Thinking about moving to a different barn

[123chickadee]

Hello, would like some advice on handling a situation at the current barn. I returned to riding after a 15 year break. Have been riding at a barn where The trainer is half leasing a fairly green young but super quiet under saddle gelding for lessons, and the other half of the lease is a 13-year-old girl. trainer had intended on a full riding academy type program, but it didn’t pan out as she did not have availability to school horses that she thought she would and also the clientele did not come. just recently she got a full-time job, and has been sporadic in her availability and has needed to cancel lessons last minute. Also the gelding that I am lessoning on seems to not be receiving the best care by the barn that owns him. For example, they ran out of ulcer guard and never replenished it or said anything to anyone. I went there to tack him up one day and he was biting and trying to kick me, he was in pain. The 13-year-old has been riding him and has said nothing to no one about this behavior so it got worse. This wasn’t the first time either, he has bitten and kicked before, And often balks went first asked to trot. The last straw for me was, I showed up for my lesson last Tuesday and started tacking him up. After fighting with him through his biting and kicking, trainer is a no-show. Doesn’t answer her texts. The following morning she text me apologizing, she thought that she had notified me that she needed to cancel via a group text, says she didn’t get my messages until the following morning. She has never communicated via group text with me before so I thought this was odd.

All negatives aside, I have learned so much from this trainer and this horse. I am allowed to come to the barn and ride him one to 2 days a week without any charge outside of my weekly lesson fee. Trainer will spend hours with me in a lesson and not charge me any more than the hour fee. She competed for many years in the jumpers and is a very talented rider.

I started taking supplemental lessons at a dressage barn, and was thinking of moving over there permanently. Still trying to decide if this is the right choice. If so, how do I tell the trainer that I want to move barns without burning bridges with her and the people she knows. It’s such a tight knit community here.

[sascha]

“I’m really interested in pursuing dressage so I’m going to take a break from the lesson program for a while to concentrate on that for a while.”

“Money is a bit tight, so I was forced to make a choice between lessons here and learning more about dressage. For now, I’m going to concentrate on dressage. I might be back!”

Or be passive about it and just don’t book any more lessons and say that you’re sorry but you don’t have the time to come out for extra rides.

[mmeqcenter]

Yep, what sascha said.

I’ll add, there’s several red flags here for me.

Ulcer guard, the paste, is not meant to be given long term. If they completed the standard 30 days and then his symptoms got worse again, he needs scoped to see what’s going on inside. If you meant a pelleted supplement like U-guard, those are really just preventatives, not treatments, so if ulcers are suspected to be the cause of his behavior he needs treated with omeprazole (ulcer guard) or something else (famotidine, ranitidine, etc.).

Trainer spending hours with you in a lesson isn’t a positive IMO. What are you doing that requires multiple hours in the saddle? Unless the horse is extremely well-conditioned, this is extremely unfair to the horse.

These coupled with the apparent over-booked time of the trainer would have me leaving. I understand occasional scheduling flub-ubs, but when they start becoming frequent with no communication, I am no longer understanding.

[clanter]

@123chickadee

a fairly green young but super quiet under saddle gelding for lessons

personally I would have been out at this point

This using a green horse as the lesson horse may be acceptable to others but not to me