Schooling/Sharing the Menage

[wiglet]

What happens at your yard?
Do you school with others in the arena or is it sole use only?
Do you have a booking system?
How many are allowed in the arena at any one time?
Do you pay extra for use of floodlights?

No booking system at my yard - you just use it when you wish - sometimes you share but usually I have it to myself. If you have a lesson booked you get sole/priority use. No extra for use of floodlights although they're not very bright
I'm on a medium sized yard - 16 horses.

Just interested really

 

[monkeybum13]

You can book it if you want to, people tend to only book it if they've got a lesson and then share other times. It all works well and just pay for floodlights as and when, it all seems to work.

We also have times where people can't book lessons, these are popular times in the week so you are guaranteed to be able to ride in the arena

 

[StormyMoments]

used to be at a yard with a booking system but only really used for lessons. no max horses allowed in but you have to be able to move obviously although if someone was lunging only one horse was to be ridden in there and no extra for lights

new yard - the school doesnt seem to be used all that much well at least not when im about dont have to pay extra for lights and never ridden in with anyone else so dont have that problem

 

[Kat]

No extra charge for lights at ours. If you want sole use you have to book, otherwise you may have to share. Riding school lessons get priority. But practically speaking after 5pm most days you get sole use and can pick which school you prefer.

 

[kc100]

About 40 horses on our yard, free use of floodlights and we all share - even when lessons are on, we can still use it! There is only one outdoor though on the yard, and even with the amount of horses at the yard the busiest I've ever seen the school is 5 at one time. It is such a big school you can easily fit 4 horses in using one corner each doing 20m circles so its no big deal.

We try not to go in when others are having lessons, but sometimes you need to school and cant come back at another time so I'd always stick myself in the opposite corner to the lesson and stay out of the way. Because the school is so big the instructor will pick one corner/side of the school and stay there anyway otherwise the client cant hear the instructor!

 

[MissMoo]

Our set-up is pretty much the same as yours.

 

[Tilda]

At our yard you have to book it but most of us are happy to share with someone else although I think 2 would probably be the maximum as only a standard 20x40 school. One year it did get a bit silly as one girl (who won't share) booked it at 5.30 every night which was the busiest time but the YM stepped in and asked her to free up a couple of evenings. I book my time but as I say am happy for someone to share unless I am having a lesson obviously! We don't have to pay for lights it is included in our livery.

 

[Lotty]

Our outdoor school is large, we could have 4 horse's in each corner doing 20metre circles and 1 in the middle doing one......lol

We can book the school, but then we have to pay which is fair. There a a few of us who won't go in the school if another is having a lesson. Then, there are a few who couldn't care less and just spoil it for others.

 

[hihosilver]

Only 3 allowed at one time and you van book it for lessons

 

[wench]

No booking system... if someone got to yard first, needed to do something on their own in the school, tough you had to wait (no booking system). Only bugbear of mine was once when I was trying to jump school a horse, child came in, was all over the place and kept on cutting me up (very small child). If they had waited ten mins would have had the school to themselves.

 

[LaurenBay]

Free use of lights, usually have the shcool to ourselves, there is no booking system but if you book a lesson you do tend to get sole priority. There are 7 Horses on my yard but only 3 ridden.

Old yard, have a booking system where you are allowed half an hour slots. You can't book the same time more then twice in a week. However if you are riding and someone hasn't taken the next slot you are allowed to stay in the school. If you have a lesson you can book an hour slot. Free use of lights.

 

[Ahrena]

I'm pretty lucky that although it's a fairly big yard (30 boxes), only about 5 of us use the school. I can probably count on 1 hand the amount of times I've had to share it in the las 3 months.

We don't have a booking system as the school is easily big enough to work round each other even if someone was having a lesson, but tbh I think only 2 of us have lessons and we both travel to the instructor.

We don't have lights.

 

[Always_A_Moody_Mare]

At my old yard you had to book 24hrs in advance if you wanted to use the school, but you couldnt do it less/more than 24hours which was a pain as i only shared a horse 3 days a week so had to ask someone to book it for me! At this yard we had to pay £1 per 15mins for the lights I think, which got expensive in the winter!

All of the other yards I have been at you can use the school when you want, and could book for sole use if you had a lesson. All floodlights were free, except one place you had to put £1 in every so often.

 

[Hexx]

Ours only really takes a max of 3 riding - we are not allowed to lunge in the school we have to use a very small roundpen which is too small for my horse, so I haven't lunged for a couple of years - he has navicular, so can't really do small circles and the YO won't let me lunge in the school at all, even though she has let others do so on medical grounds - I don't think its fair, but there you go!

We have lights, which have just been redone. They were free before, but now you have to pay £1 for about 40 minutes.

No booking system, and you can still ride if someone has a lesson. Although, there is one horse on the yard that no one will share with as it's a bit of a git!

The school is only booked out if there is a clinic or visiting instructor and someone wants the school to themselves, and most people respect that as it doesn't happen very often.

 

[Natz88]

We have a white board, but you can only book the school out if you have a lesson otherwise we have to share. There is about 35/40 horses at the yard, but not even half of them go in the menage most of them just hack. It isn't very often I have to share as the people that do use it tend to be up at different times to me. So works well for us all just have to rememebr to check board if I want to go in menage just to check no one has a lesson. We also have lights in the menage which we don't have to pay to use