AMERICAN CANYON TRAINING CENTER RULES OF CONDUCT

 

CARDINAL RULES

 

BE CAREFUL, COURTEOUS AND CONSIDERATE

 

ENCOURAGE RESPECT AND TRUST AMONG HORSES, HUMANS AND OTHER ANIMALS

 

REMEMBER THAT RANCH LIFE AND HORSES ARE DANGEROUS!

 

SPECIFIC RULES

 

1.  RELEASE FORMS must be signed for all guests, riders, trainers, grooms and horse handlers, with the exception of vets, farriers and other professionals coming to provide professional equine services and of commercial horse haulers.  If you bring a guest or let someone ride or handle your horse, you must have them (or their parents, in the case of minor guest) sign a release form.  We need a Release Form for anyone on the property since it can be dangerous just to be near a horse.

2.  All horses, children under 16 and pets shall be under the constant supervision and effective control of a responsible adult, unless safely and securely restrained or confined.  Do not allow them to approach or molest others without an invitation.  For obvious reasons this rule does not apply to the barn cats and we cut the barn dogs a lot of slack.  If any dog is a nuisance, shut it in a stall and let us know.  If you leave your vehicle windows open, you may find a cat in your car or truck.  You are liable for any damage your pet or child causes or suffers.  Dogs are not allowed in the arenas or a stall when a horse is present.

3.  NO SMOKING in the boarding barn, the stalls, the indoor arena, or any other area with hay, shavings, wood or other flammable materials.  If you must smoke, do so with extreme caution:  make sure your matches, ashes and butts are extinguished and then put into a trash container.  Putting them on the ground or allowing them to blow on a breeze can cause burns and fires.

4.  CLEAN UP after yourself, your horse and your guests.  There are tools and receptacles for manure in the arenas and the breezeway of each barn.  There are trashcans in many places.  Do not litter – besides being unsightly and smelly, litter can spook or poison a horse.  Please instruct your farrier to put any debris that might have nails, metal fragments, etc. into the GARBAGE or RECYCLE, not the MANURE can.

5.  If a horse runs free, send someone to block the driveway until the horse is held or enclosed.

6.  We encourage safe clothing and equipment.  HELMETS are strongly recommended and are required for all riders under the age of 18 – i.e. JUNIORS MUST WEAR A HELMET WHEN RIDING.   ALL RIDERS MUST WEAR A HELMET FOR JUMPING.  Sturdy, closed shoes are also recommended – go barefoot or in sandals at your own risk.

7.  Watch where you and your horse are stepping and be alert to what is happening around you.  This place is still under construction:  noise, materials, debris and changes in conditions are common. We are still cleaning up debris from past activities here.  Our neighbors also engage in various activities that make noise and create debris.  There is wildlife and visits from neighboring livestock.  Life is not safe or predictable.  Please tell us about any unsafe conditions and please pick up and put in a trashcan any litter, debris, etc. that you find laying on the ground.

8.       GROOMING BARN and WASH BAYS – Please please please clean up after yourselves.  To avoid stressing our waste disposal system, please SWEEP rather than rinse as much as possible.  TURN OFF the faucets when you are finished and the hoses and fixtures will last a lot longer.   Visting farriers have priority over the two bays at the far end. 

9.       ARENA AND ROUNDPEN USE – The arenas are big enough that several horses can work at once.  If someone is waiting to use the roundpen, please limit your session to 45 minutes maximum and 20 minutes if feasible.

NO TURNOUT OR LUNGING IN THE INDOOR OR OUTDOOR ARENA (see limited exceptions for lunging in the indoor in the Indoor Rules); there will be damage to the base.  Turnout and lunging allowed in the sand court and the roundpen.  Turnout in the roundpen or sand court must be supervised – don’t leave your horse alone in there.  

If you are using special equipment, such as cones or ground poles, remove it when you are done. 

In the arenas and on the track, overtake only with warning.  When passing a horse going in the opposite direction, make sure the other rider sees you and that you appear to agree on who is going on which side.  [Left shoulder to left shoulder is a common rule, but if one horse is already on the rail and the other on the inside and that means passing right shoulder to right shoulder, that works fine without weaving to conform to an arbitrary rule.] 

Let’s be courteous, patient and reasonable and maybe we won’t need any more rules about this.

10.     JUMPS AND JUMPING – This arrangement is in flux right now – see Marie or Bill for up to date details.  Jumps belong to Stephanie Bersch, who MAY allow you to use them if you sign the release and satisfy other conditions (e.g., contribute to the paint and maintenance fund, that you will return them to the configuration in which you find them, that we or s/he are not liable to you for anything that happens, and that you fix anything you or your horse does to them).  YOU MUST HAVE HER PERMISSION TO USE HER EQUIPMENT and you will have to sign a special release form.  Please treat the jumps and poles with care and respect.  Do not change their configuration without asking permission and put them back the way you found them. 

HELMETS ARE REQUIRED FOR JUMPING.

A BUDDY IS REQUIRED FOR JUMPING.  Someone must be watching you in case of an accident.  It need not be your guest or trainer, as long as someone is nearby and aware that you are jumping – another boarder may be asked to keep their eyes open, for example, but please do not jump alone.

11.  TURNOUT.  If someone is waiting to use the turnout, please limit your horse’s stay to 45 minutes.  This does not happen often.  Please do not leave the property while your horse is turned out – he may injure himself (losing a shoe, cuts and scrapes, breaking boards or sprinklers and other mishaps are not unknown) or it may be time to take him in while you are gone, which places an unfair burden on other users. 

12.  We beg you to label each piece of your equipment with your name, the horse’s name, or some identifying mark.  There has been confusion over crops, black rubber feed pans, and similar look alike items.  We require that any food or supplements be in a closed, rodent-proof container and be marked with your name.  Plastic or metal garbage cans with lids hold sacks of grain, bran, etc. nicely and can be purchased at nearby stores if necessary.

13.  DRINKING WATER is available from a bottle in the grooming barn breezeway.  The water in the outside taps and the horses’ waterers is untreated agricultural water (from Lake Berryessa and the Sacramento River), which is not rated potable, i.e. is not guaranteed legally safe for humans to drink, although satisfactory for livestock.  Currently there is no hot water in the bathroom.

14.  LIGHTS – if you turn on a light, please turn it off when you are done, unless someone else is still using the area, in which case please ask them to turn it off.  At night, please look around before you leave to check for forgotten lights (tack room, indoor arena, dry feed room, etc.)

15.  HOURS - Except in cases of emergency or by special arrangement (such as when you travel), we ask that you do not come before 6:00 a.m. and that you leave by 10:00 p.m.  Otherwise we do not get enough sleep.

16.  Please do not park your car or take your horse anywhere between the entrance and the grooming barn.  Boarder’s trailers and trucks paying for storage in the trailer yard may park there, but nothing else.  The driveway space is needed for trailers and other equipment and our vehicles. 

Do not ride or handwalk around the house or into the trailer parking lot or on the far side of the track.  If you need to load or unload, drive the trailer in between the barns or alongside the arena.  We do not want to have to clean this area, we do not want the horses thinking of going that way if they ever get loose, and it lessens the chances of an accident with car traffic, etc.  It also gives us a little peace and privacy in the house.  Thank you.

TRAILER INS should park along the berm around the outdoor arena or parallel to the center barn, but may load and unload elsewhere.  The inner turnaround and barn areas are for loading and unloading only. 

Cars should be parked in front of the grooming barn, obliquely along the track, or on the side of the dirt roadway near the stalls.

17.  Please tell us of any dangerous conditions, items needing repair, etc. that you notice.  Hopefully we are already aware of it and have it on the “Fix It” list, but it doesn’t hurt to be sure.

 HAVE A GOOD TIME!

 

INDOOR ARENA GUIDELINES & LUNGING RULES

Announce yourself to those already inside when you enter – for safety’s sake do not assume they see you.  THEN CLOSE THE GATE BEHIND YOU unless all inside agree to leave it open.  No TURNOUT.

Clean up your manure.  If we all do not do so, the footing deteriorates.

A.      Lunging is allowed ONLY when it is pouring down rain – the roundpen and the driveway areas are always available, plus the sandcourt may be useable – and ONLY with tack or sidereins (unless your horse has qualified for an exception as reliably well behaved and highly unlikely to buck, play and dig into the footing).  Lunging does not include lunge line lessons or other mounted activities.

B.      Only one horse may lunge in the indoor at a time.  Use the area near the hay storage end and stay in that half of the arena, varying your circle diameter and center.  Do NOT lunge in the mirror end – the lessons at that end are already compacting the footing as much as it can take.  Leave enough room for anyone going large to safely pass outside your circle.

C.      If another horse is waiting to lunge, limit your lunging to 20 minutes total. 

D.      You may lunge ONLY if there are 4 or fewer riders in the indoor.  If a 5^th rider and horse appear, please withdraw.  We have to set priorities and riding comes first, then lunging (in the roundpen, lunging takes priority over turnout for the same reasons).  You also must withdraw if your horse is not lunging quietly and others are in the arena – a rambunctious horse causes accidents.

We realize this will be inconvenient during prolonged rain, but we have to balance everyone’s interests and safety.

RULES OF THE ROAD IN THE INDOOR ARENA - If the riders want to agree to something else, that is fine.  But start by assuming this is the proper procedure.

Faster horses going large keep to the rail, slower horses move inwards – you are of course free to circle small or large, etc. too, keeping other traffic in mind;

When meeting face to face (i.e. going in opposite directions on the same track), pass left side to left side unless faster/slower rule means right shoulder to right shoulder (i.e. walking horse to left, cantering horse to right) – meeting at other angles, do what is sensible if left to left is impractical;

Warn people when you are overtaking them from behind- “Overtaking on your left (or right)” etc.

Horses doing basic exercise please give way to those doing complicated manoevers – i.e. jumping, half pass, patterns, etc.  Those moves are best practiced in the center if the rail is busy.

SAD BUT TRUE- the indoor arena is a spooky place with wind, etc. and can be busy.  Horses do erupt.  Please warn others if your horse is a candidate for loss of control.  If possible ride green or explosive horses at less busy times.

ALL RIDERS PLEASE BE AWARE OF OTHERS, BE READY FOR ENCOUNTERS, BE CONSIDERATE AND POLITE.