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Two Barns?

Hello! so recently i’ve started riding at a new barn(like beginning of 2021) and i’ve grown very close and i love it there! but i’m starting to miss my old barn. the new barn i ride at is pretty top quality and the old barn is more laid back. i’m planning on asking for 1 lesson at my old barn once a week and my normal 2 at my new barn?! i don’t know if my new barn would…’love’ that. so do i not tell them? but i want to be honest and have trust! if someone could give me a little advice, that’d be great!! thank you! :smiley:

Frankly, if any barn (1 or 2) gave me drama about riding at a different barn I would think less of said barn. It is not a betrayal to ride at multiple barns or with different trainers. During my first few years of riding had weekly riding lessons with different trainers (all at the same barn) and no one ever commented on it. It was years down the line that I heard that it was a “thing” for some trainers/coaches.

If it comes up in conversation, sure tell Barn 2 (ex. talking about how you worked on X thing recently and no it isn’t a horse at Barn 1) but this is no Huge Deal that you have to confess too.

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I am a professional instructor. I would NEVER give any of my students flack about riding elsewhere. Getting outside instruction is a sign of commitment and wanting to learn. You can learn something from everyone in this industry. Teaching your students anything else is toxic to yourself, and the industry.

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WTFrack is up with feeling like a barn owns a client?
You are a paying customer, not an indentured slave.
Do you confess to Grocery #1 that you sometimes shop at Grocery #2?

A Trainer/Friend once told me: “You enable the Trainer”
Truer Words…

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omg all of these make me feel so much better now! thank you so much! :smiley:

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My daughter was taking lessons at her old barn, new barn and a 3rd barn. They all knew about each other and didn’t have any problems.

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I have a couple of riders that ride with me and another trainer. The deal is they don’t talk about us at the opposite barn. I think she will eventually just ride with me but there are not any hard feelings.

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They have no say in what you do or where you choose to ride. The only issue I can see is if they teach radically different it may be confusing to you and compromise your progress. It would be a waste of your money IMO.

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haha, yea that will be a slight problem but at my new barn I ride with 2 trainers on different days, one tells me “keep your hands up” the other tells me “down by his martingale strap”. I just go by what they say, but thanks for letting me no on this cause my old teacher rides totally different and I forgot about that haha!