Real Meredith Manor Reviews

I have known 3 MM graduates. Two were not horseman when they went in and they were not horseman when they graduated. One went in a decent rider and decent horseman and came out a decent (unimproved) rider and a much lessened horseman. I would actively walk away from any trainer or barn manager who told me they were a MM graduate.

Petty response: out of curiosity I looked at the website. They have a Read-Ride-Run program where you can pay them $100 and then you read books to earn points you can turn in toward swag. (If you are enrolling, that $ goes toward tuition.) One of the books listed is Black Beauty by Walter Farley. It nets you 9 points, more than either Klimke book. This book doesn’t exist. I know it’s a stupid detail, but as a horse kid, confusing The Black Stallion and Black Beauty into one thing is such a foolish beginner mistake that it makes the whole program seem even sillier.

Not to mention paying $100 to earn gear not worth $100. If you read every book on their list, you can get a ball cap (250 points). That’s as high as your points add up to (~290 w/o reading articles) but they list up through an All Weather jacket as a prize (10,000 points). Then every hour you ride and every mile you run is 1 point. How long does it take you to earn the coat that might be worth $100 if it’s of a decent quality? Literally everything about this is to prey on the naive.

13 Likes

Now that’s the best idea yet. Easily spend a week, each, in all 3 of those locations for 40k while eating well and sleeping on clean sheets in climate controlled rooms without many legged room mates. Learn more about horses too.

MM is hardly the only place producing Equine Management graduates that sure talk the talk and lots of it but don’t know how little they really know. That’s pretty common judging by the graduates of serveral well know but better operated and cleaner schools. You can’t learn most if it out of books or online let alone from bad instructors in a bad program. Think MM was once good but probably 30 years ago.

4 Likes

Yes! That’s exactly what I was thinking. If I had plenty of money and could be free from work for multiple-week blocks of time, I would just work my way through all the riding clinic programs offered through Hidden Trails or Equitours. Wouldn’t that be fun?

Dressage in Spain and Portugal, cross-country jumping in Ireland, working cattle in Texas, and oh, look! Yoga and horseback riding in Wyoming!

7 Likes

This. Read and re-read!

3 Likes

I had a room mate at an internship who went to MM. According to them she was a certified horse trainer and riding instructor. I’ve seen 12 year olds that could comprehend horse riding better than her. It was awful to watch and needless to say she left the internship the next day. They may teach you how to ride but it’s definitely not the proper way and they don’t teach anything about basic handling. There’s a difference between being aware and comfortable to walk around a horse and being ignorant to the fact that a horse could crush you into the wall because you’re behind them and they spook at something random. She couldn’t even put a basic bridle on the right way (with just a snaffle bit and nose band). I firmly believe that MM is all talk. Basically pony camp for adults. Any good trainer will work with you. My old trainer would do lessons at 5 A.M. because I had class (college) during the day, then work in the afternoon.

Check out the CHA website, Certified Horsemanship Association. They’ll have a list of accredited trainers that you can search through to find one around you. CHA is an intensive program and they do thorough testing before anyone gets approved. I am personally a CHA level 3 Farm Manager ( wasn’t 21 at the time of testing or I’d be approved for the level 4). As others have said, check out USEF, USDF and any regional clubs to find out about trainers. MM is not worth the money or hassle.

1 Like

All of this is SO SO SO frustrating to me. I don’t understand why for profit “universities” are allowed to exist, and how this one is CERTIFIED* when NO ONE in the industry respects it and actively AVOID hiring people with degrees from there. I can EASILY see how reading yelp reviews (BTW yelp has filtered pretty much all the 1 star reviews and you can’t see them unless you scroll all the way to the bottom and click on the fine print) and looking at the website people who are foreign or naive would think this is a good program. I just hate seeing people taken advantage of and this really angers me.

But also, you can tell from the website, if you’re an astute observer, they don’t know what they’re doing. And how do they have no turnout in the middle of nowhere??

*Ok, I’ll be honest I’m not sure who has certified them (I think the DOJ?) as I read their website a few nights ago and don’t feel like opening it again

6 Likes

There are a lot that offer intense dressage training in Spain, etc.