When you first start lessons your horse will be tacked up and untacked for you.  You should arrive at the start of your lesson and a Northern Tempo Coach or Assistant will fit your helmet.

Once you gain experience, you will be invited to learn how to get your horse ready and to untack your horse and clean up after your lessons.  You should allow an extra 30 minutes at the start and end of your lesson for this.

We run an auto-recurring subscription payment system which is withdrawn on the same date each month until you cancel it.  Once we have established a suitable date and time for you to begin lessons or start boarding with us, you will be sent a link with instructions with how to sign up to the appropriate package.  We detail all of the specifics related to subscription payments in our Subscription Policy available here.

Students taking lessons on Northern Tempo lesson horses or Northern Tempo leased horses will have their lessons booked for them in order to manage the workload of the horses.  

Those of you with private leases or those riding their own horses will be given a link to our calendar so you can book yourself into lessons.  Feel free to email us if you are having difficulty with this and we will be happy to help you! 

Please click here to see our full cancellation policy.

If you need to cancel within 24 hours, please contact  your coach. You may contact Inge (867 335 4223) or Caitlyn (867 335 5047) by text message, as if we are coaching, we will not take phone calls or check emails.  No refund or make-up lesson will be offered in this instance.

When 24 hours notice is provided, make up lessons may be arranged to bridge vacation, illness or other barriers to participation within 30 days of the cancellation.  If you own your own horse, a training ride by a Northern Tempo coach may be an option in lieu of a make-up lesson.  

When 24 hours notice is provided, please contact us at contact@northerntempo.ca so we can make appropriate arrangements.

All lessons are cancelled after -30C as measured by our website weather report at 12:00pm.  Online horsemanship classes or video analysis will be offered in lieu of lessons.  Due to differences in programing as well as their age, students in our Petit Trot program will receive an opportunity to book a make up lesson in this situation.

In order to ensure consistent progression, we recommend that our students commit to four or eight lessons per month. 

If you do not already own breeches and riding boots, please make sure you wear a heeled boot such as a Blundstone or rubber boot and soft trousers or leggings.  We provide certified helmets if you do not have your own.  Please note that all riders under the age of 18 must wear a certified helmet when riding at Northern Tempo.

We are lucky enough to have a large outdoor arena, an indoor arena and an outdoor dressage arena.  We can generally use all three arenas from the end of April to mid October.  However, in winter, everyone uses the indoor arena.  

Group lessons can have up to six riders and during these lessons we ask that other riders do not use the arena.  However, boarders are welcome to ride during private and semi-private lessons.  There is no official limit on how many riders can work their horses at once in our arenas but all boarders and those leasing horses have access to a calendar, which is updated daily, so they are able to see when the facility is likely to be busy.

Northern Tempo lesson horses work an average of 8-10 hours a week with one day off.  To ensure that the horses get adequate rest, we have rest periods built into our calendar where there are no lessons.  This is a total of five weeks a year.  Make up lessons are not offered on these occasions so that the horses truly benefit from the rest.  However, this is balanced by the fact that some months have extra days which means that you will receive five lessons in those months rather than four.

We welcome haul-ins to our facility and have a range of packages available to suit your needs whether you’d like to bring your horse to Northern Tempo for an appointment with the vet or ride in weekly lessons.  Please get in touch with us at contact@northerntempo.ca and we will send you a link to purchase the package that is most appropriate for your needs.  For haul-ins we will be charging the following rates: 

Unlimited Haul-ins $180/month+GST (this includes lessons, clinics, free rides, health care visits)

Haul-ins for lessons $10/lesson, clinic day, health care visit+GST

Haul-ins for individual use $20/use +GST 

Haul-ins for individual use of our facility are welcome during the following hours:

Mon-Thurs 7am-3.30pm and after 8pm

Fri: All Day

Sat: After 5pm 

Sun: After 5pm

If you are riding a lesson horse, you should speak to your coach and they will schedule you into a lesson that is appropriate for you.  This is to make sure that we balance the workload for our lesson horses.  If you own your horse,  you can book a make-up lesson through our calendar.

Our boarders are welcome to take online and in-person lessons with guest coaches.  It is essential that you arrange this with Inge well in advance for scheduling purposes.  We charge $15.00/lesson for online lessons and $20.00/in-person lesson.