WOULD YOU LIKE TO BUY A SHARE IN A SCHOOL HORSE AND BECOME A PART OWNER AT REASONABLE COST? YOU ARE INVITED TO JOIN THE CLUB LIVERY SCHEME!

You may like the idea of horse-ownership but feel that it is too costly for you, too time consuming and you may be far too busy to deal with a horse every day.

It might suit you though to have a share in a horse, get to know this horse more, improve your riding and have the feeling of being a horse-owner, at least in part, with only a half or quarter share in all the work and expense. Not only can you do this, but you can do it here at New Forest Riding, giving you the opportunity to ride out in some of the best open and wild heath land of southern England. Several people have done this at New Forest Riding and enjoy a special status as part-owners. Thus, a share scheme is available to you if you cannot afford to buy outright, and want to ride more often than once a week. This could be cheaper to you than the various alternatives. The horse or pony will stay on here at livery and you will have the security of knowing that it will always be available for you to ride each week. A sensible option in your first year as a club owner is to buy a quarter or half share in a “club” horse or pony. This is a “floating” share while you get to try out all the others. About 45 options are available! You then have 6-12 months to try out other “club” horses and ponies in the scheme before settling for your favourite one. This option to try a selection is important because most people starting out as owners lack the knowledge and experience to make the most suitable choice and need time and training to understand why the one they like in the arena is for example not going to be the same when they ride it out in the open countryside of the New Forest. You might not stop!

The shared horses and ponies will be known as Club Liveries. Club liveries owners and sharers will have the opportunity to improve their standard of riding and stable management and join in the club events like courses on British Horse Society exam training, and in the summer months barbecues, picnic rides, pub rides, gymkhanas, shows, hunter trials and dressage competitions, as a spectator and later as a participant as and when their riding progresses to the required level. One of the advantages of a BHS qualification is that if you ride elsewhere while on holiday they will understand your level. Later on pony and trap driving days will permit enjoyment and involvement by non-riding family members. This is an opportunity to get much more riding at the very cheapest rate we can offer, and to secure your favourite ride for the future. This is a chance for you to become more involved, get to know more about care and management and to learn about the “traditional” training methods which are being challenged by so called “new” or “modern” natural horsemanship methods. These new systems have in fact been used for hundreds and thousands of years and are simply becoming more available to us as the world wide web of the internet brings people and countries closer together. Also the club system can be a chance for working mothers to secure daily supervision and riding for pony mad children during the school holidays. After a year, or sooner for experienced riders, you may ride out without an escort (minimum 15 -16years for teenagers and depending on ability). You have the annual option to review your share, as you progress or as a child grows up, or exchange it for a share in one of the younger horses or ponies we have in the breeding herd.

Here is an example. I breed and train horses and sell them from time to time. Christine heard that I was selling some horses five years ago. She saw the opportunity to buy a half share in Steptoe, the horse she loves, to give her more riding and to secure her riding on this horse for the future. She recently told me it was one of the best things she ever did. She rides up to 6 hours a week and pays about half of what this would cost as a regular client.

As I breed five or six horses and ponies every year, I have to sell horses, because otherwise there would be no space at the stables and funds are needed for improvements, maintenance and staff. Also the older horses will retire at about 20-25 for horses and 20-30 for ponies and their working hours reduce once they are over 18. A lot of capital is tied up in young horses in the breeding herd and I need to take on some new staff for the coming season, and to spend several thousand pounds on repairs and improvements to facilities here.

Toilets and changing rooms are the priority and a new stable block in the main yard, a club room and barbecue area and more pony and trap and carriage driving facilities are on the agenda once essential fencing and building repairs are completed.

I am starting to sell shares now and will continue during the coming months. My other reason for selling some of the horses is to restrict the use and improve the training of some key horses. Camilla, Zarina, Tarquin, Horace, Tilly, Folly and Boldi, Rushington, Herbie III , Red, Fawn, Bronte and young ponies like Sprite and her two sons Fudge and Smurf, Goldy, Puzzle and Mouse and her look-alike, but bigger, sons Magic and Duncan could be taken out of general school use and retrained and kept more exclusively on restricted livery as Club Horses, rather than being ridden by all and sundry much as they are at present.

It is fun to be able to ride, drive, jump and do cross country as well as swim in the lake in summer on the same horse. Restricting the use of Club Horses would involve less beginners and novices riding them and their diet and fitness level could then be changed to more of a competition level according to the experience of the riders. In a nutshell they would be better trained and cared for more exclusively and kept more like privately owned horses and ponies. In this way they can be trained on to improve their level and Club owners would become much more experienced and involved.

Part of club activities would be attending talks and demonstrations joining lessons on training methods of the two most popular modern masters Monty Roberts, and Pat Parelli and going on visits to lectures and demonstrations of their methods and perhaps if you are as impressed as I am with these promotional videos and DVDs, becoming a member of the Pat Parelli Savvy Club and attending his courses. As share owners you could move on at considerable speed and soon be learning to help with the handling, training and schooling of our breeding herd of 32 youngsters. You would always have the option of upgrading your share on an annual basis. The regular once a week riders are the bread and butter of the riding school but lack the experience and horse knowledge to be safe handling the young stock, training foals and yearlings and starting the riding training of the two and three year olds. We would like to involve our more experienced regular riders and to give them the chance to get more riding at much cheaper rates so that they can very quickly upgrade their own level by getting in more hours, more training and experiencing many other aspects of the sport which are generally only available to private owners.

Please contact me straight away if you are interested. By purchasing a share you can secure use of a favourite horse. I can assure my regular clients, though, that even if you are not able to join the scheme that here at New Forest Riding will always provide the excellent riding which you have enjoyed. You may, perhaps, be on different horses, but they will be good and it will be fun! The improvements planned for the future, and assisted by the funding by the new scheme will make things even better. Remember even if you do not live locally you could still join the Club livery scheme, secure the use of your favourite horse or pony and make special arrangements for your riding hours. To own a share and live in London and only come one day on a weekend is not a big problem and can be easily arranged. You are always welcome, whether you are occasional visitors, new beginners, Weekend Regulars or Club Livery Riders! Come along and bring your friends!

FURTHER DETAILS OF THE CLUB LIVERY SCHEME The minimum share livery is £30 a week. This is payable in advance on a monthly basis in the last week of the previous month. With shoeing fees included but paid to Jeff the farrier the monthly total for adults is £150 per month. This will give you three hours riding weekly and the option of joining any of the club activities (paying small entrance fee on the day) which will be held 4-6 times a year mainly throughout the spring and summer and dismounted theory or schooling sessions with the youngsters. The minimum payment for a quarter share in a horse is £1000. For a Shetland pony £300 and for a larger pony £500-750. Generally I retain a share but not always. Most of the horses and ponies available are home bred from popular and long serving mares. Usually we use our own stallions and because of this we know everything about our horses ands ponies and consider them to be very special. Our safety record is excellent with very few falls or accidents. However, as a share owner you will be expected to participate in the work of looking after your horse on the days that you attend the centre. Grooming, feeding, getting the horses in from the field and rugging them up, mucking them out and sweeping and tidying up behind them, filling up their hay nets or putting their hay out in the fields in winter, holding them for the farrier and cleaning their tack are all duties you are asked to undertake ON THE DAYS THAT YOU ATTEND THE CENTRE You have the option of a)doing these jobs yourself, or b)making arrangements with one of the other share owners of suitable experience if you are away on holiday or have an urgent appointment or c) paying £10 extra on each day you attend for someone else to do this work for you. If you understand this obligation and stick to it as required you can give notice and “bank” certain hours you miss if you are off sick, or away on holiday or have family commitments on certain days. This will be explained more clearly in your personal contract and will vary somewhat according to the age of owners under 18 years and the experience of the adults. It must be clearly understood that the club scheme is not only to give you reduced rates for your riding but to share in the joys and also the work of being a club owner. There are one or two seasonal tasks which require owners time, like haymaking, checking the fences, pulling out poisonous weeds in the spring and summer and filling in your chart to keep a record of the hours and lessons you have had. Again there are options a) b) and c) listed above to allow some flexibility on this. We hope you will learn from the tasks and enjoy this side of the relationship as much as you enjoy your riding. If at any time your horse is sick or lame the Club will fund vets fees up to £100 unless someone is obviously responsible by getting them kicked through riding too close or working the horse too much on hard ground or failing to do up the girth correctly, which can result in friction sores if it is not tight enough or pressure galls if over-tight, or whatever and after that the fees will be shared between owners. While a horse is off work you have the option of the use of another at no extra charge provided you are able to put in some extra hours helping out around the yard in exchange and keep up your responsibilities to the resting horse as well as the replacement one you are riding.

We find it is best for all club owners to take out personal accident insurance. We have 3rd party cover and public liability cover for all the riding school clients, but as you progress with your riding and stable management you will carry out the tasks of preparing your horse for a ride and putting it away after the ride with less and less supervision, until eventually you may come and go as a normal owner and ride out alone or with other club livery friends. Without a ride escort and supervision for the stable management tasks the chance of mishaps increases as too does the enjoyment you get from riding out independently of the riding school clients. Our insurance is mainly for regular riding school clients who are supervised and escorted, so the club livery owners have to take out private policies for themselves. For example if you chip a tooth and need dental treatment, or get kicked, or have to cancel a holiday you have pre-booked abroad because you had a tumble in the forest or whatever you are best advised to have your own accident insurance to cover this. The alternative might be to lose the cost of a much needed holiday abroad, or treatment by an osteopath for example might be required.

STEPHANIE BERRIDGE,

Christmas 2003

Please do contact me if you would like to discuss the scheme further and I will prepare a contract for you this week. Individual contracts naturally vary according to experience and circumstances. You certainly need a year to learn the routes and must always carry your mobile phone switched ON whenever riding or anywhere in fields, stables or lecture or teaching areas on club property.

The biggest cost to me with liveries and part working liveries is the time I need to spend supervising the owners and sharers at "pink level" through "Red level" to "Dark Red" level. In order to understand our levels and grading system please visit the website www.newforestriding.com. Once riders are "Dark Red" level they do not require supervision and can do their own thing. Riders at Red level need minimal supervision but Pink level riders who in fact are those most likely to want start to be involved as club owners do require the maximum amount of time spent in supervising them, teaching them horse care and management, teaching them different routes they can take when riding out in the forest and getting them up to Red level during their first year as club owners. With children and teenagers, under 14yr olds may not generally ride out unescorted and whenever they are at the stables either myself or staff must be on hand all the time they are there for Health & Safety reasons, to supervise them. Riding is a high risk sport and in order to keep up our good safety record we insist that teenage owners and part owners accept that the rules regarding supervision have to be strict for their own safety and that of the horse.

Junior part owners who are at school may come up for two full days during the holidays and on both Saturday and Sunday if they are half owners and one full day and one weekend day if they own a quarter share. Teenagers studying for BHS exams get extra time if they are serious and well behaved students! In winter when the clocks have gone back children who are part owners only come to the stables on weekends and as above in half term and general school holidays. In term time we can do two evenings a week as well as weekends, during the summer and Autumn from Easter until the clocks go back. Arrangements with adult sharers are very flexible as some who have families only want to ride mid week, some like evenings and some do a mixture. Christine with Steptoe rides two hours on either Saturday or Sunday afternoon and two hours midweek on two days. Club owners may decide to spend all day at the stables and join in training sessions with schooling young horses or help with stable duties once they have passed their complete BHS stage 1 exam and riding and road safety and those who wish to train for BHS stage 11 exams will get extra free riding lessons if they help with ride escort or lessons or supervision of juniors. The arrangements can be very flexible and varied to suit individual circumstances. All club livery and share owners must pay for all tuition until they have passed BHS stage1 complete, Riding and Road Safety and Stage 11 care. After this special arrangements apply and contracts will be reviewed.

If you are interested please see me over the coming week or certainly before the end of the month to avoid learning that your chosen horse has already gone! Special arrangements can be sorted out for people who often work away from home.

Please contact me as soon as possible if you are interested.

Phone 07815 145818 mobile. Email: newforest riding@hotmail.com

(version: 28-12-03)