The State of Riding Schools

[Fran_C]

I am really horrified at the state of BHS approved riding schools, I know that there are some fantastic ones in the country who really care about their horses but all the approved ones near me are horrendous. Their primary thought is of money not of their horses welfare, that comes last. Many large establishments hve say two fantastic instructors, but children (like me at 13yrs) aren't allowed to have lessons with them, no! We have to have lessons with student instructors, the kind which dont even know the aids for anter or how to teavh leg yield, children have to put up with this poor instruction and are taught to ride very badly getting habits hard to cure. I once went for one lesson to a very well known riding school which I shall not name and the instructor advised "kicking the pony to make it go" and pulling harder on the reins to make it turn as there was no point in using my legs or seat because the primary aid is the hands! I didn't go again. I was lucky enough to learn to ride at a riding school that was too small to be BHS approved, it had one instructor and one groom, that was it BUT the instructor was very experienced and always put her horses needs first she taught me to ride properly ona variety of ponies.
What I am trying to say is that BHS approval doesn't necessarily mean it's a good riding school. Of course you should very thoroughly check out a school that isn't as there are many which are also poorly run. Have any others had any experiences of a bad riding school/ bad instructors (i am lucky enough with my pony to have a fantastic instructor! :)) And does anyone know of a riding school that directly teaches Heather's methods?

[Wally]

I'm laughing here, the last time I happened to mention Heather's way of thinking and teaching to a BHSI, I was given a funny look and told I and Heather were wrong, no listening, no debate, no open mind or willingness to try anything new or different. If it ain't in the BHS book then it don't exist! If they were to try they would find that it works and then they would have to go back and start to re-learn and that would never do would it? I was taught the BHS bible and I've found a lot of loopholes, I have tried Heathers methods and they work and so far no loopholes! but I have had to go back to walk and start again with a different mind, But what results!

If you want Heather's methods then the last place you should look is anything with a BHS approved plaque.

I too have been horrified at the way some approved places are allowed to be run. I wonder how they get through their vet check for the licence, let alone the attitude of the instructors to clients and horses.

I shall stop there this is my pet hate, along with many more!

[Maci]

I just wanted to say that although I don't live in the UK and know nothing about the BHS, I've heard nothing but negative about them, and how they run, etc. I guess to conclude is that if a school has good instructors and good stable management, BHS approved or not, go to it! I've heard nothing but negative about BHS approved schools and instructors. Lets you know something is wrong! You'd think they (BHS) would get the hint from all the complaints, to start changing and looking more into things before the "knight it" approved!

Maci :)

[Miriam]

I used to go to a riding school which at the time had no approved BHS instructors. Now they do. Here was me thinking I was learning to ride. I decided to reply to an advertisement for someone to help exercise a horse. I rang up and explained that I was at a riding school having lessons, did not know how to tack up but could untack. If she was willing to teach me how to tack up I would like to help. The girl invited me down to have a look at the horse and then to ride him. She then told me the choice was mine. If I wanted to take him on she would help me. Ok that was it I went for it. A few months down the line she then said to me 'I don't know who taught you to ride but they did not do it properly' and then gave me a few lessons. I have to say that I learnt more from her than I did from the riding school.


Miriam

[KarlR]

In my experience of about 8 schools, the BHS schools are slightly better than the ABRS only ones and those are a little better than the "unapproved" ones. However, I'm really only talking about degrees of badness here.

I stayed with the best school of the 8 (Wellow Park Stables, Ollerton) for about two years (BHS and ABRS approved) and they were reasonably open minded largely due to the fact that the instructors themselves had a good instructor who believed in a sypathetic attitude to riding. The main instructor there has since left though and I'm not sure what the replacements are like.

The worst school (ABRS approved I believe) was just West of Sheffield. The final straw was when my wife had a lesson there and was put on a very reluctant horse, told to haul on its mouth and kick as hard as she could to get it to move forward. When it didn't respond (as you might expect!) she was told to use the whip hard and repeatedly (not just 2 or 3 times). When she asked the instructor to demonstrate she said "I'm not getting on! All the horses here buck me off!". Little wonder, IMNSHO. :mad: We left - quickly.

The vast majority of schools teach poorly on badly schooled horses and you are usually (initially at least) given student instructors (often under 18) who have only the vaguest understanding of sublety, gentleness, weight and balance, and the importance of developing a sound grounding. However there are a proportion of schools (or at least individual instructors within schools) that can provide at least half-decent basic training and a smaller number (such as Heather) that are truly exceptional (although sadly such instructors don't tend to stay around in schools for long). Sadly, I know of no instructors around here (North Notts) let alone schools who teach Heathers methods, although I'm aware that she does her best to redress this.

Such poor schools probably account for well over 50% of the total and I suspect that if the BHS were to tighten up on approval standards they would probably just not bother with BHS approval. My only real criticism of the BHS is that they tend to encourage a very mechanical method of riding which is not particularly sensitive to the horse and that they are not at all open to change. This is very sad since as the top organisation a lead from them could have such a major cascade affect in this country. Such apathy is not acceptable when they hold such responsibility.

My opinion as always though is that if you feel that your riding school uses methods that are harsh or that are not properly explained then look around for another instructor or another school. It really does make a difference and saving a few pounds by having groups lessons in a large group at a poor school is a very poor economy indeed.

As you might expect this is one of my pet hates too! :)

[Wally]

Well said!
I though it was just me being fussy!

[Fran_C]

I am glad to see other people are finding the same thing. Just to say though, I do know of two absolutely fantastic BHS and ABRS approved schools, Huntley and Talland, expensive but the standard of riding there is phenomenal! Unfortunately these really are rare. I agree you should almost always make sure your instructor has a teaching certificate, but not necessarily an approved riding school. These large establishments are ruining horses and riders by the day and the clients don't even realize that what they r leraning is totally wrong!

[FRED]

Hi Fran_c,I did a little test recently to test out Apathy on the message board and trainers,I even gave a member a tip it was there.
I will be asking Mike about a help section for New riders,who end up with such poor training and lessons.I'm sure most will agree somethings we read are shocking, but 1st I thought,well lets see what happens on the message board,in truth I knew the answer, but..
I noticed at about the same time you put this thread up as well.AaH I thought,some one else on the message board really cares too,no doubt you have seen some of the heart rendering stories of riders who can't even get the school?
horse to move,give it a kick or a whack is the normal easy solution. like most new riders, I don't know where the blame lies.We see so much blame put on the BHS,but are they the bee all and end all of training.Of course there must be STD's and clearly there are problems,but what is the way forward to help those new to riding.I can tell you, I have seen sickening scenes of some of the toot, toot brigade members,Captain Blythe would have been proud,its that bad.
Personaly I think Mike and his team have done a fantastic job with this WEB site,but for those new to this world,where do we go for that all important advise,when things just aren't right, apathy is definately ripe,not just in the BHS.
Fred

[M-A]

Just to say that Heather has started an Enlightened Equitation Teacher Training course, and about a dozen of us were lucky enough to attend the first clinic in April this year. There are some excellent write ups on this site. I do not feel ready to teach at this early stage, but hope to do some teaching practice after attending the second EETT clinic in Sept, and an intensive course at Heathers in August.

Some of the students on the course are already BHS qualified instructors and/or have been teaching for some time. Due to their interest in Heathers methods, I have no doubt that they teach with a more "enlightened" approach. Most have also studied other "holistic" techniques to add a further dimension to their training. I don't know if any of them teach at riding schools, but I am sure that this will happen at some stage.

Perhaps Heather will develop a list of approved EE instructors? Heather - what do you think?

Regards to all,
Marie-Ann.

[floppy]

my very first riding lesson i had when i was 6 was the last riding lesson my mum paid for until we left england. It was drizzling with rain and my mum was standing at the 'side lines' watching me plod around on a naughty little pony called pip. the instructor was 16 yrs old and the other instructor an adult was teaching at the other end of the arena..anyways to cuta long story short the girl couldnt handle 4 riders and my mum had to come and lead me around.
Which really peed my mum off because she is scared off horses and only likes contact with them if i promise they lick instead of bite and this little pip was a nipper...and aswell as tryign to bite her he ate part of her coat...i didnt have a happy mum after that...and that was an approved riding centre...since then i only ride where i feel comfortable! i dont care if its approved or not and i tend to ride in 2 different yards so i can get a difference of an opinion and see which way i feel is kinder and better.
but hte nicest instructor i have had to date and still have is my islandic instructor..i have since learn she is the same age as me (20) and she is brilliant fun and explains everything and anything and you can run any training methods by her and she will suggest a better solution etc.

[Jo]

Hi

I agree that BHS methods are rather rigid - but I hope the best centres actually use the BHS qpproval for assurance. My instructor runs a BHS approved school but she is far from entrenched in BHS methods. I have discussed some of Heather's methods with her and she approves of them all and, best of all, has been able to clarify things as I ride. Open-mindedness is a great asset - BHS or not!

It sounds as though there are some dreadful centres out there - there are a couple in my area. Just one point about "school" horses, though. Quiet ponies are an asset and when teaching a young person, it is important to have ponies that can be relied on not to be spooky or sharp. Unfortunately, good ponies can sometimes become swiched off because they are used for beginners all the time. However well schooled they are, ponies (and horses) switch off if they are constantly used in this way.
This can mean they need more encouragement than one would like.

[floppy]

i know what you mean jo about riding school horses....i use to ride at a yard that had a 2 week summer riding course for young children and beginners and then another 2 week course for better riders...(oldest age 15) anyway afterwards i was given the task of riding these horses to wake them up for the better riders that had their course after the kids course..and i tell you those horse need alot of 'waking up' and turning on but my trainer made me be really agressive and if i lightened up she would start yelling at me etc..so naturally i left...and never looked back...but i feel sorry for the horses. i didnt approve of her methods of teaching me to ride and i also didnt approve that she put me inthe hands of a 13 yr old girl with 2yrs experience (me being 20 and ridden almost all my life) for hack...this girl was given a mare and the mare refused to go forward constantly andw as always rearing because we had to take the foal with us ebcause it was not yet weaned and the foal was more interested in its surroundings than the mare and naturally the mare didnt want to leave the foal out of sight...i only rode at that yard for 2months ....2months too long and the trainer was rude to me all the time etc...i dont understand how people canbe allowed to runa yard with such rudeness...because she was rude to everyone...and she had a few horses with back problems etc and tried to sell them off to everyone that came to the yard...and fi she wasnt trying to sell off her horses she was trying to convince you to look after her kids for nothing!

[Bootyfulcobs]

i know exactly what u mean, and it is depressing to see the state of some of these suposedly approved schools, -when i started riding i did what the magazines told me and had a good look around before deciding where i would ride. although there was a school 5 minutes away, i really didn't like their teaching and the fact that it was kicking to get a horse moving- something which disgusted me, plus the fact that it was a so called approved BHS riding school:mad:

in the end i settled for one half an hour away, where they wouldn't let u do what u liked, they wanted to start u on the lunge if u were new- they wouldn't let u just hack out as the one nearer me would if you'd never ridden before, and the teaching was excellent - they were ABRS approved, the teaching was fantastic, and they cared about the horses welafre too, which stood out to me - :p

i think it's a shame that good schools with decent fully qualified insructors are becoming a rarity today, and that money and time are more important to people than taking on the responsibility of training up these people to become decent riders.in previous years instructors would take time a nd care to teach each gait properly and would take months, but now, riders are being taught in weeks - how can they possibly learn in that time?

it makes me sad that few still use the idea of enlghtened equitation- and heathers pproach, or if they do, it is so crudly taught as to do more harm than good- all i would say is don't settle for a school where you don't like what they do, - it's well worth the hunt for a good school because they can teach you so much. -they wil be preapred to put in time to make sure you're confident at eacccch stage, on a suitable horse and so on and will make sure you enjoy riding, 'cs at the end of the day, that's what t's all about - having fun:)

[Fran_C]

I think I didn't write my post very well:p, It wasn't to say that BHS approval was bad for a schoo, just that the BHS should tighten up on the bad schools and perhaps be more willing to approve small schools.But about school ponies- if these beginners were taught from day one how to sit properly on the lunge etc. then these ponies shouldn't need to switch off. If the very new beginners were given the best instruction when they start and were told how to sit properly on the seatbones etc. they shouldn't deaden the ponies. Having come from a riding school that taught like this and having seen how it DOES work I don't understand why most schools dont use this method. I know they should ride quiet ponies that won't spook but they should be riding ponies that understand all the aids and can respond correctly when the rider asks correctly that way when riding the beginners pick up good habits and don't start kicking and jabbing the ponies mouthes. Also I think the problem is much greater with children riding then adults.....

[Wally]

There is no size limit for BHS approval. All you have to do is pay the money and nudergo the inspection. I do however, think that they will not endorse a school that does not have a BHS qualified instructor on site!

[Jo]

I hear what you are all saying - I am lucky to be taught at a centre where horses come first, safety a close second and the riders' needs a respectable third. Most horses and ponies are asked to work once a day - some twice, depending on the level of competence of the riders. What I meant earlier is that some riders - for a variety of reasons - need quiet horses. I'll give you an example: there is a lovely, sturdy pony at the centre I ride who can easily carry up to 10 stone. He is a rare animal: he is very talented and can do all school moves and has competed in D, SJ and XC with some success - not to mention enjoyment! He knows his job and is very gentle with beginners, but the consequence of this is that he tends to be used for most adult beginners. On the rare occasion he is ridden by more experienced riders, he needs a wake-up call. Nothing aggressive: the sight of a schooling whip is usually enough! However, such quiet horses in a riding school can easily become plods - and there is a place for plods too! Some riders are too young to lunge - there are lots of lead reins and we all started somewhere! What a luxury to start off on a lunge line! These kinds of lessons are time consuming and small centres often cannot afford to set aside hours a weeks to lungeing. In my area, lessons are less than £10 an hour. An hour's lunge lesson is £15. People simply wouldn't pay more. A young man took lessons on the lunge because he wanted to be a stunt man and needed riding skills to get through. After a couple of lessons, he simply didn't turn up. He was beginning to have te basics of rising trot - and I mean basics - but he obviously either thought he had learnt enough or that he wasn't learning fast enough.

Hey, I am not defending bad centres - It's horrifying to think that centres allow totally inexperienced riders freedom of the roads! And yet they do! I've seen local centres take out lots of very young children onto busy roads. Sure, there were better riders, (probably) but most of these were teenagers and, no disrespect, they cannot be held responsible for the wellfare of other riders.

Thank God there are good centres out there!

[Fran_C]

Don't worry I would never get ttaught by an un-qualified teacher-nooo way! It's just that my riding school was refused BHS approval becos of it's size (six ponies and 3 horses) around 10 years ago- maybe it's only Gloucestershire- but my friends riding school in stround also has qualified instructors but is not approved itself despite being another fantastic place to ride. What has just horrified me is when I went for a beach ride with my POny Club a few days ago boxing our horses up to Brean sands, their was a riding school ride of around thirty malnourished horses and ponies ridden by people who were smoking cigarettes and one women wearing stillettos, with riding caps obviously not BS EN 1384 or PAS 015 and generally with the chinstrap undone galloping along the beach. That is really bad:eek: ! (oh and name a centre where they give the best instructor to the beginners?)

[Mossy]

I've known some appallling schools and instructors. who are approved and some good ones who are not. However can I put in a plea for an extra level of tuition for freelance instructors. If they are teaching you on their horse at their school they are responsible for any damage they do to the horse [sorry to be blunt] and if the standard of teaching is not up to standard you, the fee paying pupil, can vote with your feet and cheque book.

If you are paying somebody to teach you and your own horse and they muck up you are left with the resultant damage to the horse whilst the so called instructor goes off and creates chaos elsewhere. A free lance instructor needs the humility to accept that by and large the owner knows their own horse best, and the tact to be diplomatic if it becomes obvious that they don't. Also the courage to admit it and recommend a colleague if they don't gel with either the horse or the horsecare philosophy of the rider.

[Wally]

Qualifications mean diddly squat, Some qualified folk I've met aren't fit to conduct lightning, let alone a lesson with novice or even experienced folk in it!!

I think your school may have been refused approval for some other reason. I know of BHS approved places with fewer horses than that!

And please don't judge someones ability to ride on their smoking habits. I know it looks terrible, but just because they need a quick nicotine fix while out on a horse doesn't ncessarily mean they cannot ride or have no ability.

[Gwenllian]

Before my RDA days I used to go to a BHS approved school.In fact I went to several.I explained my disability and what it meant in practical terms in miniscule detail.I went from walk to trot to canter in the space of about 5 weeks, and I never did stay on in canter! I now go weekly to the RDA and weekly to dressage trainer, who teaches VERY like Heather does.I explained this to her,terrified that she was going to tell me that after 15 years walking and trotting, it was high time I was jumping let alone cantering! She has no teaching qualifications, and looked at me in sheer amazement and said...."You.....canter?? ...What?........with your knees up under your chin like that???? Relax, you won't be seeing any canter for at least six months, young lady! " .And now, I'm riding with my stirrups at least 4 holes longer, my legs much straighter,my hands down, instead of up under my bust line.I turn my shoulders with my horse now, and I can ride without reins, and I'm only just starting to canter now, one YEAR later.The legacy the BHS schools left me has stayed with me, and made me very scared. After all the surgery I've had, it isn't very nice being told by a 16 year old, that you're a whimp....and that is the honest truth, what a male rookie instructor at a BHS school told me. So as Wally says, qualifications don't always mean anything, and had I had the maturity then, I would have reported the little rotter.

[Fran_C]

I wasn't taking it out on smokers sorry:( I just thought that it was inappropriate for obviously inexperienced riders to have no hands on the reins canering down a beach smoking whilst bumping up and down, And Gwenellian You seem to have a fantastic instructor, really great if only all instructors were lke that:p