Those on livery - how do you share school useage?

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zoeshiloh

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I am just wondering what systems different livery yards have... Over the years I have kept my horses on several different yards, each with different policies on school use. I am yet to decide which had the best idea!

At one yard you booked the school if you wanted sole use of it (up to a week in advance) but if you weren't bothered about sole use, you just went in when you wanted (as long as not booked by someone else). This worked very well.

Another yard had a similar sort of policy, but if you wanted sole use, you had to pay an extra 'hire' charge - this meant if you were having a lesson and wanted the school to yourself, you had to pay £5 so that no other liveries were allowed in. This led to a lot of issues, as a lot of people did not pay the private fee, and other liveries would ride on purpose at the same time to try and get some free advice from your instructor.

I m fairly laid back when it comes to school use - my view is that there are only so many hours in the day, and with most people finishing work around the same time, you have to be flexible. I am happy to ride my horses in the school with other people - our school is 65x25 so perfectly big enough to avoid other horses. I have a youngster who was only recently backed, but am happy to ride around other horses etc. However, other people on the yard are getting funny about riding together, and want to book the school for sole use - the trouble is, I work a long way away from home (an hour and a half commute) so by the time I get to the yard, I want to just get on and ride, not wait around for another hour, which can sometimes happen. Everyone else at the yard is either at school, self employed or works from home, so why oh why do they all leave it until 6.30 to ride, then want sole use of the enormous school. The YO has now asked us to write in the diary when we want to use the school - this is a problem for me, as somedays I work away all over the country, and I never know exactly what time I will be back - some days early, some days late. I do not know until I get into the office that morning a lot of the time. I have "booked" my time slots for the week, but also written under them that I am happy for others to ride at the same time - I have no problem with sharing the arena, the only time I ask for private use would be if I were having a lesson. I can't understand why some people have a problem with sharing use of the arena - I have never had this issue at any yard before, where everyone just piles in, follows the school rules, and gets their horses used to being ridden together. As OH is in the process of buying and setting up a livery yard, I am keen to know how other people manage school usage, and what they think is the best idea?
 
we dont have any plan type system at are yard but common sense says only 3max in each school at one time, but a few people will ride outside in the dark if the indoor is full, but iv noticed now its cold and darker not alot of people will ride everyday
and if there lessons normaly people are polite and dont come in specaily when its jumping. :) x
 
Our yard is a small ish yard, theres about 13 ridden horses on the yard. There are 3 qualified instructors on the yard and people bring their horses in for lessons as well. We tend to just ask or text the owner when there are booked lessons. We cant ride when a lesson is happening,(unless other wise arranged). However we are free to ride at any other time, and we all share, just turn up when you want. Basically we are told (arena is booked say between 12 and 3) and then we are free to use it at any other time we like. We can fit 4 horses riding at the same time, so it works quite well :)
 
One yard I was at, the riding school had priority. If they weren't using it, then liveries put their name in a book. A max session of 30 minutes, 50p if you used the lights and also a max of 2 people in at any one time.
First come - first served.

Another one I was at, just let it progress naturally - no booking and this worked quite well. Generally there was up to 4 people at one time, all happy to share (20 liveries on this yard) and it was a smallish school.

If it was me, I'd leave it as it was and see how liveries get on. If there is bitching or anything going on, then I'd have a booking form.
 
I think this comes down to being reasonable, which unfortunately not all people are! At the yard I am now at we use the booking system if you have a lesson or need to be in the school on your own, and this relies on the same person not booking the busy 5-6 time slot every day. This works really well but maybe we are lucky that every gets on well. Only problem for me is at the moment i'm not riding as pregnant so I lunge which isn't really safe to do with anyone else in the school, so I just check quickly that no one else wants to use the school. I think as long as everyone knows the rules you shouldn't have a problem.
 
The last big yard I was at you had to write down if you wanted sole use and you could not book the school for sole use between 7am and 8:30 am and 5:30pm and 7pm (from memory) as thats when most people got there after work. We did have a second memage that you could hire YO private menage and was £5 a time.

TBH it worked really well if people wanted to ride on there own they were told to ride out of these times as the school was empty most of the time if you need the menage for the vet etc within these times you could have sole use if you asked YO and it was occasional. i.e. you could not have a lesson every week.

One girl had a lesson that ended at 5:45 every fortnight on a thursday and we just had to wait but it was only 15 mins and often they would use one end and would let us in if we wanted
 
Our yard is a bit quieter now, but it was pretty busy. We would have people jumping, lunging and schooling all in the same school.

Its a free for all and you just get on with it. If you want to wait until it's quieter then you can, but it works well as everyone uses common sense really. It's a 30x50 and the other school is a 20x60.

I much prefer it this way, i.e anyone can come in whenever. I have been to a yard where you had to book the school and that just did not suit me, purely because I can never stick to a time I say I will be down etc I just don't think it can work like that, well not for me.
 
We have a free for all system, which mostly works fine -- we pile on in. Most people who want sole use happy to wait a bit and let people know they need the whole school and being a friendly yard this works ok as long as not every day. Probably wouldn't get a full hour ... if lunging people tend to wait outside the school like the 50p coin on a pub pool table, so everyone knows they're waiting. Other will just come in and work around the lunger. We can pile a lot of people into a small school and never had a problem. As long as everyone is sensible and mutually respesting it works fine.
 
The yard I am on has a 20x40 school and they run a booking system which works pretty well. tbh not that many people use the school so it is rarely a problem getting there and most people will share as it is ok to have a couple in there at a time. You can have up to two 1 hour future bookings per stable at any time. There was one woman who had 4 ponies at the yard who would book 2 hours a day four days in advance always at key times and would not share. This caused some "stresses" at the time as she effectively booked out the whole week but she has now left and everyone else is pretty flexible and will swap times etc to accomodate peoples working patterns. If the yard was full of people who wanted to use the school things may be more difficult!
 
At the moment you are not allowed to book school between 4 and 7pm which is fair enough as these are peak times.It doesn't appear to be busy during these time at moment but that may change once kids are back at school.
 
It is rare that there will be more than three people using the school at the same time at my yard as everybody tends to ride at different times of the day. If you want to book the school for yourself then you can, but you have to pay extra. We have a large Indoor and Outdoor school though I'm not too bothered about sharing, also most of the time I get it to myself anyway. If you have a lesson, you can book the school with no extra charge just to let people know you have priority over use of the school at that time and it is up to you whether you choose to share it or not. The RDA also use our Indoor school a lot during the day and there are set hours when we cannot use the Indoor school from Monday - Friday which is fine because we have the outdoor school available all of the time. The only time it is annoying is when the weather is really bad and you have to wait for the Indoor school!
 
I was on a large RS with about 25+ liveries. There was a large indoor and outdoor both 30x60 so very large then a wee indoor just big enough to lunge in though so not used unless your desperate!! Basically arenas were free until 4 as thats when lessons start and dont end to 9 so in the summer there was nowhere to ride unless you went down early but as soon as winter hits the flooded outdoor is basically free 24/7. And then obviously if its hired then we couldnt use it but otherwise everyone was happy to ride with other people .. well there was some funny ones but they werent paying to hire it so everyone just piled on in :p
 
We have an indoor and floodlite outdoor for 25 liveries. You can either book the school in advance for a £2 fee or on the day book half an hour free by writing your name and time on a board. If know one else books in you can stay as long as you want.
The indoor is busy till about 7.30 but the outdoor is rarely in use so Itend to hop in there.
 
Ours is a complete and utter free for all. Doesn't bother me one jot.
It would seriously hack me off if it was being continuously booked for sole use at peak times!

If I were a YO I'd probably say school couldn't be booked mid week in that key time of 4-7pm when everyone wants to ride!

Anyway, it's good for horses to learn to work with distractions, mine as a 4yo was a dab hand at avoiding the kids gymkhana games!
 
MissTyc said:
We have a free for all system, which mostly works fine -- we pile on in. Most people who want sole use happy to wait a bit and let people know they need the whole school and being a friendly yard this works ok as long as not every day. Probably wouldn't get a full hour ... if lunging people tend to wait outside the school like the 50p coin on a pub pool table, so everyone knows they're waiting. Other will just come in and work around the lunger. We can pile a lot of people into a small school and never had a problem. As long as everyone is sensible and mutually respesting it works fine.
Click to expand...

We do this too..... the only no-no we have is no lunging and jumping at the same time so if you want to jump but someone is lunging you wait and visa versa.......

Works fine!
 
The yard I'm at is multi-purpose, with competition horses, breaking and schooling horses, riding lessons and liveries, so the arena is almost constantly in use, aside from 2 till 4, which is convenient for me, I get the place to myself!
 
One yard i was at - you had to pay £3.00 extra each time you used the school for 30 mins... however if two of you used the school you still had to pay £3.00 each ! if it had been half price i would have been happy to muddle along but why should i be paying full wack for half a school - now if we had had a 20 x40 school i would have happily done this but it was more like 17 x 32 - so i did feel rather agreeved to be paying this out - we also had to be off the yard by 9pm and lessons were often run unitl 6pm at night - and we were not allowed to use the school on Mondays, Fridays and Saturday's - owners had priority - it even got so bad we were rowing about riding at 6am in a morning as i would arrive to find another 2 folks had put there names down and tbh i am not good in a morning!

The yard i am now at is booked for sole use if you are having a lesson but tbh hardly anyone rides so you can get in most of the time by yourself - and you dont have to pay any extra - but we do tend to do the maintenance to the school ourselves (well me and 4 others have an arena party most weekends!) -I do get a bit fed up that the person whom does not work at all - and uses the school for at least an hour a day - never ever rocks up to help rake the school.... funny that isnt it - she is also so idle she cant even remove her muck from the school - now that really gets me mad as the yo's have spent a fortune on the school for all our benefits and she is just a lazy madam - we have even asked her what time suits her best and guess what - no day, or time is suitable for madam - now she is someone whom should be charged extra or barred!
 
I am on a DIY yard with approx 30 horses/ponies. We have a 40 x 20 floodlit outdoor school. Use is not included in livery and we pay £2.50 per 1/2 hour. You pre-book a time by putting your name against a time on the menage sheet. After school and early evenings are busy some days more than others. No-one really uses it in the morning though.
 
there is a booking system at my yard- at first i didn't like the idea of it but actually have got used to it now. there is one 20x40m school and the slots are half hour slots- with 2 people allowed in the school at the same time. you have to share unless you are having a lesson- where you just book out both sides of the diary- or if you are jumping. the only restrictions (which i think is good) is that half hour slots only are allowed 5-7pm weekdays. ouytside of these times you can book as long as you like.

my horse takes a bit of working in so half hour is pointless for me- so i wait to ride til 7pm and then i book an hour. it would be easier to ride at 5.30pm but i accept that its my problem so i wait to ride.

generally this works really well. there are about 50 horses on my yard so it wouldn't work just having a 'free for all' because the school is too small. it really bugs me though when people on yards are so inflexible about use of the school and insist on booking the same slot every day for an hour. what bugs me most on our yard is the people who consistently book a slot and then fail to use it- everyone forgets the odd time but every time? just annoying and selfish!
 
Where my mum is if someone is lunging no one else can use the 20x60 school, fully understand safety wise but urgh there is no time limit on one use of the school so you start tacking up no one in the school. Walk your horse round the corner and someone has sneeked in and stays for 45minutes!!!
Personally I just go on a hack and hope their not there when I get back and have not a)gone to get their second horse or b)their mate swaps with them.

Also hacks me off when showjumpers are jumping so you go in and work quietly out of their way and then they leave and and leave their jumps out!!! 'well you might have wanted to use them' :mad:

And another annoying thing is if you are riding at dusk and you think few more transitions and I will go in just get it right then walk round for five minutes and POW the floodlights come on because some livery has decided its too dark for you to be riding without light. Now you may think how considerate but it costs me a pound or even if it was pitch black I could understand but its not its dusk!!!

Basically providing two horses can't be lunged back to back, you ask if the next person wants the jumps left out or not and you say lights must be used after 7pm in winter or something should be fine :D
 
my school again is 60x30 so big enough for a few poeple to ride together !!

I ask if they want sole use to write it in the diary and you are only allowed this once a week !!

Also the school is not to be booked out after 6pm as this is when everyone wants to ride especially in the winter
 
Our system works well, but then its a small yard so this system probably wounldn't work everywhere. We cannot ride in the ring at the same time as a lesson. However the lessons are mainly with children, so out of school hours ( I can't ride then anyway as have 2 small children). There are only a few adult group lessons a week, one of which I am in. So I find it really easy to find time to ride. Try and go at lunchtimes as thats also good as never anyone there!!! When its busy I just change what I'm doing and go for a hack.
 
All the yards I've been at have had different rules and I really think it depends what time the majority of the people ride at the yard.

Yard 1: I was the only after work rider, was always a free for all, people allowed in and shared the school happily. We paid 50p for the meter for the lights.

Yard 2: Big yard of about 50 ish. Also riding school. RS had priority but they used during the day and weekends so didnt affect after work riders. About 10-20 people would ride after work but we had 1 20x40 and a 60x40, free for all and it always worked.

Yard 3: Yard of about 30. About 10-15 people riding after work. Had an indoor and outdoor. Had to write on the board to reserve your time, limited to 30mins, could only lunge in the indoor, max 2 people at any one time and it became a nightmare in the winter with friends 'reserving' peak time slots when people werent even at the yard. Didnt help that the outdoor was really rubbish and wouldnt have put a beach towel on it let alone ride my horse on it.

Yard 4: Private yard with 4 people and guess what, no problems at all :)
 
Was on a big yard for some years with a big indoor school and an outdoor one. As so many people worked during the day, we had the following arrangement - there was a diary to book lessons, private schooling etc, but every day between 6 and 7 was what we called 'free for all' - no one allowed to book at this time and anyone allowed in. Of course very occasionally there were too many wanting to get in (maybe after a horrendous weather weekend or whatever) but generally this worked really well for quite a few years.
 
My yard is a riding school yard and getting school use at all is difficult. Lessons are booked in and we can't ride at all when these are on which is most of tuesday then wednesday-friday, then saturday and sunday am. Oh and monday mornings is an agility club!

When school is finally free it all becomes a bit hectic if I am honest! so I either come up the yard late (but even at 7pm it can be fairly busy!) or just hack a lot!
 
my yard is a nightmare. typically those who are up YO backside gets priority!!

Only a small school and on a yard mainly with dressage horses. Try and ride in the morning anyday and you have to watch out for horses going sideways (they never watch out for you or follow left to left general rule) so gets a bit hairy. Then they'll decide to lunge mad 4yr old who gets free all the time, regardless of whos already schooling. I feel its safer to hack on weekend mornings!

New rule: Strict No lunging or booking school between 4:00-7:00pm, come into action after I booked school out twice at 6pm so I could lunge as instructed by my horses back person. Also you can only lunge if you've first checked no-one else wants to use the school and no lunging if anyone else is in school (double standards?)

I think if you create rules for the school they should be followed by everyone!! lol rant over
 
Never been a problem on our yard. Atm with injuries etc, I am pretty much the only one riding after 6.00 but expect some more to start joining me! but even when we had a number of people wanting to use the school same time after work, it seemed to work OK - the only person who was a pain was the woman who insisted on lunging when there were a number of people wanting to get in the school and ours is only 20 x 40.
 
Riding school has priority, but we've got 2 arenas so that only stops you getting into one of them at the weekend when they're fully booked. During the week when it's quieter the staff are pretty flexible, if you let them know before a lesson that you want to use a specific arena they're generally happy to take their lesson into the other one (unless the weather's bad, in which case they'll use the indoor whether you like it or not!)

For the liveries it's first come, first served, but nobody seems to have a problem with sharing the school. Indoor just about fits 3-4 horses comfortably - I've seen it with 7 warming up for jumping, it was carnage lol - the outdoor is huge and can fit 5 or 6 without causing any problems. You could probably book one if you wanted, I've never tried so I don't know. I usually get an arena to myself, I take advantage of my uni hours to ride in the morning on weekdays when everyone's at work/school and there are usually no lessons!
 
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