Riding Clubs - your experiences please

kaiko

kaiko

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Hi all,

I'm a newbie here so go gently. Just a bit of background before I pick your brains.

I've had ponies for the last 20 years (they had homes for life so hence not ridden in the last 5 years much just hacking). I sadly lost one of my veteran's last year very peacefully in the field and decided that now I had the space I would do what I always promised and get ridding again.

So as fate would have it a 17hh ISH 12yr old gelding out of Cavalier Royale appeared in my life. Not only has he perked up my remaining veteran but he's made me pull my socks up too. He's talented but can be a little difficult if the mood takes him, but boy is he handsome and he's coming to realise i have a sticky bum and a determined attitude.

I have them both on private land near Bitton and really want to get him trying lots of things (he's done BE etc before) but I'm a little isolated where I am. My sister has said she'd like to start hacking again occasionally and the veteran seems up for it so i'm going to start getting them both in action asap. They had the winter off due to bad weather and dark nights.

So........Bath Riding Club seems to be near me and they hold training sessions at The Meadows (which i can hack to). I'm just looking to find out what peoples experiences of Riding Clubs are, good, bad or ugly???

I'm pretty bubbly and chatty so going alone doesn't bother me, but since your all here and seem to be dishing out pretty good advice on a regular basis i thought i ask.

Slice of cake and maybe a sneaky sugary tea for all that made it this far
 
The only reason I have stopped my membership is because of the work load I am anticipating this year.

I have attended 100's of training sessions, shows, pleasure rides and camps through riding club and loved it all.

The one downside I found is the lack of help when I was on the committee! People want stuff to happen, but rarely do you get 'too many volunteers'.....

Even in area comps, lack of helpers was a problem, and one of the last area comps I was fence-judging at, one riding club was not allowed to compete because they hadn't brought the helpers they had promised!

Some clubs do have a 'tick here which shows you can help at' or a 'you MUST help at least 1 event or you might not be allowed entry at the next' and so forth.

No-one these days has oodles of time to spare, but this was my biggest bug-bear. The excuses given used to be mind-blowing, and in the end drove me off the committee after years of dedicated service!

BUT it was the only bad thing I found.

Don't care about the 'bitchiness' people talk about, I've always minded me own business and I let stuff fly over my head so I'm 'Meh!'...over that one, as well as telling a few people to butt-out and mind their own, you never have anymore bother over that then....

Join it, have a go, it's the only way you will find out, and you will make loads of new friends as time goes on.

:D
 
Welcome to the forum. We are a pretty mixed bunch with a wide range of interests so you will certainly enjoy yourself.

As for RCs. I've been a memeber of several over the years and have always found them a useful stepping stone in my varouis horses education. Clincis have been especially useful as these are often with trainers you would struggle to afford.

As with all clubs there will be people who think they are the "Bees Knees" but that said once you get to know them.....

Good luck & enjoy your return to riding
 
My sister and me were approached at a little indoor show and asked to join a (not quite) local one which we did.

It looked like loads of fun on paper and we dutifully drove MILES to training sessions and little club shows, which most of the time were cancelled last minute after we'd set off.

Our 'instructor' frequently failed to turn up for lessons and when I coaxed her to get on B (who she refused to watch me jump as it was fast and scary now how that works in a jumping lesson is interesting!!!) she barely made it over 2ft and looked petrified.

I decided that I need an instructor who can DO and ideally 1 who can ride my horses better than me. I now have such an instructor, he's only 18 and has no teaching quals (though he does have equestrian ones) but he's a GENIUS and I learn a lot!

I think as a 'joining in' excercise and if you find one which is well run, local riding clubs would be FAB, certainly ours promised to be, just fell short. I would not be put off joining another local one and am looking for one within easy reach for B and Newbie with myself and sharer at present.

They're generally not expensive and the 'team' atmosphere is great.
 
Go on try it - I am like Dragon Slayer - been there worn the committee T-Shirt! And yes, you never get the help you need!

Anyway, that beside, as I am sure you are not looking at joining the committee yet!! Group lessons are great and a lot cheaper than individual. We used to have Yogi Bresner teach us at South Bucks!!

If you get good enough the team events can be great fun too and you end up travelling around to places you would never normally have bothered to go.
 
I'm a member of 2 riding clubs, and on the committee of 1.
I've found the subsidised training has been really helpful in getting my youngster out and about to different venues and seeing different sights, and I would hope to have him up to the stage where I can do team competitions with him by next summer.
Our teams have a pretty relaxed attitude, no pressure, and win or lose, we always have a good time. (I'm one of the team managers)
Only riding club members can go to camp, and this is what I look forward to all year! I'm going to try to go to both riding clubs' camps this year, and it's the social side as well as the riding that I love. the first one is in May and I can't wait!

from a committee side of things, I would definitely agree that the lack of helpful volunteers is sometimes frustrating, but I think you get out of it what you put into it, so join up, get involved and see how you go!
 
Our RC is not affiliated, but is very friendly and welcoming (I hope!) I think it is like most things, the more you put in the more you get out. I do echo Dragonslayer though, getting people to help, rather than just take advantage on the hard work of others, is a massive problem. The committee are seen as the ones who are expected to set up the events and man them too!
That said it is great fun and we have made some good friends through ours. We are doing more social stuff this year and fewer competetions. We do quite a lot of fundraising for our nominated charities, which tends to see up to 20 horses and riders in fancy dress parading around the area,up to three times a year :eek:
Join in and make the most of it :D
 
Thought I'd replied but it seems to have disappeared.

If you have transport King Leaze is a nice club which hold quite a few events around the Badminton area and occasionally at Leyland Court. Not pressured and have weekend and weekday events.

Severn Vale have quite a few things at Leyland Court also.

Only been Bath RC events so not sure what the folk are like.

Daughter does the riding - I do the social bit - chatting!!

I think its a good way of getting a variety of teaching and you can then choose to use whoever you prefer and its great for the social side, and having fun.

PS - like the Meadows.
 
All quite positive then. Everything you've all said is pretty much what i hoped to hear.

I have no issue with helping out. I'm a big team player, sports and project wise so i love to get mucked in with other people plus i'm an organiser. Ask the boyf, it drives him nuts hehe.

ohhh excited about joining now. I really want to get more out of my monster this year. We've spent some time getting to know each other and taking it steady so now it's time to get back to doing all the things i missed out on with my old guys. (my old girl had navicular and broke a back leg hence happy hacking).

As for bitchiness, that goes with the territory but i'm big enough and ugly enough to tell someone to butt out hehe. All 5.2ft of me (thank god i'm an ex kickboxer) :p

Thanks all :D
 
IMO you should join and give it a go - most riding clubs cost about £25 or £30 for a years members, and the public liability insurance you get is worth that alone - lets face it, we spend more than that on a single lesson!

When I moved to this area, I joined the local club, and have been a member for about five years. However, I felt increasingly that everything was geared towards junior members and showjumping (I am a senior and prefer dressage). Last year enough was enough, and I looked around for a new club. Not finding any which fufilled what I wanted, a few of us got together and started our own, and it has been a roaring success - we have nearly 50 members now in just ten months. I love knowing all our members, and we have great benefits as well - we have deals with local feed merchants so our members get money off hay, feed and bedding - most have saved more than their initial membership through the discounts. Sadly, I heard at the weekend that the juniors from the club I used to belong to have now all grown up, and the club has just 6 junior members this year, and no junior teams - not just that, but a lot of seniors left for similar reasons I did. It is a real shame as the club was friendly, and the chairman a wonderful person, but they were just very short sighted.

I think all clubs have their good and bad points, but you need to get out there and try them for yourselves - someone might tell you that the local club is rubbish, but that might be because they didn't offer the things they wanted, whereas they might offer exactly what you want.
 
I just got seconded in to my local RC for a Christmas present! I love going to events and although it's small and only restarting slowly (it existed for years then stopped, only now it's coming back) what's happening is good.
I'm only sad that, now I'm moving away and can't take part any more. :'(
 
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I had an awful experience with my RC. I had always been a member of a big yard that ran its own events and in the PC when I was younger however I then grew up lol and moved to a small private yard so thought i would join one of our local RC's - we have 3 near us. I was a member for a few years, rode on teams etc and had a good time. I then made the fatal mistake of joining the committee!

I joined the committee to try and organise a few more events and namely the ODE, which i had mixed support for. The CM was less than helpful shall we say and seemed like she couldnt be bothered - very little reponse from emails etc. Some members were very supportive though. To cut a very long story short we had to pull the ODE a few feeks before the date due to lack of entries. Following this a number of the committee members approached me and asked me to stand as CM to replace the failing one - who for the past few years had said she wanted to step down. At the next meeting she announced her resignation, i was proposed and seconded. Done deal we thought.

At the same meeting there was a lot of back stabbing going on in regards to 2 other club members who wanted to join the committee. I was prompted byu 2 of other members to ask the current CM to say no to them being on the committee for my first year of being CM - then i had a very offensive email back to say she was no longer stepping down and thought the club would be safer with her!! To make matters worse she forwarded all email correspondance to the 2 members - these were confidential emails! I only found this out when i was accosted by one at a club show whilst leaving the SJ arena on a very young horse that had just had an awful round!

Needless to say i will never be supporting them again!

oooo rant over....but feels so go to get that out...and before anyone asks, i wont be revealign any names of clubs or members - im not falling into that trap again! :-)
 
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