Honestly, meup, why do you do it? The majority of your posts are so angry, vitriolic, and foul-mouthed that it sounds as though you are not having a happy life. 
As a lawyer, you must make a decent salary, so why not just enjoy your own horses and let people who do horses for a living fill the void?
[QUOTE=Spiritwalker;7103952]
You’ve had an issue with CH for years now. Get over it.[/QUOTE]
Either you’re making this up or have a problem stalking people’s posts. You need to Get over it…not to mention that your “$40” comment to meup was really rude and uncalled for.
Well if the local trainers can’t teach dressage properly then where are we to learn?
I was lucky enough to attend a Peter Kjellerup clinic back in the mid-90’s. He got on my horse and installed a right lead canter depart on her (permanently) in less than 15 minutes. Before that lesson I could only get the right lead canter about 50 per cent of the time, even if she was perfectly straight. A total coin toss. None of the local trainers had the skill or the knowledge to really help with the issue.
[QUOTE=Eclectic Horseman;7103887]
I note that Post #130 purported to be from CHS herself. In that post she shouted, “Since I cannot train them all, SEND ME THEIR TRAINERS, I DO NOT CARE HOW ADVANCED THEY ARE. IF THEY ARE TEACHING, THEY SHOULD BE LEARNING. All trainers need to learn good basics and teach good basics. Let me be helpful to them. I cannot teach any more than I am already teaching. I cannot put any more energy or passion into making people learn. So send me the riders who will teach other riders and my skills and time will be put to the best use.”
Who the hell is she talking about that is supposed to be doing the “SENDING?” (and with whose money?)[/QUOTE]
See, I didn’t infer the same thing from CHS’s comment as you. I did not interpret it to mean that she was using the word “send” to suggest that students pay for their trainers to attend her clinic. I thought it was a blanket invitation to get them to come. So, CHS is really the only person who can tell us for sure what she meant. I can’t speak for her. 
[QUOTE=suzy;7103957]
Honestly, meup, why do you do it? The majority of your posts are so angry, vitriolic, and foul-mouthed that it sounds as though you are not having a happy life. As a lawyer, you must make a decent salary, so why not just enjoy your own horses and let people who do horses for a living fill the void?[/QUOTE]
Add yourself to the list of people who are more than happy to treat other people like sh*t. A+ for you!
Thank you for your contribution.
[QUOTE=SnicklefritzG;7103964]
@suzy…go take a chill pill or have a beer.[/QUOTE]
Haha. I actually feel quite chill. I’m just making an observation from having read many of Meup’s posts. She appears to be very a disenfranchised person, and that’s sad. I was in the same place for a while and made a couple of important life changes, and that’s made all the difference.
I don’t see anything wrong with meup’s posts on this thread.
I’ve seen this before though- if you can’t debate the issue, then attack the other person for their so called sad miserable life?. LOL.
[QUOTE=Crockpot;7103994]
I don’t see anything wrong with meup’s posts on this thread.
I’ve seen this before though- if you can’t debate the issue, then attack the other person for their so called sad miserable life?. LOL.[/QUOTE]
Ding ding ding!!! We have a winner!!!
Dressage Curmudgeon had a similar blog post some time ago… and it was hilarious.
http://dressagecurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2012/06/curmudgeonyou-have-spent-lot-of-time.html
Jan Ebeling (yes, THAT Jan Ebeling) will be doing just that in a clinic in my area later this month. Will it be only lower level riders? No, but there will be a few. Maybe the difference between him (likewise WAZ and CdK, to name a few) and Ms. Haddad is that Jan might just be interested in helping lower level riders get that better foundation that Ms. Haddad can only complain is lacking.
If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.
[QUOTE=Eclectic Horseman;7103887]
I note that Post #130 purported to be from CHS herself. In that post she shouted, “Since I cannot train them all, SEND ME THEIR TRAINERS, I DO NOT CARE HOW ADVANCED THEY ARE. IF THEY ARE TEACHING, THEY SHOULD BE LEARNING. All trainers need to learn good basics and teach good basics. Let me be helpful to them. I cannot teach any more than I am already teaching. I cannot put any more energy or passion into making people learn. So send me the riders who will teach other riders and my skills and time will be put to the best use.”
Who the hell is she talking about that is supposed to be doing the “SENDING?” (and with whose money?)[/QUOTE]
I think what she means to convey with this statement is that it will do more good for the system overall if she and people like her teach 10 trainers, who then can go teach their 10 students. Whereas if she teaches the 10 students directly, that’s ultimately 90 less riders that benefit from the education.
I don’t think she means to be providing a clear logistical outline for who should do the sending, or the funding. I don’t think it matters to her whether the trainer is paying to go, the student is paying for the trainer to go, the trainer has a sponsoring company, or we all have a nationwide bake sale for trainer education.
She’s just trying to point out that training-the-trainers is ultimately a numbers game that benefits the greatest number of riders.
I do all those things you listed for the category that applies to me, and most of my riding friends and the people I’ve known do them to the best of their financial abilities, too. I’ve known way more people that (for example) wanted to get lunge lessons but had no access than people who thought they were too good for the lunge, but maybe they just pretend to be that way when they talk to me and are different in their interactions with their trainers. I can be naïve sometimes.
On your point about picking trainers, I think one of the challenges when it comes to picking trainers, especially for beginners who need to learn these basic skills, is that they simply don’t have the experience or the eye or the resources to know how to judge Trainer A from Trainer B. For people who haven’t grown up around horses, it’s not necessarily intuitive, and for people who aren’t dressage-savvy, they may not know about something like centerline scores or even how to interpret what they see if they did. For people coming from a different discipline, their eyes are attuned to a different look and they won’t necessarily know to look for things that can vary discipline-to-discipline, like the draw reins you mentioned. Plus there are lots of marketingy things trainers can do to sound more skilled than they are. Not to mention that the best trainer for one horse/rider combo may be wildly different from the best trainer for a different horse/rider combo, and neither trainer may be available to a rider who hasn’t yet purchased a horse if said trainers don’t have school horses. And by the time these folks have developed an eye for these things and learned enough to question the quality of their trainer, they may already have ingrained poor habits that will be that much harder to fix, thereby prolonging the time they spend learning the basics.
This is why I really support a more robust certification program, but if that doesn’t work out for various reasons (and I understand trainers are financially beyond strapped), then overall train-the-trainer programs – especially if offered at budget-friendly costs – could be very beneficial as a rising tide to help lift all ships. Personally, I’d be happy to help pay for that kind of thing, even if I couldn’t ride in it myself.
CH’s blog may be a little bit of a hard pill to swallow in some ways and perhaps a different tone may have helped her form a more persuasive argument, but she does raise a valid point that’s important to discuss. Setting aside the negativity in the blog, trainers are the bedrock of dressage education in this country, so what can and should be done to better support and develop that resource pool?
Even if I could roll the clock back and be young fit and riding to my max which was Good 4 th level …having watched her warm up and compete she personally would be my last resort to ride with and even then a not…and this editorial validates the colossal ego and elitist attitude…hmmm wonder if she was GP as a start out?…
Lisa Wilcox is another one who is incredibly patient with all levels of rider.
I’m sure she would never post a blog saying how dare those people who paid me for a clinic last weekend show up and disrespect me in that way. She’s a professional.
AGain, since people don’t seem to read very well, There is nothing wrong with limiting clinics to certain criteria BUT obviously you have to let the organizer know that ahead of time. Simple.
There is no one standing by with funds to ‘send’ trainers to clinics in most peoples’ reality.
Publish your requirements and then good luck with your clinics.
Foot stamping won’t change anything.
[QUOTE=TickleFight;7104011]
Dressage Curmudgeon had a similar blog post some time ago… and it was hilarious.
http://dressagecurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2012/06/curmudgeonyou-have-spent-lot-of-time.html[/QUOTE]
thank you. that was hysterical. :lol:
Trickle down education
She says herself that her strength is in developing GP HORSES.
Why does she think that makes HER the right person to teach INSTUCTORS how to teach the basics better to RIDERS?
A COMPLETELY different set of skills.
It sounds to me as if she needs to advertise her clinics as “for rders proficient at 2nd level and above.”
whoa…how did I miss this thread a few months back?
Seems she has a history of insulting people… :uhoh:
[QUOTE=wcporter;7104119]
whoa…how did I miss this thread a few months back?
Seems she has a history of insulting people… :uhoh:[/QUOTE]
Oh wow.
Looks like I was really remiss in my alleged vendetta I have had against CH for years considering how I seized that opportunity to say exactly nothing.
[QUOTE=Anonymity;7104065]
Trickle down education[/QUOTE]
Yeah, we know how well that’s work with the economy. Not.
