My journey took over 29yrs* & in my mind, is still not over.
*more if you add in my childhood with school horses & a weekly lesson
Find yourself a better trainer & go from there.
The farthest journey begins with a single stepā¦ 
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Zoom type lessons may work for some but require student provide the horse and tack, a person to take the video as well as an appropriate place to ride with no interruption from other boarders or barn staff. Plus a strong signal.
If you working under the direction of somebody you are paying to direct you, remotely or live, may need to run it by the BO.
The person I was replying to has their own horses, tack and farm.
Was directing the remark to the OP here and others in her situation looking for suggestions.
From my personal experience, cancelling lessons is on of the biggest complaints I have heard from riders and parents of lesson kids. It is a very common issue. I met plenty of parents who were trying out the lesson program where we board because they were tired of the cancellations wherever they came from. The program at our barn will do ground lessons when weather is bad (and people complain about it but come onā¦ what do you expect) and has multiple instructors so that helps but cancellations still happen sometimes.
I find on these boards people seem aware of how difficult it is to run lesson barns but then the advice is always to just find another barn. I donāt know where all these perfect barns that have plenty of openings for new students are! Itās all tall order to find an affordable place that has safe, reliable lesson horses that can jump and flat like school masters, punctual and well organized programs with no cancellations, an indoor and personalized attention. The crappy places donāt have openings for new students around here and barns keep closing. Our program has hundreds of people on the wait list. Good luck!
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Thats all true but nobody said it has to be perfect, just that wasting time and gas money on cancelled lessons more then occasionally makes no sense and theres no reason to continue wasting both.
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That reminds me of a barn I tried out for a couple of months. I was an experienced rider but new to the area so was looking for a place to get some H/J lessons in for fun. The lessons were with a couple of other adults so that was nice but the instructor was always quite late. The jumping never happened eitherāthere was always an excuse. She honestly never really saw any of us ride. Sheād be chatting with other people facing away from the arena and once in awhile would say trot, walk, or canter. Once she literally left in the middle of the lesson to get coffeeāas in got in her car and left. We were stunned.
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Sounds like someone I know. I donāt think she would leave in the middle of a lesson but she was never without her coffee in her hand. Setting jumps? Sheād have her coffee in one hand and set poles with the other. It would take her forever and I kept telling her to put her coffee down and set the jumps. Other students would also tell her that but it was like she didnāt hear you, in one ear, out the other.
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ā¦Are you sure it was just coffee?
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Haha I fell like we must have tried the same barn. I was trying to get bad into riding post- college and tried a local hunter barn. Pretty sure I basically paid this woman to exercise one of her new horses on the flat.
She only watched me long enough to determine I knew enough to not kill myself or harm the horse and promptly went back to gossiping with her pals on the rail. Never received a single correction or bit of instruction aside from a single,half-hearted āheels down.ā
I regret ever paying her for this āprivate lesson.ā She was lucky I was young and naĆÆve. On the plus side, it did drive me to start dressage at the second trainer I tried which I love!
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omg, same! Only I stayed for more than two years at a barn like this! Okay, the instructor didnāt leave with coffee (and it was definitely coffee). But yes, basically like a supervised pony ride in a ring with as many people as could pay, on horses of questionable soundness and ability to do the job they were asked.
In some ways, I am living this dilemma, but in a different wayāmy current instructor cancels a great deal, because the barn is so busy and boarder lessons and horses in training have first priority (itās not a lesson barn, but private lessons on a schoolmaster). But the barn I left, which more reliably had lesson openings, had nonexistent instruction and general other chaos (camps/breeding program/kids/breaking down facilities).
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She didnāt drink so Iām pretty sure it was just coffee but she should have gotten a triple shot as she was so slow.
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Hmm, were you my next door neighbor in the condo I moved into? We were both fresh out of college. After I gave up on that barn I finally ran into my neighbor one day and in chatting we found out we had both tried out that barn and had similar experiences. She also tried leasing a horse there but gave up when the owner asked her to light incense on the stall door for the horse after every ride. Was that you 
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haha no crazy incense requests in my past! I never returned to the barn with the least-engaged hunter trainer ever.
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I have the flip side:
I was taking a lesson and a BAD thunderstorm rolled in. I mean, the power was flashing on and off! I asked my trainer if we shouldnāt quit and she said āNo, your horse isnāt frightened, is he?ā (Amazing that he wasnāt! Not my horse, a school horse.)
Finally, the lights went out for good AND the tornado sirens went off! I said again, shouldnāt we quit and take cover? No, no, said trainer and she sent assistant trainer OUTSIDE TO WATCH FOR FUNNEL CLOUDS!
In retrospect, I donāt know why I didnāt just dismount and leave-- I think at the time I knew it was too dangerous to drive in the storm and I didnāt want to face trainerās wrath. I did ultimately change barns for other reasons, though!
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In my experience, instructors who frequently cancel lessons for no good reason are very adamant about having lessons when no sane person would want to be riding, depending on how the instructorās financial situation is looking that month.
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@tikihorse, that is one for the āthis is what you find among horse peopleā books! Wow. Posting a lookout for funnel clouds? Ummā¦ kā¦
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@AllSport, thatās quite an experience! Isnāt riding fun? Got in her car and leftā¦ uh, was that a caffeine emergency? Whereās the fruitbat, indeed! At least it was a group of you, so that a) no you did not make this up, and b)itās a funny story, at the end of the day, and a shared experience, yeah! Wow. How do these people stay in business?
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