riding school reject

twiggy2

twiggy2

Well-Known Member
Joined
3 July 2013
Messages
11,803
Location
Highlands from Essex
Visit site
[h=5]Free to a good home. Loving bay mare, 16 years old. Riding school horse has slight lameness behind, that I can not afford to investigate, just resting her has not cured her. She would be fine for light hacking but riding school work make her worse. She is a pretty welsh/arab cross with papers. wormed and vaccinated. Need to find her a new home before the winter sets in as there is no room at the inn! Phone[/h]


saw this ad on facebook, it is a large/busy riding school that charges £27 per hour to hack but cannot afford to investigate why one of its horses are lame so will get rid.

am i the only one that thinks this is wrong?
 
I think it is 'wrong' yes but I can see where they are coming from. Riding schools struggle to make ends meet. They have horses to feed, shoe, vaccinate etc (I don't know how many they have at this yard). They generally have staff to pay, vehicles to run, buildings and land to maintain etc etc. in addition to that, and thanks to the litigious society we now live in, they also have to pay extortionate insurance premiums just so they can run the business. £27 does sound a lot BUT in reality you need a lot of £27/hrs to keep afloat! We all know how much it can cost to investigate a lameness and riding school horses are very unlikely to be insured for things like vets fees as that would be yet another premium to be paying out.

The horse is possibly just a bit arthritic. My only concern would be the giving away for free as the poor mare could end up anywhere :(
 
It is sad, but for the riding school owners its just business.

My step father & brothers owned and ran a riding school years ago (for 30 years). They had horses for years that once they could no longer work would sent them off to be shot. (They told us and the clients they'd gone to a farm to retire!!) I couldn't do it, but that's why I'd be a rubbish business owner. I'd have a yard full of pampered retirees!

I also know that they closed the riding school due to crippling insurance costs as it became non viable - so £27 sounds like a lot but the costs of running a school are huge.

At least they are trying to find her a home.
 
maxapple said:
It is sad, but for the riding school owners its just business.

My step father & brothers owned and ran a riding school years ago (for 30 years). They had horses for years that once they could no longer work would sent them off to be shot. (They told us and the clients they'd gone to a farm to retire!!) I couldn't do it, but that's why I'd be a rubbish business owner. I'd have a yard full of pampered retirees!

I also know that they closed the riding school due to crippling insurance costs as it became non viable - so £27 sounds like a lot but the costs of running a school are huge.



At least they are trying to find her a home.
Click to expand...

with an undiagnosed lameness i think it would be better to shoot her, at least your prevented them ending up in the wrong hands.
i agree riding schools are expensive to maintain (i spent many years working on one), but there is a photo of ten horses out on one hack and they are very busy.

for me it is even worse than the racing industry outing those that do not make the grade because every single horse/pony in a riding school has raised some revenue for that business, and has been known personally.if they cannot afford to investigate a horses lameness then they need to close the business. i bet the owner can affords to go to the dentist.

a lameness work up is around about £200, if they cannot afford expensive treatment that is fair enough but then you pts but not even to investigate is terrible
 
Not ideal but in response to the comment about light hacking, it probably will help her. However she needs to be seen by a vet so the degree of arthritis can be diagnosed. Surely that wouldn't be too much to ask.
 
We charge £30 and are cheap for our area, yet we are still struggling. Just because you have a photo of 10 on a hack doesn't mean you are busy! You are hardly going to advertise with a photo of one on a hack are you! Summer, contrary to belief, is usually quiet as many people go on holiday, I only had 4 people to teach a few weekends ago where we are fully booked in winter from 9am to 4pm.

Not that I condone the above action. We too turn away if slightly lame and see what happens but any that come in lame do get investigated. Perhaps this isn't the school that's advertising but a hopeful client or member of staff that wants to "save" the horse rather than pts?
 
They are running a business: investigating the lameness would probably wipe out the profit and therefore the point of all those early winter mornings and long s****y days. At least they've given this mare a chance - she could go on to a home that will investigate? 10 horses out on a hack means jack - just do some rough sums in your head as to how much a stable incl. vehicles insurance etc. would cost and then see how much they could earn on a weekly basis by ading up how many horses they have by how many hours each horse could work in a day.....garantee it'll be tight!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top