Okay so I have to rant a bit cause I am pretty darn annoyed with the past two barns I have boarded my new horse at in the past 2 months. Luckily this will be the last move for a very very very very long time.
So I got Oliver at the beginning of August to a what you might call "high end" barn just by looking at it. It's 650 to board and you don't have to be in any training program but I really felt Oliver needed more solid work and training. We got there on the second, the trainer I chose from that barn went out to go see him and evaluate him for me to see if it was a safe and good fit, she agreed and even rode him and she said she would love to work with both of us, being very pleased with the essment I went ahead got him, he was delivered the next afternoon to the barn. I let him settle in for about a week and adjust to all the new stuff. I then later had my first lesson within the 2nd week of him being the, I had ridden him a couple times before and he was great.
Here is how our first lesson went...
The lesson was to be at 11am and so I was planning on getting there around 10 so I could get him ready and lunge him before getting on (Oliver is very green) so Im on my way out and I get s text from my trainer saying "oh so sorry I git double booked for your lesson, do you mind doing a group lesson?"
Trying to be understanding and knowing mstakes can happen I say sure, I guess I figured some coaching and help was better then none that day.
So then I get there and she introduces me to a young child, saying this is her first time riding and it was a lunging lesson....
Not so happy with this arrangment now I tel, my trainer. She tells me that she will esisky still be able to coach me. So I go on to get Oliver ready. After he is all tacked up I make me way to one of 4 arenas, I chose the big indoor as that was all he had been in and he can be a little spooky, after about 10 minutes of lunging she comes in with her beginner student and the horse they where using. I go on lunging and soon after get on....well as soon as I got on him I could feel he was extremely tense, so for awhile I worked just at the walk getting him to loosen up and relax. I am having issues as he is spooking and has his head up and here I am trying to just keep him calm (I have had my fair share of young green horses so this isn't an issue or new to me) Thinking she might give me some advice I bring him by where she is teaching....and wait...nit wanting to interrupt I waited some more....Oliver is now getting restless just standing, so I send him back out to work and still hoping for some words of advice I got nothing. I went to trot him and he got to wound up and building his shoulder and graving the bit. I had the gut feeling of "don't push much more or something bad might happen" so I brought him back down to walk where he is being good for 5 minutes and really testing me for 10 then back to good. By this point i am pretty frustrated but just trying to get some good out of this ride and not wanting to end on a bad note. My trainers lesson ends and she comes back out and says oh he looks great let's go up to canter....
Wait what? If my horse cant even trot and be even slightly eelaxed how am I supposed to expect him to give me canter without bolting off of bucking his shoulder. So I told her how I felt so far about him going on this ride and she tried reassuring me, feeling a little better and thinking " she knows what she doing, she wouldn't put me in a dangerous situation"
Go up to canter...not really sure of what i am about to get... And he gets super strong and buldges his shoulder and I feel so completely off balance. He is fired up, strung out, nervous and just not going safely at all so I bring him back down to trot, at the time my trainer informs me she will be right back and to keep cantering....she leaves...I get a few relaxed strides of trot and call my ride done.
Little to say my mom was also watching this lesson and came up to me in tears when I was back into his stall untacking him. Both of us being very un happy about this experience, little lat my trainer finds us and i confront her about how disappointed I am in this arrangment of a lesson and how i was not safe and this can't ever happen again if i am to ride with her, she gies on to tell us her dad over booked her when really we know if your a committed trainer you do your own books and schedualing, so why not flat out tell me this was not going to work out for a lesson.?
So trying to give her another chance she then goes on to schedule a a ew lesson that she then flakes out on, or tries ti get it to a group lesson. The lessons I did have all where jumping.
Summing this whole story up, I got 6 lessons and maybe 2 trainer rides. When in this full training program that I am paying 400 for, is 2 lesons a week and one training ride or whatever I want as long as it is 3 sessions a week. I was there from the 2nd to the 31 or whatever the last day of that month was an got him out of there... I payed the board and payed for half training and left a nite with how disappointed I was with this. Not to mention my girth was stolen at this barn the last day I was there.
So you can imgane how I felt to get out of there. I moved him to a barn a little further away that looked great, sounded great, horses looked happy and healthy, and you could bring in your own trainer, you had a locked locker space and just overall good place.
Well I have had Oliver there since the 1st of September, 2 weeks ago it got really cold and started to rain a lot, so I went and rode and blanketed Oliver, I ran into a gal that day who had her horse 3 stalls down from mine and she did self care and was a vet tech. She offers to take oliver's sheet off when it stops raining or warms up, I tel her that would be great, give her my number and leave that day feeling good thinking he would get the blanket off when it warmed up again (he also gets fungus really easy and I don't know the turnout sched and they get 4 hours of turnout) well I wasn't able to make it out again for a few days cause my mom was out of town and I didn't have a car, so going to to have another lesson the day after my mom gets back into town I arrive ti find my horse still has the freaking blanket on...and oh by the way it's very warm outside !! Very annoyed and worried about Oliver I take it off and he's soaked in sweat, he has drank all his water. I go onto fill his buckets, hose him down and try to keep him cool. The lady then shows up later and says " oh I felt so bad he had his blanket on" and I fiat out tell her I trusted her take it off it warmed up since she offered to do so, and how my horse could have gotten very sick. Also upset with the barn management though, one would think it would be common curtsy to take it off when it so warm out, I even had a note on my stall saying so and with my number... No one did so.
So my trainer after hearing all this has told me she wants me to have Oliver come to her barn, so I went and fell in love with it, bigger stalls, pasture turnout, big indoor arena, many people on sight, all the hors get the same care, blanketing and feed, turnout. And I know my trainer is great with her horses and care. So we plan on moving him on the 15th, thank freaking goodness.
But this last Friday came out to work Oliver and come around 6pm and open his stall to find 2 large flakes of alflafa...my horse is one of the last to ever need this. Not to mention it is made clear n the stalk, I told the barn owners when we signed the papers...I'm about ready to punch the next person that is near me when I find something going on wrong before he moves.
I'm so sick of this nonsense, if this place backfires for w.e reason I might just loose my mind.
I will be so relieved when i don't have to worry about my horse anymore.
Sheeesh!:evil:
So I got Oliver at the beginning of August to a what you might call "high end" barn just by looking at it. It's 650 to board and you don't have to be in any training program but I really felt Oliver needed more solid work and training. We got there on the second, the trainer I chose from that barn went out to go see him and evaluate him for me to see if it was a safe and good fit, she agreed and even rode him and she said she would love to work with both of us, being very pleased with the essment I went ahead got him, he was delivered the next afternoon to the barn. I let him settle in for about a week and adjust to all the new stuff. I then later had my first lesson within the 2nd week of him being the, I had ridden him a couple times before and he was great.
Here is how our first lesson went...
The lesson was to be at 11am and so I was planning on getting there around 10 so I could get him ready and lunge him before getting on (Oliver is very green) so Im on my way out and I get s text from my trainer saying "oh so sorry I git double booked for your lesson, do you mind doing a group lesson?"
Trying to be understanding and knowing mstakes can happen I say sure, I guess I figured some coaching and help was better then none that day.
So then I get there and she introduces me to a young child, saying this is her first time riding and it was a lunging lesson....
Not so happy with this arrangment now I tel, my trainer. She tells me that she will esisky still be able to coach me. So I go on to get Oliver ready. After he is all tacked up I make me way to one of 4 arenas, I chose the big indoor as that was all he had been in and he can be a little spooky, after about 10 minutes of lunging she comes in with her beginner student and the horse they where using. I go on lunging and soon after get on....well as soon as I got on him I could feel he was extremely tense, so for awhile I worked just at the walk getting him to loosen up and relax. I am having issues as he is spooking and has his head up and here I am trying to just keep him calm (I have had my fair share of young green horses so this isn't an issue or new to me) Thinking she might give me some advice I bring him by where she is teaching....and wait...nit wanting to interrupt I waited some more....Oliver is now getting restless just standing, so I send him back out to work and still hoping for some words of advice I got nothing. I went to trot him and he got to wound up and building his shoulder and graving the bit. I had the gut feeling of "don't push much more or something bad might happen" so I brought him back down to walk where he is being good for 5 minutes and really testing me for 10 then back to good. By this point i am pretty frustrated but just trying to get some good out of this ride and not wanting to end on a bad note. My trainers lesson ends and she comes back out and says oh he looks great let's go up to canter....
Wait what? If my horse cant even trot and be even slightly eelaxed how am I supposed to expect him to give me canter without bolting off of bucking his shoulder. So I told her how I felt so far about him going on this ride and she tried reassuring me, feeling a little better and thinking " she knows what she doing, she wouldn't put me in a dangerous situation"
Go up to canter...not really sure of what i am about to get... And he gets super strong and buldges his shoulder and I feel so completely off balance. He is fired up, strung out, nervous and just not going safely at all so I bring him back down to trot, at the time my trainer informs me she will be right back and to keep cantering....she leaves...I get a few relaxed strides of trot and call my ride done.
Little to say my mom was also watching this lesson and came up to me in tears when I was back into his stall untacking him. Both of us being very un happy about this experience, little lat my trainer finds us and i confront her about how disappointed I am in this arrangment of a lesson and how i was not safe and this can't ever happen again if i am to ride with her, she gies on to tell us her dad over booked her when really we know if your a committed trainer you do your own books and schedualing, so why not flat out tell me this was not going to work out for a lesson.?
So trying to give her another chance she then goes on to schedule a a ew lesson that she then flakes out on, or tries ti get it to a group lesson. The lessons I did have all where jumping.
Summing this whole story up, I got 6 lessons and maybe 2 trainer rides. When in this full training program that I am paying 400 for, is 2 lesons a week and one training ride or whatever I want as long as it is 3 sessions a week. I was there from the 2nd to the 31 or whatever the last day of that month was an got him out of there... I payed the board and payed for half training and left a nite with how disappointed I was with this. Not to mention my girth was stolen at this barn the last day I was there.
So you can imgane how I felt to get out of there. I moved him to a barn a little further away that looked great, sounded great, horses looked happy and healthy, and you could bring in your own trainer, you had a locked locker space and just overall good place.
Well I have had Oliver there since the 1st of September, 2 weeks ago it got really cold and started to rain a lot, so I went and rode and blanketed Oliver, I ran into a gal that day who had her horse 3 stalls down from mine and she did self care and was a vet tech. She offers to take oliver's sheet off when it stops raining or warms up, I tel her that would be great, give her my number and leave that day feeling good thinking he would get the blanket off when it warmed up again (he also gets fungus really easy and I don't know the turnout sched and they get 4 hours of turnout) well I wasn't able to make it out again for a few days cause my mom was out of town and I didn't have a car, so going to to have another lesson the day after my mom gets back into town I arrive ti find my horse still has the freaking blanket on...and oh by the way it's very warm outside !! Very annoyed and worried about Oliver I take it off and he's soaked in sweat, he has drank all his water. I go onto fill his buckets, hose him down and try to keep him cool. The lady then shows up later and says " oh I felt so bad he had his blanket on" and I fiat out tell her I trusted her take it off it warmed up since she offered to do so, and how my horse could have gotten very sick. Also upset with the barn management though, one would think it would be common curtsy to take it off when it so warm out, I even had a note on my stall saying so and with my number... No one did so.
So my trainer after hearing all this has told me she wants me to have Oliver come to her barn, so I went and fell in love with it, bigger stalls, pasture turnout, big indoor arena, many people on sight, all the hors get the same care, blanketing and feed, turnout. And I know my trainer is great with her horses and care. So we plan on moving him on the 15th, thank freaking goodness.
But this last Friday came out to work Oliver and come around 6pm and open his stall to find 2 large flakes of alflafa...my horse is one of the last to ever need this. Not to mention it is made clear n the stalk, I told the barn owners when we signed the papers...I'm about ready to punch the next person that is near me when I find something going on wrong before he moves.
I'm so sick of this nonsense, if this place backfires for w.e reason I might just loose my mind.
I will be so relieved when i don't have to worry about my horse anymore.
Sheeesh!:evil: