Newbie! Pony at fete questions!

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Debsi

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Hi

I am part of the school PTA and am currently organising the summer fete.

I have a teacher who has a pony we can use for free for the rides for 2 hours of the evening fete (6-8pm), and we will sell tikcets to raise money for the school. I am looking into insurance for this event.

Do I or the owner need to get lisensing to use the pony on the school field?

I haven't arranged a school fete before or pony rides!

Please can you give me any tips and advice for having pony rides at the school fete?

Many thanks!

Debi
 
Memories of the trusty Aquila and Thunder plodding around the Vicarage gardens,queues of children waiting for a turn. Was a great money maker for the flower fund. Real shades of Dibley.
 
I have provided pony rides in the past for schools where I worked, in the heady days before the compensation culture. I gave up and wouldn't recommend anyone to do it either. If you really want to do so, rather than using the pony of a member of staff, it would be wise to ask a local RS to provide the pony and a professional to oversee - I doubt that you would get much profit though. As AA says your local council will advise.
 
You will need a risk assessment from the school's health & safety team, and that may be enough to call a halt. Anything from a pony stepping back and bumping into a person to a pony going up a tree because the music came on too loud. Difficult to be reassuring in today's compensation culture. Sorry!
 
The cost of insurance for this will likely be prohibitive. As a condition of any insurance, riders will need to wear well fitting hats (likely up to the latest approved BHS/competition standard)- do you have anyone able to provide these? It's likely you will need someone considered "competent" by the insurance to oversee- this is likely to need to be someone with formal qualifications or experience running these sorts of events or at least working with inexperienced riders. Do you have anyone available who would fit this brief? You will also need someone with an appropriate first aid qualification present- the BHS run courses provide a higher level than is often found in schools, and I'm not sure if the standard school first aid training would satisfy insurers. (Having done first aid courses via both the BHS and first aid at work, the BHS course went into a lot more detail about potential head and spinal injuries than a standard "first aid at work" course).

The insurance would need to cover both injury to riders/bystanders, injury to the pony and public liability for any damage caused were the pony to get loose in e.g. the car park.

You also need to consider the issue of a child over the pony's safe weight limit wanting to ride and the general welfare of the pony- it wouldn't be good publicity for your event if the pony's welfare was felt to be compromised.

In a previous job, we looked into the possibility of doing something like this, but the insurance cost was prohibitive (bearing in mind we would have had a BHSAI to oversee and two people present with the appropriate first aid!). Instead, we ran a workshop where children could use chalks to paint/draw on the pony and then pose for photographs- something like this may be a better, safer option!

If you do want to go ahead, I'd try someone like Shearwater, who I believe provide insurance for lead rein rides off premises as part of their riding school insurance.
 
I did it many years ago but no way would I do it now. Insurance and claims if any little darling fell off, got stood on bitten etc etc would put me off. Its a shame but times have changed and I wouldnt think its a wise thing to do these days.
 
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Yes you'll need a license, plus the relevent paperwork and experience to get the license in the first place, then insurance, then hats for the kids and someone suitable to lead. Is the pony used to kids swapping after ten mins? Not to mention safeguarding and first aid.

I've seen saints of rs ponies have enough of life at fetes within minutes... I'd never do it personally and have been involved with organising pony rides at 1000+ people open days as well as the local fete. Not. Worth. The. Hassle.
 
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