjustments, but we focus mostly on hands-on-driving. We are very flexible in
the lessons and we try to accommodate your individual goals and requirements. We can also teach you how to best present your horse through grooming techniques
and equine enhancement. You may drive a single horse or a well matched pair. We offer lessons in driving four horses, but only after you have accomplished
driving a pair. |
| Gift Certificates: |
|
We offer gift certificates by the hour or by the week! We can make available
as many driving hours as you would like to give. We have sold gift
certificates to:
-
a wife who gave her husband the gift of driving for
their anniversary. He drove horses as a kid and wanted to re-live the
experience. You should have seen the smile on his face! He had so much fun his
wife paid for another hour.
-
a friend who wanted to say Thank You to someone, and she knew
how much her friend wanted to learn how to drive horses. The recipient couldn't
say no to the gift and decided to take more lessons.
-
parents who were learning how to drive from us and could see the
value of professional training, so they gave their daughter the gift of lessons.
Last winter, they hosted a driving fun day for the enthusiasts in their area -
father and daughter both drove a team of horses and had a wonderful time!
-
several husbands who wanted to give something special to their
wives.
-
a husband who wanted to make his wife's dream of driving horses
come true!
-
a wife who gave her husband more lessons because she knew
he wanted more experience driving his horses.
|
| Horses: |
| We usually have a variety of
horses to drive including draft horses, cross breeds, light horses
and ponies. If you have a well trained horses, you may
bring them for your lessons. We may charge $75 for an evaluation to be sure your
horse is suitable for your lessons. If your horse needs additional training it
will be an additional $50 per hour in addition to your lesson. If your horse is
fine there will be no extra costs except the standard boarding rate of $20 per
night. We have hay but it is alfalfa mix and that might be too rich for your
horse, so bring what you normally feed and we will adjust the rate. We have some wonderful
driving horses for sale - so if you are looking for quality - see our list of Horses for Sale. |
| Equine Enhancement: |
|
We can teach you how to make your horses look their
very best! It is surprising how proper conditioning and presentation can benefit you in the show
ring, the sale ring, parades, or anytime you drive in public. We can also teach
you to train your own horses, but this will take time to train you first. It is
not likely you can learn it all in one or two weeks.
|
| Clinics In Your Town: |
| Alex will travel to teach a driving clinic or teach private lessons in your area. |
| Cost is $400 a day plus his expenses which includes
standard mileage rate to and
from your location or air fare, food and lodging for the time he is away from home. If he
has to haul horses for lessons, there will be an additional fee. |
| This would usually include an 8 hour day for lessons plus an hour lunch
break. |
| You can set up the clinic how ever you choose. We do suggest a limit of
10 people for the day so everyone can have some hands on experience. |
| If you have any other questions
feel free to call 406-846-3686 or E-mail, we will be happy to answer your questions about the school or
lessons. |
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