An hour with the lesson list every morning
Before the first lesson, your head instructor sits with the day's list and a pencil. Each rider needs a horse. This child has only ridden the smaller ponies. That adult is nervous and does best on the old cob. Two riders in the eleven o'clock group do not get on with the chestnut. One of the horses is off after the farrier. The popular pony is already doing three lessons.
It takes the best part of an hour, and it only works because she knows every rider and every horse. On her day off, the allocations are less good and someone has a bad lesson.
Why allocation stays in one person's head
Allocating horses is a matching problem with a lot of soft information. The rules are rarely written down, because the people who know them do not need to write them.
- Rider ability, confidence, height and weight all matter, as judged by your instructors.
- Some horses suit particular riders, and some pairings are known not to work.
- Horses have workload limits and rest days.
- Lessons have their own needs: jumping, lead rein, hacks.
- Horses become unavailable at short notice.
When the knowledge is in one head, it is not available when that person is away, and it cannot easily be passed on to new staff.
Poor matches cost more than time
A rider on an unsuitable horse has a worse lesson, and in the worst case loses confidence or leaves. A horse that is overused or used for the wrong kind of work suffers. And instructors spend time each morning on a job that could be half done for them.
Relying on one person is also a risk for the business. When the head instructor leaves, the school loses not only a teacher but its memory of which riders suit which horses.
Allocation proposed from your own notes
We build an allocation tool that captures what your instructors know and uses it to propose a plan.
- Each horse has a profile: size, the levels and lesson types your staff consider it suitable for, workload limits, and notes.
- Each rider has a profile: level as assessed by your instructors, any restrictions you record, horses they have ridden, and preferences or pairings to avoid.
- For each lesson, the tool proposes a horse for every rider from those suitable and available, keeping within workload limits and spreading work across the string.
- It explains each proposal briefly, so staff can see why a horse was chosen.
- Your instructor reviews and changes any allocation. Changes can be saved as new notes, so the tool learns the school's preferences over time.
- The final plan goes to a screen in the tack room and to instructors' phones, with tack notes if you keep them.
| Information | Kept today | Kept in the tool |
|---|---|---|
| Rider ability | Instructor's memory | Recorded level, updated after lessons |
| Horse suitability | Known to senior staff | Horse profile with notes |
| Pairings to avoid | Remembered, sometimes | Recorded against rider or horse |
| Horse availability | Word of mouth | Updated by staff |
| Daily plan | Pencil on the lesson list | Proposed, reviewed, published |
No suggestion goes ahead without a person checking it. Rider and horse safety decisions are for your instructors, under your school's own procedures.
Mornings that start with a draft
The head instructor opens the day's plan and finds a draft already there. She changes two allocations because she knows a rider has been working on something with a particular horse, and approves the rest. It takes minutes. On her day off, her colleague sees the same draft built from her notes.
New instructors learn the string faster, because the notes and history are there to read. Riders get more consistent lessons, and horses get more evenly worked.
Does allocation depend on one person?
- Horse allocation takes a long time every morning.
- It is done well only when a particular instructor is in.
- Rider and horse notes are not written down.
- Popular horses are allocated too often.
- New staff take a long time to learn who suits which horse.