Arena etiquette

JennBags said:
Do people book it just to ride in on their own then, or are there continuous lessons on those days?

On our old yard (same YO though) we could only book the school after midday, and weren't allowed to jump in the morning which was really annoying, so this definitely works better for us.
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both :(
One of the liveries is BHSAI so she has lots of people coming to her for lessons. Some are other liveries, many are external - it's a free for all jump wise as the jumps are left out all the time. There were 11 simulated xc fences in a 30 x 40 school all of last week... I wanted diagonals to practice tempis with M but they were all blocked up with pretend ditches and arrow heads!

Sorry OP, didn't mean to derail your thread but I share your arena woes :p Kinda explains why we can't lunge in our school doesn't it :lol:
 
milliepops said:
both :(
One of the liveries is BHSAI so she has lots of people coming to her for lessons. Some are other liveries, many are external - it's a free for all jump wise as the jumps are left out all the time. There were 11 simulated xc fences in a 30 x 40 school all of last week... I wanted diagonals to practice tempis with M but they were all blocked up with pretend ditches and arrow heads!

Sorry OP, didn't mean to derail your thread but I share your arena woes :p Kinda explains why we can't lunge in our school doesn't it :lol:
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That really does seem a bit unfair that clients paying for livery at the yard miss out on arena time because another livery is making money giving lessons to external clients :( At our yard we're not allowed to give lessons for money unless by prior arrangement with YO. It's fair game for all most of the time unless someone has booked a school for a lesson at £10 an hour, but luckily most people seem to be quite sensible about sharing.
 
B should have waited or ridden at the same time. Unless the school is big enough lunging while someone is riding is just plain stupid. Asking how long A is going to be is fine as long as it's not intended to push A into finishing sooner.

Threads like this make me so pleased to be at my yard. There are only 12 of us, about 5 of us who use the school and only one who is ever there at the same time as me. We're both not only happy to share but give each other tips or call tests for each other etc.
 
I wouldn't want to lunge & ride in a space of that size - B should wait until A has finished

Or to avoid the whole situation introduce a booking system
 
We're "blessed" with a 40x60 school... and yet it is amazing how often you can't get in to do anything. We have several regular external instructors who come, one is notorious for taking up the whole arena for his jumping lessons, and then leaving the jumps up afterwards.

I have seen 3 people lunging at once though, which was a bit hair raising!

One of the reasons I left my old yard, which was a RS, was that the school was in use from 8am until 10:30pm 5 days a week. If you had a private lesson you had sole use of the school. I found it really difficult to find any time to actually ride as, after a full day at work, I was often too tired to even think about riding at 10pm!
 
Must be me but I would be a bit alarmed at anyone wanting to lunge a horse for an hour. I do agree though it can be a bit confusing to have more than one lesson going on at once but would always allow a second rider in the school if I was teaching as long as they asked politely and did their best not to interfere with the lesson I was giving
 
If the arena were bigger, I wouldn't be too fussed. I've been at yards with nice big schools and in those circumstances I'm not that bothered if someone wants to lunge. But 20x30? It sucks. You can't do anything. You can't do a lot when you have it to yourself. Three strides of half-pass, bam, you're at the rail. Add in a lunging horse, you're practicing turns on the haunches until you or your horse have a nervous breakdown.

The girl who came in to lunge her horse yesterday has been in my bad books ever since the day my horse was tied on the hitching rail, and hers was on a neighbouring hitching rail. Her horse gets into a panic about the saddling process, so she unties him, clings to him for dear life as he does frantic circles around her while she gets the saddle on and does up the girth. Layers of problems here, but not my circus. They started doing their dance and he kept circling into my horse. She likes her personal space, so she had a view of this. She also knew she wasn't allowed to kick the horse, or break free, so she was a wee bit stressed. I told the owner, "She's a wee bit funny about her space -- can you do that further away?" Owner ignored me and my horse got increasingly testy. The third time I told her, I was snappy and forget about diplomacy: "Do that *away* from us. It's pi$$ing Gypsum off."

Owner shrugged and said, "Well, if he gets bit, it's his own fault."

As this isn't someone who has much consideration for horses or humans, including her own, I wasn't surprised by her lunging without asking if I was cool with it. Not in the least. Just annoyed.

We don't have a booking system, unless someone is having a lesson. That goes up on a blackboard and gives them sole use of the arena. However, it rarely effects me because most people have lessons after 5pm, and She Who Must Be Obeyed (aka my horse) requires me to show up mid-afternoon and extricate her from her muddy hole of a winter turnout paddock (lucky for her I work freelance and usually can).

I crossed some potential yards off my list because they had lessons blocked in for most of the day, and it didn't seem like liveries got much of a chance to use the arenas unless they rode at weird times. I can't deal with that, either.
 
In Op's case the school is too small and the person lunging needed to wait until the first person finishes.
But when I was training the school which was big was often very busy there would a group lesson going on with one to one lessons on GP horses a couple of people lunging , trainers working a horse and grooms walking horses off .
It certainly prepared you and the horses for warm ups at shows .
 
B should have waited in a school that small, it's really not big enough for a rider and someone lunging. In a bigger arena I wouldn't have an issue though. Our school is 30(or 40)x60, it's often in use with lessons (YO is instructor) but you can usually share the arena with no problem if needed, and it's easily big enough for 2/3 people to share without too much of a problem. Though through common decency, if you're not having a lesson you try not to get in the way of any exercises they're doing! Someone lunging while you're riding is also fine, happens fairly regularly with no issues. All the horses are pretty well behaved on the lunge though...

It's less of an issue in spring/summer as the XC course and grass arena are open so either lessons are there or you can school there instead. We're soon getting a second school though (yipee!!) so won't be a problem any more :)
 
The unspoken agreement on my yard is that Riders have the priority. If they are in, you must ask if you can lunge and rider has the right to say no. No freeschooling when anyone else is in the arena obviously, and if someone wants to ride or lunge the freeschooler must rope their horse or leave. If lunging and a rider wants to come in, you must move to the bottom of the arena so the rider can get on and use the good half of the school - that being said hardly anyone on my yard lunges apart from me and the schools nearly always empty lol

I did have one incident once where i was lunging and a teenager asked if she could ride and i said yes but stay to your end but she decided not to and was riding around my horse. I had to stop obviously, as per the rule, but i was very annoyed that she disregarded my instructions.
 
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B should have waited. I am not a massive fan of lunging on the whole, but when my boy was a 3yo I would usually give him a quick 5 minutes before getting on, just to let him get anything necessary out of his system so that he could concentrate on what I was asking him to do rather than being a bit jollier than I would like! Because, IMO, it's rude to lunge a boisterous youngster in a 20x40 while someone else is trying to ride, there were many occasions when I would have to wait before starting work, and I was fine with that, busy as my life is!

It's made very clear that riding takes priority over lunging in the school by the YO (exceptions are made for vet visits etc., obviously) and I think that's fair enough. Several people can ride at once, but lunging in a tiny space like the OP describes stops anyone else sharing the space.

It all comes down to manners and give and take, the yard I'm on has a lot of horses, everyone uses the schools and there are always a fair number of young horses who need the school to themselves in the very early stages. But somehow it just seems to work and everyone rubs along with a bit of give and take. I suppose it only takes one or two inconsiderate selfish people to make things a right pain and sour things for everyone else though.
 
We share our arena quite easily amongst all liveries. Theres the obvious busy times (time really, its always the afternoon of any day, morning and early afternoon there is rarely anyone in there), but it still works. If there is a lesson on, I will either go into the smaller indoor arena or ask if I can use one of the fields. The YO is good about allowing you to use the fields, although I wont if its been raining and the ground is soft. I pick my times based on what I want my horse to work on, if I want him to get used to other horses in the arena, I pick a busy time. If I know he is being an idiot, like right now, and is likely to wind up another horse, I choose times when I know the arena will be empty so we dont bother anyone with his antics. I know there are people there who dont like riding in the arena when there are jumps up, I dont mind so much, it gives me stuff to circle around and make my horse focus so he stops spooking at birds.
 
We have a twenty by forty in which it's considered fair game to come in and lunge while people are schooling, even if the horse is likely to be a knobber. There's another huge arena you can't lunge in but can flat in, so that would be fine - if they hadn't put the jumps all round the track so you can't ride a straight line, or any regular uninterrupted movement without dodging something.

That's not the reason I'm leaving, but it's a reason I'm not sorry to be going!
 
How big is your arena Rach?

I do think if you've got a 20x40 at least you can have a circle each, 20x 30 as for the OP not so much!
I am well used to sharing a school with one or two lungers and a rider or one lunger and several riders but it was 25m x60m
 
At my wonderful livery yard, the arena has to be booked, usually for 30 minute slots but if you're happy to share, you just write HTS next to your name & then anyone who fancies it can take their chance in with you! Folk usually put whether they are lunging or riding as well. No children allowed on the yard either. Perfect!!
 
20x30 is small and not enough room I think for lunging and riding.

The sensible thing to do was ask how long A was going to be in the school, however I expect B may have been in a hurry as otherwise it surely it would have been easier and more pleasant for B to lunge on her own.

Our school is 20 x 60. During the week when I am working I usually get the arena to myself as I don't normally ride till 7.15pm and most people ride during the day. Weekends most people hack out unless the weather is bad. When the weather is bad the school can get busy. Today I was off work and it was heavy rain so most people were waiting for the rain to stop before they could ride. In the end there was four of in there and one person was having a jumping lesson. The three of us who were not having a lesson were having to take advantage of the break in the weather as it looked like it might start to rain a lot again. It was fine apart from the point where the person having the jumping lesson's horse nearly ran into the back my pony and my pony kicked out but that could have happened even if there was just the two us of in there.

Most people ride rather than lunge though, so it rare that someone is lunging at the same time as someone else is riding.
 
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We had to book the arena if we were jumping and all the jumps had to be taken down and put away (outside the arena) when finished. You weren't allowed to jump with other people in the arena who were working on the flat.

Liveries were also not allowed to teach other liveries for money - you could stand and offer advice, as you do.... but not to physically teach a lesson. If you had an outside instructor, then you would have to pay £10 to use the arena and it could be booked for sole use, but not on a Saturday or Sunday.

It did work well, as long as everyone followed the rules - and the YO kept and eye on it and sorted out the rule-breakers.
 
At my old yard, you couldn't lunge in the bigger, outdoor arena but could in the grass jumping paddock or smaller indoor.
You also couldn't book the arena unless you had a lesson/professional coming out, which worked really well. No one took the mick and if I wanted to use the arena whilst another was in I would always ask if it was okay first. We had an onsite farm ride so it was no bother to me if it was busy in there! Much prefer a gallop over pouncing circles any day!
 
I must be very lucky on our yard. The arena is rarely in use but when anyone is having a lesson (pretty much only me and 2 other people) we just make sure nobody else has anything booked. If it's just general lunging or schooling, and two people want to use it at the same time, then we just share and work around each other (60 x 40 arena so nice and big). Only rule is you pick up the poo after you!
 
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