Hi everyone and welcome to the October newsletter! October is always a busy month for us as the indoor livery horses come in for Winter (lots of poo to muck out!) and we have stable management e.t.c. on in holidays. We also started our new work with SRUC and so far it’s going great with really engaged students benefitting from tutoring from Sally and Martin in all practical aspects of horse care.
WELL DONE STAFF!
Our pic this month is Liam on the day he got his Stage 3 ride results and is relevant because Liam’s was the last set of staff results we were waiting for in 2021. Our staff have done amazingly well this year! In 2021, they have passed the following:
Ellis – Stage 2 ride (flat)
Rhona – Stage 3 care and lunge
Liam – Stage 3 care, lunge, ride and coach.
Freya – Stage 2 ride and Stage 2 care.
Laura – Stage 4 management and care.
This means that Liam is now a Stage 3 complete coach – as you’ll have noticed Liam has been doing quite a bit of private lesson coaching and small beginner groups for the last 8 months, which is part of his development from Stage 2 to Stage 3 coach – a Stage 2 coach is responsible for coaching under supervision of a more Senior coach, whereas now Liam has had enough training and demonstrated his skills in his assessment, he can now coach without such direct supervision. However, we keep investing in our staff, so Liam and Rhona recently had a Stage 4 care “overview” for their next goal and our staff have all set assessment goals for 2022 in their recent appraisals.
ARCs policy is only ever to have qualified coaches coaching on site. Contrary to common belief, riding centres don’t need to use qualified coaches – as long as they have one qualified coach on site, trainee and unqualified coaches can deliver lessons, however ARC has committed over the last seven years to only use qualified coaches, meaning we both invest in our staff and are always furthering their qualifications, but also that you are guaranteed your lesson coach is qualified and has had lots of training.
LICENCE INSPECTION
We had our annual riding school licence inspection at the end of September – during the inspection a vet and local authority officer visit the stables to look at the facility, health and safety and most importantly horse welfare. We got a glowing report from both, with the horses declared to be in tip top condition with excellent management and welfare, so great to see our investment and hard work is being reflected in these inspections.
PRICE INCREASE
We are going to be increasing the price of lessons (effective from 1st November). Now we know – nobody likes a price increase, but it is four years since we have implemented a price increase at ARC for lessons and we now need to increase prices in order to cover the increased costs of supplies that we are experiencing and to ensure we remain in good financial health ahead of a winter where none of us know what will be happening with Covid. The increase will be £2 on a group lesson and £3 on a private lesson, effective from 1st November. As we normally do when we implement a price increase, we are going to extend the expiry on any ten or twenty lesson block booking cards purchased to six months, meaning that riders can buy a few more in advance at the discounted rate if they want to.
As you all know, at ARC we prioritise our horses’ welfare and staff team and this price increase will go to ensuring that we can continue to keep providing you with the best quality coaches whilst making sure you are riding horses who have the best of care, in tack that is relatively new, comfortable and a good fit for the horse. If you have any questions about the price increase, please don’t hesitate to forward any questions to Sally or Ali in person, or via email: sally@aberdeenridingclub.com or lessons@aberdeenridingclub.com