true to a point
It is crappy that you ony hear the stories once you got burned badly.
That is just wrong.
As tight knit as the community is, there should be no room for those bad apples at all!
There should be a voice for these abuse victims outside of internet forums!
This! What is with that mind set? (And frankly, you see it here on COTH quite a bit.) The idea that a kid canāt even take riding lessons without learning to pull a mud-caked horse from a paddock and thoroughly grooming it first, because āthatās what real horsemen/women doāā¦etc.
A lot of āI rode anything and everything I couldā¦and worked at the barn every minute I wasnāt in school.ā Many (most?) barns wonāt allow this anymore because of insurance reasons anyway.
[And, I mention the mud-caked horse because that argument was applied to me - as an adult lesson student when I complained about it here on COTH. I was called āentitledā because I didnāt think I should have to pay for the privilege of spending 60 minutes to groom a horse before I could take my lesson. (Meanwhile, I have a barn of muddy horses at home - Iām good, thanks!)]
Wanting to become a competent and competitive rider should not require indentured slavery, bullying, or harassment. From the trainer, other students, or those who experienced it themselves.
I saw a meme recently that said something to the effect of āIf you think others should experience bullying because you did - and you turned out ok, suggests that you didnāt turn out ok after all.ā
There was another meme that went around after the Tiger King series was popular last year.
Everyone- āI canāt believe all these idiot āvolunteersā are working for these crazy big cat lunatics for unpaid labor!ā
Horse people- 
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