You guys are nothing short of inspiring, as someone who routinely takes people at their word… working on that. Your responses help me to see where I am still falling incredibly short. Not only that, but highlights the traits within myself that enabled THW to bamboozle at the start. The fact I was more upset at the biting and not questioning the absurdity of the reasoning she shared for the flimsy bracelets themselves is embarrassing, on a personal level. Obviously, this account is anonymous 
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You just wait, when she finally figures out that some sort of pain control and sedation are necessary she’ll claim her unmarked vials are 100% locally sourced natural remedies. Or she’ll suddenly become a vet tech who was working with a vet who can’t be named. With theses types there is always a way around every single unethical thing on the laundry list.
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I wonder what the vetting entails exactly?
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when I got back into horses after many years away (work and travel and funds), I really wanted to trust the “experts”. I wanted to be successful and I wanted my horse to be happy. Then I started seeing one BS thing after another. First BO/trainer was a phony and a bully. I left with my horse after a month. Second trainer was great and she showed me how to look and assess the methods of others. Third trainer was BS, British and had credentials, but in truth was not good and worried about being exposed. I saw this on Day One, but believed I was in the “best place” with the “best person” so I let some things slide. Until I couldn’t. The icing on that crappy cake was the day she tried to force me to sell my horse (um… NO), then to let her drug him to give her a “training window” as he was too “studdy” (um…again NO), as as the vet pulled up to the barn, I thought to ask her to pull blood and see if his hormones were off and if he did in fact need to be medicated (though I knew he was fine, I’d spent every day with him for a year!). So we pulled blood, results were “completely normal.” So I told the “expert best ever trainer” this and she walked away from us, handing us off to the assistant trainer, where we started over and THRIVED for the next several months until she moved out of state. So, nothing at all wrong with my horse or with me, though the “best ever” put a lot of effort into shoving our “failings” down my throat. I really learned from this, and it wasn’t cheap. Today I would have left on Day One. Back then, I wasn’t sure enough of my own skills or ability to assess what I was seeing, and I was hopeful that my gut was wrong. It wasn’t and never has been since. I’ve walked away from many in the years since then, and found people who are truly aligned with my own sense of ethics and preferred methods. But it was a process, that’s for sure as we owners are often deliberately put into a position of helplessness, of not knowing much or enough. But I knew myself and my horse, and in the end, that was enough. Oh, and I still have him, he’s the BEST and I would never in ten million years give him up. I also would never let THW or anyone like her lay hands on him.
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Running a credit check? 
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Cut yourself some slack – you are standing up to this, and you did what you had to do to bring your horse back from the experience. Lots of people would not or could not do what that entails. You are not falling short… you are standing tall! I can only imagine the peer pressure of being in that clinic. Charismatic people are really hard to see clearly, so much smoke, so many mirrors…
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I don’t fault the ammy/newbie for forking over $150 for the “masterclass”, particularly as it is a bit of a pig in a poke, but I will say that anyone tossing $3K + her way is illustrative of “a fool and her money”.
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Thank you, and you’re right, on top of this being an extremely valuable life lesson. Growing from a poor experience is ultimately a good thing. 
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Yeah no, fortunately when I was involved those asinine price points weren’t yet a thing. Prices that high for an unclear product and sketchy credentials is a major red flag
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Another bingo point for Black Stallion Syndrome.
Only l can quell the mighty beast who still has testicles darling.
It’s never going to be a pissy mare that takes a giant bleeding chunk out of her ass or a headstrong gelding that double barrels her. No, it’s got to be A Stallion.
I don’t believe anyone who had been picked up and shaken once and had shoulder damage would just continue on doing forceful body work and get picked up a second time. If they actually did this they are flaming idiots heading for a Darwin award. And they would have the common sense to wear a helmet going forward.
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The shoulder damage - if it’s legit - might just be the result of that domestic violence in her past, that she occasionally crows about, and not something from a horse-related incident.
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I was going to say, I mean, anything is possible, but it seems odd for someone who only appeared on the map in the last what? Year or two? Who is so young to have experienced all of these extreme injuries on top of the traumatic brain injury she talks about from her ex, on top of numerous extremely difficult to achieve degrees in multiple fields, on top of, on top of… shall I keep going?
I mean, obviously enough people found benefit from the Pillars used as easy to learn in hand bodywork that could be applied by nearly everyone. There is a market for that, and could have easily become a legit and successful business.
Why the need for all the attention, lies, and blowing this up into some massive “revolution” coughcultcough hidden behind an exorbitant paywall and apparent vetting process?
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Yes. Or just tripped on the stairs or on ice.
Pure Munchausen’s Syndrome by Clinician to damage a horse so it needs treatment forever at escalating cost.
Thing about Munchausen’s by Proxy is that it’s a mental illness. It’s not a conscious fraud. The parent who keeps a child “sickly” following their own compulsion is not the same as the crooked garage mechanic who loosens a bolt while changing the oil so you come back in next week with a new problem or funny noise. The parent thinks they need to do xyz for the child and are gratified by interactions with doctors and may resent the child and be ok with them feeling ill. An old fashioned example might be feeding a child so much cod liver oil or mystery laxatives that the child is always kind of listless (I think that must be a plot point from some 19th century novel). Parent is not self aware, is super defensive may change doctors if questioned.
Munchausen’s by Clinician is related to Munchausen’s by Barefoot Trimmer.
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Ha! You’re totally right. The number of times I’ve seen woo trainers boast about a gasp stallion… 
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People have definite triggers about animal sexuality.
One of the markers of a competent trainer is that they take reasonable precautions about their stallion not breeding everything and his own mother, but they also do not present stallions as fire breathing monsters.
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Agreed.
Easily applies to dog owners as well. For instance, I have an intact male. No one has any clue he is intact because he is extremely well trained and doesn’t act like what people perceive intact males to act like. He behaves like a well trained, well adjusted and socialized dog. No plans on breeding him, and will likely eventually neuter, not against that either. For the time being it’s a non-issue, and I obviously take precautions with unaltered females. Why fix it if it ain’t broke.
I’ve met a number of stallions over the years who did not act like fire breathing dragons. Again, people couldn’t actually tell they were intact unless you looked under the hood, so to speak. Good training is good training, regardless of gender or reproductive ability.
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I have always maintained that testicles are no excuse for poor behavior.
That holds true across multiple species.
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What is it with the romanticism of stallions? Is it like a “taming” of unbridled testosterone or something?
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Oh, Ghazzu! I love your tongue in cheek remarks!
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