Is this wrong

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jezabell

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HELP OUT AT OUR STABLES & EARN REWARDS!
2 DAY CRASH COURSE FOR HELPERS
Monday & Tues 21st & 22nd Dec
Time: 10am-4pm
Have you ever fancied helping out at our stables??
Well here's your chance to learn all you need to know about horse care, stable management and working in a riding school and livery yard environment in a 2 day crash course
One you have passed the course, you can help at our stables and earn rewards!
Suitable for age 10+
Only £90 for the 2 days
I helped out when I was young,I never paid to help out. How life has changed
 
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jezabell said:
HELP OUT AT OUR STABLES & EARN REWARDS!
2 DAY CRASH COURSE FOR HELPERS
Monday & Tues 21st & 22nd Dec
Time: 10am-4pm
Have you ever fancied helping out at our stables??
Well here's your chance to learn all you need to know about horse care, stable management and working in a riding school and livery yard environment in a 2 day crash course
One you have passed the course, you can help at our stables and earn rewards!
Suitable for age 10+
Only £90 for the 2 days
I helped out when I was young,I never paid to help out. How life has changed
Click to expand...

cheeky beggars!
 
Yes. I don't have a problem with proper stable management courses but why on earth is this being aimed at children as young as 10.

Pay to learn and then work for free by the sounds of it.
 
Gosh that sounds ridiculous! We allow children from the age of 12 to come and help on the yard, but they must be supervised and once they have finished an induction we sign them off and they start earning 'boxes'. One box for every half days help, four boxes earns a free lesson in our helpers group.
 
Starzaan said:
Gosh that sounds ridiculous! We allow children from the age of 12 to come and help on the yard, but they must be supervised and once they have finished an induction we sign them off and they start earning 'boxes'. One box for every half days help, four boxes earns a free lesson in our helpers group.
Click to expand...

Now that sounds like a much better deal....
 
If only you could "learn all you need to know about horse care, stable management etc etc " in a 2 day crash course, most children of 10 - 14 which this is probably aimed at couldn't take in that much info in two days if it was even possible to learn everything in such a short time.

They are aiming at harassed parents wanting to off load the kids so they can get on with the shopping but I think there are better ways of advertising a 2 day course, why not a bit of riding thrown in.
 
I home ed some of my children. Stable management is going to be an intensive (daily) part of our syllabus over the course of a year, then less intensive in subsequent years. YEARS!

'Learn all you need to know about horse care'. It's misleading. It's also expensive! Accredited courses can be found for not a great deal more. Some of the stables near me offer stable management courses to children. I do think it's a great idea for those without ponies to be able to learn to care for them - but these courses also run over months and years.
 
It is the 'Crash' part that would worry me!!

By the way I paid 6 shillings for 2 hours doing just this every week. Lots of mucking out, grooming, quiz's and a half hour ride. That was 45 years ago so they are probably not that far out.
 
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hobo said:
It is the 'Crash' part that would worry me!!

By the way I paid 6 shillings for 2 hours doing just this every week. Lots of mucking out, grooming, quiz's and a half hour ride. That was 45 years ago so they are probably not that far out.
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Sounds something like the "learn to drive and pass your test in 5 day" courses. Should be illegal. But I digress. You can absolutely only learn the basics even if you worked 12 hours a day for the two days and you wouldn't have any speed or polish with any of the tasks. And as others have stated, the yard will then be able to make use of your new found skills for free and gratis. Win win for the yard, isn't it?
 
jezabell said:
HELP OUT AT OUR STABLES & EARN REWARDS!
2 DAY CRASH COURSE FOR HELPERS
Monday & Tues 21st & 22nd Dec
Time: 10am-4pm
Have you ever fancied helping out at our stables??
Well here's your chance to learn all you need to know about horse care, stable management and working in a riding school and livery yard environment in a 2 day crash course
One you have passed the course, you can help at our stables and earn rewards!
Suitable for age 10+
Only £90 for the 2 days
Click to expand...

:eek3: :eek3: :eek3:

Do the children have to cook a hot meal for all the staff as part of this great course as well?
 
I helped out at a riding school in my early teens who did work for rides on a points system. Each job earned a set amount of points, so for example 1 groom = 10 points, 1 muck out = 25 points, sweep entire yard = 40 points. Once you had 300 points you got a half an hour lesson or hack or you could keep going to 500 points for an hour.
 
I don't see any problem with it. The stables is probably inundated with kids who want to work for rides, and there's no reason why the business should teach them stable management for free. The wording is just a bit of marketing hype. The idea is just sensible business. £45 for a whole day? Bargain. I would have bitten their hands off at thirteen, when I mucked out, tacked up and led ponies on lessons with no reward at all, just to be able to be around horses.
 
I used to work for free on a yard in exchange for riding. After 2 years when I became a useful person to have around because I had learnt enough I was paid a small sum of money and essentially had a horse for free. I would not pay to graft for 3 hours on a Saturday afternoon and every day in the holidays! For free for the love of it and to learn yes.
 
It's the same as the "own a pony" days. People charge anywhere from £50 to over £100 for this and all the kids usually get is a group lesson in the morning and a hack in the afternoon, the rest is yard work and if you're lucky maybe a half decent lunch. I'm sure some own a pony days can be great but the majority I have enquired about for a friends child have been a complete joke.
 
I used to have lessons with stable management sessions as a kid. 3/4 hr riding and 3/4 stable management. 6 week blocks and different focus in each block. Taught me a lot and went on from ages 11-15.

A 'crash' course seems to be misguided, you just can't get the experience to know 'everything' about horse's management in a week.
 
I would be doubtful whether, if they looked at the small print, their insurance would cover children as young as 10 "working" in the yard unless they are very closely supervised. I suspect that their licensing authority and local authority health and safety department would be interested in this practice also. The days of having lots of children doing yard work in riding schools are long gone.
 
jezabell said:
HELP OUT AT OUR STABLES & EARN REWARDS!
2 DAY CRASH COURSE FOR HELPERS
Monday & Tues 21st & 22nd Dec
Time: 10am-4pm
Have you ever fancied helping out at our stables??
Well here's your chance to learn all you need to know about horse care, stable management and working in a riding school and livery yard environment in a 2 day crash course
One you have passed the course, you can help at our stables and earn rewards!
Suitable for age 10+
Only £90 for the 2 days
I helped out when I was young,I never paid to help out. How life has changed
Click to expand...

I worked at my stableyard for 3 years, up until I moved house. I never paid (or got paid!) a single penny and enjoyed every weekend.
The point of "helping" out is that you're doing it of your own FREE will.. I think asking money for assistance is ridiculous, it's like having a job where you have to pay your employer
 
I think some may be over estimating the usefulness of the average 10yo. . . we regularly have gaggles of helpers at work through various schemes, they don't become of any use until about 14. The younger ones take up much more of my time than just doing it myself, and in fact I often have to create jobs specially for them.
I don't mind, I did the same at their age, but I doubt the staff are twiddling their thumbs!
 
Taking the pee somewhat, £90 really? I did this free help, free lessons at Talland as a 10 years old, this is ridiculous
 
this is mad, when I was young it was free to help out and years later now I wish I hadn't because they used me. but that's using to the limit especially being paid for kids to do their dirty work.…
 
loobylu said:
I think some may be over estimating the usefulness of the average 10yo. . . we regularly have gaggles of helpers at work through various schemes, they don't become of any use until about 14. The younger ones take up much more of my time than just doing it myself, and in fact I often have to create jobs specially for them.
I don't mind, I did the same at their age, but I doubt the staff are twiddling their thumbs!
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Agree, and this might even be a way to weed out some of the less keen "helpers".

I don't have a problem with it - two days of babysitting with ponies at £90 is a bargain for parents at their wits' end, and afterwards the keen ones can help for free like we all used to :D
 
The 10 year old at our riding school is actually the most useful person there is on a Saturday morning. She can bring in, groom, feed, tack up, knows every single horse and pony and their moods has learnt this through helping on a saturday. Without fail she is there. In return she gets vouchers for riding lessons. Tell you something she is the only one out of them all that is reliable. Always chatty and happy.
 
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