Professional schooling?

tabithakat64

tabithakat64

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I've noticed a lot of adverts these days have the phase 'profesionally schooled' in. Do potential buyers view it as a good thing or not?
What constitutes 'professional schooling'?
(My boy is being schooled once a week by a RI, who competes to a high level in both SJ and dressage and I'm curious, although not planning to sell)
 
I personally hate professionally schooled horses as it usually means I can not ride them and they will not forgive me when I make mistakes as an amateur. I think it is a ploy but honestly can you call a horse professionally schooled when it has spent 1 week with a pro? Also what is a professional some pretty crappy riders call their horses pro schooled.
I would love to send my horse away to come back wonderfully schooled but I think after 1 month he would have reverted back to old habits because I would still be at the stage I was before he left.
Professionally broken is one thing I do not have a problem with, in fact I much prefer it.
 
When I see professionally schooled in an advert it makes me wonder why it's owner doesn't school it themselves or have lessons on it and the alarm bells start ringing in my head.
My boy is being ridden by my RI as I don't feel I have the confidence/ability to school him myself at the moment. The plan is he is ridden once a week by my RI, who gives me things to work on whilst hacking out. I'm having lessons at a riding school myself and hopefully by the spring I will be ready to start having lessons on my boy and by summer we will be at a suitable standard and confident enough to start competing. Like you, I don't really see the point in having a horse sent away to be schooled unless you are going to have regular follow up lessons.
 
Shadow was professionally schooled to get him up the dressage ranks quicker than I could- not for anything naughty. The rider was a master at dressage George Dewez so I guess it depends who the horse was sent to and why...
 
Um, if your horse is being schooled by a professional and the end result in that you can't ride it AND the professional is not willing to work with you on why . . .

. . . well that's a pretty bad professional, isn't it?

I would agree that why someone would put that in the ad warrants a question (it MIGHT be a euphamism for a horse with a problem) but I'm not seeing why it's a necessarily negative. Maybe it means the horse has been taught properly by an experienced person and not had to absorb a bunch of wrong turns. It shouldn't make an otherwise suitable horse unridable for a competant amateur or unable to "take a joke". at least not if it's done correctly. If I was looking for a serious young horse for competition I think I'd be MORE interested in a horse with a professional start because I would hope that person has a good idea of the big picture, knows how what seem to be small issues at the start can become big holes later and has taken pains to make sure this doesn't happen.

Not that amateur trained horses can't be brilliantly trained but surely if someone has been making a decent living for some time training horses it's because they're good at it??

I would question "professional quality". This to me means an athletic, talented horse that is probably not suitable for anything other than being a highly managed competition horse. For the average rider looking for an "easy" horse to have fun with these horses rarely fit the bill, no matter how they might make everyone go "wow".

I think it's a bit like "never shown" - the real question is why? And then whether or not the answer is something that rules the horse out for the buyer's purposes.
 
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