School booking rant

cphillipsball

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21 March 2007
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I apologise in advance for the rant that is about to come. We have an indoor school which I have been using since I moved to the yard about 6 months ago. I have regularly used it for probably 4 times a week and we have a white board with times on it so it is easy to book, however one person at the yard decided to question the fact that I now ride my horse 6 nights a week for 3/4 hour and wants to know why? which surprised the hell out of me. But now she has decided I have to wait around until she gets there to decide whether she is going to use the school for approximately 10 minutes where she lunges. Why do I have to wait for her, it is an easy system if you want it book it. I can't help being prepared and therefore booking in advance and also wanting my horse to be well schooled and fit ready to take her out dressaging. I can understand she doesn't want to wait around for me to finish as I go in there at 5, but if she booked it in advance I would know when she wanted it rather than hanging around for her to decide she doesn't need it. So so Angry. Any advice? (oh and the yard owner leaves us to run ourselves so no point involving them).
 
Leave :).

At our yard, anybody can use the school whenever they want. If they book a lesson, people can still go in but to be fair, people don't tend to.
If you want exclusive use, you pay for it, £5 a shot.

We do have an outdoor school also (not floodlit), so in summer, there is always an alternative place to ride.

If I had to book the school to use it, I'd find a yard that didn't have such a system.
 
Depends tbh if you were booking it at 5pm every/most evenings would be p'd off.But if there are no rules for booking school really no comeback .
Personally I only book school for actual lessons not day to day riding.At our yard you cannot book school between 4pm and 7pm as this is seen as peak times and YO feels it would be unfair and selfish of one person to hog school between these times(schools finishing/folk finishing work).Works fine so far
Saying that wouldn't think another livery had any right to tell you to wait for her if you had booked school tho
 
if you are booking the same time slot every week then you can't be suprised that she would like to use it at that time some times.
we have the same problem at the yard i am at, the same people book the same slot or even when they haven't booked it still expect to use it at the time.
i think the key word here is if you are using a shared facility then maybe you might have to share and compromise with the other users
 
I book it, arrive and enter and am in there when she comes to the door and asks when I will be finished, I tell her the time and she goes away but the other day she told me we have to share, which is fine but because I use it alot that is not sharing apparently even though I get there at 4.45, am in school at 5 for a 3/4 session. She arrives at 5.20pm and expects to come in straight away. If she booked it the night before I would delay going down if I knew she was using it, but she expects me to wait until she arrives at 5.20 to decide whether she is going to use it.

School is only 20 X 30 so not big enough to share.

Like I said don't mind compromise but need to know in advance.
 
If she arrives at 5:20, can she not entertain herslf for 25 mins before going in? Do some of her other chores in that time? If I were you (and its a good thing I'm not on a DIY yard!) I'd be stubborn and hold your own, ipod in and pretend not to hear her perhaps, you are sticking to the yard rules of booking schools and you can't help it if she appears to be the yard nutjob!
 
NO such system at current yard, but have known this in the past. I would be a bit miffed if someone booked a peak time slot 6 days a week, so perhaps try to share these times. Is there a reason she can't book/plan ahead such as an unpredictable work or home life?

I would try to talk to her about it and come up with a plan that allows her access some days and you to plan/book of certain days too.

This sort of thing can be a problem when a yard isn't managed and liveries are left to "get on with it".
 
Like I have said before she just turns up at twenty past five and wants it, I have no idea if she is using it or not until she arrives. I have then wasted 20 minutes waiting for her to arrive before I can use it. Happy to alter timing just need to know before I get there.
 
Totally agree with the suggestion of sharing days here as it does seem unfair that you're booking the school for the same time every night when other people obviously want to use it then too. Why not talk to her about it and arrange days or swap numbers and ask her to text you the day before to tell you whether or not she wants the school the next day?
 
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