Jennifer Hanson and her daughter Kira on Zeus. (Photo: Submitted)
Plenty of businesses in the province are figuring out how to pivot and offer their services during the pandemic and none more so than riding stables.
Jennifer Hanson is the owner and operator of the Hampton Riding Centre just outside of Saint John as well as a certified coach.
She said she’s seen the effects of the pandemic especially on the kids who come to her stables.
“The kids being able to come to the barn, leave whatever problems are going on in their lives and their home and their situation, come to the barn, hang out with the horse and just enjoy themselves, they were willing to do anything,” she said.
Hanson said at first, adjusting to the COVID-19 precautions was difficult to wrap her head around and then communicating that material to her clients took time. She said she was nervous about inviting people onto the property in May and June because she lives on the property.
“So we probably went over the top and I was very lucky to have some great mentors in the business world saying we’re doing this and we’re doing that. We may have gone above and beyond because I’ve been taking their temperatures since May just as a sort of extra precaution,” she said.
One of the biggest concerns was how students could ride horses, especially when factoring in disinfecting and cross-contamination. Hanson said this resulted in staggered times and a horse being used for only one person that day.
Hanson said because there are different horses suited to different riders, it became a juggle to make sure each kid was assigned to a suitable horse and also to ensure that horse was only ridden once that day to avoid cross-contamination.
“There was more behind the scenes allocation going on than the average rider realized,” Hanson said.
There weren’t concerns about riders staying six feet apart because the stalls are 12×12 and Hanson has a 10,000 square foot indoor arena, but the riders weren’t able to hang out and stand in stalls to chat which removed the social contact.
Most of the horse shows were cancelled for 2020 and Hanson still isn’t sure what this year will look like, although she thinks it will definitely impact social contact there too.
Hanson said a year after COVID has seen her finances and rider counts increase to what they looked like before although in March and April the centre was closed.
Because there have been so many changes to sports like soccer and baseball, Hanson thinks there’s an increase in interest in horse riding from all ages.
“There’s been a huge influx of calls from people wanting to try something different because the old tried and true sports have changed so drastically,” she said.
Hanson said she also waited until the second or third week of September to start the kids back in lessons so they could become used to wearing masks beforehand.
One of the ways Hanson said she was a step ahead of the sanitizing and cleaning needed for COVID-19 was due to a spread of strangles that went through the province in 2018. Strangles is highly contagious and spreads through touch. When a horse gets strangles, it’s often fatal.
“So we were very diligent and very used to spraying down everything, stepping into a bucket before walking into a barn because of course, the bottom of your shoes could bring it from barn to barn,” said Hanson.
Hanson said she sprays everything down using a disinfectant called Dettol which is effective on viruses including COVID-19 and strangles and doesn’t damage leather.
She said right now she has 37 kids on the waiting list and a bunch of adults. She gives private lessons on the weekends to confirm they want to sit on the waiting list until a group opens up.
“We have about 80 (kids) a week who have a regular spot and then we would do maybe ten more on the weekends to accommodate them so there’s no shortage of demand,” she said.
The Hampton Riding Centre has operated for 18 years, with 14 horses used in lessons for children and adults.
