Riding School horror stories

[brighteyes]

They get played out almost daily on here.

 

[chaps89]

Not a horror story, more of an amusing one. A lady who used to be on the same livery yard as us, moved & put her horse onto working livery at a nearby RS.
So I went to visit on one of her days not the working livery days, and she let me ride & gave me a bit of a lesson. Midway through YO comes out & apologised, saying they didn't realise Max had been booked for a lesson, could she collect the payment. Needless to say my friend was a bit

 

[Cavblacks]

Mine is awesome back home in Derbyshire!

I did try out one in London here and my first lesson there ever (so they didnt know me at all) I was put in a group on a 4yo horse that was very green but a lovely little thing, could have potential in the right hands. All we did in an hour was walk trot and canter on each rein in a school with horrific fencing and huge gaping holes that you have to avoid. I put my reins in one hand to pat my horse after a nice canter and was told off for not having both hands on the rein!
In my group they had another woman on a just broken horse, she was so unsuitable to ride this horse as she couldnt cope with it's greeness and just kept socking it in the mouth, poor thing.

Didnt go back there but I am looking forward to going to the RS that Thelwell girl works at this weekend, Went to go and have a look around and was very impressed with the set up!

 

[Kat]

Mine is awesome back home in Derbyshire!

I did try out one in London here and my first lesson there ever (so they didnt know me at all) I was put in a group on a 4yo horse that was very green but a lovely little thing, could have potential in the right hands. All we did in an hour was walk trot and canter on each rein in a school with horrific fencing and huge gaping holes that you have to avoid. I put my reins in one hand to pat my horse after a nice canter and was told off for not having both hands on the rein!
In my group they had another woman on a just broken horse, she was so unsuitable to ride this horse as she couldnt cope with it's greeness and just kept socking it in the mouth, poor thing.

Didnt go back there but I am looking forward to going to the RS that Thelwell girl works at this weekend, Went to go and have a look around and was very impressed with the set up!

Which one in Derbyshire???

The one I go to now is generally very good, but the one I learnt at when I was a child would probably be referred to as a nightmare by many.....

Taught me a lot though.

Quite possibly letting client's ride horses if for schooling or just backed youngsters or ex-racers not long off the track isn't the best idea though...... The owner genuinely loved the horses though and they had a home for all of their natural life, even when they were no longer earning their keep.

 

[The_snoopster]

A local riding school near us who is BHS approved has total non riders giving lessons, how on earth you can teach if you cannot do it yourself is beyond me. Anyway I,m off to teach flying lessons

 

[Paint it Lucky]

The riding school I went to was lovely, all the horses were well cared for, not overworked and had variety, if they ever did get a bit bored/stale then they got to go on holiday for a bit. They all went out in the fields daily and as riding school horses go they had a good life. I stayed there for years and would recommend it to anyone!

I did once go with one of my friends to visit the riding school she worked at and was shocked by some of then things they did there. It was basically run by kids/teenagers (no adults on the yard at all). The horses got brought in covered in mud and then tacked up (not groomed) and went off to do lessons, most of them would work hour after hour as the kids having lessons would get to go in and pick which pony they wanted to ride as the lesson before finished. This meant that the popular ponies were used all day long without a break! (Admittedly the lessons weren't hard but I felt very sorry for them trudging round). Those not picked were tied up in stalls still tacked up for hours on end with no food or water available. I felt very sorry for those ponies and could never work/ride at a place like that.

 

[GrumpyHero]

Not sure...?
I went to Mavita at one point - that's another kettle of fish!!!
By God!
I got put on this little ploddy 13hh chestnut mare - lovely horse but she was so miserable! - you entered the arena whilst there were still lessons going on, just joined in, there was upto 25 people a time in this little arena and even people jumping in the middle. 3 different RI's in the centre teaching 3 different lessons, people coming in, people leaving, jumping, cantering, on lead rein, different RI's shouting to different riders, then to top that, liveries coming into the arena too - and I remember there being no lights it was just horrendous! Only had 2 lessons there!
K x

ack wow that sounds awful! i've never heard of mavita though, by the sounds of it i'm quite glad ive not heard of it/been there!!

the name of my first RS i was talking about was Manchester Equestrian Centre i think ... drove past it yesterday but i think it's changed hands now .. not sure if its any better.