New Riding School

GaryB

GaryB

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Mar 23, 2015
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I love the instructors and the horses at my current riding school, and its 10 minutes from the office so I can have a lesson on the way home. The downsides though are that there is no indoor school, its expensive, and they have a habit of changing things without letting me know (including once where I turned up for a private lesson to find there was no instructor). My regular instructor has left for a new job in Canada so I decided that it was time for a change.

I've booked in for an assessment lesson on Saturday at my local riding school. Its close to home (but not close to the office). It has indoor and outdoor schools, and is nearly half the price so I'll be able to go every week rather than once a fortnight if it works out. They also run some jumping clinics (and learning to jump better is the main reason for lessons at the moment), so that could be fun.

So I'm feeling part nervous, part excited. We'll see what happens :)
 
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It is unusual to find a riding school with better facilities (e.g. an indoor school) to be cheaper than one without. I hope the lesson goes well and you can ride out of the rain in the winter.
 
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Mary Poppins said:
It is unusual to find a riding school with better facilities (e.g. an indoor school) to be cheaper than one without.
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Not so Mary P. Riding school charges will depend on location (in our case distance from central London), and the target clientele. Our well known instructor has one very small outdoor school but a personal lesson with her is far more expensive than going to a large riding school catering for mainly children and with a great number of freelance teachers.
Plus tho an indoor school sounds nice - at some busy schools even in a private lesson one may be sharing the school with another lesson going on at the same time.
GaryB, I would go for a a good instructor, every time. And a suitable willing horse. Try lots -You dont need to stick to one.
Many of my early lessons, I had to share the space with a child learner and a second teacher giving them their lesson. It was a nightmare- One of my requirements ever since is to have my lesson in a school to myself.
 
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Good luck with the new school!
Like you i go to a school near work - about ten min from the office - and i'm assuming i've been lucky as they have both indoor and outdoor arenas and friendly and knowledgeable staff. I mainly have the same instructor which i like as it gives me continuity and i've only had to share the indoor arena with another lesson once (that was last week).
The only trouble is that i have an interview for another job in a couple of weeks time and if i get it i'll be looking for somewhere else to go :(
 
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Back from my lesson. I rode Bailey who is a working livery. He is middleweight and I would guess 16hh+. I got on well with Sarah the instructor who made me work hard and picked up a couple of issues that haven't been pointed pointed out to me before. It was so nice to be working indoors - a nice even surface so I knew that anything the horse did was caused by me and not him paddling through the lakes in school, and without the wind blowing away the instructor's voice.

It seems though that finding a mutually convenient slot for use might prove difficult - they are going to have a look through he diary and give me a ring.....
 
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