wongl said:Duty of care by the stables/professionals is only part of it - while they can take actions to mitigate risks to make it safer, they cannot ultimately remove all the dangers from what is a dangerous activity. The only way to do this is to not to participate from such activities completely. So in this respect the parents of children must share the duty of care with the professionals by placing or removing their children from potentially dangerous activities. If a child wants to learn to ride a horse, they must be prepared to take a fall at some stage as no professional person can completely mitigate a rider from falling in the real world due to an infinite number of variables. In my opinion, their main duty of care is to ensure the horse selected for the rider is appropriate for the rider - but even so, the stables have to, from time to time, put a rider on a slightly more demanding horse in order for the rider to develop more advance skills. As far as I am aware, no stables that I know would knowing put a rider on a horse that is too advanced for the rider. There is nothing to be gain by endangering the rider and/or the public.
I don't disagree, and nor does the content of my post. I would have thought that a stable implementing best practice process would, prior to moving a child up a stage, describe that decision to a parent in order they can agree/consent to the change in circumstances / potential risk?
If not then as a parent I am left to make an ill-informed choice, and for many parents, find myself feeling uncomfortable/stupid having to go and ask 'whys my child not got someone in control of the horse'?
Maybe best practice doesn't apply - but I'd certainly hope it's a business principle for those that are involved with children in particular?