When you get a message from someone that starts “Ok, so well...” you know bad shits going to follow. That’s how Trainer S started her reply to my message asking about what she’s worked on with Cinder under saddle. Turns out she only got on Cin a handful of times in August and has been lunging her since then.
I had had my suspicions about how much S was actually doing with Cinder and that message confirmed it. I had basically paid $2.5k for my horse to learn how to lunge. Awesome. When pressed for more details, S made noise about how hot Cinder was and that she felt terrible sending her home like that. Which I interpreted it as Cinder wasn’t getting enough turn out, probably intimidated S, and S felt bad about not telling me but still taking my money.
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| Bruise on my left thigh from my fall |
I told S to not bother coming out to show me what she’s worked on with Cinder, because I can lunge my own horse. I did flat out ask her if there is anything else I, or another trainer, needs to know before I send Cinder to someone else. She said no, but I’m positive she’s still not telling me everything.
And as far as sending Cin to someone else, as luck would have it, her breeder has an open stall at her barn and the eventing trainer there has an open training spot. So Cinder moves on Friday. My intention was to basically give her the winter off and work her lightly, but since she really hasn’t done anything since August I feel ok sending her back out for training. I’m going to make sure I get to watch Trainer A work her, but I feel like breeder KP will let me know if things are going wrong. Trainer A rode Cin’s dad so it’ll be interesting to see how they compare.
Ugh, I am soooo sorry this happened to you :( It's so hard finding honest professionals these days
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, that's awful. I'm glad you've got another, better, option to keep Cinder moving forward.
ReplyDeleteI'm really sorry. What an awful 'trainer' to not just be honest with you when she wasn't getting things done.
ReplyDeleteWow, that is awful, I am so sorry!
ReplyDeleteI'd personally be asking S for money back on the training she didn't complete but I can understand that it's a difficult thing to try to confront.
ReplyDeleteI do hope Cin gets a good experience with the new trainer.
Wow, how incredibly disappointing that you spent all that money for nothing. And shame on Trainer S for such appalling behavior. I bet Cinder will make great progress with the new trainer!
ReplyDeleteUgh sorry to hear this - why is it so hard to find an honest pro in the horse biz???
ReplyDeleteWell that's a disappointing waste of money :( I'm sorry to hear you went through that. I've had people send me horses that weren't ready for the level of training the owner wanted, but I always communicated that right away, invited the owner out to watch what we were doing and explained why we weren't moving on, and offered to send the horse home ASAP if they wanted more training than I was willing to do at that time. I can't imagine just ghosting the client, taking their money, and not doing anything with the horse. Yikes :(
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your last post, I had a feeling she hadn't been ridden much or at least not recently. Trainer S absolutely should have disclosed that to you when you took Cinder home. I'm glad you weren't seriously hurt, and I hope that Trainer A can straighten things out for you guys.
ReplyDeleteWow! That is so dang frustrating! I hope she's offering you a refund for the training she didn't do!?
ReplyDeleteHopefully the new trainer will be a much better fit.
I'm a new reader who just stumbled across this blog so I don't have the back story, but I'm furious on your behalf!
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