Please Help! Giving 30 Days Notice :(

Recently, my parents and I have decided that it is time to move barns to get more advanced training and care for my horse. However, I am dreading telling my current trainer whom I have been with for over four years that I will be leaving. I want to stay on good terms with her, and even want to come back and visit, but I am afraid she will take the move badly and be come angry.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to tell her I am leaving while keeping the door open to possibly one day coming back to her barn?!

If anyone has ANY ideas, please please please post them. I'm desperate!!!!

Usually honesty is the best policy.
Your trainer should know her own limitations, so if you're going elsewhere to get something she can't provide (more advanced training), hopefully she would be happy for you.

If she's a professional, she should be used to dealing with people coming and going, and shouldn't get angry over it.

Learning how to leave a professional relationship is actually a very good lesson for all of us. I struggled with it for the longest time, and often would continue in a situation that I knew was not the best for me, just because I couldn't handle the "break up." Once I got through it a few times, I learned that it's common and most people will completely understand; or if not understand, will deal with it in a professional manner.

So just tell her you're going to try this new place to get some more advanced instruction, but you really enjoyed your time with her, and if the right circumstances come up, you would love to come back to her someday.

Thank you for the advice, I really appreciate it!! Im dreading talking to her haha, and writing the notice is going to be rough!

This is just me, but personally I wouldn't spend much time on writing the notice. I'd write up something simple like "This is my notice that on DATE I will be moving my horse, NAME, from STABLE. I have enjoyed my time here." Then I would sign and date it (make sure there is a current date on the notice, in case anyone later tries to say it was less than 30 days).

Then I would go to the trainer and talk to her, explain my decision, and then just hand over the notice calling it a formality. I wouldn't be using the written notice to explain why I'm leaving - I do that first, and use the written notice just so the legal requirements are met.

Of course, some people prefer to do it the opposite way. If you think it would be too difficult to have that conversation, then you can write out a detailed notice. However, I've found that most people don't want to read much - they prefer talking about it. I ALWAYS write formal notes (work emails, official notices) with the assumption that the person will not read more than the first sentence. So that one sentence has to say the critical items in a short, concise manner, and the rest of the message is to back it up.