What are your feelings towards Riding Schools?

G

GGRider

Well-Known Member
Joined
13 June 2007
Messages
169
Location
Devon
Visit site
I am interested to know what H&H forum people generally think of the 'average' UK riding school? For example, take your local RS, do you think it is well managed, good/qualified instructors, healthy happy horses? Would you loan your horse to a riding school or take your own horse there for lessons? Do you think BHS approval means much in terms of standards?

A real finger in the wind poll of opinions I know, but would appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks.
 
I learnt to "ride" at a riding school. Many people have. There were a number that I attended where I had minimal contact with the horses and that wasn't helpful for getting my own, but the one I eventually found and stuck with allowed tacking up, rug changing and turning out. Happy horses that had lots of kind if sometimes misplaced but well meaning human attention. It wasn't BHS approved, I found that one was the worst for boring round-and-round nose to tail riding. Nice looking horses, but bored out of their minds. Unfortunately, most riding schools don't allow the students contact with horses for insurance reasons.

I wouldn't put my own horse on working livery, mainly because I'm too greedy and I also don't think she'd thrive in a busy environment with lots of riders at diferent levels.
 
I ride at a RS, been there for 11 and a half years now and love it to bits! Its BHS approved, did have a PC as well. They have lovely horses, all well schooled and they aren't just plod about in a circle one either. They also have lovely hacking, 3 schools, one indoor, one with SJ in and one dressage one with judges box. Oh and they have a great XC :) I help put there 3 days a week, so basically I tack up, turn out, make feeds etc and I'm currently being taught how to lunge. It's great experience for me and the fact that horses aren't all push button rides makes it even better :D
 
Where I ride its great. Although not BHS approved (I don't think), it is ABRS approved. (Association of British Riding Schools) the horses are deffinately well cared for. And on average only do two lessons a day, and have two days were there turned out in the fields. Obviously the horses not being used on a specific day are also turned out. They've got two outdoor schools. The horses are all well cared for and happy. And there are a number of different ability rides :)
 
I run a riding school:
www.hall-place.com

We have a variety of horses- safe cobs for novices and a selection of ex competition horses for more experienced riders and some in the middle. All of our horses are kept in tip top condition, some are a little stiff so have feed supplements to help them out. They have the dentist, equine sports massage and nice tack ( prestige/stubben/field house). They are kept schooled by the staff in between lessons.
All of our staff are BHS and/or ABRS qualified and are on an ongoing training scheme to continue to develop there teaching and riding ability even they don't want to take any more exams.
We have many external people being their horses to us for lessons (some that livery their horses at other local riding schools so thats a bit odd!) and we also have a number of horses loaned to us or on working livery ( inc one belonging to some one on this site)

I think that there are a lot of r/s that don't have high enough standards that are still BHS approved however the BHS are now approving on a grading system so if they don't have the facilities or the level of horses/instructors it will be obvious in the grading level.
 
The one most local to me is pretty grim and I would neither ride there or have my horse there.

That said, there is another one in the area that is very good. It is a training centre, they have a good variety of instructors (good if you don't gel with one in particular) up to I level.
The horses are of a good standard and are not over worked.

I chose to go there prior to buying a youngster, just to put right my bad habits of riding my own horse for 15 years. I rode a working livery horse who only did 2 lessons a week as he wasn't suitable for others. I really enjoyed it and wouldn't hesitate to go back.
 
charlie76 said:
I run a riding school:
www.hall-place.com

We have a variety of horses- safe cobs for novices and a selection of ex competition horses for more experienced riders and some in the middle. All of our horses are kept in tip top condition, some are a little stiff so have feed supplements to help them out. They have the dentist, equine sports massage and nice tack ( prestige/stubben/field house). They are kept schooled by the staff in between lessons.
All of our staff are BHS and/or ABRS qualified and are on an ongoing training scheme to continue to develop there teaching and riding ability even they don't want to take any more exams.
We have many external people being their horses to us for lessons (some that livery their horses at other local riding schools so thats a bit odd!) and we also have a number of horses loaned to us or on working livery ( inc one belonging to some one on this site)

I think that there are a lot of r/s that don't have high enough standards that are still BHS approved however the BHS are now approving on a grading system so if they don't have the facilities or the level of horses/instructors it will be obvious in the grading level.
Click to expand...

Hall Place is great! Good instructors and a great mix of horses so you can really develop your skills, plus you can loan a horse for short or long periods.

However there's a real mix of RSs out there and it takes a while to find a good one IME. "Good" would mean well cared for horses for all standards, good instructors and a friendly atmosphere even if it doesn't have the best facilities. I went to a well-known place in North London when I lived in town (near the penultimate stop on the Piccadilly line in case anyone knows the area...) and it had the facilities, horses and instructors but I found it very unfriendly, completely put me off. After trying a few others, I ended up going to Lee Valley in East London which doesn't have the same number of high calibre horses but had good instructors and was very welcoming.
 
It really depends on the riding school.

Where i learnt to ride as a kid was great. They have around 9 horses so it's pretty small and they're not approved (their reason being the cost, and the inspection not necessarily being worth it - the council inspect them anyway). Once they trust you and know you are interested you got to do a lot more in terms of tacking up, changing rugs and putting out. The horses were usually all cob types but occasionally they'd get something a little more exciting and just use for more experienced riders. My mum still rides their now and i went back a couple of months ago and was allowed to borrow one and hack out on my own. I also used to work there which helped!

I've tried a couple where I live now having sold my horse last year. I just wanted to have the occasional hour on a horse. I found a couple of places really patronising - they didn't take any time to ask me my experience (other than filling in a form), nor tell me anything about the horse e.g. age. In a group lesson i was basically ignored for at least 20 minutes while the instructor chatted to a friend. I was fuming by the end of the lesson and was very close to walking off without paying! Won't be going there again!
 
I think there are good and bad as with any type of yard.

Of the 3 i know-
1) BHS approved. Reasonable standard of care but e.g.shoeing not great, very high turnover of staff, horses look ok but some need a bit more tlc
2) ABRS approved. Shocking level of tuition. Many horses in a state. Lack of basic standards of care. frequent falls
3) BHS approved. 5 horses died in the space of a month from colic earlier in the year. Cant be a coincidence imo.

None of them would really offer what i would call a good level of tuition to riders that are ready to progress beyond the basics.
 
I take my horse to our local riding schools for comps and events etc and they are excellent, friendly, great facilities etc etc. I had my first ever lesson(s) at a riding school like so many people, and without them this wonderful pass-time would probably be denied to so many people, so all in all they are a great thing from that perspective I think.

My personal experience is that I have never come accross a bad one, but then I have not had to rely on them for many years now. However, I have certainly heard of some bad ones and I would never let a horse of mine go to one, simply because I would only ever let a them go to a family environment on loan, to someone that I knew of or had a close recommendation from.
 
Riding schools are very important - everyone has to start somewhere and not everyone is lucky enough to have their own ponies/brought up with them etc (and where do people learn before they are able to buy their first pony/horse?)

I like to see well run, happy schools with happy equines, most these days are with all the regulations - I think it'd be a sad world if Riding Schools didn't exhist :(
Kate x
 
I think riding schools are great, as H's mum said not everybody is lucky enough to have ponies as a child etc.
My old local RS was pretty fab, but then the main focus became the PC centre and IMO it went downhill for the adults because they seemed second fiddle to the PC kids.
 
Ive been riding just under a year now and learnt alot from my riding school-its BHS approved. Staff teach you to tack up-then leave you to it once you are able, you can also groom before your ride(Though this is supervised if a young child). There are alot of different horses to ride some suitable for novices, and then some to progress to and really learn to ride on. There is only one instructer that I would have lessons with now-not because the others arnt good but get the most out of their lessons.They have some stunning horses and are all well cared for. People who have their own horses still come to ride in the experienced classes on the riding school horses so I think that says quite alot for it.
 
I work at a riding school at weekends, have been there for 10 years ( and considering I am only 20 thats not bad!) My horse was on working livery for the last 4.5 years, only now after lameness issues and with him getting older have we taken him off it.

It really angers me when people are so mean about riding schools! not everyone can afford to get there own horse, think its snobbery at its worse. The riding school where I am all the horses are very well cared for, all of them live there whole life out here, when they get older they are retired to 24/7 turnout.

These are all Riding School Horses

Eric
DSCF0793.jpg


Lucky
Lucky-1.jpg


Bruce and Max
brucemax-2.jpg


Teddy
PoshTeddy-1.jpg


Ronan
ronan2-2.jpg
 
I've experienced an excellent one and a poor one. I used to ride at my local riding school before I got my own horse and it was amazing :D The facilities were great; SJ fields, schools, BE XC, hacking. The horses where lovely and the instructors were really friendly. My sister used to ride at a local stables who had bad facilities, bored horses, and they overcharged. (She changed to where I rode.)

I loaned a horse at my local riding school and he was absolutly perfect :D I learnt how to look after a horse, and we competed upto 3ft3, hacked, hunted, and always had fun time. He is a cob x and a riding school horse, so most people would look at him and think he wouldn't be good at competing, but we were placed nearly everytime :D We got placed in PC DR, came 14th/48 in the interschools DR and top rider at my school, and we came 5th in a 3ft3 SJ.

My riding school helped teach me about horse care as well as riding, so now I'm able to look after my own horse at Uni. I think some are great, but there are bad ones too.

Here are some piccys:

3ft6 XC
editSax.jpg


cuddles
DSC00163.jpg


XC 3ft3 fan


XC 4 step up


XC 3ft3 double skinny
 
Mm.... Not sure. In a way, I miss riding schools, but don't miss a lot of what went on! I enjoyed being able to ride & experience a wide variety of horses that you don't get with owning your own, however generally speaking I've found that the instruction available has been poor - being taught by people my own age, with no qualifications or will to get them was something I was shocked by on work experience, and I've found that a lot of instructors have no interest in teaching their pupils at all, and if their pupils are content to plod around the school, the instructor is happy to sit back and let them got on with just that, regardless. Maybe it's just that I like to be constantly challenged, but I've found that a lot of instructors will also try to keep you at or below a certain level for whatever reason... hmm.
However, I've had a lot of good experiences at riding schools, and gained a lot of knowledge. Working/helping out at riding schools I gained a lot of confidence around people especially, and also got to do things like help break ponies & learned a lot about teaching also (how AND how not to!) etc.
As for the horses.... I've never been anywhere that was 'cruel' to them, but I'd also never want one of my own horses to end up in a riding school, I must admit.
 
I learned to ride at a riding school, and it wasn't too bad, but now everything has to be so ultra-safe for insurance that the horses there have no personality at all. Also I don't think the instructors there would actually progress my riding much so I didn't go back when I started riding again.

I did try going further afield, to a riding school which has a good reputation and supposedly good horses and instructors. I was very disappointed - despite asking for a private lesson, I was stuck in a "semi-private" lesson with 3 others (er, that's a GROUP), none of whom were at the same level as me, being "taught" by an instructor who couldn't seem to care less. Needless to say I didn't go back.

I'm now lucky enough to have found a lovely instructor who will teach me on her own horse in preparation for getting my own again over the next few months.
 
I help/work at the school I have my two horses in livery at. I have been there for 21 years first as a pupil then as a loanee and then as an owner. I think some people have a very biased view of riding schools. My yard isn't immaculate and doesn't have that wow factor but it is safe,inspected every 6 months for H and S and every year for the council inspection and provides opportuntiies for people who may otherwise not be able to carry on with their hobby. We mainly provide lessons for kids from the ages of 4 upwards so the ponies do the majority of the work but only up to 1.5hrs a day and we vary what goes on - we have both indoor and outdoor schools,showjumps and fantastic hacking so hopefully they never get bored. We still have a couple of 26 year old ponies who still work ,sound and happy and our 30 year old arab x still goes for the odd hack out (and still passes me on my ex racer if given half the chance :) ) My ex racer does probably 2 hours a week max with intermediate riders and above and it really helps me out as he needs to be ridden 6 days a week ideally so when I have long days at work I know he has been worked. It is quite a busy yard so again it really helped him when he came out of racing to become a bit more worldly wise :) I can take him out competeing when ever I like as well . We do have the stereotypical riding school horse who we use for beginners and nervous people but again if we gave them to a more confident rider they would be capable of lateral work,2'9'' showjumps and a few of them have established flying changes. We have a fab instructor who teaches the majority of the lessons - she has worked in the bahamas,belgium,the us and here as wel doing everything from polo to college lecturing and is really knowledgable on pretty much everything! She even accompanied me to an Andrew Gould clinic to see how he had taught me (I did come back raving about it :) ) so we could link it into what we are doing. We actively encourage people to come early and stay after their lessons so they can then have the horse care skills to back up what they are learning in their lessons for example we have a cold backed pony(had all the checks just one of those things) who is much better after a little massage/groom before he is worked and alot of his riders come early to do this . We run own a pony days ,2 hr hacks,bbq's in the summer so try and provide as much variety as we can for our riders and we have had some people riding with us for 20 + years and hopefully we will keep going for the same again. I do find it sad that people still have that impression that all riding school horses are overworked and un cared for (although I am sure there are still the exceptions) - I accompanied a lady that I teach on a viewing recently as she felt she was ready for her own horse - she wanted it to come to us on working livery as she works full time and wanted to carry on her lessons - when asked by the person selling where the horse would be going - she answered honestly and the seller stopped the viewing there and then - when in all honestly the horse could have had a more secure future than some private buyers .
 
I started off at a supposidly super duper riding school because my cousin went there and it was apparently fab. I never really enjoyed it then had an accident when a pony bolted tried to jump the arena fence, stopped midway and fell over backwards crushing me winding me cracking a rib and breaking my arm in 2 places. One of the instructors/owners made me get back on despite being in agony and ride around with my arm bent the wrong way. I didnt go back, the atmosphere was awful and it was really boring.
Then i moved to a yard up the road.....it was amazing. I loved every second of the goodness knows how many years i spent there. I was able to help there every school holiday and was there for the whole day every saturday. I learnt masses and the only reason i stopped heping/working was because i got my own horse after gaining enough info to be able to look after him amazingy. I was literaly in charge of all bring in/turn out. Tacking up. grooming, leading children. Lungeing, schooling ponies coming in for schooling (im only small in height), i used to be able to hack out at lunchtime on my own on the pony of my choice. My insutructor is about fun and learning to ride anything. The horses wanted for nothing and were in amazing condition. They were well schooled, we had a ginormous sand school and a jumping paddok and lots of hacking in the woods. Im now 24 and me and my friends still talk about our times there and refer to them as the time of out lives. We did bareback riding, 2 hour hacks, gallops, shows, stable days, We were taught everything.
I had a gap from riding for about 6 years and got a horse in march. He is kept at the owner of the riding instructor i grew up with. She sold the business to the girl who had trained with her for years.
My ex RI/new YO lives less than a mile from my parents, 2 miles from me, with a massive sand school and still is the same laid back but informative/amazingly knowledgable and I couldnt wish to be in an amazing place. I have lessons before work in the morning if i want them and my horse wants for nothing.
I woulndt have had my horses without the info learnt at my riding school and i met some amazing lifelong friends. The right ones are brilliant.
 
It all depends on the riding school, there are some good and some bad :)

My riding school is not BHS approved. We do not have a school and learn in the paddock or out hacking.

I love it and have been there for 10 years. The ponies are proper ponies, where you actually LEARN how to ride a naughty pony, learn how to be in control in open spaces on horses that will take the mick if you don't know how etc. Obviously this might put novice or less confident riders off. But many power through :) (I lost count of how many times I had been bucked or galloped off with in my first few weeks!) The horses are treated like a privately owned horse and kids are allowed to help tack up, turn out etc. None of the horses were overworked and they were all extremely well cared for.

A BHS yard I worked at was pretty grim, horses were treated like machines, miserable and dull, little human contact and ridden too many times a day with very little time off. They were all push button and so a lot of the kids thought they could ride really well, parents bought them ponies, pony misbehaved and it all went to pot :(. I felt so bad for ponies and on the days I worked would give them extra special treatment and not tack them up like they were inamate objects.

However I have known lots of nice riding schools too, but have only really had experience with those two.
 
Last edited:
I grew up and learnt to ride at a place called Molesey Pony Farm. Basically, it was a hang-on-for-dear-life and just do it place, kids swarming everywhere, no H and S restaints, horrible mud, some very grumpy ponies, even grumpier stable girls. God I loved that place, went back to the site a few years ago and it's been bull dozed. I stood there and cried my eyes out.

Never remember a single accident, just getting some of the muck heap in my mouth while shovelling the endless piles of ****. sm x
 
I learnt to ride in a riding school, and then bought my first pony off them and kept her in working livery with them for the about 5 years. They taught me everything from leg yielding to jumping bareback, to cross country, to dressage to music. They also taught us a lot about stable management, took us to shows, and were generally brilliant. The horses were well looked after, probably mostly working liveries, so had to be really.

My horse is now on full livery at lee valley in east London, and whilst I've not had lessons, have only been impressed with the quality of care, level of instruction and variety of activites I've witnessed. I think good riding schools should be supported and are brilliant - without them, how many of us would be horse owners now? I certainly wouldn't be.
 
My local riding school is Loughton Manor in Milton Keynes and all in all I found them to be a very good school which I wouldn't hesitate to start riding at again. The only thing I found was it was so booked up you couldn't get a private lesson or entry onto a group lesson for ages.

The best riding school I ever went to was when I was little in Melton Mowbray and I loved it there. They taught me the proper way of riding and although they have now moved to a village nearby Melton I would still go there if I lived in or around Leicester.

They weren't BHS approved as far as I am aware but I think Loughton is. I am considering beginning to ride again and I am trying to decide between Loughton and Bury Farm.
 
These days the horses are usually well looked after.Standards of teaching vary but can i say a BIG thank you to Lyn at Hollytree riding school Knutsford for helping me so much when I had a complete loss of nerve due to an unsuitable horse.He was kept at a livery yard with a YO/YM who was an AI.They said he was lovely, Lyn, watching me ride her very safe horses that I had previously been quite happy tyo canter round on and now was perching on and clutching at in walk, said differently.She had the guts to say Wrong horse.We talked for a long time as I was very upset, but the upshot was I sold him and life for both of us looked up.So, again Lyn, a very big thank you.,
 
I have finally found the one riding school that I really do think is run very well. I'm happy for my daughter to have her lessons there because she really is taught properly, the horses are all really well cared for and definately do come first. I now keep my own horse there and can rest assured that, when I'm not on the yard someone will always be keeping a watchful eye on him.

I've come across ( and worked) in some real stinkers. and there are 1 or 2 in my area that I wonder how they can still be a going concern and how they haven't been shut down.
But it's like any thing there's always going to be good and bad, but I really don't think they are regulated stringently enough!!
 
Most of the riding schools around here do a good job of looking after the horses, however i did work in one for 3 years and the main problem with welfare was that the horses did way too much work. i remember some horses that would do up to 6 hours on the weekend, and i had to drag them out their stables by the end of the day, these horses did turn sour. There was nothing i could do cos the yard manager and boss didn't really care, there was always a lack of communication between the yard staff, instructors and receptionists.
The horses were well fed and had regular farrier, vaccs, dentistry, physiotherapy, etc. and they all had correctly fitting tack, most of them new albion saddles.

It would be a shame to lose riding schools. Its where most riders and horse owners start. I don't know if i would have had the opportunity to ride if it wasn't for a riding school.
 
No. After the horror stories I have heard about the local one and how they look after OTHER PEOPLES horses, I wouldn't let them look after my rocking horse, let alone a real, live animal.
 
I have been to some awful, awful ones and some great ones. I currently go to a great one, it has a fab range of horses, friendly and good instructors and it holds shows open to people on RS horses or people who ride/help there with their own horses. But one of the awful ones would've been good if they had decent horses that didn't buck, rear or spook around like they were being chased by a horse eating ghost or plodded round :mad:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top