They are kids. It makes sense to them. Does not mean it will make sense to anyone else.
My guess is they are trying to convince the trainer that the pony does not need to be leased and should be used in lessons because they all want to ride this pony.
This is what kids do. Ask repeatedly hoping to wear down the adult. I was successful at it a time or two with my own parents but most of the time it backfired. I was wise to my kids and they never really tried as I was able to ignore them when they did it.
Hopefully your instructor will say no enough and turn a deaf ear and they will wise up and move on. I would not leave my tack out where they could get to it.
Hopefully it wonât work in this case, but if the annoy-to-death tactic never worked, we wouldnât have the expression âthe squeaky wheel gets the grease.â
Totally! I can see how this would make sense in some Saddle Club-on-acid discussion in the tack room. I doubt most of the kids care that much that the offended child has lost the ability to ride this pony, reallyâthey just want to âhelpâ her, because itâs a fun game to play, trying to put one over on a grown-up. I mean, nothing in the kidâs bullying behavior makes sense.
The description of the pony as a mare who needs a period of very firm, clear direction in the saddle from an single adult leasing her, rather than timid and inconsistent signals from a series of different lesson kids DOES make sense to me, however.
Hopefully, the kid will find another horse to fixate on, soon. Until then, document, lock up everything you can, and watch your back.
Hey, now! It could be Antonio Banderas weâre talking about here. Antonio can leave as many notes as he wants 
If itâs Ramin Karimloo lurking in the catacombs of the barn, of course, I would have a slightly different attitude!
Ramin Karimloo is acceptable. He can leave notes if he wants. 
Heâs great in Les Miz, too.
Idk. Antonio is just 
to me. I guess itâs the whole virtuosic classical guitar player thing heâs got going on. [SwoonâŠ] He also utters quite possibly the greatest music teacher line of all time in Desperado: âPractice this. Every day. All day.â Itâs what we all want to say to students but would probably get in trouble for 
OP, I hope things calm down soon. This is the kind of situation where the trainer(s) set the tone for the whole barn. Hopefully, their authority is solid enough in the eyes of these kids to bring them in check.
Well, I suppose that is some effort at logic, even if not great logic. I can only assume that if a barn gives a partial lease on a school horse it isnât about money and/or the lease is the better deal. As said above - having a more confident rider put in more consistent rides on her, she will be a better lesson pony for the other half of her time. Win-win for the barn. But I suppose kids donât think that way. And/or the trainer(s) have said âwell no one wanted to ride, herâŠâ as the explanation.
(Instead of âsheâs witchy because she gets ridden too often by kids who arenât very good.â)
Itâs totally a win-win for the barn, because they have a leaser who is more skilled, thus getting some extra training for the mare while still pulling in income, and the leaser will soon even be riding in what is probably a better fitting saddle than a lesson saddle.
Unless a barn is totally unethical, thereâs a limit to how much you can use a lesson horse that simply wonât play (refuses, stops, parks off the rail, breaks gait at the slightest provocation). In group lessons especially (again, at an ethical barn) it can be disruptive to have an uncooperative horse in lessons.
Also, some horses like consistency. Itâs possible this pony will never be a lesson warhorse and will always be a better fit for a part-lease and more occasional lessons with a small handful of riders.
But the kid doesnât see it that way. Expecting a kid to say, âthis adult is a more competent rider than me because of age/riding more, and is a better fit for my favorite ponyâ is not going to happen, at least not without some adult prompting and discussion (the trainer, not the poor leaser pulled into all this). Thereâs a reason in so many bad kidâs horse books the heroine is often a beginner-ish rider who gets on the pony in secret no one else can tame and wins the special competition.
Iâm glad you talked to the trainer and the trainer did a good job managing the situation.
In the future though:
Girl. You are a grown ass woman. Do NOT let some teenage bull crap affect you in any way, shape or form. As a high school teacher, I realize that I have more contact with teenagers than most. Maybe I just have an air of âdonât F with me?â Master the resting b face (of which I am champion).
I actually do think there is something positive about being kind to these types. You just always say hi, how are you? Etc. and eventually it starts to mean something. Like fake it until you make it? I have definitely said Good Morning or Hi student! to kids that are skipping my class and it does help. At the very least, in your situation, theyâll know you arenât taking that crap.
I think you need to channel your inner boss mare. Youâre not in a herd with these brats, but if you were, youâd be calling the shots. Maybe your new lease horse can teach you how to cop an attitude.
Youâve walked in on her doing it?
Maybe itâs because Iâm a veteran high school teacher of 20 years, but I would have stopped the little darling right in the act and asked her just what she was doing. If she walked out without responding, Iâd go straight to the person responsible for the ponyâs tack and explain what Iâd just witnessed the girl doing.
I donât tolerate foolishness from children. I remember when I was a teenager, one of the girls at the barn where I rode got her feelings hurt because one of the boarders said something less-than-flattering about the pony she rode. The boarder was a grown man (a doctor) and his comment was in jest and not meant to be taken seriously. The girl was in âdrama modeâ though and so her revenge for this harmless quip about her pony was to take bubble gum and smear it all over the underside of the boarderâs expensive saddle. The boarder didnât waste time with the kid, he went straight to the barn owner who found out from the rest of us barn kids who did it (we werenât too fond of the girl as she was prone to things like this), and then her parents were brought in to address the situation and right the wrong.
Iâd say the same needs to be done with your teenage drama queen. Call her out on her misbehavior, get the barn owner/instructor/whoever involved, and the girlâs parents need to be told that her behavior is dangerous, disrespectful, and cannot continue.
ETA: Ah, I see itâs been handled. Good. Teenagers are weirdos. I love them and enjoy teaching them, but they defy logic on a regular basis, LOL.
Sorry this is happening.
I had a somewhat similar situation years ago. I worked at a riding school on weekends for extra money, and my boss asked if I could ride the horses for him too when he got new ones for the school. There was one honey there who I fell absolutely in love with handling every day. No one ever rode him so I asked my co workers about him and they said he was just bad like a pony so he wasnât able to used in lessons. I decided this guy was my next project while working here and started riding him every day.
My boss gave me the OK to bring him in during the day when I worked (it was winter and he lived out and it was very cold in this city) so I could take his blankets off and let him sleep. I grew really attached to him.
Anyways, after a few weeks the barn rats decided they were all about him now, and wanted to ride him. Every day someone else was asking for him to be used in lesson, and so every day I was hoping I would get my ride on him and not the kids. Obviously it was his job there to eventually be a lesson pony so I couldnât complainâŠinstead I bought him
It was a glorious day, when no one else could steal my honey from me anymore. Itâs just so funny how not a single person had interest in him until someone else showed some first. Sounds like what happened here.
well since saddle club was mentionedâŠmaybe Chris Hemsworth will show up
Probably trainer here could use a little self help learning how to manage tweens if the kid and her posse argue with her about her decisions on who they ride. Bit of a yellow flag here. No should mean no and constantly challenging instructor decisions or demanding further justification for those decisions can lead to an unhappy barn environment and lesson structure for all clients.
Is there a senior trainer/instructor there in case this does not improve?
Advice-wise I donât have much to add. (Other than perhaps reinforcement: no, really, this is not ok and you donât need to play their games!)
I do want to say thanks for coming back and posting an update. It doesnât always happen!
Yes, itâs good to know trainer nipped this in the butt! Hope things look better for you OP and the teen drama queen learns her lesson and leaves you alone.
The prefrontal cortex of the human brain isnât fully developed until age 25 or so. Neuroplasticity is a key part of why kids & teens can learn new things so much more quickly than the over-30 crowd. You also have to factor in lack of life experience & knowledge imparted through natural consequence. Nature intended for teens to be weird 
Politely disagree - I am the master of RBF 
Added bonus I also have RBV (voice) so I always sounds disappointed or harpyish. I actually make a point of introducing myself to new dispatchers so that they know I am not mad, itâs just my voice . I overheard two direct reports talking to a new squadmate saying, paraphrased, âshe sounds angry a lot, but she really isnât,â âyeah, youâll definitely know if she is actually angry, which is still basically never, but youâll definitely know.â I think itâs from my hearing loss??? Iâm guessing??? Since I had to have speech therapy as a kid, maybe they needed to work on tone in addition to hitting those hard Ts and bringing the lips together for Ms and Bs, because I always thought I sounded normal and didnât know about my RBV until my mid-30s 
And now Iâm stuck with it!!
Dear god he is young!
Is there a senior trainer/instructor there in case this does not improve?
Not really but the original instructor holds an authority in the group and I believe it should hold. Plus people in general try to be very polite either clients or school workers as a rule of establishment (that is why it was treated as out of place situation).
Very similar indeed! 
Glad that you bought him 
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