Were is he now? web site?
I don’t know him personally but have watched him and his wife work with a few horses in lessons and I saw that they were utilizing classical dressage techniques and no gimmicky shortcuts. I don’t feel that posting on the internet about particular individuals is fair to that person, as anyone can post anything on the internet. It is in bad taste. You should send a PM if you have something to say that you want to back up with your real name and contact information. I am always disappointed when I see people speaking out against trainers, vets, farriers, farm managers, and the like by name on this wonderful and constructive forum provided by the Chronicle.
I would suggest taking a lesson with him before moving to him for “training” to see what you think firsthand yourself.
I met him and Lacey when they first moved to NC and they seemed nice enough. I too had heard somewhat dubious things about him and his “harsh” training methods but I certainly never witnessed anything first hand. I’ve always thought though that where there’s smoke there is a flicker of a fire and there was probably some truth to all the various things I heard about him.
I definitely saw firsthand how the facility he purchased quickly went downhill (was Stonecrop Farm in Advance) and saw several horses there become thinner than I’d like to see.
I know they suffered financially in NC…when I met them they said they’d moved to NC because they felt the state was in need of good trainers! I sure don’t know where they got their information, but NC is loaded with great trainers! Anyway, they struggled almost from the beginning.
I just did a search on the forum and didn’t find anything. I KNOW there was a thread here last year about a clinic he did that some posters went to as auditors and participants and responded that they would not do it again because they didn’t feel they learned very much. Again, NC is loaded with good - excellent trainers so unless he brought something very new to the table they definitely started out against a brick wall.
