PrintDuring weeks of competition at the major winter show circuits, on-site classrooms help young riders keep up with schoolwork.
At the beginning of each December, Reed Kessler of Armonk, N.Y., says goodbye to her classmates and teachers and heads to Florida to show for four months. When she returns in early April, Kessler said she’s far enough ahead in her studies that she can “pretty much coast for a month or so.”
That’s because the tenth-grader enrolls in a guided-study program operated by Private Tutoring Services, which offers classroom settings and one-on-one instruction at several winter show circuits, including HITS Ocala (Fla.), Gulfport Winter Series (Miss.) and Jacksonville Winter Series (Fla.). But the company’s primary equestrian branch is located at the FTI Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington, Fla., where Kessler shows.
Near the exhibitors’ entrance at WEF (a 12-week circuit), PTS has created a mini-campus of sorts, featuring two 50-foot climate-controlled trailers equipped with state-of-the-art educational amenities (including WiFi) and an outdoor patio where riders can study, take a quiet break or socialize.
Last season, PTS served more than 50 school-aged riders at WEF. Educational-support programs of all kinds operate at WEF and the other major circuits. But PTS, piloted by longtime director Joanne Weiner, is one of the largest.
Kessler’s history with PTS dates back to her pony days, when she was in fifth grade. Her parents, who also ride, wanted to secure their daughter in a program that would ensure she could keep up with her schoolwork while the family competed at WEF.
“Before I started [with PTS],” said Kessler, 15, “I went to a private school that wasn’t very supportive of my missing classes for horse shows. So I used to fly back and forth every weekend, but it was just exhausting. And even though my teachers let me go, they let me know they weren’t happy about it.”
Kessler knew other riders who’d taken classes with Weiner, so she started to do the same. “I love it because you work at your own pace,” she said. “At home, it’s always slower in a classroom where there are more people. Here, once you get something, you just move right ahead. I always feel like I understand everything better when I’m here.”
Weiner’s involvement with PTS dates back to 1988, “when there were only about 100 horses here,” she recalled. Today, she heads up a WEF-based staff that includes an academic director, a dean of students, a person who coordinates with the home-based schools, and numerous tutors—comprised mostly of retired or inactive teachers, graduate students or post-graduate students.
PTS is open seven days a week, allowing for maximum flexibility based on the vast range of clients’ show schedules.
“We have staff coming in shifts,” Weiner said. “We’re here until 8:30 or 9 p.m. daily. Monday is our biggest day—we’re always booked solid. The kids who fly back and forth [to their schools at home during the week] are allowed to use our trailers on the weekends.”
Each week, more than 300 hours of PTS tutoring takes place, mostly on the showground and occasionally at the students’ temporary local homes. Some students only partake of a few hours of tutoring per week; others enroll for several hours per day.
A Considerable Investment
