Ripped off by a natural horsemanship trainer

This is very odd, I don't understand why you handed money over without seeing the work being done.

Why did you not go down and ride the horses. The place I use usually takes about 6 weeks, I go there a lot, they have me riding in the school and hacking out to make sure I am happy, plus they WANT me to watch the horse progressing.

I would also have removed the horse when I saw her in with a colt, and I would have told them I was coming down to watch her being schooled.

So sorry for you and your horse.
 
Agree with poster above basically. Sorry!

My trainer is a natural horsemanship practitioner and she would never take on a horse for backing without the owner being there to (a) see what's being done and (b) basically take an interest.

She would expect the owner to be at her yard on a regular basis if she takes their horse for whatever reason, so they can see the way she's working with their horse; as she aims to educate both together, i.e. horse & rider - coz otherwise she says its just a waste of time basically.
 
Sorry this has happened, but I do find it odd you only visited the once, & out with a mature colt should have rang alarm bells. There's bad in every profession, including nh, so not a fair reflection on all nh trainers.
 
The way I read this was that vont had had this trainer to her other horses at home for a year so was lead to believe that she was as advertised.She therefore had no reason to question her capabilities or motives.It appears that this trainer lived a fair distance away from vont making it difficult for her to travel to see her mare but was sent pictures of progress being made.I just hope that vont can turn this mare around and get some satisfaction from the trainer.
 
rhino said:
If they had the time and their own transport; not everybody does :confused: Public Transport in that area can be worse than useless.
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I know this but when my disaster happened I was ill after a accident I was unable to drive I should have got someone to go even if I had pay a local vet ( not the trainers own to call in )
As soon as could drive that far I went to a show unannounced I will never forget what I felt when I saw her , all my fault too trusting and glad to have had one issue at a difficult time dealt with .
She ended up PTS it was a terrible experiance.
 
I understand that GS, and personally I wouldn't be willing to have my horse somewhere that I couldn't keep a very close eye on him, however I don't think it is as simple as Owlie was trying to make out. There are some hugely isolated areas around Inverness, I know, I've been lost there many times :o
 
I agree with Rhino. I may possibly know who this trainer is (I've PM'd the OP to find out if I'm right or not) and if it's the person I'm thinking of, they cover an absolutely huge area - and when I say 'huge' I mean about the size of Belgium.
 
Hi, It is very isolated up here and at the time i didn't have transport which the trainer was aware of and said they would keep my updated with pics and mail so i knew how she was progressing. Once she had progressed enough i was going to be going down and staying down there so we could work together on everything the way my mare was taught.

I made the decision to remove my mare after not hearing about any progress made. And today myself with many hours in the rain, have managed to make a small amount of progress myself.
Personally YES it is a mistake i made and i am now suffering for it, and after today I'm alot happier, but still along way off what she was.
 
You are not the only one who's been taken in by trainers. My friend got a lovely Arab gelding and he was sent away for over a month to be backed. Friend had backed a horse previousley but decided to get a professional this time. Baby came home after five weeks..was ok with lunging and would accept a bit and saddle but had not been sat on or ridden. Total waste of £800 ! Payment was made for horse to be fully backed. No harm had been done but just didn't get what she paid for.
 
Everybody makes mistakes, big or small, and huge lesson learned here. Nobody is perfect, we all do our best, but sometimes things dont work out the way we wanted.
I am "breaking" or starting, as I prefer to use, a fab 3 yr old mare for a friend. I am experienced in doing all the groundwork, It's what I'm good at. The mare is here a month, and is only lungeing in the last 10 days, I took it very slow wit her, as she was slightly handled, but really pushy, she was the boss beforehand. I worked with her inhand before attempting to put breaking tack on, and it worked. she has taken to everything really well. When she came here, you could hardly lead her, now i can put her out into the field/bring her in, with just a headcollar. Will be starting to drive her in long reins in the next few days, hopefully she will be just as good..... but her owner has only been here twice to see her, as firstly, she trusts me, and secondly, she is for sale, so doesnt want to be here too often, so she's not tempted to keep her. (she's worse than me at accumulating horses). I ring her every few days to let her know how we are getting on. I dont do the backing, but I have a guy that backs any horse i have in, as he has balls of steel and is so quiet and refined, no whips etc.... just goes about his job. I'm after getting really good as the person on the ground. He comes up to see the horse working for about a week before hand, and we have a chat before he gets on board, so i know what to do in specific circumstances. Touch wood, all good so far, so it's not all bad to send your horse away, you do need to know where you are sending your horse, though!!!!
 
So sorry for what happened OP you were extremely unlucky considering you felt you knew this trainer. Sounds to me like he/she was out of depth (not down to your horse -with backing/breaking in general) and not ready to say so.

From what I have seen of NH trainers my main concern with many of them (and I'm talking the Big Names here) is that their qualifications are just too easy for them to come by. Real horse sense cannot be taught in brief "courses" IMHO.
 
Just thought i would update you all. My mares nerves have calmed down a bit, and she is coming to me alot more now
But i do have a mega issue with her now. She was lifting all her feet up before. I thought she was playing up down to her nerves, but everyday when i'm trying to lift her feet up she is rearing and bucking like a bronco.
So have gone back to basics on running my hand down her legs until she is comfortable, then lifting and putting straight back down. Other than that things are going well and slowly.
 
I think its awful that not only has this "trainer" ruined what sounds like a perfectly sweet horse, but perhaps even worse is the fact that you have had to PAY for the privilage! Have you had much contact with this "trainer" since?
 
Hi nimrod, I did ask the trrainer if there was any issues that was not brought to my attention when i pick up my mare.
but was told by the trainer that my mare settled well in the small herd and the trainer thinks that the issue is possibly with me and down to been in a different field.
But as i stated to the trainer my mare is very laid back and settled in with me fine when i first got her, settled into the trainers herd fine, so why would the mare be so nervous coming back to it's owner and own surroundings that it has been used to for so long.
Every issue I have asked about has not been answered and been avoided in every possible way.
Best is I have been in the horse industry for 20 years now, I no how to read a horse inside and out. the only reason she went to the trainer is i have another 2 i am working with as well.
 
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