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A fundraising page has been set up in an attempt to help desperate riding schools survive the next month.
The Association of British Riding Schools (ABRS) wants to raise as much as possible, to get yards through to 29 March, when they can give lessons again.
H&H has reported on the struggles faced by riding schools in this third national lockdown, with all the normal winter costs of keeping horses, no income and very little financial support.
ABRS trustee George Baber told
H&H it is clear there are a number of riding schools “on the brink of closure”, and that between 10 and 20% of its school members have closed in the past year.
“Covid finished me off,” said owner Elaine Fisher.
Lovely View had already been battling rising insurance costs and licensing fees. When lockdown rules banned the school from booking any riding lessons, the business became unsustainable.
Elaine rescued her livelihood by switching to livery, selling the riding school ponies to former students, who now pay her to care for them.
“If I was a riding school now, I wouldn’t be in business,” she said.
Tina Layton owns the Contessa Riding Centre in East Herts.
On Thursday, February 11, she opened her mail and found a certificate confirming her appointment as a fellow of the ABRS.