So this mother paid money to publish this article?
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Given that this mom described her child being bucked off and getting back on, and working with a frustrating green pony, I donât think excessive concern about safety was a driving force behind her decisions. Clearly, the kid in this scenario is capable of falling down and getting back up. Good for him!
It sounds to me like the trainer got a little carried away here. Yes, itâs momâs responsibility to put the brakes on the spending and she should have done it well before she spent $150K. But it sounds like the trainer was happy to take momâs money and may have created a false sense of urgency around the idea that this kid should go all the way to Pony Finals in his first year of riding - a year when he would have been having a blast, building his confidence and learning a ton if he hadnât had a pony of his own and never went to a show. Mom would have benefitted from more information about her options for getting a kid deeply involved in horses other than the AA show circuit.
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Ironically- the post you quoted is from one of the trainers.
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To be perfectly clear here: I did not sell them any of their animals. I came on the scene with the family owning 2 ponies (maybe they had a third that was leased out?). They came from another trainer, who in their best interest thought they should come to my barn that was more âpony orientedâ to teach the child some solid basics. Our goal was to get the ponies sold (attempting to recoup their investment) and reevaluate the situation. Again, the COTH folks who are chiming in here really donât know the situation. You all donât know what was advised. You are speculating. And you are all just having a grand time piling on. There have been some really nice trainers along the way hoping to do right by this nice family.
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I believe a trainer has an inherent responsibility to advise their client on THE CLIENTâs best interest, which usually should parallel the horses best interest as well. This momâs trainer completely failed in that regard. Sure, mom should have been smarter about it and there is a sucker born every minute BUT, this industry is so rife with corruption and dirty dealings that we all get a bad name from these shenanigans. For goodness sake, why is integrity as rare as a unicorn in the horse world? There are very very few people whoâs best interest involves spending 150K and yet, happens all the time. Itâs in the trainerâs interest and the trainerâs interest alone for a client to spend that sort of money on horses and showing. Absurd is correct. Itâs a predatory business. Fine for some, I guess.
I enjoyed the irony of Trainer in question coming here to waggle her finger and scolding people for being mean. Perhaps bitter at the loss of 150K/year. I think itâs gross that you enabled this. I donât know how some people sleep at night. Redirection, I guessâfocusing on all those mean people probably helps stifle any guilty feelings that bubble up from the shriveled remnants of a conscience.
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I donât understand why any trainer would advise a family to purchase two ponies AND THEN send them to a different trainer to learn âsolid basics.â Maybe this comes from the world of absolutely not having the kind of money I would like to spend on horses, but I really think the solid basics need to come before anyone buys one pony, let alone two.
Iâm glad this family found someone to help them sell those ponies on and reevaluate. And Iâm sure there were some really nice people helping this family along the way. I think some evidence points to some not-so-nice people who behaved in an unscrupulous way. This situation doesnât make mom look good, it doesnât make the trainers involved look good, and it doesnât make the horse world look good. The kid seems like a good egg, and McLain Ward comes out looking OK. The person who told Mom that dialing back would help her kid learn grit and become a better rider was right, and it would have been appropriate and kind for someone to have that conversation with Mom earlier. This is not a sport where athletes peak at 16. This kid has a lot of time left in his career to try things and to work his way to the higher levels. Thereâs no rush.
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MAYBE it is time for the âindustryâ to have ethics rules and professional standards. Could be achieved if the âtrainersâ and governing body established some certification or licensing requirements so that not just anyone can hang out a shingle and be a trainer. But the TCP which was pretty minimal seems to have died. Licensing/certification would allow naive parents to have some idea of who they are entrusting their child and money to, and some consequences for those who are bad actors. I AM NOT SAYING THE TRAINERS IN THIS CASE ARE BAD ACTORS HOWEVER.
I think youâre overestimating the âgrand timeâ people are having - people are reacting to an article they read, and explaining why it was problematic for them. I donât see the âhatefulnessâ here really. And youâve been here a while and seen some train wrecks, this isnât nearly the kind of âpile onâ that COTH is capable of.
Lovely as she might be, she wrote an article that is hard for a lot of people to empathize with, and came across as kind of tone deaf. Kind people are still capable of coming across badly. Either way I think most people here would wish them well with the âresetâ of their goals/riding career.
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It is a mystery to me why a child in his first 5 years of riding gets two ponies. I think that reflects at least one trainer encouraging Mom to make decisions that benefitted the trainer and their facility rather than benefitting the child who had just started riding. That said, I think the level of spending involved here indicates that Mom may have been struggling with a shopping addiction that got directed towards high-end horse gear. You can spend $150-300K on anything if you buy enough of it.
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You and @Sswor are making incorrect assumptions - this family came to both JSalem and the trainer before JSalem already owning multiple ponies. The trainer they went to before JSalem has a well-known program that shows at a national level, and it not a pony barn. I frankly donât know why they chose to go to that barn for a pony kid, I thought it was odd when my friends who ride there mentioned a kid had moved in. The barn does WEF, indoors, etc and is on the road a lot, if you go there you know what you are signing up for in terms of a show schedule, so that had to have been a conscious choice by the mom. That trainer tried to help them, and had the right fit in mind when she gave the advice for them to go elsewhere, she was not just washing her hands of them because he needed more work on the basics. I donât know who was helping them when they bought the ponies, or whether it was trainer-driven or client-driven, but it wasnât any of the most recent trainers. And, none of us know what the trainer who was helping them at the time was told, maybe at that point everyone thought they could easily afford two ponies and it would get Ziggy more saddle time, so I donât think we can make assumptions about that advice without more information about the situation at the time.
Whatâs clear is the mom got caught up in it and made some choices that overextended the family finances. Itâs not hard to see how you get caught up in it, that partâs easy, but most people face that decision point and donât opt to overextend that way, and I think thatâs why itâs hard for a lot of people to have the sympathetic reaction. It comes across as lamenting the loss of the high life, not as being grateful for what they are still able to do. Or at least thatâs how it struck me (and I do not know them personally).
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I did not say that so please let us not start rumors.
All Iâm saying if that if you look at the media guide for the publication you will see that you can pay to have your profiles, blog content, and other information posted, which explains why so much of the content is targeted to the top tier. They often write it themselves and pay to post it!
This mother may have paid, and she might not have. But just know as a reader that they likely wonât be publishing the mid to low tier stories people have mentioned in this thread in their publication as their target is the paying top tier. And the mid to low tier canât afford to publish their own profiles (advertorials).
As for this article, no matter what tier you are in, I think we can all agree the mother is still living in pony dreamland if she truly believes that children in $5000 boots are cleaning stalls at Pony Finals because 1. custom boots donât cost that much and 2. those kids would be handing their pony off to a groom just as she explains her son did and 3. Most are still wearing jods! The article is not in any way credible.
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Sure, thatâs entirely possible. I read what was posted and replied.
Iâd say if you are going to go public with your private affairs, then you have to accept the commentary that results. This situation is touching a lot of nerves on both sidesâprofessionals and students.
Iâm personally pretty sick and tired of predatory trainers and the predatory horse business. It is so far removed from why I went into this field. It bothers me every single day. I have little sympathy for rich people who spend their money foolishly but I have even less sympathy for the trainers who prey on them.
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I really am not blaming JSalem for this. I think this family got some terrible guidance along the way - and possibly no guidance from people who should have offered some early on. Iâm not claiming to know who did what. The article clearly states that Momâs moment of truth came at a moment when she was discussing buying her child yet another pony. So weâre looking at two pony purchases in a two-year period with a discussion of pony #3, which implies that the first two ponies (plus maybe an additional lease?) were somehow not providing enough saddle time or not suitable for someoneâs goals going forward.
There are a lot of opportunities there for knowledgeable professionals to point out that this is a little over the top.
The article is really dramatic. There are numbers in there that donât make sense, like $5K boots, and six-figure ponies one of whom is described elsewhere as green and balking at jumps. I also note an earlier article where Mom describes a sixth-place ribbon at a kidâs first walk-trot show as potential grounds for getting mad and quitting rather than as a perfectly normal experience for a kid to have his first time out. Mom writes with a lot of drama. I think a more accurate description of the reality here might be that divorce changed the familyâs financial picture and made unchecked spending on horses no longer feasible. But The Plaid Horse doesnât print articles about people having to rein in their spending after a divorce, so Mom wrote the story this way instead.
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I missed that one. Link?
That is why I asked the question, to try to understand. Thank you for clarifying.
Hang in there - itâs coming! The USHJA is revamping the TCP program and creating educational modules including one on ethics and legal issues in the horse business.
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Thanks!
Thank you for the link.
She does say that, but not with the twist I read you put on it. The whole article includes the bumps in the road that she thought might cause him to not want to ride anymore and how those bumps did not do that because this trainer helped him and he was really into the whole riding thing. That first ribbon was another one of those.
I found that article actually interesting and cute.
It shows how once you are bitten by the whole riding bug you are stuck and how a good trainer helps you along the way.
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Because the mother is exceedingly difficult. Not elaborating but was coming over here to say JSalem did NOT sell them current ponies or lead them down this rabbit hole. Nor did prior trainers try to steer them wrong by any means. Friend the mother on fb if you donât believe sheâs a handful. #mclainward
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