written by Calhounla422 on 29/08/2015
I am not trying to disprove anyone else's opinions or reviews, I'm just sharing my personal observations and thoughts.
I can definitely point out the positives: the horses are docile and healthy (or hardy, I'm undecided yet), flexible lesson choices, hacks are available, the loan schemes seem to be a brilliant idea and kids get to learn a lot on the horse experience days. But the entire place feels worn.
The indoor school looks as though it needs a new layer on it and the outside school's fences seem to be sinking into the ground. Saddles needed replacing (I mean, I've never been to a riding school where there is a literal chunk worn out of the skirt), numnahs need washing and saddle pads binning. The level of horse and yard care is entirely dependent on the competence, willingness and number of helpers available. This meant on multiple occasions horses remained dirty and in need of grooming and having their feet picked from the field, through their first lesson and till the end of the day. Jobs were also left incomplete (One being cleaning the tack. They were at it for 20 minutes, maybe, before losing interest and putting back the only two bridles they'd started to clean), stables were allowed to stay unclean for far too long, equipment was left lying around on multiple occasions and more.
Some of the helpers spent more time sitting around than getting stuff done. But you can't blame them, they're not getting paid to do this.
The staff felt unapproachable and bored. Only one seemed to be able to raise a smile and others were impolite, difficult to talk to and made you feel like an idiot for asking logical questions. They also seemed to remove themselves as much as possible from the yard work.
Instructors appeared disinterested and seemed to take advantage of having parent free lessons as I can count a good few times I saw them texting while teaching. We understand lead rein lessons can be dull but try to look engaged at least.
Some people may enjoy this riding school and admittedly I was only there a short while but it seemed impossible to even get a goodbye from one of them when I completed my last day there. So yeah, personally I've been to better.