Can you help? Bright ideas needed!

[cornwallexracers]

Hey guys,

Just wondering if I can pick your wonderful HHO brains!

Have just been to the riding club AGM, who have decided that unless we as a club can come up with some ideas that they will be shutting up shop, as we've had such appalling turnout this year. This is a real shame as the club has been going for over 30 years, and is really friendly, they've also been about one of the only ones that have supported our exracer classes in the past.

Now I know that in the current climate that people are picking and choosing what they do, but we've got local people driving a 60 mile round trip to go to a show, rather than coming to the riding club thats on their doorstep.

So anyone got any bright ideas? What type of things do you like to do, what showing classes, what other stuff do your local riding clubs do? How do they get new members?

As I say, any ideas will be gratefully recieved, we have a week to come up with something

 

[BlizzardBudd]

i wont be much help.. but could you do a charity show with lots of kiddies novelty classes, at my local show they also have it where you win a lovely little trophy too! the kids really get into it getting the kids involved might bring some more people through? i dunno sorry

 

[Tilda]

I am just looking into joining a riding club and due to our local one being very cliquey I have been looking at others slightly further away (30 mins vs 10). These are the things that have stood out to me as being a bit different:

Give it a go dressage - have a go at dressage no matter what standard/ experience you or your horse are

Mentor Groups - when you join you are allocated a mentor based on yours and your horses experience and aims for the year and every month your mentor group (up to 5) have a training session with your mentor for £10 for an hour

Talks on NLP and confidence clinics

Plus all the usual clinics and competitions. This all really appeals to me as someone totally new to riding clubs.

 

[moosea]

Why don't you put together a simple questionnaire and spend a day delivering it to local yards and tack shops?
No good putting on classes/ events that people don't want to attend.
Ask people why they don't attend and work from there to gain new membership.

TBH if I hadn't known someone in our local club I wouldn't have known it existed.

Have you got a web page/ forum where people can leave feedback or just chat?
You can set them up for free and it's a useful way of getting people to see what's on and where.

I think a lot of people are put off by the fear of cliquishness or perhaps feel that they are not up to the standard required.

How about a 'Best Hacker' class where you have to negotiate things like road work signs etc.

Another thought - could you contact local tack shops to offer one off promotions and discounts to riding club members

Perhaps setting up or working alongside your local horse watch group might encourage non competitive owners/ riders to take part

 

[Dubsie]

There's a show I've always wanted to take daughter to but for some reason it's clashed with school trips, and they offer a 'have a go at showing ' where they critque and advise how to improve and I assume give a score sheet + notes to work on rather than just 'judge' and that's it.

 

[Dubsie]

Why don't you put together a simple questionnaire and spend a day delivering it to local yards and tack shops?
No good putting on classes/ events that people don't want to attend.
Ask people why they don't attend and work from there to gain new membership.

TBH if I hadn't known someone in our local club I wouldn't have known it existed.

Have you got a web page/ forum where people can leave feedback or just chat?
You can set them up for free and it's a useful way of getting people to see what's on and where.

I think a lot of people are put off by the fear of cliquishness or perhaps feel that they are not up to the standard required.

How about a 'Best Hacker' class where you have to negotiate things like road work signs etc.

Another thought - could you contact local tack shops to offer one off promotions and discounts to riding club members

Perhaps setting up or working alongside your local horse watch group might encourage non competitive owners/ riders to take part

No-one will fill out a questionnaire and send it in w/o incentives. Would suggest set up a survey (survey monkey?), and do posters with tear off strips to visit your RC website to (find link to survey but have a nose about your RC anyway) to go and fill in said questionnaire and try and get prizes eg vouchers from tack shops, things from feed companies etc to entice people to fill it in as all entries go in a draw.

 

[cornwallexracers]

Thanks Guys, some really good ideas there to get me started!

 

[smellsofhorse]

Thus happened to a riding club i was in a few years ago.

It did fold sadly.

I joined another local one after a quiet year due to having a baby and what a difference!


It has loads of lessons, diffrent time, days and locations so it appeals to more people.

We have clinics with top riders.

Offer open shows for everyone and taster days to encourage new members

 

[tinap]

Do you run the classes as qualifiers for anything? Our shows were pretty low last year so this year we affiliated to 2 championships that are up north - equifest (cost us nothing) & ultimate showcase of champions (£30 fee).

The difference in attendance was phenomenal!! We used to be done & dusted for 2.30pm but this year the judge was still at it at 6.30!!!!

 

[Alphamare]

Are you well advertised?

I would join a riding club if I knew we had one local to us. I don't know so I havnt!

People are entering the horse world all the time, how would they know about you? Word of mouth is not good enough.

I would have a flier up in each tack/feed shop permenantly for info directing them to a website that details all upcoming events.

What does a riding club do anyway?

 

[smudge99]

Our club has had a great year I think due to increased advertising, we have a Facebook page which gets a lot of likes and comments. Great for putting on ideas and dates.