Teachers with horses at livery yards

noblesteed

noblesteed

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As in school-teachers!!! I teach primary and will shortly be taking up the role of acting head for the next term. How do you cope with children at the yard? In particular your own pupils? Or ex-pupils? Where do teachers stand legally if an injury happens to an unsupervised child (pupil or not) while we are on the yard? Can we be held legally responsible? With the GTC rules and all that?
My YO (farmer) has taken a new pony in for summer grazing and put it in with our 2 boys (my friend and I rent his 2 stables year-round) Problem is this pony belongs to a 12 year-old ex-pupil of mine who is now a pupil of my OH (a secondary teacher). This kid is clueless - it's her first pony and the parents aren't so hot either. I have several concerns about this firstly due to the kid's age and the fact it isn;t a livery yard therefore no supervision is provided by YO. If I am around while this kid is messing round with her pony can I be held responsible for anything that could happen to her in the absence of a responsible adult? How would it work if she brought a load of her mates over? What happens if my horse 'damages' one of them?
I have always avoided yards that take under 16s due to my professional responsibilities. I have voiced my concerns to the YO but as an aged farmer he has little knowledge of professional responsibilities!!!! Or legal obligations!! He is not insured or 'registered' as a livery provider.
I am gutted because my horse is so settled there and my friend and I have a nice little routine going on, this has really upset the applecart!!! Neither of us really want to move yards but we may have to...
 
well dont get involved, or give advice, or help. the responsibility is with the parents for a child of that age. Commercial yard policies do not accept responsibility for minors under the age of 16 unless accompanied by a responsible adult. and this should be written into their contractual agreement for keeping the pony there.
 
Luckily there are no children at my yard - I probably wouldn't be there if there were as I see quite enough of them at school! I would be very surprised indeed if you were held accountable for anything that happened to the child at your yard just because you're a teacher, that's ludicrous. I agree with the advice above - don't get involved! Can totally understand why you're thinking of moving though, I wouldn't be happy if one of my pupils moved to my yard.
 
I can't see why you would be held responsible qua teacher as your responsibility for any of your students would surely end at the school gates. As a horse owner it is very sensible to have third party liability insurance which should cover you in any case where you are negligent and your horse causes injury to a third party.
 
Fortunately I live far enough away from my school to never meet the students out and about, however my friend has students of hers at the same yard. As far as I am aware their parents are responsible for them not you! in loco parentis only covers school. I do find myself going into teacher mode with the young un's on our yard (I teach secondary - so teenagers being daft just sends me into automatic pilot) in terms of things like sliding on the ice! running on the yard! etc But I try not to let it worry me.
 
I'm a teacher also. As far as I'm aware, you have no responsibility at all for any youngsters (pupils or otherwise) at the yard. It would be the same as being on a bus and pupils getting on. You have no responsibility for them at all.

I have recently moved yards, but was at a yard with a pupil from my school and have been to events with groups including this girl. I never saw myself as being any more responsible than any other adult there.

The only issue I found (being a secondary teacher) is that there is the risk of pupils who associate with you at the yard becoming over familiar at school, but most are sensible enough to understand the different relationship and behave appropriately.
 
I think I will just keep out of the way. I have had hourly updates from my friend whose house overlooks the field, describing how the poor kid has been trying to catch her new pony all afternoon, with no help from her clueless parents! Her friend then took a bucket into the field ( I had warned them not to let my horse see a bucket) - cue my lad mugging her viciously!!!!! In the end (7pm!!!) my friend went out to feed our two anyway so the pony was finally caught.
Hopefully things will settle down. If not I guess I will have to leave. My horse time is my de-stress time to wind down from work, I don't want to have to start being 'teacher' around the yard too. Or have to deal with other peoples' kids when I am not being paid for it!!!!!!
 
As far as I am aware once they have left school, gone home and been seen by their parents/adult responsible for them after school your duty of care as a teach is over for the day.
If you brought the child to the yard however it would be different.
 
As soon as I leave school I tend to growl at any child that comes near me. In fact, I often do that in school too.

As far as I know, our responsibility for pupils does not extend outside of school. It's unreasonable to expect you to stay 'in role' even in your free time.
 
You have absolutely no responsibility whatsoever! The children are no longer your problem once they have left the school premises, as an earlier poster suggested.

You can offer helpful advice, but I would steer clear of actually doing anything - unless someone's life is actually in danger - then you have the same responsibility as anyone else (ie none!).

My school is far enough away that none of my pupils attend my yard, but there are lots of children there and it often worries me that they are there all day (in the holidays, for instance) with only the YO (who is teaching/schooling etc) or a couple of girls working around the yard. I do know that I do not have any legal responsibility for them, but do 'keep an eye' out for squabbles etc (and have been called upon for first aid before now! :rolleyes:)

It does amuse me, though, that they do sometimes come to tell me about something that's gone on, rather than an actual employee of the yard (most of them know I'm a teacher) :)
 
when you go to the yard say to yourself "I am a bus driver, I am a bus driver". Then if you are worried about whether you should be involved ask yourself if a bus driver who has a horse would get involved...

There problem solved.

No seriously you have no responsibility for anyone else or their horses unless your behaviour or horse puts them at risk. There are lots of weird and wonderful things which happen at livery yards and it's up to you if you choose to get involved or worry yourself silly. I was a teacher and had no problems with either joining in with helping people or choosing not to. I am now an IT network manager and feel no sense of obligation when I am near other people's computers or the bank's network goes down...

PS i thought I'd get a life by changing career but now I'm just a slave to the IT! LOL
 
You have absolutely no legal, professional or even moral responsibility towards this child. However I think that you may struggle to keep out of it if the child is in danger etc. I would have a word with the farmer about his legal responsibility though.

I would be a little worried about this spoiling my long horsey summer. I also think it's sad for the girl not to have friends with ponies to enjoy the summer with too.
 
MrsHutt said:
You have absolutely no responsibility whatsoever! The children are no longer your problem once they have left the school premises, as an earlier poster suggested.

You can offer helpful advice, but I would steer clear of actually doing anything - unless someone's life is actually in danger - then you have the same responsibility as anyone else (ie none!).

My school is far enough away that none of my pupils attend my yard, but there are lots of children there and it often worries me that they are there all day (in the holidays, for instance) with only the YO (who is teaching/schooling etc) or a couple of girls working around the yard. I do know that I do not have any legal responsibility for them, but do 'keep an eye' out for squabbles etc (and have been called upon for first aid before now! :rolleyes:)

It does amuse me, though, that they do sometimes come to tell me about something that's gone on, rather than an actual employee of the yard (most of them know I'm a teacher) :)
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This is similar to my own situation, I try to just avoid the children and if possible avoid the 'busy' times on occasion I do go into 'teacher' mode butI try to make a point of focusing on my horse x
 
Yuk, my worst fear! I was a Teacher too- the thought of running into the pupils outside of school brings me out in cold sweats! :eek:It would be the over-familiarity which would bother me
 
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