F**** school booing system... anyone have one?

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sophie1

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This has just started, and already it's causing trouble. I will not be told when I can or cannot ride in the school! at the end of the day how am i supposed to excersie 2 horses when i work 8-5, 4 days a week if some total toss pot (excuse my language) books it 6 til 7:30 everyday?!!!!! AAAARGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! what are your opinions on a school booking system?
 
Our YO has made it quite clear that we don't use a booking system as it causes more trouble than it's worth.
However, we can book it for lessons (if that makes any sense) but it's only me, RI and another girl (who rarely rides in the school) that use it anyway.
 
We have one - the YO books her lessons in (she teaches) and then we are allowed to book any other times. You are not allowed to book for an hour in "key times" ie 4.30pm till 6pm, and you are not supposed to lunge during these times either - but both happens but not very often. The worst thing about the booking system is people book out Months in advance and then cancel at the last moment.

This used to drive me mad - but now i take my tack to the yard everynight and so far have managed to ride every night this week. Tonight eg the school was booked solid from 4.30 until 7.30 - but only 2 people used it for a total of 1 hour !
 
I agree with all of the above!! thankyou! I think having it for lessons is fair enough. but these 2 at our yard book it for an hour and a half to plod around in, and well not alot else really!
the best part of this is. the booking system is being run without YO's knowladge, I'm thinking a little informant chat is in order
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Ohh we have one of those, however we have one main rule, NO BLOCK BOOKINGS i.e. not within the same time 2-days in a row.

Sounds daft but it really does work. Might be worth asking you YO to implement this rule to make it more fairer for all
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Mrs Doo - how can they put in a booking system without the YO knowing ??????? I would just go in with a friendly bull and do a bit of free schooling - that may shift em !
 
our yard seems to make it's own rules, without the YO finding out for weeks. the 2 in question, dissapear, and make up all stories about problems with others horses to spread around the yard. eg: my EXTREMELY polite I.S.H barged out of the gate!!!! another reared at them...I hate bitchiness like that
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Tell them politely to piss off - unless the YO/YM implements the booking system, you are not playing.

Easier said than done, I know, but why agree to something that is a royal pain in the arse and not implemented by the people that you actually pay for the use of the school.

Also, tell YM asap!
 
Was once on a yard that had a similar system in place. Only rules were no block booking (same time every night) and no longer than half hour slots between 3-5pm (mostly kids on the yard at that time when they've come out of school so busiest)
The most annoying part was finding that the person before you who'd booked the school, hadn't actually USED it, and we'd end up having driven all the way home & back to the yard (no short journey!) when we could have used that slot and not gone home.... grrrr
 
my last yard had a booking system which worked well until on livery booked the school at the same time for 3 weeks in the future. when i booked the school i would put no sharing next to it if i had a reason why i didn't want to share but generally i was happy share (as long as people understood she is a fruit loop and could happily be going along nicely then the next second the evil monsters had tried to get her and she was going sideways across the school)

new yard doesn't have a booking system but we generally either share or wait for other people to finish, everyone is very easy going so never fights or arguments over the school (or anything else for that matter, bliss)
 
I think you should be allowed to book for lessons, viewings, vet watching etc but not other than that. I think it is so unfair. If this happened at my yard I would most likely move off. As you say, if they are booking it every night, how on earth are you supposed to ride your own? What about the rest of the yard?!

Ridiculous, what happened to sharing the school?

I know of a yard that has this system, and another huge fault is that people often book it, and then don't use it, so another may not have been able to ride due to the booking,and now they could have done!!

At our yard, the school is booked for lessons, (which are always done by 5pm, pretty much full on saturdays, and no lessons sundays) the rest of the time we go in and share, and this works really well.
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We only have a very small indoor school which realistically can only house one horse when working properly. There are half-hour slots which run from 4.30 to 7.30, all different colours. 24 horses on the yard.
You can only book 2 coloured slots, per week, and they can't be the same colour (i,e no one can book 5 pm - 5.30pm more than one day a week).
Simples! You can book any other slots as many as you want. When my shoulder is recovered from my op I shall probably go up for 7am 2 days a week so I can build fitness up again.
 
Last yard I was at had a booking system, which seemed to work reasonably well, unless one particular person who wasnt even on our yard but a friend of the owner, she would turn up for a lesson with her instuctor, and we were supposed to lay down dead regardless of what we had planned, she had her head up her own arse and was far mor important than us, didn't cause me personally any problems, as my times didn't clash with her while I was there.
 
We have a school booking system for private lessons, vettings, saddle checking/fitting, etc, but it's a free for all beyond that. However that has it's own problems as there's not really room for more than 2 horses to get exercised properly in my opinion at a time.

I was in our school on Monday and joined someone and we used the whole school together and she then left and someone else arrived with a large horse they started lunging. She took up half the school which was fine but having been limited to what I could do with sharing it already for a bit I was trying to get some nice long canter work down the long sides which went out the window. Then someone else appeared with their pony intending to start lunging and came straight in and after her pony had rolled right in the path of the other horse being lunged she headed towards me. I explained there wasn't enough room in half a school for me to ride and her to lunge and that I would be 5 mins before I came out. She stropped out and when I did come out 5 mins later exactly when I said I would she refused to then go and lunge her horse! She was obviously dead keen to exercise her horse then!

So I would say if you can have a booking system it's good but just maybe set a limit as to how many horses can be in at any one time and maybe on busy times set time limits? Maybe half an hour per person and not allow the same person to book it for one and a half hours total in a block.
 
At our yard it is a communial school! If you want exclusive use you have to pay an extra £4.00 and book it. Between 5 & 7 is happy hour everyday.

We have a chart with every hour of day on and if you want to ride at a particular time you write your name down, then it won't get booked for outside exclusive use, as liverys come first. But it is still on a shared system.

I ride in the day so i am nearly always on my own anyway!
 
I tend to be able to go down during the day when the school is free which is good, but we don't have a booking system anyway. I guess this system would be used when there's only one school? My yard has 2 so if one is busy I'd just use the other one.
 
[ QUOTE ]
At our yard it is a communial school! If you want exclusive use you have to pay an extra £4.00 and book it.

[/ QUOTE ] That sounds a very sensible approach!
 
The school at our yard is very small, so not great for sharing, we are only a few people and we all seem to, in the main, want to ride at different times. We are not allowed to book more than a week in advance unless it is for lessons. It pretty much sorts itself out with no hassle, but we did have a nightmare livery in the past who used to try and book prime time everynight - YO put a not on the diary saying if you weren't prepared to share you were only allowed half an hour at a time, otherwise she would work out a rota! I have a feeling she did have to do this for a while (we are talking 20 years ago), luckily that livery didn't stay too long!
 
We've got a booking system, but between 5-7pm you have to be prepared to share as that is when most people ride as they finish work. It works well
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The yard where I work and keep Scooby is primarily a riding school that also takes liveries, so obviously lessons take priority in the school. This means that after school and on the weekends it can be difficult to get in - there is no booking system, we just check the diary to see when there are no lessons, and share. It works out quite well though, as there are only a couple of liveries who are really serious about riding often and they are able to come down during the day when the school is free most of the time. Everyone's very nice and there never seem to be any arguments over the school - it's 20x40m so big enough for a couple of horses to work in together, maybe three at a push.

I do feel sorry for the kids who keep their ponies here, as they are at school during the day and when they get here to ride there are lessons going on, but the YO, who owns the RS, is very accomodating and will set aside an hour or two so that the kids get to ride, and we have a field that can be used for riding when it's not too muddy.
 
I had to leave a yard that had a really ridiculous booking system - you could never get in it to ride - and when you were waiting for the arena to be free (ie you'd want to ride at 9am but had been told it was booked up til 10.30am) when you got to the yard, you'd find out that the person who'd booked it had decided to hack and that they never bothered to let you know - so very frustrating indeed!
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Kate x
 
We have a booking system but more for information than an exclusive school use.
If it is a jumping lesson, nobody else tends to ride in but with flat lessons other people ride in and it isn't a problem.

I was at a yard where we seemed to have a random booking system. I would go up in the morning and do my jobs, see when the school was free and head back according to what the sheet had told me. I'd go back and find that others had booked the school all afternoon. I had a word with the YO about having 24hrs notice for bookings and for lessons only but she said it was fine as it was. She had never been on a livery yard, so I put her decision down to ignorance.

I left!!
 
It should be give and take - its not fair for someone to book the school every night - its not the system thats to pot - its clearly THAT person!!!

I think it would be a good idea to give people a max booking - ie once a weekat peak time, that way other people get a chance!
 
I used to be on a yard with a booking system...

It was between myself and another girl every evening after work that would clash times. She used to book it 6-6:45pm every weekday, but she would start to tack her horse up at 6pm, and eventually make her way into the school between 6:15-6:20pm so i couldn't get in there until after 6:45pm! I always ended up leaving the yard at about 8am
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(She was a complete cow btw in all other aspects of being on the yard with her!)

Other problems were double booking. I remember one livery having a go at me because i had 'double booked' when in fact i had booked my time in the school before she had even got into the yard!
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The joy of livery yards
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God this never happens at my yard, the only issue we had was with a lady with a P2Per, who i heard booked the school at the same time every night, rather than speaking to her an arranging something, one lady had a go at her, which only caused animosity on the yard!

If it were me I'd go and say

"Hi - I understand you have booked the school at 6pm every night, I'm sure you can see how difficult it makes it for everyone else to use the school, could you possibly leave a few days free for others to use it?"

If they then say no- you have a right to have a go, but without asking in a fair manner, how can you expect anything else?
 
We have a school booking system which was a reservation for me when moving to the yard, but it's not as bad as I thought it would be. There are very few people who ride in the mornings which is when I tend to ride, so I turn up in the morning, check the diary and then ride. Only once or twice have I had to wait so I get on with my mucking out then.
 
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