Focusing

I won’t talk about my childhood or early adulthood.  This story begins when my daughter was about ten years old and discovered horses.  She started riding at a stable owned by a great trainer and wonderful mentor to little girls.  She approached me about purchasing an older, inexpensive and well trained horse for my daughter and that’s exactly what I did.  She told me that the horse was quiet and reasonably safe- the perfect first horse for a ten year old girl.  I trusted her and she was right.  Everything wasn’t right, but the horse and the girl were a perfect match.  The trainer talked me into purchasing a second horse for my daughter as she advanced – a very special horse, she said.  I followed her advice and purchased the second horse.  When other, more experienced riders in the horse show community heard of the purchase they came to me and told me that the horse was a “stopper” and dangerous! That is exactly what happened, and when the trainer blamed my daughter for the horse stopping I blamed myself for the relationship going downhill and the need to move to a new barn and trainer. 

Of course, new trainer means new horse.  That’s the way it is in the horse business.  Trainers make a commission from every horse that a customer buys or sells, and frequently there is a little padding in the price that everyone knows about but nobody mentions – and that padding goes straight into the trainer’s pocket.  In the price range that I was dealing there wasn’t much padding to be had, but as the prices get higher the trainers become greedier.  The new trainer assured me that the incidents that had made me unhappy with the former trainer would never happen with her because she was honest! I believed her. I was continually reminded of the new trainer’s honesty and we purchased and leased a number of horses through her for my daughter to ride and show.

My daughter’s success as a rider was evidence of the quality of the training that she received and even today I do not question the capability of the trainer.  I will leave question the ethics and motives for you to answer for yourself.