# Switch Trainers or No?



## ShelbyNicolay (Apr 30, 2012)

Hi everyone C: . I do IEA(ihsa for middle/high schoolers) and do hunt equitation at this barn. I've been taking lessons from my trainer for three years now and mostly haven't had problems with her(minus one incident). This incident happened three years ago and at the time I had been only riding horses for maybe three or four months at all. I was on a lesson horse and my trainer was having me go over little crossrails and something happened over the jump where I landed on the horses neck without reins/stirrups. Being a beginner, this had never happened to me and it was really scary. The horse galloped around the arena for about two laps before I could pull him back and get back in the saddle. She told me I was a dangerous rider and told my mom that I was "train wreck". For some reason, I still took lessons off of her and everything was okay after that. I didn't know any better at the time that I was probably moving up too quickly for my level of riding and she blamed me for the whole incident.

Fast forward three years to now. She's also the barn owner(technically her parents own the barn), and she chose to kick out someone because it was "a business decision" which doesn't make any sense, because the horse was being used as a lesson horse and there are plenty of other boarders who don't allow their horses to be used as lesson horses.

Another thing, awhile ago I was introducing my horse to clippers after my lesson there and she was kind of scared so I asked my trainer for help. She tried clipping her for probably two minutes before getting a chain lead rope, and putting the chain on my horses gums. It was above her top row of teeth and it just seemed to scare her more than anything. I don't think my horse has been around clippers since I got her and I don't really feel that she was being "bad" or anything.

I have a good friend who takes lessons there too and she went in for a lesson the other day, but the lesson prior to hers ran 20 minutes over hers, so my friend's mom wanted to know why(her lessons usually last an hour and this one only lasted about 40 minutes). So my friend's mom asked why, and she said, "oh the horse was being really good and stuff so we wanted to keep it going". My friends mom was like"Well, I kind of feel like I'm being jipped(like ripped off a little bit) here." and she said "Well, if you don't like it, you can go to another barn."

What do you guys think about this?


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## Boo Walker (Jul 25, 2012)

more importantly, what do YOU think?


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## TurkishVan (Feb 11, 2013)

Personally I would have left after that first incident. She should have taken you down to a lower skill level, and worked up from there again. Not insulted you. 

How old is this girl? Sounds like politics might be involved in her "business decisions." (I.e., sounds like she could be a drama queen, and kicks out whomever she doesn't like.) There's nothing you can change about that, unfortunately. If her parents are letting her run the show, and you're worried about her kicking you out, then all you can do is move. 

The incident with the clippers shows me that she has no idea what she's doing. You introduce clippers slowly. Just the sound at first, for a few minutes, a few feet away from the horse. Eventually you get to where you can lay the BACK of the clippers on the horse, and they will get used to the vibration. Once they get used to the vibration and sound on various parts of their body, they usually won't get anxious. If they do, you need to back up a step and try to get them desensitized again. You can't rush it. Horses are prey animals. For all they know, that tiny little buzzing thing may kill them!

Your friend's mother should have demanded a portion of her money back, and/or stated that she would be going to a different trainer. Sounds like this girl is getting a little big for her britches. If you pay for an hour long lesson, you need to get an hour long lesson. There's no excuse for ending it sooner, unless the rider gets hurt, or the horse goes lame. I've had both happen to myself, with different trainers, and it's always been no charge for the lesson. If one of my trainer's goes over with the previous lesson, then my lesson still goes on for an hour, regardless of how long or short the previous lesson was. You should never be penalized for someone else's longer lesson! That's ridiculous! 

Are you worried about this trainer coming after you, or just seeing if this is the norm in the horse world? Bad people are, unfortunately, everywhere.


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## ShelbyNicolay (Apr 30, 2012)

It makes me really upset that someone would act like that towards someone whose been taking lessons from her for about six years.

She's about 28-30 years old. I think she was just picking on the woman. I actually don't board there but my mom and I knew the woman pretty well, and my trainer had said stuff to us about kicking specific people out. The horse that gives lessons is an arab, and she doesn't like them for whatever reason. The other person she talked about kicking out is an arab, but isn't a lesson horse and the owner doesn't ever come down.

I'll have to try that the next time I clip her C: .

If it happened to us, we would've left and not even paid. 

Like awhile ago, I was talking about doing showjumping and she said she'd help me. A few weeks ago, I asked her about it and she said I should wait two years, the amount of years I have left in highschool/IEA. Me thinks it's a money thing as well.
Something that really po'ed my mom and I was that she had asked us if we wanted to take my horse to a show in August, and we said yeah. She specifically said, "Do you guys want to go to this show?". Our truck is a 98' and we don't know if it can haul too far so usually she hauls us to shows, just to be safe. A few days ago she texts my mom saying,"I am unable to haul River to this show because other girls want to go to this show" that would've been fine minus the fact that she asked us in the first place if we wanted to go, and the way it's been around the barn has always been "first come, first serve"

We live in a pretty rural(for the most part) area of Ohio, and it's hard to find decent trainers that are actually decent to be around. I think I have found someone else to take lessons off of, that will actually respect my wishes of doing showjumping and help me out with whatever I want to do, and they're still relatively close to my area. I travel about 45 minutes every week to get to my lesson, and this barn is only 40 in the other direction. 

I just wanted to see if other people thought that this was a big enough reason for me to go to another barn, because we haven't had much experience with this to know.


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## xJumperx (Feb 19, 2012)

There is definitely more than enough reason to get away from this lady. She sounds like a biased little b word. Lessons should not be like that. There is obviously NO respect for you while you are there. She's running you over like tanks over glass. If you are ready, and want to leave, I'm saying do it.


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