The real question should be - if you can’t trust your trainer, who should you trust
Someone said this in an earlier post. As a trainer, not sure if I am a NNT or BNT, but I own a farm and run a successful young horse operation, showing on the line, and going to “C”-“A” shows and fixing horses people have broken or dumped or that they can’t sell. I find the problem with the whole industry is the lack of patience we ALL have. Can’t wait for said horse to be fixed, or shown (without meds) or to move up to the next division, or to get a great ribbon OR WHATEVER the owners goal is. I find that VERY FEW customers listen to the trainer and follow what they are saying when they are HONEST… I am BRUTALLY HONEST. I have a few VERY LONG TERM customers that are with me BECAUSE I am honest. The industry caters to telling people “Suzie rides great, she will do well next time” or the horse is perfect " he just needs Suzie to get more consistent" etc.
When you tell people the truth and then go about working to reach a common goal, the owner 50% of the time interferes in a negative fashion. We as trainers need to be selective about who our customers are, and you as customers need to do your research BEFORE you go to the trainers barn. I am open to discuss what I am doing, I am open to change if it is in the best interest of obtaining goals. I am not open for open target shooting practices. You are supposed to give me time to achieve your goals and your supposed to be monitoring my progress and how I am obtaining them. If your horse is for sale for 40K plus without a substantial show record, was in an area without alot of traffic, no one knows the horse, and it has a few issues, and you are aware it has SOME issues, don’t expect me to fix it, show it and sell it in a matter of a few months. It didn’t take just a few months to get it doing nothing, so it sure isn’t going to take just a few months to make it stellar. I hate sending out progress videos as now the owner hashes them apart. I like to send the finished product and then show and sell the horse. How many owners are patient enough to wait? I also do this if I like the horse for a 10% commission and less than half my training board. If you want an ideal situation that works in your favor you need to work with the trainer. We are hired to train, let us do our jobs. If you don’t like the job we are doing via the condition of your horse, or how it is performing, or it looks or how it does in the ring, leave us and go someplace new. Talk to us along the way, tell us your concerns. I dont’ want to be asked what bit I am riding the horse in or how we are riding the horse, but I do want to be asked, how do you think he is progressing, what is he doing BETTER than when you got him? Therein lies the answer your looking for. If you have an honest trainer, and they say NO PROGRESS has been made, then you may want to move him, drop the price, or rethink the situation. If the train says “we have a new horse on our hands, I am very pleased with the progress” you have a GREAT ANSWER. If your not going to BELIEVE it, that is YOUR problem NOT the trainers. It is your job to go watch, attend the show, whatever it takes to monitor how it is going if you dont’ TRUST the trainer. A trainers nightmare is someone who isn’t listening to what is being said. If you ask us the right questions, I am sure you get the right answers. I have wonderful conversations with an owner who has 3-6 horses with me every year, and has a farm in Ocala. She visits periodicially, attends some of the shows and asks POSITIVE questions and tells me her goals and we work mutually to obtain them… However, I have her TRUST. We broke and started her 3 year old horse that she’d like to sell, took him over some jumps, and started his changes. I said he wasn’t ready to be shown or sold yet, she asked more about what I liked about him and why I’d like to give him off for the winter and restart him at 4. I explained everything according to her goal for getting X dollars. It was simply not going to happen at 3 without pushing him. He went to FLA and will come back in the spring to restart, show and sell. I would say those conversations took a total of 10 minutes and she always calls to say how pleased she is about all the decisions I have made. Doesnt’ anyone get that it is not in our best interest to make BAD decisions for owners, or lie, or cheat, or medicate if we are a KNOWN barn to do things differently? My reputation would be shot. I dont care about what happened with your last trainer, it isn’t my business to get involved, that would be unprofessional, it is my job to help you achieve your goals which before you enter my program I tell you I can or can’t achieve up front and make a recommendation to who to go to if it is out of my league. But yes, the moral of the story is 2 fold it REQUIRES TRUST AND PATIENCE on the TRAINERS end AND the CLIENTS END for a relationship to be mutually beneficial. Similar to marriage eh?
Owner/Trainer of http://www.geocities.com/plumstedequestrianctr/
So what about the poor average-and-under folks out there?? (Sorry, I had to say it.)<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
