Arena/School pecking order?

Booking system for lessons and a hour in evening blocked out weekdays for liverys to exercise after work.
All liverys share within the bounds of good manners common sense and safety .
I think that's fair .
However is someone was practising riding a test I would like to think I would wait until they where finished .
 
I am on a large DIY yard with one outdoor school. The school can be booked out for lessons on Weekday mornings and weekend afternoons in half an hour and hour slots. It is all marked down in a diary and works well.
 
We are allowed to book the school for lessons/vet etc but otherwise we have to share. If you don't book it and you have a lesson, you can't stop other people going in. Generally people are polite and ask to come in before they enter, and often people will just wait until another person comes out especially if they're jumping or doing groundwork, but otherwise its just a case of choosing a quiet time of day if you want the school to yourself
 
If I was in the school, and on my own, I would expect someone to ask if they could join me, especially where it wasnt a busy period.

Had a really bad experience a few years ago where a kid came in the school with me when I was doing some jumping practise, and just kept on riding behind the jump literally as I was about to take off and/or land. Pony was quite nappy and kept on following my horse right up its backside. Good job I wasnt on my other horse that kicked.

If they'd have waited ten minutes/asked if they could come in, I would have achieved what I wanted, and school would have been free. Admittedly I didn't say anything to them at the time, and I should have done.
 
We've got a diary booking system, lessons are noted and 'exclusive' added if someone wants sole use. Half hour slots only I. Peak times, hour the rest of the time, seems to work just fine.
 
Im on DIY, we only have one outdoor arena with flood lights that you pay a £1 to use, we only ever book the school if we have a lesson, i wouldn't be happy to share the school if was having a lesson of any description, however, i am more than happy to share use of the school at any other time, some people want sole use to run through tests every now and then, but I will happily wait if needs be. If the school is in use when i get there i will always ask if o.k. to share etc.

In the summer we have a jumping paddock we can use as well, which does help alleviate the problem if the school gets busy.
 
I would never ever introduce a booking system............. no need...... My liveries respect everyone and they all muck in and never argue if someone else is in there. Once in a blue moon do more than 2 share usually a max of 2 at anyone time
 
We have a diary so we can book the school for lessons which during the winter is not a problem as lessons are generally at the weekend or during the day on weekdays - I either ride before work in the dark or after work in the dark :-( in the summer however it can get a bit tedious if the school is booked every evening for lessons. Having said that at all other times there's no booking and we have to share which I think is good education for the horse and makes warm up arenas less scary. We are not allowed to lunge or jump on the arena - we have an exercise paddock for that.
 
Busybusybusy said:
We have a diary so we can book the school for lessons which during the winter is not a problem as lessons are generally at the weekend or during the day on weekdays - I either ride before work in the dark or after work in the dark :-( in the summer however it can get a bit tedious if the school is booked every evening for lessons. Having said that at all other times there's no booking and we have to share which I think is good education for the horse and makes warm up arenas less scary. We are not allowed to lunge or jump on the arena - we have an exercise paddock for that.
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wow

You can lunge or jump and do anything in our arena, amazed there are so many restrictions in others. Surely exercise paddock cannot be used in winter when ground is wet or frozen.


Why do Y/O Y/M stop you lunging or jumping in the school??? surely is part of a livery service you suit everyone's equitation choices not boycott those who want to jump or lunge!!.


Surely the facilities include use of the schools/ arena's for what ever choice of schooling you want- not say you can do flat work only. Seems a bit prejudiced to me.

We put jumps in the field in summer so those who want to jump have a ready built course but if they choose to jump in the school in the winter there is no problem with it as long as they put jumps away after.
 
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There is no booking system for the outdoor and available at anytime regardless of who is in there and what they are doing.
Most liveries don't go in if there is someone having a lesson or wants to do flat work and the other person is jumping.
The indoor however is bookable for half an hour time slots but there is one woman that books 5.30 to 6.30 every day and 10 to 11 sat and sun one week in advance which seems to be the most popular time to ride. It causes allot of arguments with the other liveries.

However, at £5 an hour to rent it out the YO doesn't say anything!!

That's why I ride in the morning, there is only a couple of us that do and saves any hassle at nights...there are 60 liveries so it's easier than trying to battle with everyone else.
 
I think the best yard I knew for being reasonable had the school bookable (up to 2 days in advance and then no more) until 4.30 Monday to Friday and after that it was unrestricted so that anyone could ride after work and those who had lessons could either share with others or book it for earlier when it was less likely to be busy. at weekends it was bookable for something like between 11 and 1pm which seemed to work well. yard owners need to specify if and when it can be booked so that everyone knows where they are and so that everyone can ride at a reasonable time.
 
Our outdoor has no booking system but is big enough for one person to have a lesson at one end and another to jump at the other (must be at least 20x80, if not longer). Unfortunately it has no lights and is unrideable in winter due to the surface.

The indoor is teeny and while it's possible to share you have to be friendly and have good spatial awareness. We get 3x30 minute slots on weekdays after 4.00 to book, the rest of the time you can book as many as you like but most people don't bother. Lessons would have to fall within your slots. It's a fair sized yard with lots of people riding and this system seems to work for everyone.
 
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We are allowed to book the school for a maximum of one our a week and you have to write it in the diary in advance. Generally people only book for lessons. At all other times we are expected to share.

It works well and rarely causes problems.

People are normally happy to share or wait a little while for someone to finish. The only times it gets difficult is when it is snowy and people can't hack or turn out or on evenings when several people have lessons in a row (Only once a week and booked well in advance).

Most people wouldn't jump unless the others agreed and the same with lunging.
 
stormox said:
well, my answer would have been to write your name down when you were up there in the morning!! seems a fair system to me! And even if the 'once a dayers' were riding.... whats the problem? you said you were happy to ride with anybody!!
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Erm, because the once a dayers wanted exclusive use. I would have happily ridden in with them, it was they who wanted exclusivity.
I didn't book it because that would've been lowering myself to their level of pettiness, plus the yard as the absolute pits. Only lasted a few weeks before I moved off to a beautiful yard.
 
we have a white board. You write up on it when you want to use it. People usually book lessons in advance so others work around them. If they want exclusive use then they have to pay extra to do so, otherwise anyone can still go in the school. It usually works really well for everyone and we are a big yard. There is also an outdoor school to use. Generally speaking if someone is going to jump then more often than not unless it's a lesson others tend to join in and share. The indoor is pretty big so plenty of room for more than 2 at a time to use safely. Most I've been in with at the same time is 4 but it's never been unsafe. As long as people understand about passing left to left and walk on the inside track it seems to work well.
 
For us, lessons are exclusive use, but within set times each week. If you want exclusive use you can book and pay for it - rarely done, but good to have the option. All other times we can share, tends to only be 2 or 3 at a time. I'm happy to share - it's good for my horse as she gets tense round others - but she can be sparky so I end up on my own a lot! Does help that it is a very quiet and friendly yard.
It's very easy to get used to sole use, but it is useful to practice with others to keep your comfort zone bigger.
 
I'd say if it's becoming an issue and it is feasible then it may be worth introducing a booking system. If this would just lead to one or two people hogging it this could come with a rule that they school can only be booked for sole use at peak time (I'm guessing after work?) for a total of an hour a week per livery? I am personally of the opinion that it's rude to ride in the school at the same time as someone having a lesson unless both the instructor and person being taught are happy / your school is big enough to allow this.

It would be nice to think that we're all sensible human beings who can work things out without resorting to daft rules but yards can be odd places sometimes


I'm on a yard where one of the schools is bookable in half hr slots for a fee. I very rarely do this as at the times I normally ride there will be an arena free somewhere (there's 4 of the blooming things although the outdoor is in my opinion too boggy to risk my horses legs on for much of winter but one of the indoors is too hot and dusty to use in summer so it balances out)
 
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The yard I'm currently riding at has a combination whiteboard/online bookable system with half-hour slots. I book if I'm having a lesson but don't bother otherwise - and I think I must go up at odd times, because I've never had to share the school. In fact, it's very rare for me to even see anybody else, on a yard of ~20 horses! You can book for any time, peak or off-peak, and there are no limits, but the YO is very on top of things and I suspect would have a quiet word if somebody was abusing it.

What annoyed me on a previous yard was a girl who'd bring her horrifically behaved pony into the school and then expect others to work around it. This is a pony who would back other horses into a corner and double-barrel them, on one occasion breaking a rider's leg, so 'working around it' basically translated as 'getting out of their for your own safety'. She only got away with it because there were two schools, and she usually went in the not-so-nice 20x40 instead of the mirrored 20x60.

My thinking is that if you KNOW you're likely to cause disruption to other people in the school - whether that's because you're working through a dressage test, or because you're putting up a course of jumps, or because your horse is dangerous - then you make sure the school is empty and unbooked/booked for yourself when you go in. If somebody joins you afterwards, well, they knew what they were coming into.
 
Last livery yard I was at we had a school and got on fine. Then one very snobby livery decided she had to have it to herself every evening (we all worked full time apart from her so this was prime time) and got very verbally abusive if we tried to share or were already in there when she choose to use it. In addition, she was out of control (unintentionally) both mounted and lunging so was dangerous to share with as well. So we asked yo for a booking system, as often we had a lesson per week we wanted sole use for being a small school. Girl went nuts at booking system, and wrote her name on every prime slot all week. For some reason even now the yo lets this livery get away with blue murder, whilst coming down hard on others, not even a nice person. Anyway, sense prevailed on this and we were all allowed to book one hour slot each week for sole use, if it wasn't booked we had to share, fair enough. This woman had to try it on though, I'd booked it, and was having a lesson in the school (been going about 20 min of the 1 hour lesson / booking), when she came to the gate and demanded to be allowed in, to which I told her to go check the book as it was my weekly hour booking and I was not willing to share. I'd have had to quit my lesson as she wanted to lunge, had no idea, made her heinz 57 supposed connie do a wall of death / buck / rear combo as she tried to strap it into an outline with a pessoa (misused). It can work, but if you have a selfish livery there needs to be sensible rules.
 
HGA-12 said:
wow

You can lunge or jump and do anything in our arena, amazed there are so many restrictions in others. Surely exercise paddock cannot be used in winter when ground is wet or frozen.


Why do Y/O Y/M stop you lunging or jumping in the school??? surely is part of a livery service you suit everyone's equitation choices not boycott those who want to jump or lunge!!.


Surely the facilities include use of the schools/ arena's for what ever choice of schooling you want- not say you can do flat work only. Seems a bit prejudiced to me.

We put jumps in the field in summer so those who want to jump have a ready built course but if they choose to jump in the school in the winter there is no problem with it as long as they put jumps away after.
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To be honest it does not bother me, I don't do too much lunging as my horse is a complete plonker on the lunge and if I wanted to get him to a point where he behaved, I would have to do a lot which I want to avoid as he has navicular and don't want to do too much work in tight circles. So far in the last year there have been very few days where the ground has been too hard for those who lunge their horses to do so. For jumping if I want to do it I tend to go elsewhere as I prefer to jump him on a very good surface, but my main discipline is dressage.

We are lucky in that the ground is very good, and although there are some drawbacks to not being able to use the school for jumping or lunging, we have access to miles of off road hacking, all year turnout regardless of the weather (the fields are never closed), a very helpful yard owner, everything is well maintained and no bitchiness at all on the yard, and a major plus point for me is that the yard is 10 minutes away from home & is on my way to work.
I think the restrictions with regard to the use of the school is a small price to pay when everything else is pretty good.
 
We have a very small indoor school you won't comfortably get 2 in it unless they are very very balanced and friendly horses. Nor would you get a course of jumps in there, maybe 2 jumps max.
In summer we can jump in the paddock.

We can't book it But as there are a total of 6 horses belonging to 3 liveries and the YO it realy isn't a problem. One livery rides in the morning, the other livery and I are there at the same time after work in the evening but we both get on, the horses are friendly and if we want sole use we just say and one does thier mucking out etc whilst the other person rides then we swap over.
The to tends to ride late at night when her kids are in bed
 
to be honest , I would hate a booking system ... on my last yard (more than 50 horses) , we were lucky as we had an outdoor jumping arena , outdoor dressage arena and a 20 x 60 indoor plus a round pen for lunging. In summer there was absolutely no problem as there were enough opportunities to ride. However neither of the outside arenas was an all weather, so as soon as the weather turned , there was just the indoor to use. There were clearly peak times , but it was still possible to book a lesson in an off peak time and have a quieter time in the indoor, however I would never have expected the entire 20 x 60 to myself. the rules for riding in the school were strictly adhered to.
When I see how many yards have these booking systems and so many people appear never to want to ride with anyone one else in the school, is not really surprising that there are so many horses who have issues in warm up areas at competitions when they never have to be worked with other horses ....
Sure, there were times in the winter after work in peak times (my only chance to ride during the week) when there were 10 people in the arena when it got a little irritating .. however.... it makes you much better at riding with others, the ones who did not want to follow the school rules , very quickly realised they had no option and your horse has absolutely no issues in working in a busy working in area. I soon realized it was a schooling opportunity in itself.
In my current yard, we have only one outdoor (20x 40) .still no official booking , I am afraid if someone has a lesson booked at 6pm in the week, I would not consider to wait before riding .. at the weekend , or if it was during the day I would wait if I had the time .. but as I think someone wrote earlier in the thread, if the horse has an issue with other horses in the school, then there are 2 options .. don't book at lesson at a peak time, or take as an opportunity to work on that. The only restriction is no lunging in the arena, but there is a round pen for this so is no problem.
 
Well.......

I suggested a booking system. Cue ranting and raving!

So a booking system is out of the question because after all it's only polite to wait if someone is having a lesson, longest I'd have to wait is an hour before I and/or anyone else waiting can then use the school.

Please tell me if its just me being unreasonable here but b****r that! I pay to use facilities when I wish and although I'm happy in general to work around others having a lesson where possible, if I don't have the time to hang about and want to school my horse I should be perfectly entitled to?

I for one would never expect sole use of a livery school regardless of whether I was having a lesson if there is no booking system. Would I try to arrange lesson time for a quiet part of the day, yes. Would I get huffy if someone else schooled their horse at the same time, no, provided they sensibly shared the school.

So if a booking system isn't wanted, I don't think liverys have the right to expect the privilege of exclusive use. I don't think you can have your cake and eat it too?
 
I use the the school next door to my house as the yard is owned by my landlord, we have. A white board to write lessons down and you can have sole use of school, one thing that does bug me are the people that free lunge in the school it makes great holes in the surface and just ruins it I also think riding or proper lunging should take presidence over free schooling, the times I have stood outside waiting for someone to finish chasing their horse round.
 
Sounds rediculous. I'm all for booking systems and every yard I have been on has had one. If my yard only had one school and had a booking system (of course there should be peak times where no booking is allowed) then I would work around when the school is booked. There should be at least 24hours notice so no last minute bookings to mess up other people's plans.

My yard (of about 60ish) has two indoors and an outdoor (no floodlights though). One school is usually booked in the evenings for lessons but the other should be free. On some occasions eg. every 8 weeks a foreign dressage rider comes to teach for two days so both indoor schools are booked as YO doesnt cancel the regular instructors. This can be annoying in the winter as too dark to hack or ride in outdoor. We have also had quite a few new liveries who are children/young teens with ponies and this has caused more school bookings as some adults dont want to ride with the kids.
 
A bit of common sense and give and take is all it needs. We have a school with no booking system as such, although we have a blackboard and write a note on it asking if it's ok with others for us to have sole use for a lesson etc. The only time I've had to share when I had a lesson was my fault as I forgot to write on the board and another livery was already there. I just explained to my instructor and we worked round it until other livery was done. She offered to leave but I insisted she stayed as she works a fair drive away and doesn't have much time to ride in the evenings. We often share just for normal schooling and even get together to drag the jumps out and have a bit of a session where one of us will put jumps up and down for the others and we'll swap every 10 minutes or so. We'll always give a shout to say we're coming in when someone is in there, as apart from anything the gate is in the dark corner when the lights are on so other riders might not see you!
We're a small yard of 10 though and only 8 of us ride as 2 are retired so we don't gete than many clashes. I finish work much later than the others so am nearly always on my own unless my sharer is with me and we ride both boys together.
 
We have our horses on livery on a livery/competition yard/riding school. There are 5 schools but with lessons and competitions sometimes it is difficult to find a school when you want one.

Where there is a lesson on you are always aloud to use the school as long as the school has not been booked. You can pay to book the school and then you are the only one using the school.

Some people feel that they have more rights to it then others but that is just them and you cope with it and some instructors are the same but The rules are clear, you can not keep the school for youself unless paid for.

Having said that yesterday I had put up a full course to jump. While I was waiting for my hubby to come in to put them up one of the ladies working at the yard asked if she could come in. I ofcourse could not stop her but did say I am jumping the course some you may have to work around that. She then kindly looked for another school to use.

I would get very annoyed it I had to book the school prior. tkaes away all the flexibility, I just don't like planning that way.
 
We have about 13 liveries on our yard and thebyard owner has about 6 horses he rides too. We have a big outdoor (about 30m x 70m) and a small indoor (20m x 30m) and most people tend to book lessons on both weekdays and weekends by writing their name on the whiteboard. People have their own instructors, some share the same one and then have a block booked for 3 hours at a time for others to have the same instructor. However, I can honestly say we never have a problem. I think it really depends on your liveries. A handful people at our yard either work shifts or are retired so having the school every weekday night and on the weekend isn't a must.

Even for the people who have booked lessons, no one minds sharing the school with someone if they really need to ride in it too. We are all respectful of space and the school is huge. I have no problem having a lesson at one end while someone schools at the other, neither does anyone else. Saying that, it's very rare that would happen anyway.

Think it more depends on the type of people you have at the yard and how flexiable/inflexiable they are. I'm lucky to be on a yard where everyone looks out for each other :)
 
At my old yard there was a whiteboard for both the indoor and outdoor to book a slot, but that was only if you had a lesson. Apart from lessons it was anyone's for the taking. No one had an issue as all the horses were well behaved and if you had, say, a dressage test to practice, most people were reasonable and would go around the fields or school in the jump paddock for 15 mins instead to let you run through.
I agree with Cheshire Chestnut, a lot depends on how nice your fellow liveries are!
 
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