Horse Rangers Association

[Gladtobeout]

We've been offered a place in the Hampton Court branch of horse riders association. DD would love it! She already rides twice a week at school but would love to learn more about equestrian care.

But £180 a month? Is that normal for horse riding association fees? It'll only include 2 rides a month. We currently pay £32 a lesson at school and £10 per pony club session. I'm trying to gauge whether it'll really be worth it if she already rides twice a week and does pony club. It really does seem like a fortune for what it is.

TIA

Bumping

I don't know the association, but that's more than I pay per month to keep my daughter's pony in DIY livery, so it sounds totally crazy to me to spend that much on a few rides per month. A pony share that she could ride several times per week would probably be same price/cheaper.

Thanks, this is what I was thinking. I'd love to just buy our own but unfortunately I don't know enough to be able to look after one properly.

That's why I thought there must be more to it then just riding and mucking out.

I think it's a bit riding + stable management education, with badges and syllabus from reading the welcome pack https://www.horserangers.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Welcome-Pack-Rev-May24.pdf It's probably on the pricy side balancing the subsidised places against people paying full price.

Is there not a local Pony Club branch that she can join? They do all the practical stuff too and earn badges https://pcuk.org/achievement-badges/ . Much cheaper membership too :)

You’d be better off finding a pony club centre

I thought OP said her daughter already did Pony Club? I would just increase the number of lessons she has per week or look for a pony share rather than pay crazy money for what appears to be little benefit. Does she compete with the Pony Club? There are loads of things you can do as part of the Pony Club that are really cool (even competing at the London International Horse Show 🤩) which it doesn't sound like this association will provide.

Yes, she does pony club and does compete with pony club. It's an awful lot cheaper!

The ethos was that HRA was for people who otherwise couldn’t afford to ride or learn about horses. Of course it pre-dated Pony Club centres.

@Equines do you know what changed? I was expecting it to be affordable, not pittance, but definitely no where near this.

@Gladtobeout l think it’s always been expensive for the riding offered. But they do RDA weekdays and l assume don’t have other income streams such as adult riding etc and horses are expensive to vet, shoe, feed, bed etc and most of this needs to be funded mostly from weekend income 😄. Have you looked at other local Pony Club centres, although imagine they’ll already be oversubscribed?