I don’t disagree but this only works if they return your calls. 
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I had an older farrier who twice showed up with an assistant/apprentice that lit up a cigarette while they were doing my horses’ hooves. I was baffled.
It doesn’t surprise me anymore when non-horsey clients feel free to smoke in my barn, because they don’t know any better. I simply tell them we are a no smoking property. But to have a horse professional do it- I had to pick my jaw up off the floor!
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I think you are 100% correct that this is what happened.
So I tried out the new barn yesterday, the one run by the fomer olympian. Want to clarfiy that I am not taking lessons with her personally (she’s gone to FL AND she charges 225 an hour) but other other instructor was GREAT. The operation seems very, VERY organized. A bit old school where you pay cash or check in a envelope. Got to ride an 18 year old former Grand Prix showjumper warmblood. So, let’s see if the next lessons happens, I have a good feeling it will!
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Glad the OP has found a potential solution. And just an FYI, many riding arenas are well-separated from the horse/hay barn, and are in some cases, just a roof and footing. We don’t know the design of this arena and barn.
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Personally, to me, that’s irrelevant. Any additional fire risk with horses is not acceptable - smoking is firmly on that list.
I mean, an aisle could be categorized the same. Just stone/concrete and a roof. Or the tack room, lots of places to “safely” smoke! But realistically, that is not a risk/habit that should be taken lightly - it’s a firm no. If you need a cigarette that bad, go for a drive and have one.
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Trouble with being around so long is you, sooner or later, see everything so don’t be so sure about that.
Often the best trainers I see and/ or have worked with, are the assistants that stay home. They are hungry, they want it and they aren’t all jaded and burned out. Yet. Be aware their goal is not staying an assistant so take advantage of their talent while you can.
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Where are you located? DM me if you like. I think I know the trainer you’re referring to, and I actually really like her (considered riding with her a couple of years ago and may have ridden the same horse at one point), but the smoking was a huge turnoff and the ultimate dealbreaker for me.
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Just messaged you!
I don’t have issues with trainers sitting or smoking, their house, their rules. I also know that life happens. If you liked it overall I’d follow up again. Not everyone knows what’s going on in someone else’s life.
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Sometimes you have to wait for the schedule to open. It’s quite common.
You don’t have a problem with someone smoking…in a barn? Huh.
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If it’s their barn, it’s their choice.
If I had to chose between a good horseman who smoked in their own barn and an average one who didn’t, I’d choose the smoker. That’s me; it’s obviously not you. Which is fine. No one is forcing anyone to patronize anyone else.
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I had an otherwise ideal situation where the owners smoked in the barn. I pasture boarded my pony there at quite a distance from the barn, so I was able to overlook it. But it did bother me, even though my pony wasn’t at risk. Sitting on a bale of hay smoking seemed like a very bad idea.
Rebecca
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At one barn, two trainers I very much liked would smoke outside the barn. They didn’t have a heavy habit, but even then, it was difficult for me to socially chat with them, as someone whose lungs and nasal passages get profoundly irritated by cigarette smoke. Obviously I never complained, and I do think they were trying to quit and did so out of stress.
Besides the obvious fire hazard issue, it’s not fair to barn employees and boarders who are being put at risk for developing a deadly disease. I know the party line on COTH is that barn owners get to do what they want…but if you’re running a business, smoking indoors is one of those risks that just has no upside, except to the smoker (I guess).
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Correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t she say in the arena during the lesson? Assuming outdoor arena. Of course never in a barn!
WOW. Just reading all this as someone that came back from a 3 year hiatus makes me even more thankful I landed on the opportunity I did. I had no idea it was this difficult elsewhere!
Glad you found a barn OP and I sincerely hope it follows through!
In this case, as it turned out, I did know the trainer in question and she smoked in the indoor arena and barn regularly.
Correct, she was puffing away while IN the ring teaching during my lesson.
Ditto with mine. In the indoor. While leaning against the wall/wooden kick boards.
I have found myself between barns and it’s disheartening how many folks act interested and then nothing. I’m up front with my situation- horseless adult ammy just wanting lessons. I don’t even care the discipline. I’m hoping two prospective places will be potential winners.
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