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Discuss horse riding and ownership on our Horse forum.

Original poster

Are Riding Schools Jumping?

21 replies

SummertimeEasyBreezy · 09/05/2021 19:27

A friends dd goes to a local riding school and is a bit fed up as although riding lessons restarted 6 weeks ago she is not able to jump as yet.
The reason given is to avoid high risk activities as the NHS is under pressure from covid. I would’ve understood this last year but now that all the shows and jumping competitions have restarted it seems unfair on those who don’t have their own.
Just wondered if this is a normal policy in other riding schools?

OP posts:
sanityisamyth · 09/05/2021 19:38

Our local riding school only reopened a week ago so the riders and the horses aren't fit enough to jump - all the riders back so far would have only had one lesson since before Christmas. I haven't heard of a no jumping policy though due to covid?

britnay · 10/05/2021 09:44

Yeah, I imagine its a fitness thing. Anyway, its really important for her to work on her flatwork. Developing an independent seat and hands will help with the jumping.

randomsabreuse · 10/05/2021 09:50

I'd definitely want to have the horses back in full work for a while before jumping (plus probably get them jumped by staff for the early woohoo jumping stuff).

I did a PTT guinea pig lesson on a 14.2 who mostly did kids and novices largely because she quite liked to rush her fences. She hadn't been jumped for a while so was very WILD, charging at the fence and then tanking off on her forehead. I was very glad I was riding fit and confident enough not to grab and hold the reins - would not want to be dealing with that after a break for 4 months!

Deliaskis · 10/05/2021 09:57

When the riding school was shut last year and earlier this year, we had a few weeks of no jumping for liveries and loaners (the only people on the yard) for NHS pressure reasons, but then as soon as local numbers decreased, we were able to jump. Lessons are now including some very low level jumping (like 3 trotting poles and a tiny cross) as the ponies are coming back into regular work and building fitness.

Agree though we've had a lot of very spicy ponies in the recent few weeks!

Rubyrecka · 10/05/2021 10:17

Yes mines jumping

randomsabreuse · 10/05/2021 10:22

@Deliaskis

Plus it's still quite spring grass and a bit of a chilly breeze.

Riding Schools in Scotland seem to be jumping but individual riding lessons never stopped in the most recent lockdown so long as you stayed in your home county!

maxelly · 10/05/2021 10:42

Was just coming on to mention the spring grass, the wind and the fact some of them haven't jumped in 6 months as points making it sensible to not jump (or keep it very low key!) right now. We had a jumping clinic for liveries at my RS last week, some of the staff joined using the riding school ponies and they were absolutely flying around, I've never seen some of those fat cobs shift so fast or so enthusiastically Grin - brilliant for the staff but possibly not so much for a beginner having their first ever jump!

Squirrel26 · 10/05/2021 10:44

We jumped in my lesson yesterday. Think it was about the 6th one since we restarted - been doing poles and flatwork in the meantime.

historyrocks · 10/05/2021 11:15

I’m in Scotland. The RS reopened about 3 months ago. Jumping restarted after a few weeks.

historyrocks · 10/05/2021 11:17

I should add that at first it was only private lessons. Group lessons only restarted about 6 weeks ago.

Jannetra17 · 10/05/2021 11:27

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Original poster
SummertimeEasyBreezy · 10/05/2021 12:00

[quote randomsabreuse]@Deliaskis

Plus it's still quite spring grass and a bit of a chilly breeze.

Riding Schools in Scotland seem to be jumping but individual riding lessons never stopped in the most recent lockdown so long as you stayed in your home county![/quote]
That seems like such a better way to deal with lockdowns. It’s so unfair on the schools who have been forced to close their doors. They still have to feed and care for the horses, pay all overheads but couldn’t bring in any money. Plus it’s not the best thing for the animals welfare to go from being ridden several hours a day to nothing then back to being ridden lots.
The only schools I know are definitely jumping are the ones who train students. I believe they were still able to do this during lockdown as it is education rather than leisure.

OP posts:
Deliaskis · 10/05/2021 12:32

I really felt for riding schools and the ponies, the difference between last summer lockdown and the January one. It couldn't have been more different. In the summer it felt like an extended rest period for them, out at grass living with the herd. In January it was a different story entirely, so hard. Our riding school only survived by offering lots of short term part loan agreements, so like 3 months 2 days a week to lots of different people. It worked well and those that did loan got plenty of riding, but not everybody is ready for that commitment.

lastqueenofscotland · 10/05/2021 13:02

The one near my livery are not sure about others.
Fitness is a massive issue especially with novicy unbalanced riders

NicolaDunsire · 10/05/2021 13:11

We had a similar arrangement to Deliaskis, so at our stables the horses & riders are fit enough, and they’ve been jumping for about 6 weeks or so.

NicolaDunsire · 10/05/2021 13:14

And as you say, the competitions are back on - we’ve already had 2 rounds of the local schools showjumping league.

Original poster
SummertimeEasyBreezy · 10/05/2021 13:42

One of our local schools advertised loans and someone reported them to the council. The council told them they would be in breach of the covid rules if they allowed people on site to ride their riding school ponies. They got around it by loaning them off site, but bloody hell it seemed so harsh.

OP posts:
maxelly · 10/05/2021 14:00

@SummertimeEasyBreezy

One of our local schools advertised loans and someone reported them to the council. The council told them they would be in breach of the covid rules if they allowed people on site to ride their riding school ponies. They got around it by loaning them off site, but bloody hell it seemed so harsh.
That is harsh, I think loads of riding schools did the loan thing (ours did too). It was really the only solution to keep the ponies looked after and exercised since they couldn't just be slung out into a field as in the first lockdown in spring/summer - with no income they couldn't pay for extra staff to do it, so they would have had to sell off the ponies otherwise (in fact here quite a few were sold in any case). I don't know if technically it was 100% within the Covid 'rules' but I can for sure say that the majority of councils must have turned a blind eye ...
NicolaDunsire · 10/05/2021 14:24

That seems ridiculous even if it’s correct (I don’t know). We were told we could travel to provide care for livestock, so as we had taken on responsibility for keeping this pony fit & well, we travelled to do that... nobody reported us anyway, phew.

historyrocks · 10/05/2021 20:36

The riding school here already had a part-loan arrangement in place for the riding school ponies/horses. In the first lockdown they put them all out to and only allowed private livery people there, with no jumping. They didn’t charge for the part loans during that period.

In the second lockdown that wasn’t an option and the part-loans continued. I think it’s a fairly lucrative business in comparison to some riding schools, but they couldn’t afford a second period of complete shut down.

Ollinisca · 11/05/2021 02:29

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