Loaning from riding school?

hellsdarkrose

hellsdarkrose

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Hi new here and I just wondered if anyone thought the following was a good stepping stone to my first horse.

My riding school offers an option where you pay £40ish a week and you loan a horse from them. You get 1 lesson a week included in the price and so long as the horse isn't wanted in a lesson on tues wed or sat you can ride them when you want. You only have to help out at the yard on the odd saturday. And every other month you have to pay farrier bills. You get to take the horses to competitions etc provided it doesn't clash with a lesson they are needed for. You also get first refusal if for whatever reason the school decides to sell the horse.

I have never had my own horse and just wondered what everyone thought as to whether this is a good stepping stone to do for a few years first.
 
I think you should speak to somebody who is already on this arrangement to ensure that you genuinely do have the use they are suggesting, also where do you stand if the horse is ill or injured and cannot be ridden- will they still be taking your money?

On paper it seems like a good scheme and would give you plenty of support, but I have to wonder why they are doing it.

If the horse is as available as they are implying then it suggests that they are very short of clients and trying to squeeze money out in a slightly desperate fashion, after these may be horses that some other poor sucker is actually paying them to look after

Conversely you could be squeezing in between lessons and finding that the horse is quite overworked, and that somebody else has the same arrangement on the horse on the other days of the week.

They would be making/saving £200 pcm from you if you include the farrier in real terms so you do need to look deeper into the details
 
Thanks PrincessDana it is a way for me to test how much time I have. I don't think I have enough to own my own horse so I tthought this a better idea.
 
I will definitely be speaking to some more people about it this weekend.

I believe that the loan horses are extra horses they have in addition to the regular riding school horses which are not loaned. If your horse is unavailable to ride they lend you one of the school horses to ride providing they aren't in lessons.

But I am investigating more this weekend but mainly wanted to know that if it is as good and as sound as it sounds that it is worth it.
 
you should go for it as long as you kno for a fact you are going to get what you have been told. i kno numerous people who hav done this and got to ride their loan horse like once a week, never get lessons cause the instuctor is too busy, but still hav had to do all the yard work (this was a dodgy lady and dodgy riding school tho)


if the person you would be loaning from is a genuine nice person then it sounds like a great idea!
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wish i had a chance like that before i bought poppy
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good luck!!!
 
I think its a great idea , before i got my first pony i loaned for around half a year and it was the best thing i done , it imporved my riding skills and gave me a true taster in what having my own pony was really like . its alos good you get to take it to competeions x,Sounds good x let me know you decision x
 
One of the riding schools I used to go to also offered a scheme like this and although I never loaned a horse as I didn't have the time, it sounds like a brilliant idea. They will probably draw up a contract as well which you'll have to sign so make sure you check out the terms and conditions carefully. Good luck with it!
 
Sounds a good idea. School near me, well Trent Park to name names, charges £80 a week for a similar arrangement. But they do have nice horses in their defence
 
We do that here with some of the horses (and we def are not trying to squeeze money out of people as the riding school lessons are very busy).
We charge £50 per week and ask the people who loan them to provide a list of when they will be here and we try our best to work the other lessons around them. If the horse is stabled its £75 per week.
 
I think its a good idea in theory - it depends on the riding school.
I know of one near me that offers this scheme - in reality it is an excuse to have someone else pay for their horses. They still use them just as much for lessons and all that happens is the client gets the same horse in lessons - which usually happened anyway. The menage then was never free for the client to use at other times.
If the riding school is reputable however (like in the post above) I think it's a great way to take the first steps in owning a horse.
 
I used to do that! Had atleast one lesson a week and got to have two if the pony wasnt in use on the other weekend lesson day, was aloud a maximum of 5hours riding a week for £25.
 
if i was loaning it i would want to see how much use out of it i could get first... not when the riding school want it.
 
I personally would rather loan from someone privately and know that I would have use of the horse when I wanted rather than have it dictated to me.
 
I did this for my girls for a while - but it didn't work out like it should have done. They got to go to about 2 shows a year and the horse was always being used and they often had to ride a different horse in the lesson. It cost almost as much as having our own horse in the end.
 
TBH you could afford a loan horse of your own on DIY for that.

Does the riding school have a good reputation? What do you get for that.. stabling? use of an all weather arena? good hacking?

What condition and temperament are the horses? are they seen regularly by a vet / farrier?

All these are questions I'd be wanting answers to if I was to pay a riding school 40 pounds a week to look after their horse...
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