pony rides at fetes and fairs

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TheShark

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Do people still take ponies to fetes for the children to have LR pony rides?

A friend is organising a local fete and would like to offer this if she can find someone reputable and insured that offers the service.

Does anyone know of anyone in the Milton Keynes area?

Wine and football blinkers on offer if you can help.
 
it might be easier to find someone with donkeys at a local farm park or attraction that offer it and are set up with the big insurance needed etc. If donkeys would do instead? Or maybe a local riding school if there is such a thing in your area these days!
 
My YO used to take 2 small ponies to our village fete. she had a lot of different insurances with NFU (horses, car, business, home etc). And she arranged one days cover for the ponies at the fete, this was to cover injury to riders amongst other things. She took a variety of hats with her and kids had to wear a hat and some really little ones were held on the saddle too.
 
We have the village fete in our garden and were often asked to do pony rides. We once did and it went without incident, but admit we had no insurance in place. More recently we have had to refuse as the insurance would be too much and have also had to withdraw the use of our trampoline after several years as we can't be held responsible for accidents.

Very sad, as we would be happy to do both without risk. The church have said it isn't worth them taking out insurance for the day as the premium would be prohibitive. Half of what they make on the day would go to the insurance company I'm told.
 
Years ago we use to take most of the yard to a fete in Broxboure to give pony rides. No insurance and we did it year in year out(James Hunt the racing driver made an appearance..swoon swoon..thats how long ago). We use to rest the horses regularly and do about 100 yards and back around a track that was set up with a few bales of straw).

Insurance would be paramount nowadays....such a shame as it was really good fun. No health and safety and I dont remember any of the horses misbehaving. We had a carnival etc noise floats etc etc and the horses just thought it was all normal.

Sorry just brought back memories of a bygone era!!
 
That's a shame about insurance. I did point her to the local RS and suggested donkeys as it seems to be more common to see them at events etc.

Hopefully she can find something! Thanks for the suggestions. :)
 
You need not only appropraite insurance, but also a riding school licence, even if you are only giving rides for one day and/or raising funds for charity.:(
 
Is that right? I know people who do it and was thinking of doing it at our school fete this year.

What if you ask for a donation rather than asking for payment, will this make a difference ? We are a small village school, solar people know us ( although I guess if anything happened , those that have a sue for money if any thing happened would go for it :( )

So sad that a simple child hood pleasure gets spoiled
 
I volunteered my 14.2 for daughters school fair. But even with a donation to the pta, rather than paying it me to give them, it still counts as hiring out your horse. The extra insurance would have cost more than it made.
 
Riding schools would be the best to ask as they will already have the right insurance

I help a friend do pony rides at various functions and we have a great time and the kids love it. We use mostly under 13hh ponies as these are easier to get riders onto. We usually take about 8 ponies. They work for 30mins at a time then have a 30 min break before starting again. We rotate the ponies so at least four are working at a time.

We take a selection of helmets, stirrups are removed from all the saddles and monkey straps added for riders to hold. Along with mounting blocks for ease of getting kids on and off. Generally we lead in headcollars if the area is well enclosed, bridles if there is no fencing.

We find that rides go quicker if there is someone collecting the money and fitting helmets. Helmets are sprayed with nit spray after each day.
 
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