Friends coming over to ride ponies - what if they sue me?

[TheDuchessOfNorksBride]

Any opinions on this? We have ponies and naturally all the DCs friends want to come and ride. This should be fine, we have hats, body protectors etc. The horses insurance also provides public liability. Would that be enough if somebody sued us for a broken bone - or worse?

When I was a girl, we all fell off each others ponies and broke bones and our parents accepted it as part & parcel of learning to ride. But we live in a brave new world where people like to make money out of every situation. I'd like to be clear before we invite 'strange' children over.

'strange' meaning children that I don't know very well - from school for example. Although they may also be 'strange' as in weird for all I know

Gosh, I have no idea but I would want to check this out too in your position.

Also, who were you before or are you new?

Could you just get a written disclaimer thing from the parents of any children who come to ride? Would that work? (Get a pro forma drawn up by a legal person?)

I may have misread the thread title, but I very much doubt the ponies will sue.

Hope this helps.

PS Tell other parents you are uninsured and they ride at their own risk, though are welcome to take out their own policies. This should initiate a 'hasn't the world gone litiagation mad' conversation which may stave off legal action over Jocasta's trauma at being tail-swished. I blame the ambulance chasing lawyers... mutter...grumble...

Could you say that the children can only ride your ponies if the parents are present, making it clear that horses can be unpredictible etc?
Any accidents would then be witnessed by the parents, and they would be responsible for their own children.

I woulkd point out that accidents happen. How many people sue riding schools?

WWW - I am NorksBride/CorpseBride/FawkesBride and can't remember who I was before that. I'm a toddler newbie - ie. a mere 2 years!

1 acre per pony is OK but you can't keep one on it's own, we have 2 ponies on 3.5 acres and right now there is hardly any grass so they are lots of hay. £3k running costs would probably cover livery costs - I don't know what the current prices are because we've always kept our nags at home. If she's at a good local riding school they should be able to help you out with buying a pony and recommending a livery yard. Unless you're going to keep it at home (hard work)!

check your household insurance
a friend of mine's 15 year old goddaughter came to stay, and rode the worlds most docile 25yr old pony. unfortunately the pony tripped and in a freak bad accident she fell off and the pony trod on her neck. she was in hospital for ages really not very well but is fine now.

anyway -the parents of this girl - my friends great long term friend - sued them! . household insurance took care of it but they were horrified as there was no suggestion of negligence or anything, it was just one of those things.

needless to say the friendship is over. seems pretty stupid thing to do for the sake of about £15,000.

Thank you very much, that's helpful. We're a few years off even thinking seriously about it but ty.

My insurance covers anyone riding my horse with my permission. Check yours, it might do too.

A lot of parents don't have much to do with ponies and think it's all jolly good fun (which it is) but that they are animals at the end of the day - and can be pretty unpredictable. I would definitely have at least a telehone conversation with any parent who wanted their child to have a ride on any of your ponies, not to put the fear of god up them, but to explain that ponies can be unpredictable, accidents can happen and you think they might be happier if they were in attendance.

I certainly wouldn't just send dd to someone's house without a long conversation with the parent/s first if the intention was that dd ride a pony when she got there. And I'd be furious if she'd been on a pony without me knowing about it first.

I think I'll phone the insurance company to check. I guess a 'ride at your own risk' approach may be necessary. Bit miserable though isn't it?

cazzybabs - riding schools have very expensive insurance which is why many don't teach children under the age of 7 ... or is it 5? Anyway, insurance for that age group is sky high. Also they should have 'best practice' certificates & BHS membership which make it difficult to put a case together unless they were obviously being reckless.

PPH That's what I'm afraid of!

Moomin - I would never have children riding here without their parents permission. My DC's and their friends aren't even allowed to go to the stables/into the paddocks without me being there.

at PPH's people.

I think you'd just have to make it clear that it's at their own risk - maybe even make them sign something? (Bit bloody depressing).

Out of interest - anyone got any idea who'd be liable if the ponies (not ours) that my mother allows to use her paddock rent free got out? The fence is in good condition and the gate is padlocked, but mine used to get out on occasion - I know our insurance (horse, not household) covered it but I'm a bit worried for my mum in this situation.

Didn't think for a moment you would

Just had visions of dd1 hearing the word 'pony' and telling someone's parent that she's in the Olympic showjumping team or something (she's slightly prone to exaggeration), whereas in truth she's only ever ridden a donkey at the seaside (and moaned all the way there and back)

Cazzycabs, there are riding schools closing down every week purely because they can no longer afford the exhorbitant insurance premiums required, thanks to all the people suing for the slightest accident. Some of them have found their premiums have gone up by thousands of pounds in the space of a year.

Turquoise, I'm not sure about the liability thing if the horses strayed. I seem to remember reading somewhere that the landlord is responsible for providing safe fencing in rented fields but the fact that your mum isn't receiving any payment might mean she couldn't be held to blame if anything happened. It would be worth finding out. In the meantime, if the people aren't having to pay rent perhaps it would be reasonable to ask them to provide some electric fencing and a powerpack to make doubley sure the horses are safe? That way the responsibility would be firmly put on to them (I would have thought-I'm not a legal person!).

I broke my arm falling off my friends horse (we were both riding bareback, actually I think it was my friend landing on me that broke my arm ) Didn't occur to my family to sue. We were unaccompanied as well, had to walk home first before going to hospital! Times have changed...... I'd be careful as well though these days, perhaps some sort of disclaimer for people to sign with a jokey 'oh its such a pain but you have to do it these days"???

I got knocked out trying to get onto my friend's horse! Car whizzed past, horse reared, etc. Wot helmet....???

Hospital? Not a chance as I was perfectly fine by the time I spoke to my mother.

Sue? Never. Just got a right royal ticking off from my mother who said I should have been home earlier.

Electric fences aren't the be all and end all. Ours have broken through on a couple of occasions.

DoNB, I'm with you on the fact it used to be that if you fell off, you fell off, and that was the end of it, but sadly nowadays in the compensation culture you have to be wary.

We've let dd's friends ride our shetland (well, I say ride, more like sit there like a sack of potatoes), but I'd be wary of letting them ride anything a bit more spirited tbh.

Could you talk to your local riding school and copy the forms that they inevitably make parents (and, indeed, adults) sign these days? They have a form of words (I'm guessing probably supplied by the BHS or something, as I've signed very similar forms in various different places) which states that riding can be dangerous and horses can be unpredictable and that you accept the risks. You could ask parents to sign and say that your insurance company insists on it (even if they don't) if you want to avoid looking too paranoid!

Agree with all those saying 'it wasn't like that in my day'. My sister fell off a riding school pony trying to canter bareback round the field while sitting backwards (facing the tail). Oddly, pony objected and sister broke her arm. To this day only me, sister and bf know what really happened. Everyone else thinks that she slipped in the field! Yeah, right! Would freak if my dds did anything like that though.

turquoise, i think I'd suggest your mum checked she did have some liability insurance due to world having gone mad.