Finding a reputable riding school

[AutisticLegoLover]

My daughter has tried 2 riding schools. One is rated 5 but gives no information of who has rated them or what they are rated on. It dies say something about the pony club though. The other is a lot more organised for a start and does courses like stable management working towards a gcse. They are stricter on hat requirements meeting kite mark standards. Ive not been with her to the second place. The first place offered helping out all day in exchange for experience and a free ride in the arena after lessons. This translated to hanging around doing not a lot followed by a free for all in the arena with horses being ridden in various directions with no supervision from staff, just the lasses that help out and/or own the horses. My daughter is fairly confident up to cantering where she seems to end up koalaing the horse's neck. She's fallen once when the horse decided it was going to jump several poles lying on the floor. I swear my heart stopped.
I am anxious around horses and have been since childhood and am therefore not able to judge things well as I have no knowledge or experience.
The second place has girls as young as 11 leading out the horses and helping riders. The ones conducting the lessons are 18-early 20s.
What's the norm? I fully accept I might be being precious and I know I'm nervous around horses.
Dd is 14 if that has any influence.
Thank you for any advice.

The lady who runs the riding school I'm learning at would hit the bloody roof at that level of disorganisation. She doesn't allow more than 2 horses in the arena at once for safety.

The horses are all either competing or excomp so while they have their quirks, they are all well trained and matched up carefully with riders to make sure no one has more horse than they can handle.

I ride an older boy, more whoa than go, who used to be a showjumper in his glory days and he suddenly becomes 10 years younger at the sight of a jump but he'd never just take off with me and I'd not be left unsupervised even if he tried.

What you describe sounds a shambles and not normal at all.

There were 9 of them at the last hour lesson she went to. The horses are very reluctant to do as they are told. Funny personalities. They either won't go or they get too excited and canter when they are supposed to trot and the infamous jump of many poles. Dd held on grand then slid off when the horse cornered. Dd had never jumped before and it quite a shock to everyone! The horse looked quite pleased with itself. I've been a nervous wreck ever since when she canters 🙈
To be fair to the horses some are very good and appear a joy to ride.

Nah, where I ride, she'd be on the lunge for one to one lessons until she could canter safely and there wouldn't be poles set up unless we were using them.

The horses do take the piss occasionally but it's in the form of fidgeting at the mounting block or stopping to eat the tree or neigh at their mates in the field, not taking off at a canter and going over jumps when they're supposed to be trotting.

The one I ride does light up at the sight of a jump and loves to show the flashy young ones that he's still got it but he wouldn't go for it unless his rider told him to. I think you should change tbh this place sounds like an accident waiting to happen.

None of that sounds normal to me.

None of that sounds normal.

My rules would be
first and absolute foremost- turnout. I wouldn’t bother looking twice at a yard where their horses don’t get to go in the field. Riding school horses work so hard and need socialisation and downtime.
BHS and/or ABRS approved
Not over subscribing the group lessons. 8 at an absolute maximum but 6 or less ideally.

What you’ve described sounds rogue. If your daughter can’t competently canter she’s probably too novice to be taking a horse in a school unsupervised.

Where abouts are you and other users may be able to recommend

Ha, I thought that I’d had some poor experiences! Don’t go back - someone is going to be injured.

Try posting on local Facebook groups or go by word of mouth. My dd is 14 and has been riding since she was about 6. We've gone through 3 riding schools. I find that some riding schools cater better for smaller children, and others better for more experienced riders. She's chopped and changed schools to cater for her needs.

Pony club doesn't necessarily mean it's a good school, one school just expected the kids to poo pick for an hour and then would give them an hours lesson. Whereas another one would do stable management with them and they'd achieve badges towards a formal qualification.

For a first lesson I'd expect them to insist one a one to one lesson to gauge how well your dd rides, try a few out and see which ones you and your dd feels more at home with

School 1 sounds like a nightmare - your daughter is going to get hurt if she continues trying to learn there.

School 2 could be fine but hard to tell unless you go there to see for yourself. Having young helpers isn’t necessarily a bad thing but 11 is on the younger side of what most places would feel comfortable with. The places my daughter volunteered and then worked at she had to be 12 and 14. She was teaching young children when she was 16 and taking adults out for hacks at 18. However the senior instructors were a lot more experienced - if everyone were very young/inexperienced then you’d be a bit more concerned.

Accreditation from the BHS (British Horse Society) or Association of British Riding Schools) is a start. If a riding school is a Pony Club Centre - this means they provide Pony Club activities for children who don’t have their own horse - then that’s a sign that they welcome children. Check that they are affiliated to the Pony Club though as lots of places run unofficial pony clubs/camps/days which may or may not be good. You can ask on local horsey Facebook groups for recommendations but you will get lots of replies from friends and family of various riding schools saying ‘Xxxx centre 100%’ so that won’t necessarily be much help!

Can you get some individual lessons for your daughter so that she can get the hang of canter before she tries cantering in a group again

Thank you for all the replies. The nearest place is Hyde. It's still a fair trek for us to go but I don't mind if it means good experiences. The first place really worries me and we won't be going back. They'd moved her up a level but her cantering isn't consistent enough in my opinion. Not that I know much but I'm pretty sure cantering shouldn't involve clinging on like a koala trying not to fall off!
I don't have the money to pay for weekly lessons but I can afford once a fortnight and Dd is happy with that.

We are High Peak/Stockport if anyone can recommend anywhere? I've heard that a place called Glen Jakes is popular but I don't know how good it is.

Glen Jakes is a bit rough and ready in terms of facilities but my understanding is the instruction itself is quite good.
The one in Daisy nook park is meant to be good too

I'm close to your area although not directly in it, and as far as I understand, plenty of the local riding schools are 5 star rated by the local council. Oddly, this doesn't seem to mean that much in terms of suitability of offer for somebody arriving to learn to ride. It is more about ticking boxes such as premises (fire hazards, safety etc.), horse health and welfare (all riding school horses have annual vet inspection), regulations and signage about safety, hats, etc. completion of administration/paperwork (such as accident forms, rider information forms etc.) and qualifications of instructors. It isn't really a rating as a riding school, if you know what I mean. For that it would be BHS or ABRS rating, but hardly any locally have that.

What you have described doesn't sound good (first one much worse than second though!), so I would continue to look around. Young instructors might be OK, depending on their actual competence, but if there is nobody teaching who has more longevity of experience then they also have nobody to learn from, so it isn't a great sign unless they are doing additional training and education to develop their skills. I have recently moved DD's instruction (on her own pony) away from the RS where we are liveried because what she needs to learn now is a level that most of the instructors don't consistently achieve themselves.

I had also heard that the instruction and organisation at Glenn Jakes is reasonably good, although we've never been there.

I did a test ride at Glen Jakes about 15 years ago when I was looking for a new riding school. They seemed really good, a proper assessment in the lesson, lots of feedback. The only reason I'm not riding with them is I was looking for somewhere with an indoor arena and they didn't have one at that time.