Long ago a friend of mine and I moved to the same barn at the same time but went to two completely different trainers. I like her trainer, he’s a nice guy and has always been friendly towards me and my team, but I’ve always noticed how odd he treated his horses and how usually all the horses in his possession either were bad stoppers at even Crossrails (even when they would be bought right after winning 1.20 and up courses and being marketed as automatic) or they were always dragging their hands and legs which would cause them to knock most if not all the jumps. They were also pretty skinny but when I first asked around most people told me that some people just needed skinnier horses or they would get dragged and I in my naievety believed them.
Now, as someone who knows better, I know he has under-muscled and skinny horses who aren’t trained very ethically or at least not well. A lot of people say that he treats horses like machines instead of horses, never feeding them treats or actually thanking them for a good job after a hard day, never spending time off saddle with them, never even trying to at least one day of the week let them run around a paddock without a rider on them, and always using long whips to scold them if they refuse (and I mean scold by leaving marks on them), its rare for a horse of him not to have scars from either spurs or whips. I got my last guy (the one I sold recently) from him and that horse did a complete 180, from a lazy unmotivated guy to a competitive and fast jumper who was super clean and won, as well as a horse that actually had muscle instead of just a tummy. He did end up having a bad personality and that’s when I realized why he had been so lazy and ‘well behaved’ when he had been under that trainer, it was because he was underfed and didn’t have the energy.
The point is, my friend has recently changed from her last mare to a very nice gelding claiming the mare was a nightmare (they had bought her jumping 1.10m no issues and in under a month she completely changed) and she needed a change of pace. That mare always had spur marks, refused everything, and when people wanted to pet her she lashed out without warning when when she came here for the first month she was a cuddle bug! When I asked my friend about the spur marks she said her trainer said it was normal for misbehaved horses to get scolded so severely and that the trainer had even left those marks himself! Its gotten to the point where her new gelding already has marks now and recently the people that bought my old horse have decided to start classes with this trainer this month and I’m worried he might get neglected like he used to be or worse.
My question is, is this a serious issue or am I overthinking it? What should I do? Should I get involved or am I just being dramatic?
