Mairehau Horse Riding School Christchurch - Christchurch City, New Zealand

I do enjoy my ride their it's a nice place to go to just have a laid back ride if you want something more professional like you want to get into competing then I do not recommend this place. For about 5 years from the age of 9-15 I use to come here whenever I was in chch I did find some of the teenagers we're kinda rude and did not seem to care but other than that I absalutly loved it. But then as I got older and rode at other places I started to notice that they probably weren't being tacken care of at well as they should be they have like 100 saddle pads on and since they don't give everyone the best teaching you see lots of kids pulling at the horses mouth and people who are clearly not ready to jump jumping and speeding around all over the place yanking their mouth with terrible position. I do like Robert he's nice and is a good instructor but these just too many people there at once so their not able to teach them properly.the horses are over worked ridden all day long and when not being ridden are tied up all day in the heat or rain with out water acept when they are being ridden theirs a water troft in the arena.

Mairehau is an amazing place to learn to ride. I learnt how to ride there, and everyone is extremely nice.

Amazing people and Amazing horses for all different levels of experience.

mairehau riding school is the best and the people so nice and you get to choose your horse to ride and i would recommend it and you can have lots of fun robert is so nice nice it is a perfect place for a child or adult

I don’t like MARIEHAU it’s unsafe, untidy and run by a bunch of rude teenagers who are obviously not supervised. They make the horses work everyday jumping, cantering around the whole day. It’s not the best place to ride so stay clear of this place.

I personally like it. Its great to go there if your just looking for lessons and not serious riding. I went just two days ago and it was really fun, i learnt how to trot and i have no idea why u guys r calling the teenagers rude their nothing but nice!

Great place lovely horses thanks will be back again

I love Mairehau because unlike other riding schools, they give you freedom to chose your own horse, and you can go onto the track when they are sure that you will be safe. I learnt to jump here and Robert, the owner, has done a great job of coaching me through it. As for the people saying the girls are rude, I have seen people treat them as if they are simply another one of the chickens that are allowed to roam around the paddocks, then continue to say that they are rude and mean to the horses. Maybe their attitude towards you is a reflection of your own. If I were volunteering and spending long hours doing hot and smelly work for nothing but half an hour on a horse, I would probably feel a bit inclined to be rude back to people too. Although some of the horses there are a little bit on the skinny side, they are not unhealthy. The soil in the area the school is based in is very infertile, making it quite hard to grow good quality grass. They do a good job of teaching beginners considering that most of the staff are volunteering high-school students. If you are a more experienced rider, looking for somewhere to teach you competition dressage, maybe Mairehau isn't the place for you. However, I have found that it is an awesomely cheap and great way to practice your techniques between more high end lessons. (They are fine to go to even if you don't have other lessons!) They have a large range of horses to do different things with and most, if not all, of them are very well trained school ponies. I love Mairehau as a place to go when you're having a bad day and just want to go and spill your feelings to an animal that you know will listen and not judge you. You don't have to book, and it's only $6 for half an hour, compared to around $30 for another place. Would totally reccomend!! ;)

You are seriously deluded if you think that this place is any good. The horses are underfed, overworked, wear ill fitting tack, use tea towels as saddle pads and are worked non stop all day. Mariehau is a disgrace to our sport; yes they're for more casual riders and thats just fine, not everyone wants to compete. But casual or not, the horses are still treated like machines. Cheap lessons don't make up for the fact that this place is dogshit. Its an embarrassment to Christchurch and there are reasons why Canterbury SPCA have had hundreds of calls.
Christine, maybe you should be spending less time at Mariehau and more time at school. Its kind of hard to take you seriously when your spelling looks like you ate alphabet soup and took a shit. Face it, Mariehau's days are numbered, and for good reason. Maybe back in the 70s nobody fed or cared for their horses but in this day and age things are different.

I think it's a good place to go to ride for fun and have a good time. Also to enjoy the heart of the sport- the horses. Also they provide ponies and horses, helmets, tack, brushes and jumps, padocks an arena and happy staff. Although it's a bit old kt's still a nice place to go :)

this riding school is amazing the girls are lovely an supply a tone of amazing help and who ever is commenting rude things about these girls well id like to see you saddle up 50 horses every day I go there every weekend and I am only 11 and the owners tot me how to gallop its like you haters cloud teach an 11 year old how to gallop you guys should be thankfull its only 12 dollars for one hour you hater wouldn't stand a chance wlking around an arena fo hours pooe Robert show som dignity you guys oviously have a lack of respect .

i have been going to mairehau riding school for about 3-4 years and i have enjoyed every year i would definitely recommend this to beginners but as you get more experience you can still go here because there is a bigger paddock that you can go and have even more fun there is jumping every second week and treks that you can go to through bottle lake forest ( that is very safe ), the horses are very well looked after bye the girls and owners, the owners are one of the nicest people i have ever met, so please go here and recommend it to your friend and family!!!!! (:

Good place to go if you just want to have a wee ride and not take it too seriously. It's not the fanciest place in the world but its great for people who otherwise couldn't afford lessons. :-)

I do think this place is a great place to ride but if you are looking for a riding place to the competion side then i do not recomend this place because we do not compete so try going to Arion riding center if you are goingbto compete and i do think ghis place is good to ride for fun and they do help if it is your first time on a horse and we do lots of thing we do games and we do treks and there is a big paddock full of grass and jumps and you can only go there if you canjmp 2ft on two differrent horses and you can learn how to catch and tack up ect. It is very cheap to ride nad there are so many horses and ponys to choose from we provide helmets to ride in and we give ledsons to lots of people and if you want a one on one lesson just call them and they will proberally let you and in some of the lessons the instucters will focas on you while others are ridng so you can learn more

This riding school is very unique in the fact that you get a little more freedom. There are flaws though, such as the stable hands are really young but they deeply care for the horses and are gaining experience each day that they VOLUNTEER to help out. Some of the horses can get overworked on busy days which is a shame. Also some of the horses are very lazy because of being overworked and can be defiant. The owners are very kind, the more you ride there the more you can advance onto things like dressage and show jumping. This is not a riding school to get proper one on one tuition. This is a riding school where you go to enjoy more casual riding at a very cheap cost!

Unprofessional, unsafe, untidy and run by a bunch of rude teenagers who are obviously not supervised. The 'school' may or may not provide you any gear. They won't/can't give you one on one lesson. Stay clear of this place.

Do we have to bring our own gear and horses?