Riding school ponies?

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Jake10

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Hey, no real point to this post.

My local riding school does a lot of sales and working livery that are used in the lessons. Unfortunately all but 2 of the horses are bellow 15hh and I feel way too big on them :( . Thankfully they now have 2 16.2hh horses (after a year and a half wait). One of the 16.2s rears, spins and bolts with everyone the other one is a show jumper that never puts a foot wrong :). The show jumper has been at the yard for 2 weeks and has possibly just been sold... :( . Thinking I'm going to have to fight my friend for a ride on the 'naughty' one as I don't want to ride the small light weight ponies (don't think it's fair on them ;) ).

Does anyone else feel a bit big for their riding school ponies and do any of the riding schools you go to have more 15+hh horses. I've been to most of the riding schools near me and I'm lucky if they have anything over 15hh :(



Maryland cookies if you got this far :D
 
The instructors are BHS though and I think the yard itself is as well? I've learnt a lot there but the horses come and go really quick :(
 
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Any decent riding school would not have a horse with such vices. The riding schools I used to work on would not part with the good horses, they were worth there weight in gold for teaching people on. Also must RS will have a varety of horses sizes to cater for adults and children.
 
Yep that one is in for re-schooling only experienced riders allowed to ride her ;) . My lesson has all the 'naughty' horses/ponies in it (especially if they played up earlier in the day)
 
Sound a bit strange to me, the RS where Pickle is on working livery has huge variety, from shetland to 17.1hh and certainly wouldn't allow a rearer into the riding school!
 
annaellie- they have chunky cobs, plods, show jumpers, lead rein but all 15hh or under. If we're lucky a normal livery wants their horse exercising and we get to ride them :)
 
I run a riding school. We have 30 plus horses of various shapes and size for all levels of riders. The horses you describe are not suitable for school work. Of course, horses are not robots and some times our blot their copy books but the instant they do this, they are re schooled by the staff. If they do not improve they are removed from the school.
If its a cold day and the horses are in at night they are lunged before a lesson.
It is not the job of the client to school horses for sale or any other purpose.
Ours a good enough to compete, and win, in open competition at all levels and are kept and treated the same as any other horse, riding school or otherwise.
You need to find a BHS approved school that can help you improve.
Here are a few of our school horses:
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April

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Arty

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Autumn

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Brie


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Blue

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Boss

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Brandy


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Jasper

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Kestrel

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Kite

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Tosca

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Liberty


http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w207/sharola76/saffrom.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w207/sharola76/wilbur2.jpg





Just a few- bored yet??
:@)
 
This place sounds really unsuitable. Look for a BHS approved school and ask for recommendations. The riding school I go to has several horses suitable for my 6ft2" husband to ride.

Some places do aim just at children, but if they do not have safe horses of a suitable size they should not accept larger clients.

The school I go to has at least 8 horses over 16hh at the moment and a couple more who can be used occasionally on working livery. Two or three of the over 16hh horses are suitable for complete beginners on the leadrein, they also do exams and competitions with the more capable riders.

They then have loads of cobs between 14hh and 16hh that are capable of carrying all but the very tallest clients. Some are suitable for leadrein some for stage three students, and some for both.

They have numerous ponies too for children of all abilities, but the cobs are the most versatile doing lessons for children and adults beginners and advanced.
 
I personally would refuse to teach a riding school client on horses like that (not that I teach anymore and for a long time). As said horses are not robots and will have off days, but if there known as rearers etc, someone falls and with todays current sue culture I dont think the Riding school would fare to well.
 
I would look around for something else tbh.

The riding school I learnt at always had a great variety of horses, some were better behaved than others though! But they kept the horses for years, many of the ponies started there at 4/5 and died there aged 30+ (having been retired a little while). They also takes groups of people hunting, and certainly have horses that are capable of taking a tall man for a days hunting. :)
 
We have to sign a contract saying we wont sue if anything happens. Apparently learning to ride difficult horses (rears, bucking, bolting etc) is good experience as it helps to develop the riders seat and ability to deal with difficult situations?
 
Jake10 said:
We have to sign a contract saying we wont sue if anything happens. Apparently learning to ride difficult horses (rears, bucking, bolting etc) is good experience as it helps to develop the riders seat and ability to deal with difficult situations?
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Ah well - there are several born every day :rolleyes:

But as I'm guessing you're under 18 I would assume that the signature wouldn't be worth the paper it's written on.
 
Jake10- are you serious? That contract would not stand up in court. We have to assess every rider on their first lesson to determine their ability, horse suitability and the instructor they would be best suited to.
A riding school has a duty of care to ensure the horses are as safe as possible. Clients are not crash test dummies.

We do have a sign up that states that riding is a risk sport and personal accident insurance is advised but I have never heard of a contract like that.
 
Jake10 said:
We have to sign a contract saying we wont sue if anything happens. Apparently learning to ride difficult horses (rears, bucking, bolting etc) is good experience as it helps to develop the riders seat and ability to deal with difficult situations?
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Yes riding something difficult does help to make you a better rider but riding something which is dangerous ie rearing,bolting, is down right foolhardy.Sitting to a buck is one thing but bolting head first into a car or having a horse rear and fall will not make anyone a better rider!
I would suggest, as others have, finding somewhere else to ride, where they put client safety first.
 
I'm serious we sign a contract and get assessed based on our riding experience... Don't all riding schools have this sort of system? There have only been 2 horses kicked out of riding school in the last year. One freaked out bolted and started bucking the other 'bronked' around the arena both resulted in the air ambulance being called! The second was the lesson before mine had to tell the instructor that I wasn't riding that 'thing' !!
 
PM me the name of the riding school, we have the chairman of the BHS teaching here, I will pass on the information and he can look into it before someone is killed.
 
Having worked in a riding school we would of never of dreamed of putting one of the clients on a horse that had a tendency to rear ,buck ,spin etc no matter the level the rider is at.If a horse misbehaved they would be put under a schooling regime by one of the staff and not ridden by any client till the problem was well and truely sorted.

Do a search on this wesite for the nearest BHS approved riding school http://www.bhs.org.uk/Riding/Find_Where_To_Ride/Find_An_Approved_Centre/Find_a_Riding_Centre.aspx

Good Look :)
 
I would stop riding there immediately - most places ask you to sign something to say that you accept riding is a risk sport but it is not possible legally to get someone to sign a contract that prevents them from being able to sue under negligence. It is covered by the unfair contract terms act and the fact that a school is trying to make you sign such a document is to me dishonest!

No school should give clients horses that are known to have dangerous vices. It is good experience to ride horses that are not entirely straight forward but this should be minor issues not confirmed regular rearers. They should also only mount clients on horses that are suitable for their standard of riding - the vast majority of riding school clients do not have the standard of riding to cope with a horse needing reschooling or with any major vices.

Our RS does take horses for reschooling, on working livery and has youngsters but these are ridden by staff/exam students with just a few clients who are at the right level being allowed to ride them in lessons. I would be surprised that many people would like to think that their horse who was on paid for schooling livery was being used in a riding school!

It sounds very dodgy!

There are a few people in Nottingham on here why not post and ask them for some recommendations for yards where you could ride. Or check the BHS website.
 
I'd tip off your local council too, their health and safety department would probably be very interested in this place..... In fact if they have had accidents that involved the air ambulance being called i'm surprised they haven't been investigated all ready.........
 
Would agree with others find somewhere else sounds a right dodgy place!!
If I put a horse in for schoooling I would expect it to be schooled by their own 'professional' rider not put in riding school for customers to ride.I would be extremely p*d off!
 
The RS i keep mi horse at has about 10 horses above 16hh, 12 around 14.3, and a barn of about 15 ponies ranging from shetlands to 14hh!! There all pretty safe but there r a couple which would buck and rear due to not being out enough :/

They also have another 10-12 horses from 14hh-17hh which rear/buck and even ther staff refuse to ride!!
 
They would only be investigated by the council if they had reported the air ambulance incident to RIDDOR as you are supposed to. I can't imagine for a second that a place of this standard would do this.
 
charlie76 said:
They would only be investigated by the council if they had reported the air ambulance incident to RIDDOR as you are supposed to. I can't imagine for a second that a place of this standard would do this.
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Or if they have received a complaint or anonymous tip off.

OP needs to report them and leave, or PM someone responsible on here the name and location so that they can tip off the council about what is going on.
 
NicoleRobinson said:
The RS i keep mi horse at has about 10 horses above 16hh, 12 around 14.3, and a barn of about 15 ponies ranging from shetlands to 14hh!! There all pretty safe but there r a couple which would buck and rear due to not being out enough :/

They also have another 10-12 horses from 14hh-17hh which rear/buck and even ther staff refuse to ride!!
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The riding school I go to has 12 permanent ponies 11hh-15hh, about 5 working livery ones same sort of height and the rest are sale livery and reschooling ones. Some of the sale ones have been to EU championship thingy and been placed (not sure how good that is but their worth around 30k :rolleyes: ). I'm not saying that they don't have good horses they're just either too small or sell within weeks :( . Checked the BHS website and the yard is registered.
 
My daughter's RS is BHS registered and has about 100 horses and ponies there I think (not sure how many RS to livery), so there are plenty of bigger chunkier ones for bigger people/adults. We counted up that she's ridden about 30 of them!

Whilst my daughter is in one of the higher level groups, and does get to ride more challenging ponies she would never ever be asked to ride a rearer. Any pony that tries it on too much is reschoolled intensively by the instructors. I don't think you should be asked to ride a rearer, I'd be questioning if you should be riding these sorts of horse.
 
Hi!
I am at uni in nottingham and there are a couple of good riding schools round here that can easily take me (5ft 10 and 12 stone! 13 after a few nights out..........)

One is Barleyfields on the a50 j5, really good, LOADS of well mannered horses of different abilities and attitudes and plenty to carry me and my boyfriend (who is 6ft2 and 14/15 stone) and good teaching.

Ivanhoe equestrian which is in ashby de la zouch is also good!

There are a lot of different ones around if you are further north than me as well which have a much safer outlook on clients! I mean my school at home (manchester) has 30-40 horses throughout the year, some are lifers and know their job and are fabulous at it, some are horses that have been brought on, have a safe attitude but may be a bit green, or just need fittening up etc and so are only ridden by teachers and experienced (generally long standing) clients............. don't get me wrong some of them have off days and go totally high as a kite and buck and have a bit off silly git moment, but if they have more than one then its bye bye! one mare through me into a fence post 3 years ago and I still have a huge haematoma on my ass from it! but it is the one and only time she has ever done anything stupid and it was freezing over night and she is a thin skinned chestnut mare tb (so I kind of asked for it! hehe)

I know that the horses bucking, dropping shoulders and stuff like that has made me a better rider, but the first horse I have ever ridden that reared was a friends own, NEVER a riding school horse! I know its often scary/hard/difficult to change riding schools if you have been at one for a long time but I think you need to prioritise your safety and learning experience and change yards.

I have to sign a contract at my yard saying yup I know I am taking a risk in doing this sport, yes I know horses are animals and may have off days (obviously this is not contract wording) and i am pretty sure the contract is wording around basically immunising the yard from losing its license and insurance etc if I was to try to sue them etc but it does not say: sign here to say you cannot sue us!

if you want to talk to me about some other yards not on the forum feel free to PM me :) although others on here will be able to recommend other yards I won't know! :)
 
Lucy_Nottingham - thinking about talking to equine staff at uni to see if they give lessons to people not on equine course. They deffinatly have good quality horses over 15hh but it's about 40mins away :rolleyes:
 
Are you at uni or trent? I think trent have their own riding yard they go to..... can't remember.....
the uni riding team use barleyfields as they can cater for everyone so are good for visiting teams etc when u don't know whats going to arrive.
To be honest id talk to staff anyway as they may know or recommend a good riding yard close to campus! :) or one a bit further away that is worth the distance.

At home I travel 30 minutes to get to my riding school because its that good!!! Ones 10 mins away just are no comparison unfortuantly!
 
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