Yard priorities... plus a bit of a rant

Some people have no courtesy.

There were a group of 4 girls at the yard last summer that would come in without a word of warning and set up a grid on the outside track!
In my books that is just plain rude, I don't mind people sharing and wanting to jump but a little bit of warning and jumps off the outside track would be nice!
 
From your post, I guess the rules are, you right your name down to book it privately, or no ones booked it and everyone can ride.

If you dont like the rules then maybe you should look elsewhere.

I wouldnt like those rules, because I ride of an evenings after work and if I had to wait a few hours before I could get on because people ahd booked then I wouldnt bother. Hence why I am not at a yard like that.

Laos about the jumps, that is a bit selfish. Okay your horse gets funny with jumps, well thats not the other persons fault, thats your horses fault, and you should know to finish on a good note, or take him out and school elsewhere on a hack etc.

It's polite to ask to come in, but it isnt a rule, because everyone is allowed to use the facilities. You can't say no to them.
 
Our livery yard also has a riding school so most of the time you can't get in when you want to. If another livery is riding I always ask if they mind me coming in, and I always endeavour to stay out of their way (as they're usually schooling and I just potter to loosen her up) and it's a very small school.

Sharing isn't a problem but sometimes it can be difficult when some people think they take priority, especially if you're working to a specific goal, and then can't achieve that goal because someone else is getting in your way/putting up jumps etc
 
Hmmm, I've been to a riding school where yard owners teenage daughter seemed to have priority. I was a riding school client having a private lesson and she decided to 'join in' on her horse using the same half of the indoor school and chatting to my instructor (there was a perfectly good outdoor school she could have used instead). Consequently that was my last lesson at that particular place. Ok it was her home but I was a paying customer I think I deserved abit more consideration.

On my last yard where its just liveries sharing there has been no booking system, and riding school lessons had priority. It was a big yard with three schools so generally other people could be avoided pretty easily.
 
If you book (and pay for) the indoor or outdoor school, it is yours to do whatever you want with for that duration of time.
If you go into either without booking, anyone else has the right to go in and ride. Riding takes priority over lunging - so if someone is already riding, you are not supposed to lunge (although if the horse is very good, most people don't really mind).
We also have a small warm-up arena outdoors - anyone can go in that and it is not supposed to be used for lessons.

Problem we encounter is when someone's lesson overruns their allotted time. I've been known to have a moan when someone is still having a lesson 10 minutes into my booked and paid for half hour. There's one visiting instructor who rather thinks she owns the place.

Our YO, if anything, is more strict with her daughter and is always shoo'ing her out of the school if one of us wants to ride.
 
This is one of the reasons I love my yard! It's a very small livery yard with six liveries in total. Of those, only 5 of us use the menage. If someone is in the middle of a schooling session, it is taken as common courtesy to wait until that person has finished. I have never ever been in the menage there and found that someone else has come in while I've been riding. There is a calendar so that people can book the school for lessons, although there are so few of us that everyone knows the lesson times off by heart! There's no rule against sharing the menage, but we only tend to do that if we've arranged to ride together. I couldn't be on my sister's yard, where they basically have an open system where the menage is concerned and people all go in together even if someone has a lesson (you can't book the menage). Mine and my sister's RI got so fed up of trying to give my sister a lesson with 3 other horses in the menage all getting between her and my sister that my sister now comes to my yard for her lessons.
 
Based on the replies given here I have been very lucky with all the livery yards I have been on.

My current yard is lucky in the fact that it has an 80x50m outdoor arena so there is plenty of room for someone to do flatwork and jump or lunge. It is also a small yard and everyone convientently rides at different times due to work or whatever other reasons. Even if a number of us decide to ride at the same time we will just get on with it and take a section of the arena.

My last yard in Fife was also competition/dealers yard with a 60x20 arena. The owners rode their horses in the morning and liveries we would ride in the afternoon after we had finished our day at uni. Sometimes their would be clients coming to try horses and we would try avoid riding at the same time but I have on occassions ridden when clients have been trying horses as I never knew clients were coming (nothing was ever said to me to leave). In the afternoons there would often be 4 or 5 of us riding at a time and we all experienced enough to give each other space. I would expect horses to work like this especially if you compete.

When down in England the arena was only 20x40 and there were rules such as only 3 people at a time or if one person was lunging only one other person could ride etc. This was never a problem as I would ride in the morning when everyone else was at work. A white board was present for us to write down when we were having lessons as there really wasn't room for someone to have a lesson and ride.

I do think though rules have to reflect the size of the arena on offer and whether a riding school is present or not. If you are know the rules I don't see why people can't share an arena?
 
No one has 'priority' of the school at our yard not even YO. It is international sized, and generally there is only one livery at a time using it (not because this is a rule, just because we all ride at different times!). Even if one of the liveries is having a lesson with YO, other liveries are still welcome to ride in the school as long as they obide to the obvious - left to left, walking on inside of track etc...

I don't see there being any problem this girl getting out jumps whilst you are riding. As awful as this might sound, it's not actually her problem that your horse gets het up about the jumps being out, and it will probably help you both in the long run.
 
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