Why do you belong to a riding club?

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onmybreak

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Just wondering - I'm on a committee of a riding club and we have nearly 100 members. Newer memebers seem more active but many renew year on year yet you never see hide nor hair of them taking part or helping :confused: Sometimes it can be very demoralising and we often get way more non-members at open events than members. It's money from them that keeps the rest of the club going including paying for teams which is very expensive.

So what motivates you to take part in club activities? If you are a member and don't take part why don't you/ what stops you?

Many thanks for your help :)
 
Sorry didn't say hello but actually not a new member just now in my work persona where I plan to be incognito so I can ask probing questions about riding clubs and committees without implicating any particular perosn or club :D
 
I ceased membership because they moved the show 30 miles away. It's named after a local village, but no longer local.
Previous to that I helped out and competed regularly.
 
You shouldn't complain about members joining but not using the club - at least you've got their membership money! You need to do more to encourage the non-members to become members. I was one of those members who joined mine last year, only to go once and then horse was retired. And I won't join mine this year as the only horse I have which is showable is an unbroken youngster and they don't have an in-hand youngstock class, although they do have an open in hand class which i could go in, although I wouldn't join just to do the one class.
I have said that I will help mine out by being a dressage writer this year - much easier than all that show preparation! :)
 
I used to many years ago, it was great fun. We did things from mock hunts,treasure hunts,exchange trips and comps in Holland all at a local level. We would get together once a month a clear the bridle paths, but due to lack of interest it closed. Another one opened and as another post said nemed local but the show is now miles away, and unless you are at a certain level or have a certain horse or your face fits they do not want to know you. I could really do with something like that now to give me a bit of help and support, but its not to be shame really
 
As others have said our 'local' club isn't local and the shows they put on are even further away than the regular training sessions.
 
I belong to a club because it offers good training oppertunities and a good social aspect.

My club is fantastic. We offer something for everyone and the amount we do is so varied.
We send teams to most things, occassionally do well, but more often than not don't qualify (!!) but there is an 'everyone is welcome' and 'have a go' atmosphere that is great.

If I was purely interested in the team side and national qualifications then there is another club I'd be better off joining but to be honest I like my club just fine!

We insist that all members help a set number of hours a year, which in turn means we can offer to put on a lot of activities.

We have found a shift in the types of things members want and support, so the key is to listen to them and adapt accordingly.
 
I was a riding club member last year - I joined for access to clinics, reduced entry fees to unaffiliated events and to see if I would meet more horsey people locally.

I haven't re-joined yet but may do so if I am going to have time to attend events. Last year I noticed a lot of people signed up for clinics but then cancelled at the last minute - I suppose that can't be helped with horses as things do crop up and accidents happen.

Regarding helping, I recognise that these clubs can't run without members offering their help. My "excuse" to myself is that commuting 3 hours a day into the City then riding two horses before and after work during the week means that my weekends are extremely full trying to do all the house jobs / general adult life admin that get neglected during the week, plus I generally take at least one horse out to compete.

If the events were closer to either my house or where I keep my horses then it would be easier to offer a few hours of my time but at the moment I feel as if I spend my life driving around or sitting on trains and have hardly any time with my horses.

I know that's not really a great reason for not volunteering :(

ETA: ihatework's post above makes a lot of sense to me - if it were a bit more structured so I knew when I would be needed to help and for how long and if the reward was sending teams to things it would be easier for me to plan things!
 
Thanks so far (not really on a break anymore ;) )

We are a fairly new committee of quite an old club (nearly 40 yrs old). Basically the club almost died last year with almost the entire committee resigning and we have actually done really well to bring it back to life and increased membership. We now have an up to date and reasonably snazzy web-site (prob best in our Area) and we use FB as well. It's hard to keep up the momentum though as no-one seems to want to help with anything.

We started off with a great push and I must say my enthusiasm is now flagging as I have a demanding job and this has to take priority at times. We try to cater for all members and although we actually do fairly well in teams sometimes we don't and it's not our priority in fact we struggle to get people to take part especially at the winter team events.

Just trying to get more ideas to enthuse people.
 
OK this isn't a particularly well thought out idea....in fact I am thinking as I type. What I personally would really like is more people to hack with and new places to hack.

If my riding club did an initiative along the lines of organising groups of two or three people to go out for an hour/hour and a half in nice hacking country where you could park and unload safely and leave your box I would happily pay £10 - £20 for that and go regularly.

All that would be needed would be a venue and a planner. If it were someone's yard then that takes care of there being a representative there.

My own hacking is pretty limited so yet again not much to offer here :(
 
He he I'm glad you were nice about the club IHW - I am chairman of the club IHW mentions above! We do have a very structured helper system and actually most people once they have helped once are happy to come back as it can actually be quite fun and a good way to get to know other members. We are I think a very social club - quite a few people I now count as good friends I have met through the club, I also found both my flat and jump trainers through the club and they have helped me loads.
There is always a few people who join year in year out that you never see but that I guess is up to them. I'm pretty confident that we as a club do almost everything we can to offer 'something for everyone' - we do lessons in flat, sj and xc every month, teams for all qualifiers, pleasure rides, Trec events, demonstrations (got a DtM one and a side saddle one coming up) and stay away camps, one eventing one that has run for years and a new addition of a dressag focused one (organised by IHW as it happens).
I love the fact that I can now go to almost any event locally and there is a good chance I will know a few people there. We hover around the 100 member mark and I'd guess I know 2/3 of them by sight.
So in answer to op's question, I think as long as you offer as wide a range of activities as you can, and try to get a friendly atmosphere going, that's all you can do really.
 
Suziq77 we do those. There are always places around thatlet you park, we use a couple of local farms plus a uk chasers course, costs range depending what the venue charge from £5 per head to £20 (the chasers course!).
Perhaps suggest it to your club committee? Or maybe volunteer to start the initiative? I know we are super lucky in that we had a fan committee who all join in to organise stuff but from experience of some other local clubs and the tensions that seem to fly around, some clubs are run almost single handefly by one or two committee members so they may just not have the capacity to do more than they are already.
 
onmybreak said:
Just wondering - I'm on a committee ............yet you never see hide nor hair of them taking part or helping :confused: Sometimes it can be very demoralising
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Welcome to the world of "being on a committee" :( I'm involved in various committees - some totally unconnected with horses, and its like this all the time unfortunately.

People grouse all the time about "nothing happening" yet won't get up off their hinterlands to do sweet FA!!!

Agree its totally demoralising; and puts the pressure on a few when it would be so much easier if others pitched in to help too.

But for some (daft) reason, there are those of us who keep on doing it, gawd knows why ...... (scratches head).
 
I rejoined after years out in order to take advantage of good local training at great prices at indoor venues through the winter. I went to different club from the one I was in during the 1990s because of my current instructor's involvement. I can see that the energy in the club comes from a few dedicated ladies who are the officers and committee, and they deserve everyone's appreciation. The club asks that all members help out at at least one event during the year. So I do that, and I agree with the poster who said that they met new people..like her, I very rarely end up at a competition where I know no-one. And that is nice, as I almost always travel out out on my own. Now, with my boy going so well because of all that training, I can almost dare think of aspiring to be in a novice team...

...and on that subject, haven't novice RC jumping heights for SJ/ET/ODE gone up since the 1990s? Or is it just me getting old and nervous?
 
Suziq77 said:
OK this isn't a particularly well thought out idea....in fact I am thinking as I type. What I personally would really like is more people to hack with and new places to hack.

If my riding club did an initiative along the lines of organising groups of two or three people to go out for an hour/hour and a half in nice hacking country where you could park and unload safely and leave your box I would happily pay £10 - £20 for that and go regularly.

All that would be needed would be a venue and a planner. If it were someone's yard then that takes care of there being a representative there.

My own hacking is pretty limited so yet again not much to offer here :(
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I can completely understand your stance on helping!!! It's not uncommon at all be it busy workers, or busy mum's etc. There are always other ways to offer support to a club and I know our club try's to accomodate 'helping hours' as much as possible - for instance website updater? do the newsletter? entries secretary?

Or how about take the initiative to set up the hacking groups you would like?
 
Blackislegirl, yes they have. All novice classes for sj and xc and ode are now 90cm, which I think is a bit of a shame as to be in with a chance of winning at area qualifier level for ODE in our area you need a horse consistently producing the goods at BE 90 level. I think novice ought to be a bit smaller than that to give those who lack the desire etc to affiliate a more fair chance! But that's a whole other topic ;)
 
I'm part of a RC but I'm not hugely active. So far this year I have done one clinic with them! Last year I did one of their shows and a few jumping clinics, and the year before I did a couple of team things. I've helped out jump judging for them and iv'e been to a social evening.
The reason i'm not that active is that i'm also a member of BD. I also do BE on tickets, unaff showjumping and showing. There is only so much I can do! I take my horse out once or twice a month in the lorry max as it get's super expensive otherwise.
I've put myself forward for team showjumping with them next month but not sure if they will use me or not.
In my view it costs £25 a year to be a member which is nothing and then if I see a clinic or a RC show i'd like to do and it fits in with the schedule of my other comps than i'll do it. I do however put my affilliated shows above the RC shows and quite often they fall on the same dates.
There are a group of incredibly active members in my RC who go literally once or twice a week to clinics and they are on all the teams ect. Good for them, but I'm not sure how much they do outside the RC. If I had all the time, money and inclination in the world then I would too but I don't. I like my RC though and while i'm not hugely active I enjoy the clinics and I find being a member useful :).
 
I'm lucky to belong to a really good riding club. They organise monthly dressage comps, clinics, spring & summer shows, summer camp and social events. All fairly low key and good fun.

They also do a helper rota, but in return for helping you get a voucher that can be redeemed against a training clinic.
 
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Holly Hocks said:
You shouldn't complain about members joining but not using the club - at least you've got their membership money! You need to do more to encourage the non-members to become members. I was one of those members who joined mine last year, only to go once and then horse was retired. And I won't join mine this year as the only horse I have which is showable is an unbroken youngster and they don't have an in-hand youngstock class, although they do have an open in hand class which i could go in, although I wouldn't join just to do the one class.
I have said that I will help mine out by being a dressage writer this year - much easier than all that show preparation! :)
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Holly Hocks - Yes your right in some ways but money is only one small part (by the way for 100 members you will pay £1090 to BRC for affiliation fees just for a start! :eek: ) you still need people to help organise events and that's the hard part.

I work full-time in a demanding job that requires lots of brain-power and sometimes there is not a lot left. Maybe members imagine we are ladies who lunch and love to do a bit of voluntary work with the horsy club for a bit of fun? :D

Until doing this I'd never been on a committee outside of work and I'd only been a member of this particular club about 3 months - I joined to do a clinic which was cancelled (due to lack of interest) and then the committee resigned. Now I've ended up being the Chairman (sorry I didn't admit this at first). I've never had a chance to attend an event as a member and I'm not even that local but no-one stepped up (or rather everyone stepped back and I was the only person who didn't :eek: :D ).

You'll gradually get the full story as I plan to use the forum as my therapy (I hope you don't mind :p ) I guess I am having some self-doubts and need reinvigorating.

Thanks all
 
its the only decent competitions close enough to hack to. i love having people i know to compete with and the support the club gives me is lovly. i dont have very much money but i pay £25 a year for my membership and earn this back through reduced fees at about 8 events i manage to get to.
 
Personally I wouldn't join unless I was going to go to things, hence I haven't been an RC member for a few years. However maybe think about what might be putting people off coming to things to try and increase attendance? I don't think you need to specifically think about members who don't go to things, just think about increasing attendance generally as that is what matters.

For me the last year I haven't had transport and there is nothing I can find within hacking distance. I imagine transport is a big issue for many, so why not consider having a "lift share" section on your website??? You could ask people to put the details of where their yard is and whether they have transport, if so how many for, and then people can search out people nearby to share with. Make a suggested minimum contribution (maybe 20p per mile paid to the owner of the transport) so that it benefits those giving lifts by sharing the costs. Or maybe if they lift share they get a token that can be redeemed against entry fees..... It would help those with their own transport cut costs as well as get those out who may not be able to come.

You could also try doing a survey of members to find out what they want from the club and where they want it. Get postcodes of yards, whether they have transport and the type of events they are interested in. You may find that offering a show or clinic in a different location to usual gets different people out.

Offer some non-ridden events, or events where you can attend without a sounds rideable horse. So a trip to go on a mechanical horse or to have lessons in sidesaddle/driving/longreining/whatever where the venue supplies the horses or something like a demo where a few people can take horses to provide "guinea pigs" but most just watch so maybe NH or massage.

You could also do a coach trip to a big horsey event once or twice a year. You can normally get group discounts. There are things like Badminton, Burghley, HOYS, Olympia, Hickstead, or things like YHL or a trip to see the Spanish Riding School on tour.
 
I'm a member of a local bridleways group that is in some ways similar to a local riding club. They organise shows & local low level stuff, sponsored rides etc but the profits support local hacking rather than rc teams which interests me more.
 
I belong to 2.

One gives me a discount for my local tack shop and does hold some interesting dismounted sessions.

Other is larger and offers good range of mounted and dismounted events.

I'm rubbish at getting to mounted events as most that is offered, I can do at the yard.

One club requires mandatory volunteering, the other does not. This will offend people, but I am p*ssed off with helping at the non mandatory when folks I know who find the time to compete/hunt etc, think that their time is too precious to help. Have decided that will probably only help at one upcoming event, and then withdraw my services until mandatory volunteering is introduced.

Rant over.
 
I'm a member of 2 riding clubs but I think I'll go back to just the one when membership is due.

The clubs are quite different, 1 club holds winter and summer dressage series, an assortment of competitions, a good range of rallies with some great instructors and also host loads of 'social' things, vet hospital visits, tours of yards, mounted easter egg hunts, trips to an assortment of places etc and is very organised. I've also had lots of offers from people to box up and hack with them in some beautiful countryside.
The other club does very limited 'social' events (I haven't been aware of any tbh) a few competitions and tends to use instructors that I won't use anymore for rallies. You can guess which one I won't be renewing my membership with ;)

I joined RC to get my horse out and about a lot more at rallies and for a good assortment of social events. I hope that in the future she will make the RC teams :)
 
I joined mine for the training. But to be honest it doesn't offer enough competitions, they seem to hold a dressage comp once a month and jumping prob twice a year, with the odd long distance ride. I seem to attend other clubs more that have more comps, I would join them if mine didn't have regular training. In fact this year I haven't done any comps at my own club due to the dates clashing with work.
 
emmah said:
I agree they are huge!! No chance of me ever being on a team again unless I get some brave pills ;)
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Hmm. I remember being on RC novice HT/SJ/ODE teams in the 1990s and I am sure everything was 2' 6" - 2' 9" ie 75 - 80cm in new money. I am not sure I will ever make a team if I have to jump 90cm courses - that is (ulp) nearly 3 feet!

Surely it would be more appropriate to have RC novice competitions well below BE90 and Brtitish Novice as most RC people I know (including me) are not affilated and probably never will be?
 
I joined for the last two years for hunt tickets to reduce the price of my cap. I always had intentions to compete but my local club has very hard ground which I will only do a walk and trot dressage test on, certainly would never jump.
 
Kat said:
Personally I wouldn't join unless I was going to go to things, hence I haven't been an RC member for a few years. However maybe think about what might be putting people off coming to things to try and increase attendance? I don't think you need to specifically think about members who don't go to things, just think about increasing attendance generally as that is what matters.

For me the last year I haven't had transport and there is nothing I can find within hacking distance. I imagine transport is a big issue for many, so why not consider having a "lift share" section on your website??? You could ask people to put the details of where their yard is and whether they have transport, if so how many for, and then people can search out people nearby to share with. Make a suggested minimum contribution (maybe 20p per mile paid to the owner of the transport) so that it benefits those giving lifts by sharing the costs. Or maybe if they lift share they get a token that can be redeemed against entry fees..... It would help those with their own transport cut costs as well as get those out who may not be able to come.

You could also try doing a survey of members to find out what they want from the club and where they want it. Get postcodes of yards, whether they have transport and the type of events they are interested in. You may find that offering a show or clinic in a different location to usual gets different people out.

Offer some non-ridden events, or events where you can attend without a sounds rideable horse. So a trip to go on a mechanical horse or to have lessons in sidesaddle/driving/longreining/whatever where the venue supplies the horses or something like a demo where a few people can take horses to provide "guinea pigs" but most just watch so maybe NH or massage.

You could also do a coach trip to a big horsey event once or twice a year. You can normally get group discounts. There are things like Badminton, Burghley, HOYS, Olympia, Hickstead, or things like YHL or a trip to see the Spanish Riding School on tour.
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agree with this. i would LOVE to join a riding club, but having no transport means i can't :( the 2 people who have got transport are under 18 therefore go to PC rather than RC. its way too far to hack as well, and at £90 to hire a self-drive horsebox i couldn't do that more than once every other month:o
 
I'm a member of 2. One is my local one and is very friendly although not very competetive so was great for when I got my boy but I'm finding we are sort of growing out of it now for jumping as they only tend to go up to 2'6. We will still go to the showing and dressage they do and they also run clinics with a good local instructor that are very good value but I'm not sure of the jumping ones will be at a level that suits us again so I might ask for some with a height guide.

The other one I joined because my friend did and we were on the sj team which was great fun and has given me a real taste for it now the pony is ready to do that sort of thing. I'm thinking about seeing if we can do the eventing teams in a few weeks depending on how the hunter trial we do this weekend goes. They are a friendly bunch too but I dont know many of them so its a bit harder to chat to people but when I've finished my exams I'm going to try get over there a bit more as the pony finds the venue spooky for some reason so its a great way to get him used to it.

As it happens I also do pony club but thats on a friday and doesnt clash with any rc stuff and is more a lesson/ schooling type evening.
 
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