Are my yard rules too much?

[flowerlady]

As I don't keep my horse at a livery yard I can see both sides of the argument. But as the old saying goes ' you can't please everyone all of the time'.

So you need to go with what you feel happy with at your yard. If an instructor has full insurance cover then I wouldn't see a problem personally if the school had been hired by the pupil why should there be another fee to pay for the instructor? This I have never understood. Although I keep hearing about disclaimers? Why are they not worth the paper they are written on?

 

[FRESHMAN]

I can only add that where disclaimers are concerned it is a sad sign of the times we live in. I have a neighbour who does lessons for groups of children. She also allows them to help out at weekend & school holidays. (big mistake) A notice was displayed which states quite clearly
Horses are animals & not machines. No responsibility is taken for anyone that may sustain injury. 15 yo kid got bitten, she got sued. Now had to close down! A risk assesment should have made her realise that a 15 yo girl may not have been able to read/understand. Parents pushed it to the limits. Insurance Companies have things well sussed out.

 

[LCobby]

yes, disclaimers are not worth the paper they are written on.

[ QUOTE ]
We would like to organise clinics ourselves with our well known local BHS reg instructors and offer this open to all. Does that sound reasonable?

[/ QUOTE ]
Clincs may also be popular with BD or BSJA trainers, and with showing judges and producers. And more profitable business wise for you than allowing non-liveries to hire the school for an hours sole use.

Certainly can't easily mix liveries riding their horses with outside hirers or with hirers having lessons.

 

[Tinypony]

I would not go to a yard that regularly hired out the arena to people who were not on livery there. Because in my experience they tended to do that at weekends and it stopped the people who actually paid to be on livery there using the arena.
I would however not go to a yard where the YO imposed themselves as an instructor. No offence, but I choose my trainers and there are loads of BHS trained people that I wouldn't want to learn from.
If your own liveries want to have a friend along to help them when they are riding, then you get into a tricky area. My mates and I often visit each other, and might hang over the fence offering some help. We aren't insured or qualified, and we aren't taking money for this, but we'd certainly be upset if we were told we couldn't take advantage of this support.
p.s. If I do bring my own, fully insured, instructor in then I wouldn't expect to pay (again) for my use of the arena, nor would I expect the YO to start questioning their qualifications. Whether or not they are "qualified" to teach me is my business.

 

[AmyMay]

The one thing that is important to riders is the relationship with their trainer. Not everyone will 'click' with you - and visa versa. So to me it would be totally unreasonable not to be able to bring in my own instructor if I so wished.

 

[BBH]

I personally wouldn't livery somewhere that told me who I could use as an instructor as your choice of trainer is such a personal thing. I fully understand the need for safety etc but if I had had lessons from someone who I gelled with and wanted to move yards it would be to somewhere that allowed them to keep training me.

 

[Bossanova]

Most DIY yards allow external instructors in.
If you run a part/ full service then I dont think it's unreasonable to not allow other instructors in. If people want someone else then they can travel to that person. Afterall, it's your property so you can decide who's allowed on it and who isnt!!

 

[Doublethyme]

QR:

Your yard, you can have whatever rules you want and I wouldn't have a problem with that, although personally I would not be at a yard where I had no say over instructor (actually I have, but boxed out instead to use "my" instructor at her place), but then that's my part of the decision as a livery.

It really is your decision, but from a business point of view, possibly you may shoot yourself in the foot - yes people are "making money" off your facilities, however, unless you are a very good instructor in all disciplines and all levels, then you may well find that you lose more business (ie liveries) and also additional income from school hire, by making the restrictions too tight.

The best way is to put the rules you want in and see if they work for you, if they don't loosen them a bit.

 

[PaddyMonty]

[ QUOTE ]
We have been running our own livery for 16 months now

[/ QUOTE ]

Personally I think 16 months is too short a time to be labelled 'little hitler'. That title when apllied to YO has to be earned through years of stupid, contradictory, ineffective and forever changing rules.

Restrciting instructors and freelance helpers is a good start though.

 

[Foxfolly]

Your yard your rules...

But I would want to be able to be taught by whoever I wanted. Echo others we don't all click with the same instructors!! If I hired the arena then I would expect to be able to have a choice... saying that if you had concerns about what an instructor was doing then yes your choice to say sorry but I don't want them here!! Also yes it is fair to expect that any freelance instructors are insured if that is what your insurance cover requires!!

But re grooms I would say if you offer the service of livery then definitely not unreasonable to say no freelance grooms. Like you say why should someone else make money for doing a service that you offer!! But saying that if you offer DIY and someone was on DIY and wanted their friend to do horse while they were away at no charge then they should be able to do that, as we can't all afford to pay full livery!

Now what if someone was paying another person to ride their horse? This is difficult, because as a livery yard you may offer this serivce but you may not click with that horse.. and the person the owner wants may do the discipline that they want the horse schooled in etc..

We are planning on doing livery and although no arena yet I'm going to have to think about these things too!!

 

[Alibear]

Ok Ivoted Hitler but oyu update makes me happier with what you're saying

So liveries can use any instructor they want?

But you want to change it to if someone outside wants to hire the school they must use you as an instructor? It will cut your market but would be fine with me.

Although when I hire a school I want to take my instructor with me as she knows us best and the whole reason for hiring other schools is to build up my lads confidence so she helps.

 

[the watcher]

[ QUOTE ]

Personally I think 16 months is too short a time to be labelled 'little hitler'. That title when applied to YO has to be earned through years of stupid, contradictory, ineffective and forever changing rules.

[/ QUOTE ]

LOL that is so true