Equestrian Center Rules and Regulations

Boarding | Stalls, Feed and Turnout

Paramount Rules

  • All incoming horses must have a health certificate within two weeks prior to arrival and a current negative Coggins Test within one year. Please see current Boarder Agreement for additional vacciniation requirements.
  • Protective headgear and proper footwear must be worn at all times when mounted. Approved ASTM-SEI safety helmets with properly adjusted chin harness must be worn while riding. Shoes/boots must have a heel.
  • Mount Holyoke College is a smoke and tobacco free campus.

Safety

  • For reasons of safety, riding on the main campus is not permitted. Horses should be ridden at the Equestrian Center, on the cross-country field, and on designated bridle trails only.
  • When hacking off the main Equestrian Center grounds, boarders are strongly encouraged to hack with someone else. If you need to go out alone, please notify someone in the barn (preferably staff) where you intend to go and take your cell phone if you have one.
  • Riding and jumping alone are done at your own risk. Boarders must have permission from an instructor and be accompanied by someone else, mounted or unmounted, in order to jump on the cross-country course. Anyone else must be in a lesson in order to jump on the cross-country course. Please report any broken rails, fences, holes, etc. to the stable manager.
  • Please leave your pets at home or be sure they are comfortable in your vehicle.
  • Vehicles must be parked neatly in the parking lot provided. Students must park in the designated student parking areas. 
  • Horses must not be in cross ties at busy times, or for prolonged periods of time. Please clean up any mess you or your horse makes on the cross ties immediately.

Horse Care

  • Please keep your horse well groomed. Feet should be picked daily, coat groomed, and manes and tails should be kept pulled and trimmed as appropriate to the discipline you practice and/or compete in.
  • Boarders are responsible for all blanketing of their own horses.
  • Equestrian Center staff will change blankets for a service fee.
  • Equestrian Center staff will take off blankets for no charge during drastic temperature changes during the day. (i.e., 20-degree night and 65-degree day) However, it will still be the boarder’s responsibility to put blankets back on at night.
  • If you would like to make a change in your horse’s care, (i.e., hay, shavings, feed, etc.) please do not help yourself—the stable manager will be glad to assist you.

Arena Etiquette (Riding/Lunging)

  • Classes take precedence in the riding arenas.
  • The Equestrian Center has many lovely places to ride; please take advantage of them. Please ask an instructor whether you may ride in the same area with their class.
  • Please try to pass left side to left side when riding with other people in the arena.
  • If someone is having trouble with a horse or actively jumping, please give them the necessary space.
  • Please use common sense when lunging a horse while others are riding.
  • Do not lunge your horse in the small arena when there are more than two horses already working there.
  • Please respect the fact that you as a rider have more control over your horse than someone who is lunging and give them the space they need.
  • Please ask an instructor if you may lunge in the large arena if there is a class going on there.
  • Supervised turnout is possible in the small arena only at times when there are no others riding in either arena. You must set up barriers in front of the mirrors in the small arena if you wish to turn your horse out there. Any damage to the mirrors will be paid for by the student whose horse caused the damage.
  • No turnout in the large arena at any time. This serious infraction warrants a $100 fine in addition to paying for any damage to the mirrors and any cost related to the repair of the mirrors.
  • Please announce yourself before entering either of the indoor arenas.

Neatness

  • Please hang tack neatly in the boarder’s tack room.
  • Each boarder is assigned one saddle rack, one bridle rack, and one grooming cubby.
  • Please hang your bridle with throatlatch “figure-eighted” around it.
  • Please hang your saddle pad neatly under your saddle or upside down over your saddle to air.
  • Please store extra saddles, saddle pads, and tack upstairs in the trunk room. Boarders should provide their own tack cleaning supplies, liniments, lunging equipment, wraps, etc. Anything that does not fit very neatly on your bridle hook, on your saddle rack or in your cubby needs to be stored in your labeled trunk upstairs.
  • Please clean up the sink after you’ve used it and do not leave standing water on the counter.
  • Please clean your tack and bit regularly—daily cleaning is strongly encouraged.
  • You may take a locker in the locker room for boots and other personal items.
  • Wash stalls are to be used for washing or hosing only (not for grooming, tacking or untacking).
  • Please clean up any mess you or your horse makes in the wash stall immediately—not after you’re done grooming, not after you’re done riding, not after you’re done for the day.
  • Pick up all manure dropped while grooming, washing or walking horses around the barn area immediately.
  • Any mane pullings should be swept up and disposed of in the trash receptacles.
  • Do not leave equipment or blankets in front of your stall.
  • Buckets, etc. should be put away in the tack room.
  • Boots that your horse gets turned out in may be hung neatly on the stall chain in front of your stall.
  • Please hang blankets neatly (no hanging straps) on your blanket rack. Boarders may only keep three blankets on their rack at a time. The rest must be kept in your trunk.

The above list may seem long, but please take it in the spirit in which it is intended: to make the Mount Holyoke Equestrian Center a safe, fun beautiful place to ride. You are a welcome part of our lovely facility; please do your part in keeping it this way. Please enjoy our arenas, trails, lounge, staff, clinicians and your fellow boarders as much as we do.