The barns we have boarded let boarders and lessoners share the ring. However, common sense goes a long way. We know most of the riders and instructors so we will ask to double check before coming in or setting up poles or something. We can also warm up outside the ring and there is a day each week without lessons where most boarders and leasers show up to ride.
In the years we’ve been riding outside of lessons, we havent had any problems even with beginner beginners. We have been asked a few times not to come in (or realized we shouldnt go in) when some one was working on something difficult or a horse was acting up but t hat has not been common. Mostly if a small indoor it just gets crowded. Our lessons rarely have more than 2-3 riders.
I am the head instructor at my barn. Here are our rules:
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Boarders can ride during lessons, they pay to use the facility just like we do.
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Instructors reserve the right to reserve the round pen or half of the arena (60x120) for beginner/private lessons.
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Instructors reserve the right to ask you to give notification of when you would like to canter. I can’t stop you from riding, but It ticks me off huge when someone canters off with NO WARNING and I have a beginner rider on a lunge line or off line completely. It’s a safety thing, and a common courtesy thing. I will call you out for it, and I will contact the BO if it becomes out of hand.
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Absolutely no jumping in the arena when a lesson is taking place (unless it’s YOUR lesson and no one else is riding).
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Common sense. Its getting hard to come by. Please don’t ride your fresh off the track TB that has zero retraining, in the ring with a beginner. If you cannot control your horse and it becomes an issue during a lesson, I would ask the BO what she would like me to do. If no answer, I might politely ask that the boarder wait to finish their ride until I was done with my student.
The rules I am most familar with at a barn with a large ring and private or semi-private lessons was that the ring was never closed (except during clinics where most of the barn participated) but that lessons had the right of way. This worked well as long as the boarders were basically in control of their horses and considerate, and their was communication between lesson instructor and boarder; for example “Boarder, I’m going to use the top half of the ring for flat work, I’ll let you know when we move on to using the gymnastic.” At some point in a student’s education, they need to have lessons with other horses in the ring so they learn to look ahead and navigate. Looking back, it’s kinda amazing that it worked as well as it did. Size of the ring was a big factor.
I also kept a horse and trained at a very busy riding school; lessons were the bread and butter of that program. You could ride in the ride with the lesson, but only at the same gait and direction, so it was pretty limited. Most often, the boarders just chose to avoid lesson times.
I board at a small facility (~20 horses). All boarders are in regular lessons, and there is a very (very) small lesson program - 1 school horse who works 5 days/week and a few boarder-owned horses who are in max 1 lesson/week outside of their owners.
Our rules for the indoor arena are:
During private lessons, a maximum of 2 other riders can share the arena.
During Semi-private (2 riders) lessons, the arena is closed other riders (there is 1 of these per week).
For beginner riders in the school program, the arena is closed to other riders (have never seen this above 2x/week).
Lesson riders get right of way - but everyone is pretty good about just sharing the space, communicating, and having a laugh if we get mixed up.
The lesson schedule is posted in both barns, and lessons where the arena is closed to other riders is clearly indicated. Any extra lessons are also marked, and if the arena needs to be closed for any of those (rarely), it’s clearly posted.
Anyone is allowed at any time in the outdoor arena, with the understanding to be extra courteous and mindful if there is a lesson going on.
These rules work really well at this barn. Everyone pretty much has their own schedule worked out, and it’s very easy to find times when you’re likely to have the arena to yourself if that’s what you need - OR to have a buddy to ride with. I’ve been at larger barns with more robust lesson programs (and more restrictive hours!) and I found similar rules reeeeally tough to work around.
That sounds like a ton of restrictions! I definitely understand things getting more complicated with COVID, but to have the entire evenings blocked off, plus the afternoons sounds very difficult to manage! I thought my friend’s situation was difficult enough. Fingers crossed it goes “back to normal” sooner than later!
Holy crap. I could never ride at a barn like that. My barn has no such restrictions. COVID was not an issue either.
I’m at a competitive showjumping yard, with a few dressage riders sprinkled in. No beginners. Plenty of young horses and stallions though. Arenas can be shared during lessons, but the lesson very strictly gets right of way.
For $1400 a month, they damn well better allow me a slot to ride in. I’d have moved already. Giving the priority to those that make them the extra dinero makes sense, but not 7 days a week. At the very least they could extend the operating hours to accommodate the “lowly” working adults.
$1400 a month! And you can hardly ride your horse! Insanity!
@PoochPaddock I’m having trouble figuring out when you could possibly ride your horse, with those hours! Or at least anyone with a job and/or a family. The no riding after 1pm on weekends, plus being closed on Monday even to hacking sounds particularly ridiculous. And no riding after 6pm? What if someone gets out of work at 6pm?
When I have been at barns with multiple riding arenas, it was expected that you were not to ride in the ring with the lesson going, if the alternate riding area is available.
My current barn is small-ish (16 horses) and we have one large arena. It is large enough to allow non-lesson riders to utilize a good portion of the ring even if a lesson is going on, as long as they pay attention to the riders’ courses and yield to the lesson riders.
The boarders at the barn I ride at all ride during lessons. The trainer is doing lessons pretty much all day every day and all of the boarders are her students so she doesn’t mind. The people riding in the lesson are of course priority, so its just courtesy to be mindful of what they’re doing and staying out of the way. Boarding includes 2 lessons a week so most of the time if boarders are riding outside of their lesson they still get some feedback. Boarders are paying like triple the price as just the lessons kids so it would be unreasonable to tell them they can’t ride.
A barn I looked at to board have two covered arenas, sounds great right? Well, they also are a busy lesson barn and boarders were not allowed to ride in the same arena when lessons were taking place. With 2 arenas that shouldn’t be too hard to manage, well both arenas were busy with lessons until 8 at night! There was a white board with the schedule and both were non-stop. There was no way I was going to come out at night to ride. One arena was huge and should have been able to accommodate lessons and boarders, but oh no, didn’t matter if it was a private or a group, no riding during lesson times. I passed.
