(This is just a vent session - I’m stressed and have very few horsey people in my life)
The time has finally come - I got the boot.
My trainer let myself and one other girl who just boards (no lessons or training) know that she wants to get out of boarding and focus on training horses. Which I understand and respect - it was overall a sweet message. But y’all, I’m GUTTED. Completely caught me off guard. I love her (as a person and trainer) and her facility & level of care is incredible. She completely changed my horse for the better when he was quite gnarly looking.
I’m trying to not be hurt, because I DO pay for weekly training rides for my horse and do take lessons with her (the lessons have been infrequent though so maybe that doesn’t count); but I do know I pay probably 3/4 of what her students who show with her do so I get from an ROI perspective I’m a small fry. I asked if she would still be offering lessons (I lesson on and off my guy) and she hasn’t responded. Yee-ouchhhhh.
That said. I do understand the hassle. My horse lives in the field 24/7 which is her cheapest board (so that I could still comfortably afford the training rides and lessons), so I get from a financials perspective, if the rest of her clients are paying $1,200/mo for a stall not including any training rides or lessons, yeah, I’m a drop in the bucket. I’m really sad but I get it.
On top of all of this, a couple of days ago I had to make the gut wrenching decision to either sell or care lease out my guy. I’m about to start a new job and from what they’ve told me, the first year is about to be extremely time intensive and require more travel. I cannot, in good faith, let my good horse who WANTS to work just sit around and wait for me for god knows how long. However, I was still anticipating being able to go to my trainer’s place and lesson…
This sucks. Sorry for the vent. I’m just stressed and heartbroken two-fold. I’m going to be back to step 1 here soon of trying to find a new barn, trainer, etc and I just genuinely didn’t think I would be anytime soon.
Alright. Back to studying for my licensing exam.
