I was first introduced to riding club activities by my friend Rosemary. A feisty lady who rarely takes no for an answer, she quickly had me signed up to the local club with promises of training, teams, shows, social events, in fact everything one could possibly want for equestrian enjoyment.

And she was right. Having previously worked at a large equestrian centre with all the in-house activities, I was new to the heady excitement of being an independent owner/rider with freedom of choice. I launched myself into the varied activities with tremendous enthusiasm, boxing the horse off to show jumping lessons after work, cross country jumping practice on a Saturday morning or enjoying a lecture/demonstration giving by a leading light in the area with my new friends from the club, even trotting endless twirls and serpentines in a silly wig and high heels on summer evenings for the quadrille.

My annual endeavour to represent the club in teams was rewarded by competing in dressage and horse trials, the team occasionally featuring in the prize giving at the championships. We all helped at the annual area show, complained at the disorganisation, but we did it year after year - and it was all good fun. For a modest subscription I was able to improve my horse and myself sufficiently to be able to compete at affiliated competitions while increasing my circle of friends and enjoying myself madly.

So what has changed? The passage of time has changed a number things. The whole riding culture has altered. People now buy their own horse, usually taking care of it themselves. Everyone leans much more to competitive riding, which brings a different attitude to training. Serious riders now have their own trainer. The 'fun' rider is usually hard up for cash so expensive training is often a low priority. A proliferation of tantalising horse product advertisements swamp the media, so that a new saddle pad is likely to take precedence over a lesson. All this alters members' perception of what they want from riding clubs. I have moved on and now see the picture from the opposite end of the arena - that is the dressage judge's car. It is not always a pretty sight. Of all the competitions I am asked to judge, be they affiliated, unaffiliated, pony club, riding club, university competitions, juniors or seniors, without doubt the dunces cap can be awarded to the riding clubs, the gold star going to the area competitions. There are of course, notable exceptions.

Quite why the standard is generally so low bewilders me. Virtually all the riding clubs now offer some form of training, although the trainers vary tremendously in quality. Highly competitive clubs import top level trainers for one, two even three days courses or demonstrations. They subsidise the costs to members to encourage participation and enable the club to field at least one competitive team for the area competition. Others may bring in the local unqualified instructor for a few weeks' team training. But the demand for training is in decline.

Clubs are unanimous in saying many courses have to be cancelled due to lack of interest. Shirley Woodhead, treasurer to Harewood Combined Training Group for more than 20 years has noticed a change in member's attitude. She said: "When the club started there was a thirst for wanting to improve on your performance. During the last couple of years people have joined just to compete."

Riding clubs are an expanding movement. Membership standing at nearly 40,000 is growing all the time. There is an opinion that it has become unwieldy with subdivisions into areas and for training, competitions et al, all contributing to a breakdown in communications between the executive committee and the grass roots club. The system would work provided there was a driving force heading up each club and each area. At this time there is no doubt that the competition division of the movement is in the driving seat although the director of Riding Clubs, Emma Spivie denies it. "There are 12,000 members competing in area qualifiers each year, leaving 26,000 interested in other aspects of the club. These members are very important to us," she said.

There are 35 disciplines in which members may now compete. The result of the manifold number of competitions available to members means that many team members eager to represent their clubs are not adequately prepared, leading to poor performance and often tears. The restrictions on riders competing in area competitions allow semi-professionals to compete against novice riders. All this demoralises the less experienced combinations who either become disinterested in improving or refuse to join a club because they feel they are not good enough. All in all the current craze for competition is defeating the basic riding club principle of educating the grass root rider to enjoy their horse.

Donald Keare, chairman of Riding Clubs training, is aware of this. "The biggest problem with clubs is preventing them thinking it's a competition," he says. "I want as many clubs as possible to engage in all aspects of training, stable management and welfare to increase their understanding of the horse all the time, but through the training trying to promote friendliness and fun to encourage the social riders as well as the more competitive."

The Riding Club is one of the last amateur institutions. It widens the scope for people with ordinary horses. Quite often one person, usually the chairman is a superlative organiser, has a clear vision of what services are wanted and begrudges no effort in making it happen, all in a voluntary capacity. No one realises the effort until it is no longer there. It is the lack of intuition that is most sorely missed. While individual clubs should provide as varied agenda as their budget permits, the executive committee has to accept responsibility for listening to the grass roots member. Emma Spivie considers that this happens. "We have a democratically elected committee," she said. "Indeed I consider it one of our strengths that each area has its own elected member representative."

The Riding Club maxim is to develop good horsemanship and sportsmanship. It is unique in that virtually all its competitions are team events designed to develop team spirit and working together. The horsemanship aspect seems to be trailing at the present time. Only one exam of grade 4 level, the top exam, has been held in the last four years. Motivation through well qualified, competent instructors is needed to inspire the novice riding club member to join in and improve. And perhaps most of all some business management instruction so that clubs can generate their income to provide these services.

Grizel Sackville-Hamilton, a stalwart of the riding club movement in the north of England for many years puts forward a definitive answer. "The whole hierarchy forms a massive pyramid; if it were feasible to run it as a company it might be simplified, but it is difficult to see, from my near-retirement point of view, what might be done as long as there is not enough money to throw into a business arrangement where enthusiasm is complemented by efficiency.

Published: 25/02/2005