Anyone have experience with volunteering/lessons at Lee Valley or Mudchute? (aka moving to London, should I sell my car...)

[EchoInterrupted]

Anyone have experience with lessons and/or volunteering at either? I'm moving to London (general area Isle of Dogs) in a month or two and will likely be living within public transportation/cycling distance of either, but am having to make a decision on whether or not to sell my car before we move. Finding a flat with parking (and that's pet friendly for the dog) will make things a bit more difficult and I don't realistically want to pay £45/month in insurance for a car that never gets used. Will be on a very limited budget as well because I'm a grad student for at least another year, so £45 less on car insurance is £45 more I can put towards lessons/riding time.

BUT I have also been spoiled rotten by my current 4 day/week part-loan who is a proper horse (and who I'll have to give up because of the move), so going back to plodding RS horses makes me hesitant to sell the car, since it limits where I can ride.

I'm trying to find a happy middle ground where I can afford to ride once a week (both in terms of commute cost and lesson cost), with somewhat decent horses, that will keep me ticking over as I finish with grad school but will also hopefully help me grow past the level I am at now. I don't mind cutting down to once every two weeks if it meant getting private tuition, setting goals, and making progress rather than doing the same thing every week and getting a bit bored. I'm also keen to go back to basics and take some lunge line lessons which both look like they offer.

Does anyone have experience with Mudchute Equestrian Centre and/or Lee Valley Riding Centre? How are the horses and instructors? Suitable for a relatively competent rider in their late 20s looking to continue improving (planning on buying my own horse as soon as I'm out of grad school and financially stable)?

Has anyone volunteered at either? Are the volunteers mostly older teens or could I hope to meet some friendly adults in their 20s/early 30s? Do volunteers get to ride on occasion in exchange for their volunteering time?

Are there any other places in the area people would suggest? Anyone know of someone in the area with a schoolmaster they give lessons on? Should I rethink selling the car and try to find a loan with a very small financial contribution instead (if such a thing even exists anywhere near NE London haha)?

 

[Barlow]

I lived in Elephant & Castle when I was a London student and kept my car - it meant I could get out of London/to the outskirts and find a share which I rode 2/3 days a week. Invaluable and much better than any of the riding centres in London. I had a trial lesson at Lee Valley but that was when I lived in the west and getting to it using public transport was never worth the faff. I also looked at mudchute but it came across as run by a mafia of teenagers. Not somewhere I felt I was going to progress my riding. If I were you I’d keep the car and look for a share around Epping Forest or Bromley way which is easily drivable.

 

[bouncing_ball]

Vauxhall City Farm an option? Used to have a scheme where decent riders could muck out and school one horse before work. No cost. Walking distance from station.

 

[coblets]

Mudchute's mostly young people - that includes both volunteers and staff. Lee Valley, I've heard that the instructors very much vary - some are good, some are downright unpleasant, and volunteers are mostly teens looking for the occasional free lesson.

If you're NE, you can look for shares around Epping Forest, or you can try commuting to N/NW, there's usually quite a few share horses there, who don't demand a huge financial contribution. If you keep the car, that also allows you to access all the shares in Essex way too. And then there's always Trent Park; I'm pretty sure their volunteers get the occasional free lesson.

Schoolmaster-wise, there used to be the occasional lesson available at Hilltop Farm, Barnet, on one of her dressage schoolmasters (not sure what level the horse was at though).

From my own experience volunteering, and from what I've heard from friends, it's mostly teenagers, but there are the occasional adults. Whether you get a free ride or not depends on what stables you're at.

Vauxhall City Farm an option? Used to have a scheme where decent riders could muck out and school one horse before work. No cost. Walking distance from station.

Vauxhall City Farm doesn't have horses anymore.

 

[Dexter]

I also looked at mudchute but it came across as run by a mafia of teenagers. Not somewhere I felt I was going to progress my riding.

I know some of the staff there, you couldnt pay me to ride there!

 

[sarahmac77]

Those yards are sweet but very limited (tiny arenas, not great hacking).
im in London too and drive out to Bexley. Not far from Isle of Dogs. I ride at Mount Mascals which is great. Good hacking too. If you want any more info message me.
They do have a helpers programme with rides for work but really it’s for kids (for the amount of time you work in exchange for a ride you would be better off getting a part-time job and just earning the money and paying!).
also some owners look for day loans for a contribution. As there are lots of London-based people, obviously not everyone can get there every day so they have help to accommodate their jobs!
Regardless, riding when you live in London is not cheap. You just have to take the hit unfortunately!

 

[EchoInterrupted]

I know some of the staff there, you couldnt pay me to ride there!

aaaahh, shame to hear relatively negative things about Mudchute. My horse budget/month is only about £120 - £150/month (otherwise I will literally be digging into food money - yay grad student life in London), so I would've been able to afford 3 - 4 lessons/month at either of those since I would've been able to sell the car and stop paying insurance.

While finding a horse share Epping way would've been ideal, with the car insurance being £45/month and petrol probably coming up to at least £50/month (for 2 days/week) given the distance to those yards and the traffic, that would only leave me with £25 - £55/month as a financial contribution which I imagine will not get me anything. Thinking I might find someone who just wants a super reliable, relatively competent sharer in exchange for a contribution towards farrier costs is totally unrealistic, correct?

Are there any other places **accessible by public transport** that people would recommend more highly for lessons than Mudchute/Lee Valley? Since it'd only be once/week I wouldn't mind sitting on the tube/bus a while.

 

[EchoInterrupted]

Those yards are sweet but very limited (tiny arenas, not great hacking).
im in London too and drive out to Bexley. Not far from Isle of Dogs. I ride at Mount Mascals which is great. Good hacking too. If you want any more info message me.
They do have a helpers programme with rides for work but really it’s for kids (for the amount of time you work in exchange for a ride you would be better off getting a part-time job and just earning the money and paying!).
also some owners look for day loans for a contribution. As there are lots of London-based people, obviously not everyone can get there every day so they have help to accommodate their jobs!
Regardless, riding when you live in London is not cheap. You just have to take the hit unfortunately!

I'm really trying to avoid temporarily putting riding on hold again if I can, but it's looking like that may end up being the most reasonable option I'll PM you about mount mascals tho. I've been toying with the idea of taking on a part-time job so I can have money to spend on riding, but that would mean finishing the grad degree more slowly, which in turn means having to wait longer to actually be able to get my own horse. An unfortunate circle haha

 

[EchoInterrupted]

I lived in Elephant & Castle when I was a London student and kept my car - it meant I could get out of London/to the outskirts and find a share which I rode 2/3 days a week. Invaluable and much better than any of the riding centres in London. I had a trial lesson at Lee Valley but that was when I lived in the west and getting to it using public transport was never worth the faff. I also looked at mudchute but it came across as run by a mafia of teenagers. Not somewhere I felt I was going to progress my riding. If I were you I’d keep the car and look for a share around Epping Forest or Bromley way which is easily drivable.

How did you find the trial lesson at Lee Valley (besides the commute)?

 

[Barlow]

How did you find the trial lesson at Lee Valley (besides the commute)?

ok-ish. I was a bit surprised as a completed newbie to the school to be left to my own devices to a) find my steed and b) tack it up alone. All of which I am perfectly capable of, just wasn’t expecting that on my first visit. Had to ask the yard hands where the tack room was and which tack belonged to the horse. Instructor didn’t appear until I had found my way to the school. I asked instructor to check my tack and they seemed a bit surprised to be asked to do that. Despite me telling them I was 5’10 I was stuck on a 14.2 pony which was stiff particularly on one rein.
I’m used to my own horses and I get that riding school horses are different but I guess I wasn’t prepared for how different. Teaching was ok but there wasn’t that much instruction - this may have been because it was an assessment lesson. I was fairly underwhelmed but this was just my experience and others love it there - think it very much depends on how interested your instructor is.
I’d definitely recommend a share if you can. If not, I have a friend who rides at Wimbledon Stables, someone else who rides at Stag Lodge and another who has tried Ham. I think all of them have their compromise.

 

[AShetlandBitMeOnce]

Those yards are sweet but very limited (tiny arenas, not great hacking).
im in London too and drive out to Bexley. Not far from Isle of Dogs. I ride at Mount Mascals which is great. Good hacking too. If you want any more info message me.

I learn to ride at Mount Mascals in about 1999 and stayed there for a few years, I am so thrilled to hear that it's still going!

 

[criso]

If your budget is £120 - £150/month, you will be pushed to afford weekly lessons, I just looked at Lee Valley's price list and an hour off peak is £68.00 private, £50 shared. More if you are limited to peak times. Just checked Trent Park and LEC for comparison of London prices and this seems standard.

Sharing use £10 a day as your starting point, less if you do chores more possibly on a very smart yard where everything is done for you. It depends on how competent you are, a lot of people on the yard I was at in London had sharers but had horses that were relatively young so not suitable for novices. They were on DIY and not having to come up every day was useful. People are often happy to negotiate on cost for the right person as it's often about time and help as much as money.

I don't have a car and have a horse and there are places that you can get to with a train and walk/bus or bike ride from the station to the yard. However you do have to check if the train costs going outside of London are the same as running your car. My knowledge of North London and Herts is further West than is useful for you.

 

[lme]

There is a riding club organised by people who ride / used to ride at Lee Valley. A lot of members are east London based. They arrange quite a wide range of riding activities (some with v nice horses)

 

[j1ffy]

My experience is going back over ten years (how did that happen!) but when I was in my late 20s and getting back into riding, having had to give up for financial / work hour reasons + not wanting the RS horse experience having had horses of my own, I tried a few places in London and ended up riding regularly at Lee Valley.

I'm not sure where the comment about tiny arenas comes from as they have two decent outdoors and a 20x40 indoor IIRC. The horses were very mixed, with a lot of Appleby-purchased gypsy cobs that the 'advanced' lesson would end up schooling to a couple of nice-ish warmbloods. Instruction was varied but we usually had one of two decent instructors in the advanced class so hopefully that standard is still ok - I do know at least one moved on years ago. It's not the same as having your own horse and there's no hacking, but I ended up doing my BHS stages 1 and 2 there to help get my horsey fix as well as regular weekend lessons.

Re: the car, I lived in Brixton and had a little 50cc scooter. There's no better way of getting around London tbh, although I'm sure people found it odd that I was scooting around sitting on a schooling whip! There are also car clubs, e.g. ZipCar, which can work out cheaper than your own if you're only doing a few hours a month.

Good luck with the riding and grad school!

 

[EchoInterrupted]

If your budget is £120 - £150/month, you will be pushed to afford weekly lessons, I just looked at Lee Valley's price list and an hour off peak is £68.00 private, £50 shared. More if you are limited to peak times. Just checked Trent Park and LEC for comparison of London prices and this seems standard.

Sharing use £10 a day as your starting point, less if you do chores more possibly on a very smart yard where everything is done for you. It depends on how competent you are, a lot of people on the yard I was at in London had sharers but had horses that were relatively young so not suitable for novices. They were on DIY and not having to come up every day was useful. People are often happy to negotiate on cost for the right person as it's often about time and help as much as money.

I don't have a car and have a horse and there are places that you can get to with a train and walk/bus or bike ride from the station to the yard. However you do have to check if the train costs going outside of London are the same as running your car. My knowledge of North London and Herts is further West than is useful for you.

Yeah - I've definitely got a very limited budget at the moment unfortunately. Mudchute does group adult lessons for £33/hour, or shared semi-private for between £37 and £45/45 minute lesson so could probably manage 4ish per month depending on which option I went with. Lee Valley does paired 30 min private lessons for £38 off peak, or I would drop down to doing a lesson once every 2 weeks if I had to in order to do private lessons. Maybe it is worth holding onto the car for a bit though after I move just in case I manage to find someone looking for a sharer whose priority is reliability and finding someone who doesn't mind riding something a bit green rather than the financial contribution.

 

[Suechoccy]

If you're living in Isle of Dogs, I'd look at keeping your car or an electric bike and making most of getting yourself a part-time share at one of the yards in Epping Forest. Riding in the forest is lovely. There's several yards, some on the Sewardstone Road (Enfield side), some Loughton way, some towards Waltham Abbey. Southend Farm yard near Waltham Abbey is a huge yard with many sub-yards within it. I had a part-share there for 3.5 years. Also yards just outside of N and E of Epping Forest too. Or you could look towards Havering-atte-Bower, Chingford, Upminster for yards but far less hacking there so mainly schoolwork. There is Hooks Hall EC at Dagenham Chase which has arenas and private hacking. There are yards around Hainault Forest too. There used to be a riding stables, Aldersbrook, at Manor Park on edge of Wanstead Flats, not sure if it's still there.

 

[criso]

Having ridden at a few riding schools in London I'm not sure a 30 minutes shared lesson would deliver much. It works OK for me on my own horse as I warm up before the instructor gets there so 30 minutes solid instruction is fine but if I was sharing I would up the time to an 45 minutes or an hour. Group lessons of even an hour where some places have up to 6 means you get very little time. Nose to tail trotting round together, canter to the back of the ride type thing. It worked best when there riders who could work independently so given a little assessment time, instructor discussed what sort of thing you would do with this horse and then moved between people helping them while they worked. However other weeks this wasn't possible with the people in the group.

I started sharing because I wasn't getting much out of group lessons anymore and sharing was a lot cheaper. I put an advert up and had loads of responses from people who weren't advertising their horse for share.

If you are on facebook, I would join some local groups and put a wanted advert to see what is out there. Just say you have a limited budget but are happy to do chores and what you are capable of. I used to charge my sharer £50 pcm and no chores for one day midweek where she could do what she liked as more exercise was helpful for me. My friend didn't charge but expected livery cover, if the sharer couldn't make it, they covered the days livery which was £10. But people are not going to put an advert up saying free/cheap riding as you would get the wrong sort of responses. You said you don't mind a longish journey and there are a few livery yards round Mill Hill and Barnet that are on the London Tube/Bus routes that are accessible.

Or would a bike be a possibility? With that there may be yards near the far reaches of the Central Line that are a manageable bike ride from the station.

Try North London horse riders on facebook which seems to pick up some users in Essex and there are a couple of Essex horse rider ones which I'm not a member but seem to have a lot of members.

 

[teapot]

Lea Valley has a huge livery side to it - worth becoming a known face and getting to know people. No idea what Trent Park is like these days.

Very few yards, if any, offer work for rides anymore. It's kinda illegal For your lessons I'd seriously look at what the London Riding Club can offer.

 

[criso]

Lea Valley has a huge livery side to it - worth becoming a known face and getting to know people. No idea what Trent Park is like these days.

The only thing I wondered was that as livery fees are very expensive at both those 2 and full livery, then they might be at the expensive end of sharing. OP might be better with someone on DIY who is prepared to forgo charging in exchange for help. If you do want a lesson, big riding schools won't let you bring your own instructor in and charge a lot for lessons on your own horse. I rode at Trent Park many years ago and knew some of the owners who didn't save much on lessons with their own horse. Plus limitations on when you can use facilities. Many years ago Trent Park had a dedicated time for owners to use the school every day but not helpful if that time doesn't work for you.

 

[teapot]

The only thing I wondered was that as livery fees are very expensive at both those 2 and full livery, then they might be at the expensive end of sharing. OP might be better with someone on DIY who is prepared to forgo charging in exchange for help. If you do want a lesson, big riding schools won't let you bring your own instructor in and charge a lot for lessons on your own horse. I rode at Trent Park many years ago and knew some of the owners who didn't save much on lessons with their own horse. Plus limitations on when you can use facilities. Many years ago Trent Park had a dedicated time for owners to use the school every day but not helpful if that time doesn't work for you.

I was thinking more along lines of a London diy-er but also wanted op not to discount Lea Valley because of comments on here

 

[EchoInterrupted]

The only thing I wondered was that as livery fees are very expensive at both those 2 and full livery, then they might be at the expensive end of sharing. OP might be better with someone on DIY who is prepared to forgo charging in exchange for help. If you do want a lesson, big riding schools won't let you bring your own instructor in and charge a lot for lessons on your own horse. I rode at Trent Park many years ago and knew some of the owners who didn't save much on lessons with their own horse. Plus limitations on when you can use facilities. Many years ago Trent Park had a dedicated time for owners to use the school every day but not helpful if that time doesn't work for you.

I was thinking if I did manage to find someone at Lee Valley in need of a sharer, I would have zero commuting costs because I could cycle there within about 20 min (from Bromley by Bow area which is one of the areas we are looking at flats), so would be able to ditch the car and contribute £120ish/month which is pretty decent as a financial contribution? Might just take some lessons there, see how I get on, see if I happen to meet anyone who could use a sharer. I think I might just need to accept that while I've had a lovely time with my current loan, I may have to scale down to the fortnightly lesson wherever I can get it for the next year until I'm more financially stable. Beggars can't be choosers and all that

 

[EchoInterrupted]

I started sharing because I wasn't getting much out of group lessons anymore and sharing was a lot cheaper. I put an advert up and had loads of responses from people who weren't advertising their horse for share.

If you are on facebook, I would join some local groups and put a wanted advert to see what is out there. Just say you have a limited budget but are happy to do chores and what you are capable of. I used to charge my sharer £50 pcm and no chores for one day midweek where she could do what she liked as more exercise was helpful for me. My friend didn't charge but expected livery cover, if the sharer couldn't make it, they covered the days livery which was £10. But people are not going to put an advert up saying free/cheap riding as you would get the wrong sort of responses. You said you don't mind a longish journey and there are a few livery yards round Mill Hill and Barnet that are on the London Tube/Bus routes that are accessible.

Or would a bike be a possibility? With that there may be yards near the far reaches of the Central Line that are a manageable bike ride from the station.

Really good to know that I might be looking at different price ranges if I advertise versus if I look at adverts people have posted. Looking at posted adverts it's typically at least £15/day, if not £20.

Bike from the station is definitely a possibility, so I will keep that in mind!!

 

[EchoInterrupted]

Lea Valley has a huge livery side to it - worth becoming a known face and getting to know people. No idea what Trent Park is like these days.

Very few yards, if any, offer work for rides anymore. It's kinda illegal For your lessons I'd seriously look at what the London Riding Club can offer.

Had no idea this was illegal haha. But to be honest I'm reconsidering the whole volunteering thing anyways because if I'm spending hours doing work, I could really use the money from some part time work instead and am sort of past the whole "volunteering to gain experience" phase... Will take a look at the London Riding Club as well re lessons, thanks!

 

[EchoInterrupted]

My experience is going back over ten years (how did that happen!) but when I was in my late 20s and getting back into riding, having had to give up for financial / work hour reasons + not wanting the RS horse experience having had horses of my own, I tried a few places in London and ended up riding regularly at Lee Valley.

I'm not sure where the comment about tiny arenas comes from as they have two decent outdoors and a 20x40 indoor IIRC. The horses were very mixed, with a lot of Appleby-purchased gypsy cobs that the 'advanced' lesson would end up schooling to a couple of nice-ish warmbloods. Instruction was varied but we usually had one of two decent instructors in the advanced class so hopefully that standard is still ok - I do know at least one moved on years ago. It's not the same as having your own horse and there's no hacking, but I ended up doing my BHS stages 1 and 2 there to help get my horsey fix as well as regular weekend lessons.

Re: the car, I lived in Brixton and had a little 50cc scooter. There's no better way of getting around London tbh, although I'm sure people found it odd that I was scooting around sitting on a schooling whip! There are also car clubs, e.g. ZipCar, which can work out cheaper than your own if you're only doing a few hours a month.

Good luck with the riding and grad school!

Really nice to hear from someone who has spent some time riding there, thank you! Also I had never considered a scooter/moped instead of the car... that might be worth looking into!

 

[criso]

Massive range in sharer charges. I've seen £200 pcm for posh full livery yards (and the owner had 2 sharers doing 2 days each) and nothing if doing chores. However you are more likely to get the lower end if mucking out and if the yard is full livery only that's not an option. Most ads I've seen seems to say financial contributions required which suggests owners are keeping their options open.

 

[PeterNatt]

Given your riding experience I would keep your car and look at Contessa which is up the A10 near Ware or see if you can share/exercise a horse at Mote End Farm Mill Hill London NW7 4HH which is a well equipped livery yard.

 

[Dynamo]

I had a wonderful sharing experience at Lee Valley when I lived in London. I booked for a couple of lessons, went to help out at a show and got to know the livery owners and made it known that I was looking for a sharing opportunity. It worked out really well. Eventually I had my own pony there and had a sharer to help with him. It seemed to be very much the norm for every livery horse to have a sharer as owners tended to be busy professionals, and there was no full livery service. This is going back quite a few years, but my advice would be to get yourself down there, have a lesson, find out when there are shows on when everyone will be around, and get to know the livery side of things.

ETS The liveries tended to be very nice horses on the whole, and certainly back then there were some lovely horses in the riding school too - you just had to get to know which ones to ask for. Maybe it might be an option to keep the car until you check out whether Lee Valley or Mudchute can give you the riding fix you need, even it means a bit of compromise.

 

[wren123]

Ham house stables are expensive but high quality instruction and well schooled privately owned horses.
Contessa never replied to my emails about private schoolmaster dressage lessons.
I (in normal times) volunteer with riding for the disabled which is rewarding and in my area there are plenty of riding opportunities for volunteers, after a riding assessment, on some quite forward horses.

Also edited to add like teapot I've made some lovely friends through the rda.

 

[teapot]

Second the RDA voluntary work - it's incredible, rewarding, and can open a few doors. I've met some wonderful people and contacts through it.

 

[Suechoccy]

If you're on facebook, try a few of the local area horse groups - Epping Forest Riders Association is a good one to join and then you can advertise yourself as a potential sharer and see what offers you might get.