Lesson with unqualified instructor.

[SarahM]

I’ve just taken my daughter to her lesson and the usual qualified instructor wasn’t there. We saw that it was someone who left my daughter (9) in tears at a pony day and we said then, that she wouldn’t ride with her again, (we hadn’t known shd be doing the pony day and lessons within it). My daughter was clearly upset at the thought it would be this person.
I asked the stable ‘messenger’ service if the person was qualified and they said not, and that they only needed someone on the license. I don’t believe that person was on site either. We walked away.
1) is this legal? 2) they want to charge us for the lesson- I was expecting a lesson with a qualified teacher- I don’t feel we owe anything as they weren’t offering this 3) yes we’re looking for somewhere else.
I’d appreciate your thoughts. Thanks.

 

[Jane&Ziggy]

I don't think there's any requirement in law for a riding instructor to be qualified. If you booked a lesson with a qualified person, though, and what you got was an unqualified person, you could argue that your contract had been breached. You were quite right to walk away.

 

[carthorse]

Like @Jane&Ziggy I don't believe there is a legal requirement for the instructor to be qualified, it's the premises that's licensed.

You may have been expecting a lesson with a qualified instructor, but had you specified this or a particular instructor when booking? If not then they haven't breached any contract with you, though it would have been polite for them to inform you in advance of a change of instructor. If you haven't already paid and don't intend to ride there again then I would explain to them that you'd never have booked with this RI due to past experience, I can't see them easily getting money from you, However if you've paid in advance I think you'd struggle to claim for any breach and get a refund.

Good luck with finding somewhere else.

 

[Doodle92]

As the others said it is not illegal. If they have stated somewhere that it will be x instructor and you got y then you may be able to get money back.

But I would presume as you came for a lesson and they provided an instructor to give the lesson then it is up to you if you let your daughter ride or not. The instructor you preferred may have been ill or some other reason why they were not teaching that lesson.

 

[Skib]

My experience of RS lessons is that one is very unlikely to have a qualified instructor. Even when OH and I went to a specialist dressage yard and paid over the odds, we were taught by a young Canadian trainee.
The best thing is though that some of the most brilliant teachers I have had, have been unqualified by any exams. My grand daughter too was for years taught beautifully by a woman on our yard who owned a very nice pony but had no teaching qualification.

Riding schools ought to be far more strictly regulated. Beware of additional risk with inexperienced teachers. However, I did once have a refund from a small RS when my teacher left and her replacement was an arrogant bloke who refused to teach me.

 

[Doodle92]

.

 

[Jessey]

Nothing to add really, if you don’t like her your only choice is to move on or book specifically with the teacher you do like in future and accept this may happen occasionally if she is off sick or injured.

 

[SarahM]

Thank you all for your replies. In nearly a year we’ve always had a qualified teacher, so maybe I made an assumption that it would always be the case. I appreciate that a piece of paper doesn’t make a good teacher, but swearing and shouting at children and telling them off for doing what you asked them to do, threatening to stop them riding and telling them you don’t want to be there really isn’t on. My daughter was upset at the thought of it and equally she was concerned for how she felt she treated the horses too.

 

[SarahM]

Nothing to add really, if you don’t like her your only choice is to move on or book specifically with the teacher you do like in future and accept this may happen occasionally if she is off sick or injured.

Yes, I certainly accept that things happen, people are unwell or have holidays. It was definitely a case of she’d not turned up so they needed someone to fill in, in which case accepting that should be a choice. Other parents were also unhappy at the fact and that they weren’t going to be starting until late, but expecting full payment. Definitely looking to move on, just looking in to options that have space. Thanks for taking the time to reply.

 

[Doodle92]

I’m not saying you should have accept that behaviour(you really shouldn’t) and if you are not happy with that person then you need to say, so that the manager can be aware of issues, and not accept lessons from this person. If it was a one off perhaps the school would presume you would rather have a lesson with someone rather than cancel the lesson totally.

Whether someone has a piece of paper or not does not make them a good instructor or a bad one either way. In fact the “worst” I have come across had the most qualifications.

As for if you should pay or not I think it goes either way. The school tried to provide you with the service and you declined that (understandably).

What I will say, having worked on a yard where this sort of situation came up. The manager couldn’t actually DO anything about said instructor until there was an actual written complaint. A few people then did and so action was taken. So perhaps worth putting it writing what happened, how you expect the situation to be resolved and formally say you will not be expecting lessons from this person again.

 

[SarahM]

I’m not saying you should have accept that behaviour(you really shouldn’t) and if you are not happy with that person then you need to say, so that the manager can be aware of issues, and not accept lessons from this person. If it was a one off perhaps the school would presume you would rather have a lesson with someone rather than cancel the lesson totally.

Whether someone has a piece of paper or not does not make them a good instructor or a bad one either way. In fact the “worst” I have come across had the most qualifications.

As for if you should pay or not I think it goes either way. The school tried to provide you with the service and you declined that (understandably).

What I will say, having worked on a yard where this sort of situation came up. The manager couldn’t actually DO anything about said instructor until there was an actual written complaint. A few people then did and so action was taken. So perhaps worth putting it writing what happened, how you expect the situation to be resolved and formally say you will not be expecting lessons from this person again.

Thank you. I have raised how she left her feeling, but not in writing.