J_sarahd
Well-Known Member
This is going to be long. Sorry. And I need to get it off my chest because it’s given me a huge confidence knock (more than my fall on Monday has!!)
From July 2017 until Dec 2018 I was part loaning a Welsh section D called Max. I posted about him a few times. When I first starting loaning him, he tanked whenever he could, especially into jumps. After months of hard work and going right back to basics, we were jumping and last summer we went to loads of workers competitions and even won our first (and now, only) county show and took the championship (still have the trophy for a few more months). We were winning things left, right and centre.
We had a bit of a confidence knock at SSADLs championship workers, which put us back a few months. But I would like to think we worked through it.
Around September, his owner got another rider. She was one of the students at a local vet school and she originally rode a pony on the yard who got sold. I was told she would just be riding him here and there. And that they would NOT be going out anywhere.
I see on Facebook one day that they’ve gone for cross country schooling. It made me jealous, but I was like okay fine whatever. All this time, his owner was convincing me that I was his number one rider and I should still think of him as mine.
Then, I took him for some arena eventing practise. The other rider tagged along to “watchâ€. Max kept refusing one of the show jumps so his owner said “well he never does this with (the other rider). Get off and let her do itâ€. I stood my ground and said no and that if I didn’t do it myself, I’d never do it. Then I went up to the cross country fences and he tanked. Badly. Looking back, he was definitely napping to the other pony and it was a vicious cycle of him doing that and me getting more nervous. So I got off and the other rider got on. And I made a joke about Max and all hell broke loose. His owner started shouting at me, despite me saying I didn’t want an argument. I walked away because I basically had a panic attack.
She never apologised for this and kept avoiding me and letting others ride when I was supposed to be riding. Or feeding him when she knew I was going up to ride.
So when I decided to look for my own horse, I couldn’t talk to her in person so I text her. I know that’s bad form, but she wasn’t actually allowing me to talk to her in person. Plus I didn’t want another argument.
Oh, and I forgot to mention, my old instructor told me she’s fallen out with previous riders (she’s had a lot for Max) to get them to stop riding. I didn’t believe it at first but now I’m questioning if that’s what she did to me.
And apparently now she’s saying I’m not a good rider, I’ll ruin Badger and I was never good enough for Max. And saying how this new rider is the best rider Max has ever had. Oh, and I know she’s more than likely been rude about Badger because she only likes Welsh Sec Ds and anything else is just not good enough. She moaned about one of the ponies that arrived when I was there saying it was too slow, too fat, too hairy. And whilst Badger isn’t a Connie, people think he is and she DESPISES connies
Disclaimer: I know if none of this has happened then I wouldn’t have Badger so I am weirdly grateful. I just feel like 1) she was just being fake nice to me all that time and 2) I’m not actually as good a rider as I think I am (even though I don’t think I’m good at all...)
From July 2017 until Dec 2018 I was part loaning a Welsh section D called Max. I posted about him a few times. When I first starting loaning him, he tanked whenever he could, especially into jumps. After months of hard work and going right back to basics, we were jumping and last summer we went to loads of workers competitions and even won our first (and now, only) county show and took the championship (still have the trophy for a few more months). We were winning things left, right and centre.
We had a bit of a confidence knock at SSADLs championship workers, which put us back a few months. But I would like to think we worked through it.
Around September, his owner got another rider. She was one of the students at a local vet school and she originally rode a pony on the yard who got sold. I was told she would just be riding him here and there. And that they would NOT be going out anywhere.
I see on Facebook one day that they’ve gone for cross country schooling. It made me jealous, but I was like okay fine whatever. All this time, his owner was convincing me that I was his number one rider and I should still think of him as mine.
Then, I took him for some arena eventing practise. The other rider tagged along to “watchâ€. Max kept refusing one of the show jumps so his owner said “well he never does this with (the other rider). Get off and let her do itâ€. I stood my ground and said no and that if I didn’t do it myself, I’d never do it. Then I went up to the cross country fences and he tanked. Badly. Looking back, he was definitely napping to the other pony and it was a vicious cycle of him doing that and me getting more nervous. So I got off and the other rider got on. And I made a joke about Max and all hell broke loose. His owner started shouting at me, despite me saying I didn’t want an argument. I walked away because I basically had a panic attack.
She never apologised for this and kept avoiding me and letting others ride when I was supposed to be riding. Or feeding him when she knew I was going up to ride.
So when I decided to look for my own horse, I couldn’t talk to her in person so I text her. I know that’s bad form, but she wasn’t actually allowing me to talk to her in person. Plus I didn’t want another argument.
Oh, and I forgot to mention, my old instructor told me she’s fallen out with previous riders (she’s had a lot for Max) to get them to stop riding. I didn’t believe it at first but now I’m questioning if that’s what she did to me.
And apparently now she’s saying I’m not a good rider, I’ll ruin Badger and I was never good enough for Max. And saying how this new rider is the best rider Max has ever had. Oh, and I know she’s more than likely been rude about Badger because she only likes Welsh Sec Ds and anything else is just not good enough. She moaned about one of the ponies that arrived when I was there saying it was too slow, too fat, too hairy. And whilst Badger isn’t a Connie, people think he is and she DESPISES connies
Disclaimer: I know if none of this has happened then I wouldn’t have Badger so I am weirdly grateful. I just feel like 1) she was just being fake nice to me all that time and 2) I’m not actually as good a rider as I think I am (even though I don’t think I’m good at all...)