Kingsweston Stables Bristol

Just called this Riding school and was told that as a working adult they are no use to me what-so-ever, they dont cater for working adults as they would lose a lot of business that way. Shame really as working adults are the ones who earn money to pay for this kind of sport. I have a vast amound of experience having taught riding for 6 years, I am BHS stage 4 and AI qualified. I spent many years working and managing riding schools - this is not the way to speak to potential clients. Especially if you dont know the person or know what their contact list is like!!

My daughter has been riding at the stable for about a year. She loves it. Great teaching staff, supportive and positive. They have always been helpful and encouraging and patient. Plenty of helpers too.

The horses are well care for and look in great shape.

The premises are fine, with a good riding area and also opportunities to go into the surrounding countryside.

Learning to ride has given my daughter a love of animals and the countryside and made her feel more confident. This is a great place for a beginner learning to ride and as a parent i feel very confident that this is a safe and positive environment for my child to be in.

Parents, do not take your child to these stables. Here is the message I sent to the boss of the premises at the end of September 2014. Our daughters were 6 and 7, both extremely calm and well-behaved.

Good morning R.!

Just a quick email to let you know that we wish you listened to your employees a bit more sometimes as it would maybe help them be a little friendlier to your customers.

J. despised us for showing up at 2 (time when you booked us in without her approval) and took it out on us. She said (when we asked why we were given an appointment at 2 if the slot is a pain in the neck for the staff), let me quote her " R. doesn't work here, he'll do anything to keep the money coming. He doesn't know what it's like, HE doesn't do the job".

I feel sorry for J., from the bottom of my heart. You can tell that she is a bitter and wicked old lady because she has had a hard and miserable life. She hates that you are her boss and that you get to be thanks to HER hard work. She's disrespectful to people because she must have been through some hard times in her life. So I will not blame the poor woman who actually deserves to be surrounded by kind people and feel that it is okay to be kind to others. Or maybe she's just condescending to people who can afford horse riding lessons because she wishes she had that kind of money since, as she said, SHE works very hard.

I won't waste my time telling you about the rude girls who handle the children and seriously shouldn't or their lack of professionalism (but as you don't pay them, I understand now why nobody cares about actually "teaching" something to the kids who come for alleged lessons), how they make fools of themselves in front of customers like 12 year-olds would (shouting in public and making fools of themselves), how they text while leading a child on a so-called lesson, how they don't know much about horses or keeping track of the kids' progress, how they think it's normal not to introduce themselves to the child they will be "teaching" to and will not even ask the child's name or so much as look at them… The details will be available on every website that allows reviews about your stables.

A. was very surprised that her rudeness and unfriendliness to us could cause her to be treated likewise. Unfortunately, you would think that J. would set a good example for those girls but she just comforts them with the idea that it is a good thing to indulge the mean side of their personalities.

If I didn't have polite, good and well-behaved children who are eager to please and always concentrate on an adult's instructions, I probably wouldn't mind so much.

As J. said, your business is doing perfectly well without our money, she added we were more than welcome to go find ourselves other stables (obviously it needn't be said) since a lot of people are actually coming to you. When I read the reviews on the internet, I wonder how you can still have so many customers to be honest. After they have read our review, I am confident, a few parents will choose not to try your services.

Last thing, J. also said that you had her read my email with my 5 questions and how you both looked down on them and sneered at them: my review will be mentioning those questions to you and your reaction to them. We will just have to let the parents decide whether they are legitimate questions or not when it comes to "teaching" a child to ride a horse for 16 pounds half an hour.

Our questions were:

1- How old must the children be before they can start the lessons?

2- How many kids are there in each group?

3- When (which day and what time) will the lessons take place and who will be giving the lessons?

4- We have seen that the lessons can last 30 minutes or an hour : can you tell me how different their content is?

5- As for the payment, do parents have to pay for 1 lesson a week until half term or do they have to pay for a handful of lessons upfront? Can they choose to stop? How does it work, please?

We hope we're not bothering you too much with our questions… Thank you for your time

I think this place is a really good riding stables with lovely people and horses. But me and my friend both ride there and she is in a higher lesson with good tuition and good fun but even though i am in the lower lesson we both agree we are at the same standard so sometimes they should recognise the potential in a rider and not keep doing things that aren't challenging at all now. overall i think it is a really good riding stables for confident and not but if you dont enquire about your lesson they may not take action.

This yard is fine if you are a total novice with no ambition to improve. The instructor when I rode there (Hilary..an out of touch, very poor instructor who the BHS should be ashamed of themselves for ever allowing to become an AI!)was patronising and unbelievably rude!! The horses were all extremely overweight and unfit!! Some of the staff were very friendly and helpful, but some were completely clueless and didn't seem to know the front end of the horse from the back!!

Overall a total waste of money if you want to do anything other than just plod around on overweight, unschooled, dull horses!!

These stables are a lovely place to learn to ride as a begginer. Before you go in lessons they take you out on walk outs with about 5 others. It was great fun and it helped you to learn to trot an steer confidently before you move up to the lessons. However with my freind she was on the Saturday walk outs and I find that the helpers on Saturday are not as help full freindly an don't teach you as much as the ones on Sunday which is when I went. If you do go then go on sundays as you learn nothimg on saturday walk outs. After the walkouts they move you up into lessons. They are very good and instead of rushing through to start jumping they teach you your balance e=with no hands or stirrups. around the world and of course lots of changes of reins trotting and the occaisoinal canter. However as you improve the Teaching is not very good. There is a lack of space in lessons. I could not be moved up because of this. I went on to private lesson taught by ann ( the other was Hannah with brown hair) and they were the same as the group lessons but the teacher was not as good and I stopped learning. The ponies that I could ride size wise there were 5 Barney Blue Missy Megan and Bridie but 3 of those are retired and now there are only 2 Barney and Blue and the only one that was a good pony that I could ride properly Was called Barney. It used to be great but as I got better it got worse so woth regret I have now left. i would only reccomend to an inexperienced friend.

Good

they are freindly kind hard working people and they will take alot of time with you. the horses are well looked after and get mon and tue off.

Both hannahs who hanve taught me were lovely and have made riding much more enjoyable than when Hilary taught me-Hilary has now left-this is good. Ann is also fab!

Bad

it seems to take so long to learn every thing it is like they teach you in slow motoin

But all in all i think this is agreat place to ride at the being but you may wish to try else were when you become advaced

Go on--try it...........

It's goood for beginning but if serious will need to go somewhere else as they don't have good enough horses but then I do love some of them. I love all the staff but one

I have had 3 instructors over the years.

Hilary- Terrible. Lost my confident and felt as though I couldn't do anything right. Didn't relise how below standard she was until I moved to weekends with Hannah.

Hannah Lancastle (blonde left now)- brilliant got my confidence back and learnt so much. Much better at explaining how to get the best out of the horses.

Hannah (brown hair/weekend instructor)- lovely. Brilliant instructor. Learnt so much and so encouraging.

I would advise going but only if willing to work. I you want puch button horses not the place but if you can get Hannah then the money is worth going. Hilary stay well clear of. Learnt more in one lesson with Hannah than years with Hilary.

Georgia and Jake were by far my favourite and also Bridie (haha, most hate her). REcommend for ammiteurs/beginners but as I've got more professional not the place although both Hannah's as instructors are/were professional and top class.

Definately not for the experienced rider. I went to this school for 5-6 lessons to get a feel for it. I now regret the waste of time and money. The staff were less than helpful and ignorant at times.

I had private lessons with what seemed to be the only instructor on the yard. She was rude, patronising and condesending to say the least. She was well below the standard of all the BHS instructors I have previously been tought by.

I started riding at Kingsweston Stables when I was 4 and a half/Five years old, and I love it. I'm currently 15 and I take hour lessons every Friday. I will always remember the walkouts with Puffin and Skipper, and I will always remember the first time I ever jumped on Bridie.

The staff are always friendly and the horses are just lovely. The yard is always kept clean and the horses are taken care of very well.

I love this stables, the lessons and teaching are amazing, and I've learnt so much from Hillary, my riding instructor. I would recommend it to anyone in the Bristol area, thinking of taking lessons. It's really a great stables.