Let me see if I can articulate my understanding of things (my brain is completely shot today so while this is a welcome diversion, I may be the one twisting htings a bit!)
Nepo-babies (in the horse world) were brought up, as examples of why the sport is dying because they don’t know as much as advanced riders.
Then another poster said that when you start out, you don’t start out with someone like Dutton or Maclay finalists.
Then yet another poster brought up that many adults don’t want to learn at those barns, which are “little ponders” - meaning, not the trainers who have the equine equivalent of Tiger Woods’ qualifications.
So to bring it all back full circle -
Many people look at “perceived qualifications” first, and opportunities to show. That matters to a huge population of riders. Those qualifications may not include being well-rounded because the metric we’ve got is a show record. I’ve met many VERY business-successful hunter/dressage trainers with large and growing programs who never went foxhunting, backed their own baby or attempted roping a cow. They were solid in their disciplines, but I personally felt they were lacking. Plus, if you aren’t getting lawn darted are you even a trainer? (KIDDING!)
The big ponders (to keep the same terminology) aren’t necessarily better than the little ponders. What they’ve done is specialized in a way that people want.
Your 1-4 are great, but I find that pool to be an even smaller pond. I haven’t found the 1-4 in the large programs except for 1 place. I’ve found it in the smaller barns that everyone has been p*ssing on and says that they aren’t good businesspeople. And they aren’t, generally, because they are very very good teachers. Good teachers aren’t necessarily good businesspeople. They do run it as a business but because they are not profit-first motivated, with tiny margins they get eliminated.
VERY few riders want to really get deep into horsemanship. I would say that most of COTH does want to be good horsepeople, but outside of here, there’s a larger group that doesn’t frequent forums and try to learn.
The vast majority want to have some fun and show, not that there’s necessarily anything wrong with that. The big business-oriented barns are where you’re going to find that, but you aren’t going to be wrapping legs nor even tacking up your own horse in many of them.
And again - not that any of these ways of enjoying lessons or being involved with horses are wrong - it’s just that the quality of horsemanship varies at all of these types of barns, so it’s not that you can paint any one of them with a brush and say “all of these types are good” or “all of these types are bad”.
It’s a common term for celebrities who become famous because their parents are famous (which, if you look at hollywood, is most of them).
