Coping with no or poor quality school

[flow]

Hello
I have just moved my mare to a new yard as I had to to save money on livery. Its great its very relaxed I get my own stable and field and maintain it as I wish. The only down side is they have a school but its very deep in places and gets wet in winter and can become slippery. Iv tried it once lunging my mare and it look awful for her as it was up and down cause of the different depths. So what does everyone do to exercise when they have no school.
also yard owner says she will look in to different surfaces etc but depends on cost but is there anything me and my husband could try to improve it. I really miss my schooling.

 

[glamourpuss]

What is the surface at the moment?
It sounds like the drainage has failed & TBH changing the surface is unlikely to help. It needs the surface taking back & the drainage reinstating

 

[BurlingtonBertie]

We would dearly love a school. ... Dont have the money for one Once the weather turns the fields wet we just hack out.

 

[Tiffany]

My YO & daughter I work away alot so rely on them to look after my girl & they don't let me down

 

[Tiffany]

I meant to say YOs daughter.

 

[sessierose]

I would love to have a school, but keep mine at home and that's the sacrifice i guess. I have a flat field to use in the summer, but it's not been usable since October. I currently hack to a field that's flattish with good drainage and get about 10 minutes of schooling during a hack, but that's it really. Other then hiring the local school which is a 20 minute hack from me.

 

[LovesBayPonies]

Hi there I'm in exactly the same position as you nice yard with lovely people, but the school is very deep and almost unusable, I'm currently looking for an arena locally to hire as I really miss my schooling. Long term I'm not sure it will be suitable. If you are happy hacking maybe you could hire one locally?

 

[acw295]

We have a tiny (15x30ish) steeply sloping sand school - the membrane has come up and its either too deep or frozen, so not very often much good! It is floodlit though.

Most of the year I ride and school in the field (we can jump in there too) - from Nov to April I use the school when its not too bad, hire a good one down the lane for £10ph or take her out in the lorry and hire one at a big yard.

It is annoying in winter when the field is too wet (or it is too dark), but I like the rest of the yard too much for it to be an issue. I moved from somewhere with a better school and it was still worth it.