The most Socially Selective schools in England.

Horse Rangers waiting lists are often 3 or more years long. A handful of city farms offer pony club and also have waiting lists measured in years. I have held roles where I need to know this stuff.

Such clubs are the exception. Equestrianism is not 'open to all' or 'egalitarian'.

But yes, such provision is fantastic, where it exists, but should remain an out-of-school thing so as not to highlight vast differences in opportunity available to pupils.

Out I am on scrappy 3G but didn't one of the medalists at the 2012 Olympics get a dressage medal on a horse belonging to someone else whose stables she'd gone to work in. I can't remember her name but I think she said she'd just had great opportunities. There's a state school in Gillingham Dorset which has an equestrian team. Where we used to ride, families regularly bought ponies which were incredibly cheap (under £1k) and then ran them in fields/diy livery. No fancy cars at the stables at all, mainly K-S reg with the teens working at the stables for rides/lessons. None of the families went on holiday & teens had jobs after school as well as at the stables.

Yes I know where exactly where it is. I have been there. I could stroll there from here. It isn't the point happy

They exist to do what they do, out of school, for a particular demographic.

They are not representative of equestrianism as a pursuit. Their existence is not an argument for horses in state schools.

Again can I suggest you google Ebony Horse Club situated in the 10th most deprived UK borough clearly epode here believe horses are for "people like us".
I don't need to google the JRF website thank you I lived for over 13 years in one of the UK's most deprived boroughs and worked and still work with some of the UK's most deprived.
Don't forget it wasn't me who suggested that illegal immigrants take out health insurance before they left their countries and made long and treacherous journey to the UK.

Smoke - interestingly, my DF came from the sort of background people usually say is limiting (council estate in ex-mining community). He had teachers who encouraged him and the fact that everyone took the exam on his side.
When I was doing my teacher training, however, the attitude was very anti-grammar school. When I talked about gifted and talented work, I was often told I was expecting too much! I was fortunate enough to have one placement that believed all students should be challenged. The other was rubbish (the college thought it was the other way round ).
All I can say is, yes, we should be doing more but we ARE trying!

I'm just pointing out that contrary to some assertions on here that horse riding is not just for the privileged few with stacks of money and that children from all back grounds dream of being involved with horses.
It's clearly something some on here are here to talk about but very obviously know nothing about.

Why smoke would they not cross the minds of parents and teachers from socially mixed areas to offer them? Are their horizons that limited? Are the teachers that unimaginative? Or are you just making assumptions from a position of no knowledge and prejudice?

Happy it is so mean-spirited to throw insults like that at people who might have the mindset of 'not for people like us'. I've worked with and met people who have expressed exactly that sentiment. Similarly, many people might be unaware of schemes and clubs that do exist to widen participation, or they might be referal only.

Can I suggest you take yourself off to the JRF website and inform yourself a bit?

(And the repeated accusations that smoke is speaking from ignorant prejudice are wearing a bit thin too.)

More,
A lot of the issue we have is that many primary teachers (not all) disapprove of grammar schools. My own Yr6 teacher did. But my parents investigated anyway, my dad had gone to one in Scotland when there were loads and everyone did the 11+.
I would encourage anyone interested to contact these schools about admissions. I invigilate the entrance exam every year - we're very friendly, honest

Yes, Horse Rangers are great. They are not a state school, however.

Happy

I know what smoke means as have experienced this ourselves with the music and a grammar school that we just fit catchment.
Wrt the grammar school, parents don't know it exists for them, where to take the 11+ and the fact that it wouldn't be practical in terms of transport is irrelevant because they just don't know.
It doesn't matter what exists if parents don't go looking and teachers don't suggest or pass on knowledge of their existance.

You could also google the Horse Rangers Association, horse ownership was and I'm assuming still is a bar to membership again riding for all regardless of financial back ground.

Why smoke would they not cross the minds of parents and teachers from socially mixed areas to offer them? Are their horizons that limited? Are the teachers that unimaginative? Or are you just making assumptions from a position of no knowledge and prejudice?
Can I suggest you google Ebony Horse Club, the Emile Faurie Foundation, Mudchute Farm, Ride High, Stepney Bank Stables and there are many more all ensuring that horses are crossing the minds of deprived children if not their parents and teachers.

I think there is an issue in communicating to people what they are entitled to and this can affect selective schools more for a variety of reasons.
One of the reasons for any change between when I was at secondary and now is the cost of transport. In the 1990s, the county council gave free transport to those living more than 3 miles from grammar and religious schools. Firstly, they cut the funding to the grammars then to the church schools.
Several girls I was at sixth form with were only able to attend as travel passes were free.
Given that there are several ways to get the uniform cheaper, maybe it's now transport costs putting people off.
We do several outreach programmes with the local primary schools and secondary (for sixth form) some are very resistant to us coming in, making it harder to keep parents informed of the possibility of attending our school.

Smokepole

This is so true, nobody from our area except dd is involved with her choir.
They are all the Manchester grammar or good Cheshire schools and folk round here have never heard of it let alone know their dc could audition and be a part of it.
On the G&T register at her old school no musical opportunities even some offered by the LA were suggested to us.
In fact even paying for tuition wasn't an option until y3, it was just unheard of and not allowed.
Once involved with the LA groups it was different, but any parents who don't know the ropes wouldn't stand a chance.

Where I grew up it was quite common for DC to have a pony. Not all cobby types. Lots of other native breeds though. The kids came from all different back grounds. Yes some lived in rented council houses. Some in suburban semi. I'm sure they and me given the opportunity would love to have represented our School. Girls who didn't have their own pony or horse use to borrow other peoples for local shows (as I guess they would for a school team too) a lot of the ponys cost very little to buy or were loaned to them as the previous owner out grew them. Not many fields rented or shared, had facilities. We just use to make jumps out of what ever we could. I found a girl a pony to ride (she was on fsm) because I had noticed a pony sitting in a field doing nothing. We went and asked about the pony and asked if my friend could spend some time with it. The lady was very happy with that as her daughter had gone to uni and lost interest a year or so earlier. It didn't cost my friend anything but time.
So if a state school in a rural area offers an equestrian team why not?

DS1 old state comp offered various trips to a China, South Africa etc all were well in excess of £2500. DS2 (Win Coll) has never been offered a trip costing more than £700, 1 was significantly cheaper than that, I get the impression the dons try to keep costs as low as possible.

Brenda

Sometimes I wave my dh off knowing he is busting a gut for the small income we have, knowing that we have to pay for everything whereas some people who don't have an earner in the family get services and facilities for free and as much in benefits as we have from an income.

Never once would I think or suggest that they are less deserving or even more deserving of the help.
I don't know what it is like to worry where my next meal is coming from, how I will feed and clothe my children, how I will afford utilities.

Of course people living in poverty are more deserving.

Ds1's state High School has an Equestrian Team but you do have to supply your own horse. They are very successful I believe.

Smokepole

Is so correct, you can't imagine some of the disadvantaged people in the country who don't have the same opportunities as many.
We are very lucky to be able to afford the private tuition we have for dd due to the fact we are old timers and come from a time when it was easier to scrimp, save and have a mortgage, even on a low income.
If we were starting out now we wouldn't be accepted for a mortgage on our house now, how on earth is that right?

One school here offers a skiing trip it was the school ds2 attended. The same half dozen kids from each year went every year, it certainly wasn't inclusive.

I do have to say that our music service is fantastic and children unable to afford lessons, instruments and residentials are subsidised the whole lot if they are fsm. A couple of these dc every so often gain places at Chethams which offers them specialised music education on a similar footing. This is what I call inclusive.
I think it is quite rare and haven't heard of many more like this. The teachers are amazing for encouraging children and as soon as they can play anything half decent they are in a county group. There are never enough to form school orchestras and unfortunately there isn't alot of parental support here neither.

No one has said that top level equestrianism is egalitarian because to compete at the top you do need considerable wealth, but I used to own a very nice pony who would have done well in school level competitions and I would have happily put a keen child on him and given free coaching. As he wasn't a potential Olympic Games horse and was primarily a companion for my competition horse he cost peanuts to keep.
Looking after ponies teaches children very useful life lessons as they require massive input and time in all weathers all the year round the time spent riding them is actually less than the time spent looking after them properly. Horses require enormous tact, and patience they are unpredictable, become ill at the drop of a hat and as any race horse trainer will tell you they are never a dead cert when it comes to competitions. They are also a great therapy, as anyone working for riding for the disabled will tell you. It's hardly surprising then that there are various organisations around the UK offering riding for very disadvantaged youngsters.
In the ideal world perhaps more disadvantaged children should have access to horses.

It costs more for a family of four to have season tickets for a premiership football team than it does to own livestock

What's that got to do with school sports?