yeah I think we all try to be nice to minors on here
we all know kid and trainer are probs well suited and the parents’ budget reflects reality
there is nothing for us to contribute.
its just a circle jerk here of us being morbidly curious/ trying to steer a kid into the reality of their situation and skill level – ain’t gonna happen - 12 - 17 years olds aren’t super self aware…
I am looking for advice. I dont want my demands to be validated, I just want people to tell me how I should tackle this. You do not know my budget, but it is around that.
There seems to be a huge mismatch between your riding goals and your (main?) trainer.
You mention having a second trainer - what does this person think and why do you have 2 trainers?
I recommend not riding with this trainer and talking to your parents about a more appropriate trainer and program if cost allows.
This is the best advice I have seen here, although most of it is extremely valid. How much do you show? Could the reason be that the trainer thinks you would be better suited to a smaller quieter ‘cow pony’ type than a hot warmblood or OTTB? Just throwing it out there.
You say you jump 3 foot 3. Do you mean as a one off or do you ride a course? Have you shown at 3 foot 3? If so what kind of horse did you ride? How did it place?
How long have you been riding? What’s your competition record? What level of show?
What do the other clients at your barn do?
Reading between the lines, my guess is you are an advanced beginner and likely not jumping over 2 foot 6, and not competing beyond the local circuit of at all. You are at a beginner type lesson barn leading random horses. You would like to buy your Big Time Horse now to have some fun in your junior years before college.
My guess is you aren’t ready for the Big Time Horse and a 3 foot 3 plus WB would likely jump you out of the tack. My guess is a solid Appendix or English style Appie is exactly the stepping stone you need to start putting together courses and developing as a rider.
If any of my assumptions here are incorrect, please correct me by describing your competition record.
Too many variables here:
When you say “cow pony” - do you mean a horse trained to move cattle, or a QH/ stock type.
You say you show jumpers and eq- the last time you showed (I know it’s been a bit) what height class did you enter, and what level of show?
Do you know your parents budget (please, you don’t need to share it with us), or do you only have an idea of a ballpark?
Is your trainer a “lesson barn” or a “show barn”?
How old are you?
Lest you think we sound jaded, we have lived through a LOT of kids on this board, usually with some version of: 13-14 year old kid in a lesson barn, maybe they’re the “best” rider there, maybe they school the schoolies, has been to a few shows in “jumpers/ eq”- aka low level/ schooling shows where the highest division is 2’6" and it doesn’t usually fill, is jumping 3’3" at home, yet the standards only go to 2’6" and the trainer doesn’t know about oxers.
I jump 3’3 coursing. Ive been jumping that for at least 6 months consistently. I go to two barns, an established show barn and a lesson barn because the show barn is 1hr30 minutes away. I showed at B level but I want to move up. Ive been riding for 10 years, and have leased for 5 of those years. I haven’t had the privilege of finding a horse who can jump over 3’3, which is why im looking to buy instead of leasing. I ride warmbloods most of the time in my lessons, and in my leases as well. (when I was little I rode ponies but that was a while ago).
Im not saying im an awesome rider who is going to the Grand Prix soon but I am ready for the next step
Sorry for the confusion!
1.) I mean stock types
2.) I showed last August (long time!) outside of IEA and I did the 2’9
3.) budget is 50k-60k
4.) I go to a lesson barn (closer to my house) and a show barn (farther from my house)
5.) Im 16
Sorry if Im sounding immature, I didn’t mean to come off that way.
Troll?
Im not a troll? huh??
Thank you everyone who contributed! I really appreciate it. I am going to express my goals more clearly to my trainer and also get another opinion.
Ok so you go occasionally to the higher level barn that’s at a distance but your “home barn” is a lower level lesson barn near by.
You cannot expect your low end local barn to support the level of riding that you see at the show barn.
What level of riding is going on at your local lesson barn? What kind of horses? You are going to top out at what everyone else is doing because that’s all the barn can do. This may be an excellent place to get a strong foundation but they cannot and will not be able to take you to the level of the show barn. You can’t just buy a “better horse” and succeed there.
Once you buy a horse you need to have it at one barn where you can commit to lessons, training as needed, and your trainers program. If you keep Mr Big Time at the lesson barn, are you going to spend all day Saturday shipping him out to lessons at show barn? Unlikely.
So you need to find a show barn closer to where you live, that can support your goals. Find that barn and have that trainer help you shop.
If there really and truly is no show barn within half an hour of your house, then you are pretty much stuck and you are not going to be doing 3 foot 3 Equitation as a junior. It sucks, but that’s reality
With which trainer - the one who doesn’t like WBs, or the other one?
since you’re a minor, what is your parental involvement? Are they horsey at all, or just funding your hobby? That isn’t meant to address the trainer’s lack of love of WBs, but it might give some more info to help you out.
Either way, it’s your (parents) money, your horse, your decision, and in the end, you really do need a trainer on board with you to help you vet a potential purchase for its suitability to your current level of experience and the horse’s ability to take you where you want to go in your timeframe
Assuming your parents are funding your leases and lessons, and if they have any reasonable involvement in this outside of that, they may need to be the one to sit down with the trainer to discuss things civilly and objectively and find out not only where the disconnect is, but why
thank you. I go to show barn 3 times a week but I could probably go more often. You bring up good points not only about the horse but about the facility.
please don’t think we are trying to rain on your parade, but we are trying to see if your expectations are realistic or a pipe dream. You are asking good questions, but the answers you are getting are truly what you need to seriously think about. Good luck with your search.
Good last post by Scribbler, I missed that one she replied to. Now it makes more sense why your local trainer is pushing you the wrong direction. That isn’t the trainer to help you find your horse. My WAG on the local trainer is perhaps they don’t have the ability to manage a horse like you want, not in terms of size and/or temperament
Where were you leasing these other WBs you’d been riding? Local barn or show barn?
Here is what I would tell your parents: I hope you are very comfortably wealthy. You have just a couple years before college to make this fancy horse show dream happen before you are saddled (heh) with an expensive to maintain, rapidly depreciating asset.
There is absolutely no guarantee your child will want to ride into college or have the time and energy to do so even if they want it. Riding teams at universities are rapidly disappearing.
Please advise your kid to lease something fancy for the next 2 years, study hard in a lucrative career track in college, and/or marry rich/learn to manage their inherited assets.
OP, I’ll reiterate that posters are going to be pretty skeptical due to history here, but almost everyone has the best intentions. Since you’re a minor, keeping identifying details out of here is VERY important, but does add to some of the questions.
Anyways, you need a different trainer than the lesson barn. Someone above nailed it when they said you can’t just buy a $50k hunter and hope to do well while boarding and training at a local lesson place. The training could even be high quality - but horse showing (especially 3’6” where you’re almost guaranteed to have to show USEF/USHJA rated) is a whole different beast. You don’t have to ride at Heritage, but you need an established program doing what you want.
If you’re 16, you have 2-3 Junior years left. If being competitive is your goal, you need to find a program that aligns with your goals and budget (and realize one of these may have to shift to make it happen). I’d highly recommend leasing for your junior years through a nice show barn - that $50-$60k budget could get you two years on something decent, safe, and FUN.
Why are you even at the other barn at all? Do you have to be there because of IEA - most high level show barns that cater to juniors support IEA competing - they may not host shows or offer their horses, but your coach generally supports the endeavor. Source: 3 juniors who also did Big Eq in SoCal rode IEA in high school simultaneously. Unless the rules changed in the last 5 years…
If you’re 3x a week at the show barn - what do you do there? Most show barns of the level you’re describing don’t have lesson horses, so are you already leasing there?
If you’re 16 and not in NY or NJ, you’re driving independently so I am not clear if it is your parents preventing you from riding full time a the show barn? Why? If budget is max $60,000 and theyre ready to foot the showing and training bill for said horse then I would imagine they would financially support full time at show barn.
Too many holes in this story … I know it is probably a saga to write out for us, but without context this situation is sort of not very believable.
At 16 I was driving myself to fancy dressage barn 6 days a week, riding at 6am in the lighted indoor before school at 7:45am where I took enough AP classes to graduate early undergrad in 3 years. I paid for riding myself at this time with summer golf jobs and restaurant gigs. I know very okay, millennial of me, I get the cost is different now to support oneself, but I am alluding to the problem solving aspect. It was 2006 - the internet was helpful THEN and even more so now. Which is why I guess you’re asking here, but call barns - get a price sheet, make a powerpoint for your parents with all the info, create a budget in Google Sheets, list out the goals, the pros and the cons of the barns…
Doesn’t feel like problem solving of a 16 year old with access to horsey TikTok and Insta…
Like this is way more fun to work on than say college applications which you’ll have already started possibly - I was a bit young for my year didn’t turn 18 until 3 weeks before starting university, so I was 16 when doing college apps independently again in 2006 on newly NON dial up internet for sure
I am “pals” as much of pals a 33 year old can be with a few generally around 16 year olds at my current (and previous) barn(s). Based on my small sample size (about 10 juniors of varying income levels - one is a working student while in a scholarship based charter school program) … you don’t read as 16 in this thread and perhaps thats why you’re in the situation that you’re in now with trainer who is pushing stock horses.
Communicate your budget, your goals, your plan. Then negotiate or take your (parents’) business elsewhere.
I really like fivestrideline’s input here.
I just wanted to point out that decades ago, I DID ride a 15.3 hand QH in the 3’6" Junior Hunter divisions, and jumper divisions, in my local A circuit shows, very successfully. And knew some very talented appies, both hunters AND jumpers. And competed against some very successful QHs in the 4’6’ and 5’ jumper divisions with my TB jumper. Several TOP hunters and jumpers I knew and competed against were anglo arabs (who even TRIES them now???) Horses who would still be competitive today, if offered the opportunity. I bred, raised, broke and sold a half TB buckskin appy mare who competed successfully across North America in the hunter divisions in the mid 1980s, and she also would be hard to beat today, if someone gave one like her a chance these days. Don’t be “breed blind”. If you have $1,000,000 to spend, buy whatever breed you want. If you don’t have $1,000,000 to flush down the toilet on a horse… shop around. Every kid who is NOT rich should have the experience of bringing on an OTTB as a show hunter or jumper. Even if that horse isn’t going to the Olympics. The kid probably isn’t going to the Olympics either. The “mileage” and experience gained at a rider’s early age is extremely valuable. And there is no other way to get that experience except by doing it. All the kiddies used to get an OTTB when they turned 14 years old. Their parents went to the local racetrack, and bought one, brought it home, and the kid started learning to ride and train it. Often worked out really well. The result was riders who turned into trainers in their own right. I didn’t get that situation… I got a long yearling TB colt when I was 12 that had come back from the TB sale not reaching is $1500 reserve, he was green broke and ridden 5 times by our race trainer family friend the following summer, and from then on it was my job to ride and train, at home, alone, when I was 13, and he was 2 1/2. And from there, we went on to the Grand Prix jumper division (locally).
So… there ARE other options than just running out and spending a whack of money on a fully trained WB. I just wanted to point that out. Sorry, back to your regular programming.
You should buy the horse that you want - if everything works out well, this horse could be your partner for 20+ years.
After I bought my first horse from my trainer, I had to part ways with the trainer because we disagreed on the approach to training. You can still respect your coach but have a different opinion. And when you become a horse owner, it is vital to follow your gut rather than give in to outside pressure when it comes to horse care.
I suggest you have an in-person conversation with your trainer to tell her why you value her professional expertise and would like to hire her to help you find an appropriate warmblood. Ask her straight out if she is willing to put aside her personal preferences to help you. If her answer is no, then go find a horse yourself and then determine if she’s still the right trainer for you.
25 years ago I trained my first horse using mostly books and videos since I couldn’t find a coach in my area who agreed with my approach to training, and was affordable. It was sometimes a hard and lonely slog, but I ended up with a top-notch horse who is endlessly loyal. Don’t be afraid to go it alone if you can’t find the right support team. Good luck!
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