We have a local “FEI” trainer that does this. Trains the horses, but they get posted for sale by various online connections who don’t cite who the trainer is.
I thought that was an interesting business choice, particularly when your skill in training should be adding value to the listed horse?
Are you serious?
He’s certainly moving his hind end abnormally in the first few clips. He looks sounder in the video he got beat in. It’s a shame when horses are passed around with undiagnosed (or sometimes even diagnosed) body complaints.
Does anyone know if the newer video is available anywhere other than Tiktok?
I don’t believe so, as it was made specifically for TikTok by someone.
I looked at the posters FB account and it’s pretty locked down to non-public viewing, if she has posted it there.
Maybe someone can screen record for you and upload here?
I might be able to later.
FWIW, you don’t have to have a TikTok account to open the link. It will just open in a browser, though I understand if you don’t want to do that.
Thanks for checking. On my phone, it redirects immediately to the app store to download TikTok and doesn’t seem to allow me any other options.
Same here, when I used to be able to open and view.
Darn! It didn’t used to do that!
I’ll try and get it screen recorded in a bit.
Same with FB. I don’t have an account, but I used to be able to view public pages, but now I have to sign in to view. Boo social media!!
I don’t have TikTok. I wasn’t able to see the video when I was on my phone but could get to it once I was on my laptop browser.
Heads up, it replays the beating clip A LOT. Even with the text overlaid as the story is narrated, it’s tough to watch.
Back in the olden days, I rode badly to a fence and my horse stopped. The instructor told me to hit her and I refused, because it was my fault, and she had basically saved my sorry a$$. “Hit yourself, then!” I gave myself a little halfhearted smack on the boot and rode better the next time.
Pretty bad, when a young teen can discern better than the instructor when smacking a horse is appropriate.
Also, reasons why people stay with a bad instructor include the instructor convincing them that no one else is capable of helping them or their horse, and that anyone who says otherwise is lying.
The same was told to me by several different trainers. Hit the horse if it stops because no matter what the rider is doing the horse should keep going. 
Personally I’d like my horse to have a sense of self preservation and NOT jump if I stupidly ride up to an impossibly long distance. Or bury the horse so bad it would take a Herculean effort to jump.
My mare has an incredibly small range of acceptable distances and you better not lean up the neck even at a perfect distance. But I’d rather that than jumping from anywhere, even if it kills us.
My horse slammed on the brakes at a schooling show the first year we were properly jumping (read: actually trying to put courses together). He did that because I screwed him up so royally that he went “There is absolutely no reasonable distance here, Mom, I can’t.” I patted him on the neck, steered him out, came back around, and he went over the fence no questions asked. Didn’t matter that it was 2’, didn’t matter that it was the jumpers and there are no points for style, he was not getting in trouble and I was not risking either of us for a 50-cent ribbon (especially when he was just there to get some exposure).
The judge was talking to my barn owner after and told her that she really appreciated seeing that response from me as opposed to me getting after him with my crop (which I do carry in the show ring more for a quick tap on the shoulder if he wants to drop it right in front of a fence than anything else). I look at it as, I run XC on this animal. I want him to tell me no when he doesn’t feel he can do something safely. I’d want that even if there weren’t solid fences involved, and I’ll never scold him for saving both of us. He tries his best even when the distances are funny so if he’s telling me no I know it’s because he truly does not see anything there.
It’s just sad that this is still a “solution” that people rely on when it’s absolutely useless for anything other than scaring the horse in 99.9% of cases. I might get mad at myself for riding badly but I’m never going to blame that on my horse. It just means I need to do a better job, and also accept that some days just aren’t our day because my horse is a horse and he’s going to react to things sometimes regardless of what I do.
This 100%, I have a saint of a horse, who has saved my behind many a time (including shoving me back in the saddle when I was fully hanging onto his neck) sometimes he says no and I’m so thankful for those times, even when I fall off because he usually says “yes”. The no’s mean he didn’t see it, and is saving himself or myself from an accident. I used to want a horse with zero stop, when my current eventer is ready for retirement (which I have promised to retire him sound) I want a horse that will say no if it’s not right - it’s making me a better rider. I was however trained that “the safest place to be is the other side of the fence” and to get there no matter the means.
Listening to our horses is so important - they are communicating with us all the time and we owe it to them to listen.
There are two opposing schools of thought, that I have observed when it comes to training riders and horses.
The idea that you’re training the horse to perform, almost regardless of the rider.
vs.
The idea that you’re training the rider to perform, so that they can pilot almost any horse.
Most people want to show (and win) before they can get to the latter stage, as it takes awhile to get good enough to be able to not make horrific mistakes. So - trainers train horses in ways that they’ll make up for their riders mistakes.
When I was a young aspiring pro, I was exercising a horse for a not-so-good ammy rider. I am not handsy (in fact, I’m whatever the opposite of it is, not always good, but I lean toward too soft a rein at times). Rider was handsy. Her horse was GREAT for me, but when she got back on, her horse no longer appreciated the ride that her owner was giving her and began to complain.
Thankfully, I had the opportunity to ride with her normal trainer (who was about an hour away, so we only trained with her occasionally) and I will never forget her telling me that if I was going to exercise said amateur’s horse, I needed to ride like said amateur.
It was a practicality. Horse needed to tolerate a very different ride than I was giving it, and unfortunately when given a less “handsy” ride, horse stopped tolerating the ride it’s owner gave it.
I don’t know that a trainer picks one philosophy or the other and sticks with it so much as it’s a practical consideration. Some riders are just never going to be talented enough, and some don’t ever really want to put in the work to become so. But they still want to show, and they still want to win. The trainer then has to walk a fine line of training the horse and the person in a way that will work.
I think when you think of it as “this horse needs to perform regardless of the rider’s error”, it leaves more room for abuse to occur. But I do understand why trainers might think that the philosophy is valid (not necessarily abuse, but the philosophy that the horse must make up for the rider’s error).
I’d prefer my horses to tell me when I’ve screwed up, but I hope that they do so in a non-dangerous way. It’s hard when one overreacts to a screwup.
There were two comments on the tiktok video from prior owners/lessors. Both mention this was a known trick of the horse. One said it only did that at home when fresh and that the horse took her to her first Capital Challenge and was perfect at shows. Both were expressing sadness and distress at the situation the horse ended up in.
I can’t imagine seeing a horse I used to ride and going viral for that kind of treatment. I’d be heartbroken.
Literally someone I wouldn’t trust to care for a pet rock, nevermind my expensive horse.
Had anyone else seen the Erin Ballard footage that’s going around?
More disappointing and disturbing behaviour.
Saw that yesterday and unfortunately not surprised.
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