Does anyone else stable their horse at a riding school

MaisieMoo

Well-Known Member
Oct 19, 2007
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.....and if so -do you find you are able to get enough riding in around all the lessons that are going on?

Casper is at a really nice riding school/livery yard - I think there are probably about 50 liveries there. It's a massive yard with 2 outdoor schools, massive indoor, XC, gallops which is all reflected in the price of the livery - I'm £40 pw for DIY.

Now that winter is here, almost everyone is having to use the indoor and it can be really busy - today I went to school my boy while a lesson was on and it was a nightmare! There were supposed to be 3 people in the lesson and it ended up being 7 which left 8 of us in the school with me trying to stay out of everyones way:eek:

Needless to say I wasn't able to do what I wanted to do and spent an hour trying to dodge the other riders.

I'm worried that this may get worse as we get further into winter and I was wondering if anyone else is in a similar position and how they work round it?

Not sure if this will be the way things are in the winter or if I'm just having a moan because I didn't get to school properly. It probably doesn't help that Casper struggles to work on the inside track - he just can't understand why he can't go on the outside track and constantly tries to get back on it or nap at the other horse!

Any advice/experiences?
 
Are you not allowed to use the outdoors if there is lessons on in the indoor arena?

I keep Sam on livery at a riding school.We have 2 outdoor arenas and i've never really found it to be a big problem.I just make sure i check when the lessons are on in advance so that i dont find myself ready to ride if both arenas are busy.
 
I stable my boy at a yard with a riding school. I tend to ride either over lunchtime when there is likely to be fewer lessons going on or towards the end of the day when most of the lessons are finished. Where do you keep your horsey. I live in Glasgow although i ride near Perth
 
Only one of the outdoor arena's is floodlit and unfortunately it's quite flooded just now and Casper constantly trips in it because he likes drag his feet.

The other outdoor is the jumping arena which is on an uneven surface with lots of jumps - I've only had him in there in hand as he's not very familar with jumps just yet and am scared to ride him incase he has a major spook - I'm just being a wuss really!! :D
 
I stable my boy at a yard with a riding school. I tend to ride either over lunchtime when there is likely to be fewer lessons going on or towards the end of the day when most of the lessons are finished. Where do you keep your horsey. I live in Glasgow although i ride near Perth

Tannochs in Cumbernauld - it's got really good facilities it's just unfortunate that I'm always trying to ride my boy at the busiest times in the RS - evenings and weekends although there are no lessons on a Sunday so it's quite good!
 
My yard is a similar setup - good facilities, riding school plus liveries and it all gets a bit hectic!! The only real solution is to find out when the quiet times are and try to get down then. I don't bother trying to ride in the winter during "rush hour" as I haven't got a chance of even a teeny square of arena to myself! :p
 
Just to put the other side.

I have a busy RS and no longer take liveries as they make organising the RS side almost impossible.

I would never let a livery ride in the same school while a lesson was going on unless they were taking part in the lesson. We also found that although we trust our own horses when RS riders make the odd mistake in the yard this was not always so with livery horses.
 
I don't own a horse but I do ride at a busy RS.

When I ride and there are boarders using the ring, it makes it more stressful on me because most of the time they don't pa attention. And I don't know how the horse will react when I go near it. Last week a boarder came into the ring and started to lunge her horse. It was chaos! I ended up going to a different ring because my RI said " I don't want you getting run over, it's too busy in there".
I actually get very nervous and scared now riding in and indoor because of my last RS. The boarders there were SO rude, and they thought they ran the place. None of them cared that there were lessons going on and they would make our lessons horrible!

You could try going to your barn during the less busy times. Maybe in the morning? Or at night when you know there won't be too many lessons going on. There shouldn't be too many people during the day though.
 
Unfortunatley I work 9 to 5 Mon to Fri so I can only get up in the evenings when its busy (there are lessons until 9pm every evening) - I am trying to pic the quieter times and we do have rules in the school that you must stay on the same rein as the lesson (which isn't always ideal as some RI's keep them on the same rein for ages!) and the liveries also spend most of the time on the inside track which is fine (except in the case of my horse who isn't quite so comfortable when away from the wall)

I understand from the view of the riders in the lesson too - I used to take lessons at this yard before I got my own and I used to get soo annoyed with the liveries always getting in the way of my lesson.

I do try really hard to stay out of everyones way but it sometimes means I spend less time focusing on my schooling.
 
I don't own a horse but I do ride at a busy RS.

When I ride and there are boarders using the ring, it makes it more stressful on me because most of the time they don't pa attention. And I don't know how the horse will react when I go near it. Last week a boarder came into the ring and started to lunge her horse. It was chaos! I ended up going to a different ring because my RI said " I don't want you getting run over, it's too busy in there".
I actually get very nervous and scared now riding in and indoor because of my last RS. The boarders there were SO rude, and they thought they ran the place. None of them cared that there were lessons going on and they would make our lessons horrible!

You could try going to your barn during the less busy times. Maybe in the morning? Or at night when you know there won't be too many lessons going on. There shouldn't be too many people during the day though.



I agree. I had a lesson last week where a livery came in with her pony and began cantering aruond (w/o warm up!!) She was smackin the poor thing constantly and was very off putting! We gave her looks and she eventually left. RI wasnt too pleased she was in there either though i dont think even she cuold tell her to leave.
 
Wow! I think thats late for having lessons! Till 9? Thats just crazy:rolleyes: I start to get tried by then;)

The only thing I can think of is to look at the lesson book and see if there are any breaks when you know you can get the to barn.
 
Wow! I think thats late for having lessons! Till 9? Thats just crazy:rolleyes: I start to get tried by then;)

The only thing I can think of is to look at the lesson book and see if there are any breaks when you know you can get the to barn.

Yeah I'm already doing that - I also ask the instructor what level the other riders are at and check what horses are being used so that I don't go in and disrupt a beginners class.

Fingers crossed today was just a one off - me and some of the other liveries are going to try booking the school out with lesson hours - its a bit frustrating having to pay extra money when I'm already paying for school usage in my livery costs but it may be worth it just to get at least 1 good schooling session a week!
 
Sorry Izod but most RS start group lessons when schools finish and go on through the evening to accomodate people finishing work.

We have lessons 9.30am-12.30 and 5pm-10pm on weekdays and 9.30am - 6.30pm weekends, hence not doing liveries as school is far to busy.
 
As a RS rider i have to say they do not allow any other riders in the school when lessons are taking place, they can join and take part in the lessons but cannot work independantly.

I cannot imagine how confusing it would be to have lots of others doing other things, but that is just my experience and opinion.

Gx
 
It must just haven been the past RS I've gone too(and the one I got to now). All off them are dead quiet by at least 7-8pm. But I also live in the US, maybe things are just different here? Well at least where I am. The one I go to now has over 60 horses and probably around 55 of them are boarders. And our place is never that busy. But we also do have two indoors, so that probably helps.
 
Hi EML - I'd be interested in you opinion on who should have priority in this situation - well not priority as such but I sometimes feel that the livery clients get a bit of a rough deal in that they are making significant and substained payments to the yard to keep their horses and use the facilities but when it comes to using the school they seem to have accomodate the lesson riders and always come out second best.

I'm not saying it should be one way of the other (although now I'm obviously biased towards the rights of the livery clients) but I'd be really intersted to get a Y/O's view on this.
 
As a RS rider i have to say they do not allow any other riders in the school when lessons are taking place, they can join and take part in the lessons but cannot work independantly.

I cannot imagine how confusing it would be to have lots of others doing other things, but that is just my experience and opinion.

Gx

All the other schools I have ridden in as a student did not allow livery clients in the school during lessons - this is the first one I've come across which is one of the reasons I chose the yard because at least I have the choice whether to ride or not as long as I use common sense and stick by the rules (which many others don't unfortunatley!!)
 
im really lucky and have sole use of a floodlit outdoor school at the mo - if I had to do what you guys do there's be a disaster cos Id crash:eek::eek::eek:

Kirstin - if I were you Id try and get confident using the outdoor school (presume its lit?)

eta - i was paying £43 for livery with only a small shared outdoor school, used also by PC for comps and for lessons - so you coulnt always go in. That price included YO turning out in am though, and was stabled.
 
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I know you asked Eml so i hope you dont mind my opinion :) Ideally both should be catered for. But as a RS client im paying £22 for only one hours use of a horse and school. As a livery client you can have any time when there isnt a lesson on to ride, plus any hacking. Fair is it not. Its what comes with choosing a RS as a livery really.
 
im really lucky and have sole use of a floodlit outdoor school at the mo - if I had to do what you guys do there's be a disaster cos Id crash:eek::eek::eek:

Kirstin - if I were you Id try and get confident using the outdoor school (presume its lit?)

One of them is but its pretty flooded and has a field with horses right next to it which gets C really wound up.

The other one is not floodlit but we will start working on that one for weekends.
 
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