The Parra videos made me wonder if trainers will ban cell phone use at home.
Do staff take videos and photos of “alternative training” methods?
Will cell phones be banned?
When the equitation horses are longeing for 4 hours, will someone video the episode?
p.s. Cesar, you’re up there with Valliere and Ward in the awful people…
Many trainers already do, or at least have some form of policy in place around video taping/posting things to social media.
I’ve also seen trainers ask that pictures/video not be taken during in-hand UL dressage work. Not because the trainer was doing anything cruel or abusive, but because there is already a very real fear amongst trainers that the horse-ignorant general public will see the video of a trainer using a whip from the ground and lump them in with the likes of Cesar Parra.
It’s unfortunate, as I don’t believe most of them are trying to hide anything, they’re just trying to not get a target on their back for something taken out of context. I’m sure we’ve all found ourselves in instances where a single firm correction was necessary instead of a hundred nagging corrections. In many of those cases, those corrections can be described with some colorful descriptors (“sit him on his ahem butt!” “Thump him with your leg!”, I’ve even heard the occasional “float his teeth!” directed at students who aren’t particularly assertive with their aids and need some stronger visuals to get the job done, etc). Someone with horse experience will be able to tell the difference between that and abuse, but can the general public?
I had a trainer ban all cell phones. As it turns out, their business was very corrupt and perhaps they were not using the horses in the way they were supposed to (maybe a horse that was privately owned doing lessons). Nothing was ever abusive, however.
There’s a culture for kids that they need videos for everything now. They need their flat class to be filmed, their first trail ride, their entire lesson… It goes on and on! I understand how a trainer can not want that on video, especially if it is a rough lesson on a horse they might not own.
In 1991 I had a horse in training with a respected (and very good) trainer, I was there taking photographs when he asked me to put the camera down as the mare needed correction that he did not want photographed …that is in 1991
Horse was not harmed but her conduct was addressed
A total ban on photos/videos would be a big red flag to me. My barn’s culture around video is very “treat others how you would like to be treated” - if a horse is going particularly well someone will take a video and AirDrop it to the rider, but if anyone is having a bad day, phones remain firmly in pockets.
How else would trainers pretend to avoid their customers? Nothing more freeing than being on a horse or on the ground and on the phone. Can’t be disturbed. Sometimes I wonder if there’s even someone else on the other side or if they just want to be left alone!
Or they don’t want their every move on private property selectively edited to be plastered all over the net?
Or their clients and horse owners do not want their horse or their riding ability trashed for entertainment?
There are two sides to filming others, especially without their permission and/or if they are Minors.
My last trainer, who had many younger clients, had a set policy of no videos of other riders on barn property, without their, or their parents permission.
A no video policy on private property is not necessarily for nefarious reasons. IME and IMO these people don’t try too hard to hide their methods. They depend on observers being unwiilling to speak up, thats what needs to be fixed. Fear of retaliation, being shunned and/or having their reputation or business affected, vandalized…or their horse hurt. Almost like organized crime. It is complicated and exists in every discipline and breed shows.
Hear hear.
Like filming overweight people at the gym then posting it online to ridicule their size.
Short of actual abusive situations, why of why is it such a big ask to stop f***ing videoing and photographing people without their permission???
It’s really not fair to assume a blanket ban at a barn is particularly nefarious.
Most of my trainers have had a policy that you can film anything you want (within reason), but if you’re going to post it publicly - it needs to have approval.
And… at the risk of being flogged… I get it.
Horses and people have bad days. If you make your living off of producing quality results (horses and riders), it is a detriment to your livelihood for Susie to post a compilation clip of every time her horse refused a jump over the last six months (even though the refusals were because of Susie’s terrible riding). It’s a detriment to your livelihood if Susie posts a video where your six-figure for-sale hack-winner is in the background throwing a temper tantrum because he doesn’t want to do a walk to canter transition that day and his legs are going every which way and you’re working through it.
The kids these days have no filters of what is and is not appropriate for social media. They also don’t understand the concept of “once it’s on the internet, it’s there forever”. Unless you can spend all hours of the day policing social media (which, let’s be honest, horse trainers have more important things to do) - I think a ban is perfectly reasonable. Leave the phone in the car.
If your clientele are tweens with no filter then you need some kind of policy on photography/video and posting. Not just to avoid training oops but also mean girl and bullying stuff. Of course it can’t be 100 per cent monitored and enforced. But a clear policy and some IRL enforcement and some understood possibility of sanctions would go a long way towards this.
Most lesson barns have a highly curated online presence.
I think we obviously need cell phones for emergency but if kids are sitting around texting when they should be active that needs reinforcement too.
It’s certainly tricky because video can be incredibly helpful to learn from. The barn that I’m at doesn’t have any sort of cell phone ban or policy. Someone videos something during nearly every lesson. Trainer regularly asks people to video him when he’s riding. It’s a great learning tool.
Fortunately people are good about only posting good things online.
There’s a local barn that has a trainer who posts all sorts of videos of unsafe jumps, unsafe riding, overfaced horses and riders. Someone should take her phone away.
Video is great learning tool as long as the videographer asks the rider and rider agrees. Parents too if it is a minor. Even my trainers asked if they could use my pics or videos on the website or, in one case, in a magazine article.
Never had a problem with it as long as I was asked, it was somebody I knew and respected and it wasn’t by the mean girls clique.
By and large, the benefits of instant video and photos out weigh the possible drawbacks.
Video your own lessons, swollen hocks for vet, asking what tack to use or how to hitch a trailer or taking cute photos… And the social bonding of posting innocent photos is huge. Plus being able to text about times and delays.
The only drawback is if someone is posting in a toxic manner. So you have a policy about that especially if you have a lot of juniors.
And yes, often trainers are their own worst enemies.
Plus if you wanted to do a behind the scenes expose, you could easily get concealed video cameras on your body so no one noticed.
Absolutely. I work in healthcare, I ask for consent for different things at least 10 times per day. Cell phones, pictures/videos, social media, really are things that trainers, parents, and clients should be discussing.
I just assume that wherever I am or whatever I am doing outside the walls of my own home that there is a likelihood that I am being video recorded. Not surveillance of me personally, but that I am in the field of view of someone’s traffic camera, parking lot monitoring camera, business monitoring camera, dash camera, game camera, drone camera, and such. And yes, even my HOA busybodies.
As for riding, there are always going to be folks who are looking for material for their “fails” posts on youtube, and who just record random strangers. It is so easy to do.
My trainer has had the same rule for as long as I’ve known her. She’s had to explain to MANY new parents that no you may not video unless it is YOUR OWN child, and even then, ask Trainer first. You’d be surprised at how many people don’t get why. And no, nothing nefarious going on, just good manners.
I agree. Also, I think there’s a difference between “be respectful and judicious about what you post” versus a demand for a total ban on filming.
Unfortunately, my trainer started with the respectful and judicious request but had to go to the only with permission of those being videoed approach when it became obvious asking nicely was not going to be effective.
Oh God forbid … All the TicTok shorts of them celebrating ‘LOOK AT ME!’ over cross rails. 
There’s a time and place for a video, but I’m not sure belittling kids for accomplishments they’re proud of (as unimpressive as they may be) is the right take here….
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