Have riding schools heard of customer service?

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Turks

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I know there are good and bad out there as with anything but I am generally quite taken aback by one supposedly very good professional school that I have been using for schoolmaster lessons. Pupils it seems are a necessary evil to fund the competition.

I turn up. No horse has been identified for me. Often name's not on the board. Never told where to go to find horse. Have been pointed to tack to tack up once I can find someone who knows where the horse is. I could go on...

I actually find myself feeling apologetic for being there and interrupting them! It makes me more tense in the lesson so I get less out of it.

Then I remind myself I am a customer!!! I can't think of other (successful) businesses that make customers feel this way.

I am not the world's best rider but my money's as good as anybody else's. I'm paying a lot damn it!!!

Previously, I've had freelance lessons on my own. I don't want to travel miles and miles... This school should be very good. Its so say one of the best in the country.

Is this a bad egg in the world of riding schools?
 
Sounds just like my old yard! They would (bare in mind I was about 8) throw you on a pony that was already tacked up, not tell you it's name, patronise you, terrify and bore you at the same time, pick favourites and it was generally just awful.
This was meant to be the best in the area too. It was smart, I'll give them that! But I'd take my scruffy yard over theirs any day!
 
Also, I'm sure they liked to see kids suffer!!
They asked me to lead a pony into her stable and she pinned me against the wall! Being so small I couldn't move her and I could see she was getting stroppy. What did the girl "helping" me do? Laugh and tell me to get myself out. Eventually my Mum came and helped me out. I later learnt that pony should only be put into a stable by a competent adult!!!

When I find out people ride at that yard, I can't help but cringe!
 
noblesteed said:
In my experience, livery yards haven't heard of customer service either.
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Someone the other day on here said its a feudal system. This is totally true! Complain about anything and all you get is 'My yard, if you don't like it, you know what to do' in varying degrees and from one extreme to another.

Some are polite about it, an old YO was completely unreasonable, one day it's fine to do something, the next you'd be thrown off for the same thing and everything was everyone's fault. He once found a headcollar on the muck heap, every single person got screamed at and I mean full on, raging, about to have a stroke screaming!
 
I learnt to ride on a yard like this. I've come to the conclusion that I just wasn't part of the 'in' horsey crowd, most of the other kids there seemed to have come from horsey backgrounds and knew the staff, the mums all got on etc. I was the total odd oneout from the town having never been near a horse before so I had it all too learn and they just had no patience. I was never told I could do my certificates or anything, even though now I realise I was actually a decent rider, i just assumed I was crap because everyone got moved on without me.

Luckily they're not all like that! I would definately take my business elsewhere if I were you, they obviously don't need it...
 
Not all riding schools are like that- can you let us know where you live incase anyone can recommend a nicer place to go.
 
I've been to plenty of rubbish riding schools.

One promised we'd start jumping and then the next week someone else started in our class who couldn't ride so we all went back to walking and trotting whilst this new rider learnt.

Another the woman in charge was absolutely vile and I used to dread going all week long.

Another, I was maybe 10, and hasn't ridden in about 6 months. They knew this and stuck me on an overworked, tired, grumpy horse. The horse kept stumbling and they were shouting at me to whip it. I panicked as 2 grown women were practically screaming and eventually did whip the poor pony, he went mad. Cue me emergency dismounting. They then went screaming at me saying I obviously can't control a 'big horse'. They then to humiliate me but me on a maybe 11hh pony that on reflection must have been in agony. The instructor and owner then watched sniggering and shaking their heads. It put me off riding for a long time.
 
Elsiecat said:
I've been to plenty of rubbish riding schools.

One promised we'd start jumping and then the next week someone else started in our class who couldn't ride so we all went back to walking and trotting whilst this new rider learnt.

Another the woman in charge was absolutely vile and I used to dread going all week long.

Another, I was maybe 10, and hasn't ridden in about 6 months. They knew this and stuck me on an overworked, tired, grumpy horse. The horse kept stumbling and they were shouting at me to whip it. I panicked as 2 grown women were practically screaming and eventually did whip the poor pony, he went mad. Cue me emergency dismounting. They then went screaming at me saying I obviously can't control a 'big horse'. They then to humiliate me but me on a maybe 11hh pony that on reflection must have been in agony. The instructor and owner then watched sniggering and shaking their heads. It put me off riding for a long time.
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Aargh!! What's an entertaining couple of minutes for sadistic onlookers can stick with us (and the poor pony) for life. Seems I'm not alone.

I think the schoolmaster I sat on the other day had a very sore back. I heard them saying he should have a gel pad on... he hadn't. I truly hope the lesson wasn't as painful for him as me. Unfortunately, I think it was. I got told to haul his nose in but his poor back felt like it was locked/spasming underneath me.

One instructor there told me I should ride like she drives and she should drive like I ride. That was one of the nicer things that was said. Her daughter probably should too....;)
 
Wow - I mean really - I know there's dreadful riding schools out there but really? :( - that's awful.

I livery Boyo at a riding school and although it's a bit spit and sawdust - the horses are well kept, honest and well schooled - they are all sizes and matched well to their rider. It's a bit hectic at weekends but well run. Everyone is friendly and there's a huge amount of support for young and old. They run small competitions in the school holidays and various clinics. No cliches etc and many of the pupils do go on to own their own horses and ponies, and compete them very successfully locally - the instructors care and all the pupils enjoy themselves.

I'm lucky - I restarted there before buying my own - I tried others locally and really didn't get on with them and found their horses bored and hard work. No wonder riding schools have a bad rep - judging by this thread. :mad: :rolleyes:
 
I think its because most people who run riding schools do so to fund their lifestyle and the customer comes second to what ever agenda they have. This is also true for most livery yards. No one ever makes a huge living from horses, I think if most of them worked out their hourly rate and paid themselves properly no one would ever do it and in turn they tend to pay employees poorly so that leads to not wanting to please the customer they are far too busy trying to please the boss for peanuts.
I used to have lessons with a FBHS on her dressage schoolmasters which was some of the best money I had ever spent. She lived in a run down house and seemed to exist on cheese sandwichs but seemed to have a real interest in imparting knowledge and had only herself to please.I would look for someone who is perhaps experience with their own schoolmaster, even if they are not the best teacher they will have a vested interest in you keep coming and its a lot easier to get feel on a schoolmaster
 
I remember being in a lesson years ago where a livery was in the group on a young horse. The instructor told her it wasn't going correctly so made us all (paying customers !!) line up in the middle whilst she turfed this woman off her own horse. We then had to watch for twenty minutes whilst she tried (badly) to school this horse, complete with fag in mouth. Eventually she just said 'you won't get anything out of her tonight' and chucked the reins back at the owner. I did complain after that I resented paying to watch somebody else ride, but they couldn't have been less interested ...
 
Nope, sounds quite typical of some riding schools. I went to one that is "award winning" and voted one of the best riding schools a few years ago and my lessons were terrible! I was paying a premium to ride lazy, dead to the leg horses and left my lessons feeling really frustrated having not got anything out of it. I had a couple of lessons with one instructor who was fantastic and got me on a horse to do flying changes! I was brimming with confidence, booked another lesson but unfortunately the instructor had left, and got a sarky instructor who said I wouldn't be able to do flying changes on the horse I was riding today and when I could barely get him to canter as he was so dead to the leg, the instructor asked me if I even knew what a flying change was!!

In the end I managed to find a great BD instructor who offers lessons on her own horses and I learnt so much in the space of a month. Sadly I've moved counties and the last I checked on the prices of a lesson at a nearby reputable riding school, it's £45 for a private half hour lesson!
 
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