# HELP! How much will an indoor school cost???



## u04elw2 (12 February 2007)

Hi, a friend and I are looking to go into business by opening up a riding school in the Aberdeen area.  We plan on buying a small area of land and building the indoor school from scratch with stables incorporated for the 20 horses and ponies.  
Thing is we're in the process of writing a business plan and have quotes for everything but the indoor school.  We know a surface will cost around £3000 but noone has got back to us about the actual steel constructed building.  We want one around 45x60m - the arena itself will be 30x60 and a wing on the side of 15x60 to allow for the stables. 
Anyone got experience of building this cheaper than some of the specialist companies can offer?
Emma


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## PLAYBOY (12 February 2007)

sorry i cnt help it will cost a bomb thats all i know xx


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## MillionDollar (12 February 2007)

Probably around £80,000 might be more for building and foundations. Then theres the stables £22,000 and then water, electricity, etc.... A LOT anyway. 
Can you not just have an floodlit outdoor arena? 

I'm building a livery yard at the moment. It will have brand new american barn stabling for 30, tackroom, other facilties and 60 x 40 arena and we except to be paying around £100,000 for this.


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## Toby_Zaphod (13 February 2007)

With 20 stables if you want sufficient turnout you will need in excess of 20 acres plus area for yard &amp; buildings. 
This company may be able to give byou an idea of prices:-
http://www.rhinosteel.co.uk/index.htm
This link will give you details of arenas &amp; surfaces &amp; the building of them:-
http://www.ascotarenas.co.uk/index.html

Good Luck


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## Rainbowrider (13 February 2007)

I am just building a 40 foot x 60 foot steel building and that will cost £12K plus concrete which isn't cheap.  Don't forget you will have to pay business rates on an indoor school, and insurance for the riding school which is why most people can't afford to run one these days.


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## JessPickle (13 February 2007)

BEWARE insurance nowadays on riding schools is HUGE, which is the reason why so many are now closing so make sure you do your research


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## summertoots (13 February 2007)

Wow u are brave!! Insurance is sky high, ours is so high that we pay out more a month on it that the ponies make in the riding school. If it wasnt for the livery we would have gone way under, glad Im staff and not owner is all I can say. 
No Idea how much a School would cost. We have an outdoor as the rates for an indoor would kill us, and it cost thousands to make. I saw some cover type things when I was at a few shows over the summer, they were like big polly tunnels that are being used as indoor Schools, wish I could remember what they wee called but I am sure someone on here will know. Anyway as far as I can remember they were cheeper to build than your usual style of school.


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## josie_s (13 February 2007)

It could be coverall? Come in at about the same as a steel build I think, but much lighter


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## u04elw2 (13 February 2007)

hi,
thanks for your reply.  we don't reall want an outdoor arena as this wouldn't be much fun for people coming to regular lessons having to ride in all kinds of nasty weather - bearing in mind its scotland we live in!
i know that even though i'm totally dedicated to my horse i wouldn't ride in the pouring rain!


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## u04elw2 (13 February 2007)

hi, 
we don't plan on having huge amounts of turnout - we plan on running it like a school near us that keeps the horses in the indoor school at night and turns them out whenever they're on a break.  that way horses are clean(er), dry and all close at hand for getting them in for lessons every morning!


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## u04elw2 (13 February 2007)

hi, those poly tunnel things look really good, seen them in a couple of magazines.  not sure if they're noisy in the wind or not though - anyone know??


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## esports (13 February 2007)

I agree with claire on this one, they do cost approx in region of £80k completely done. I would suggest you get many companies down to give you official prices to put in your business plan. Guessing wont be good enough, a few companies giving proper quotes is the best way to look at the cost.

A mate of mine had one (he has two indoors) of his built three years ago costing him in the region of 80grand and thats with alot fo his guys doing the work on it, its no bees knees of a place either, just a typical huge building with and 40x20arena.

The steel work alone is a huge investment, steel work for that sort of sized indoor will be a huge financial burden, theres also contingencies to add to the complete business package as they will ask you that in your meeting at the bank.

If you can get a surface done that size for £3000 i would be very very surprised! The hardcore alone will cost you more than that.

I had an outdoor built last year 40x20m the actual paddock with ten drains cost me £10grand, thats not included the top quality post and rail and gate. The job was brill though, mine must be one of the driest sand paddocks in the north west!

good luck with your venture but think someone is pulling your leg regarding costs, hopefully you can have some firms meet you and give you a realistic price.

If indoors were cheapish to put up say under 20/30 grand, we would all want one. Saying this you could make some make shift one cheap enough, well i say cheap 15 grandish but that wont do if you want a business and your indoor will be your livelehood.

good luck, sounds a brill venture!


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## TequilaMist (13 February 2007)

Oooh where about in aberdeen?Presume you must mean school in Hazelhead  as thats only one in Aberdeen I know that does that.Are you planning school on other side of city from 2 main riding establishments in Aberdeen(am not involved with either so no diff to me)
Agree insurance  is high for schools and rates for indoor schools are quite high which is why our yard don't have one boo hoo.Do you think local council would approve pp in your chosen area?As you know they can be very awkward when they want!!ok will stop being so nosey now! 
	
	
		
		
	


	




Good luck .Very exciting if you manage it.


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## hairycob (15 February 2007)

When the RS we went to built an indoor school it cost them thousands just to get the planning permission - several attempts &amp; lots of professional advice. If I remember correctly it put another 20% on top of the cost of the school. That might not be totally accurate, but it was a horrifying amount.


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## u04elw2 (15 February 2007)

re:tequila mist
yep we're kind of going for a system like hayfield has.  i've worked at almost every riding school in the aberdeen area (well, when there was more than 2!) and its been really good experience to see what can be improved on and to see the different way places are run.
we're planning on building maybe the bridge of don area as we know someone with land and old farm buildings that are desperately in need of knocking down!  that way there won't be too much competition in our area - there used to be ryovan stud/riding school but they don't have lessons anymore that i know of anyway.
business won't be even close to starting until i get my instructor qualifications which i plan on doing this year so will be a while yet but we're just trying to get organised so there aren't any last minute shocks when the time comes!


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## TequilaMist (15 February 2007)

What you remember dyce riding school!!!
Agree other side would be better think only ladymyre nearest to there and thats Ellon.
Just a thought are there any of the existing buildings that could be converted to school,at least that would be a change of use(I think) rather than the whole new building tho it would mean theres a pre-existing one think that helps (unsure).
By the way does your horses name begin with an M and your friend with a T?If so we have met (on first name terms)


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## Tia (15 February 2007)

Coveralls - yes they are very noisy to ride in when it is raining and windy.  They are warm though and have good light.


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## Rambo (16 February 2007)

There was an article on the Cover-All arenas in this weeks H&amp;H. They cited an example of one which cost between £75k and £100k to install...but the surface alone was £20k. Presumably you could do the surface for about half that if you weren't so fussy about having the best 
	
	
		
		
	


	





Still not cheap for cloche though lol!


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## u04elw2 (17 February 2007)

re:tequila mist
yes my horse is major and terri has harvey.  we're at milltimber farm.  ooh, i'm intruiged now...


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## TequilaMist (17 February 2007)

Ah well could keep it going with clues etc but really not that hard to work out.You very kindly gave daughters pony your stable when we first arrived at Milltimber as we were in a hurry to move from yard we were on.Now you must know with that info 
	
	
		
		
	


	








!Its a small world


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## WishfulThinker (18 February 2007)

HEHE, I KNEW it was you E!!  I dunno how but I just knew! 

I know Fountain have an indoor school that side of dyce.  And Ryovan is downsizing I think as the daughter has moved her horses to her house and the main stallion. 

Have you thought about out more towards Blackburn area as there isnt an indoor school in that direction, adn when the WPR is built there should be easy access.  There is a derilict farm just up the back of Blackie, a few barns with an access road but bot sure about land or who owns it, but it has access to Kirkhill woods. 

Oh:  Sorry about borrowing ur bucket when I got back, we had a bit of a problem when I realised she still had all my buckets, and the thing we were going to use pi55ed water all in the stable!


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## u04elw2 (18 February 2007)

LOL! hello shona   
	
	
		
		
	


	




  i see comet is across from major now, much better stables in my block anyway (not biased at all!)


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## u04elw2 (18 February 2007)

re:beau2005
don't worry about the bucket, i have hundreds, lol.
yeah that area would be really good.  its just so hard to find places that will not cost millions - all i want is some land, not a 7 bedroom house with a swimming pool like all the places i keep finding seem to have!
ah well, i have a while to keep looking as it wont be til i'm qualified to teach anyway


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## WishfulThinker (18 February 2007)

Oh, thats not comet!  Its DINO the new boy,  he is well sweet and super gorgeous!
Have you had a squint at the local plan for the next few years and the greenbelt plans?  I have  2 mates who have been looking for land to and found it very hard as what was for sale was limited and they wanted max£££ when they did sell so the price was stupid.  B wants land to build a house and has been looking for 6 years.  I'm just trying to bkeep my dad sweet so that I get ours! 

Hopefully house prices and land prices will come down soon!!  It's suck a depressing situation at the moment


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## Patches (18 February 2007)

I saw somewhere advertising indoors with a starting price of £59,000 for a standard 40m x 20m school. Can't remember whether it was a horsey magazine or the Farmer's Guardian though.


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## TequilaMist (18 February 2007)

Yea Dino cute.Not Comet but he is sort of one of daughters.He was one that she help school on when he came to oldfold(don't know if you were there at same time??).Hes sweet but he used to have major temper tantrums when asked to jump but  she worked through that with him.


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## u04elw2 (28 February 2007)

lol only just realised it wasn't comet the night i posted that reply! DOH! had just stuck my head into the barn, thought "oh, comet's moved" then went out.  i'm a numpty!


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## Ashf (9 March 2007)

We have got a local school just built nr Cheltenham. The owner is a construction project manager for a large firm. 
Between himself and his wife and a team of workers, they built it themselves. The arena is about the size of the one at Gracelands (maybe slightly shorter in length)

It has a proper two story brick built viewing area and kitchen in place.

he told me that if a construction company were to build it from scratch, it would cost about £700k all in

It is very nice though


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## flyingfeet (9 March 2007)

Was that Brockhampton?


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