Newsletter 30 - January 2012

Kelly

Kelly will be on maternity leave from 17^th February.  We are anticipating her return to teaching around end of May but will keep you all informed.  This means that there will be two six week sessions where her lessons will be taught by either Sam, Dawn or our new instructor, Mandy.

We are still looking for an apprentice, so if anyone knows a horse mad young adult who wants a life-long career with horses then point them in our direction.

Half Term

We are running the following activities in the February Half Term:

Wed 15^th Feb  All Day Pony Day from 9.30 to 3.30                £45

                                    Or come for just the morning or afternoon session

                                    Either 9.30 to 12 or 1 to 3.30                                 £30

Thurs 16^th Feb           Book in for led hacks or private lessons

                                    Hacks at 10 or 11.30am                                         £27

Fri 17^th Feb                 Jumping Workshop                                             £30

                                    9.30 to 12. Must be able to trot confidently without a leader.

Next Six Week Session

The next six week session will start immediately following the current one and so will run from 18/19 February to 24/25 March.  I will assume that you are all continuing to ride, unless you tell me otherwise.  I know that some of you already want to go back to riding on a weekly basis or change lesson times (if possible) so the earlier you tell me of any changes, the easier it is for me to fit you all in!  The timetable is still work in progress but I will send out the first draft just after this newsletter.

Please note that normal lessons are therefore being held on both weekends of February half term.  Some of you have already realised this and let me know that you will not be around, but there may be others.....

This brings me to the following subtle change in our pricing.

Discount Scheme

To recap – our current scheme is that if you pay in advance of the six week session then you get a discounted price.  For weekly riders this effectively means that you pay for five and get the sixth lesson free.  For alternate weekly riders, you just get a reduced price.  If you cannot attend all your scheduled lessons then we endeavour to fit in a lesson on an a different day and time within the six weeks.

It is becoming harder for us to be able to fit in lessons at alternate times and we realise that people feel disappointed if they have not been able to have all six lessons, so, although we are not actually changing anything that we already do, the terms of the discount is being changed to the following:

The sixth ‘free’ lesson is only guaranteed if all six lessons are taken on the same week day and time throughout the six weeks.

To clarify further, we will still try and reschedule a lesson for you, and you can all help by letting us know if you cannot come on a specific day or time as it gives us the flexibility to swap people around – but it is not guaranteed.

The above applies mostly to weekly riders.  If you ride on alternate weeks and cannot make one out of the three then you may just pay for two at full rate, or again we will try and swap the time for the third lesson.  However, if someone regularly only rides two out of the three lessons then we may well offer their space to someone who can come more often – and they would become a ‘floating rider’.

Remember that weekly riders who miss more than one lesson out of the six do still get a credit (if they have given the requisite 24 hours notice) but the lessons taken are charged at full price.

Just for your information, I have been doing a trawl of the prices for other local riding schools and no-one else has such a generous discount scheme.  In fact, most of them do not offer any discounts at all.  Our normal lesson prices are similar to the other local riding schools especially as we have a maximum of four riders on any lesson.  We offer a discount scheme as it cuts down on admin time in taking payments and helps us plan.  (Although on the down side it increases admin time in trying to sort out alternate lessons.)  We are prepared to do this as we do want you to ride as often as possible.

Please note we are very strict on our 24 hour cancellation rule.  i.e. If you have not given a full 24 hours notice then full fee is still payable and we will not find an alternative lesson time for you.

Stable Management Club

This takes place on Saturday afternoons from 2pm to 4pm and all are welcome with no need to book in advance.  We cover all aspects of looking after a pony from grooming and tacking up to mucking out and field management.  The cost is £6 per session (although this is reduced to £5 if your child has a riding lesson on Saturday afternoons.)

Schedule for 2012

This was in our last newsletter but I thought it was worth repeating our schedule for the first half of 2012:

So the dates are:

7/8 January to 11/12 February

18/19 February to 24/25 March

14/15 April to 19/20 May

9/10 June to 14/15 July

As always do talk to us if you have any suggestions for future events or just want some feedback on your child’s progress.

Best wishes,

Katy, Owen and Kelly.