Why do supposed professional riders feel they can treat staff badly

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squirtlysmum

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One of my fellow liveries is a 19 year old girl and she found a job with a local 'showjumper', she was very excited and said she would be given £6 an hour and have the chance to ride, compete and when a horse was sold she would be given a £50 bonus. I'm sure you can understand that she was very excited at the prospect of this sort of job and she would be caring for 6-7 horses. She went for a days trial and all went well and the owner appeared very nice and approachable.
She handed in her notice at another local livery yard and started her new job on Tuesday as she had been requested to start asap.
I saw her on Tuesday evening and she looked absolutely knackered and she said the woman had changed her pay and now expected her to work for 10 hours a day for £3.50 an hour!!!
Thats not where it ends when she rode one of the horses the woman screamed at her that she was stupid, couldn't ride and was pathetic, she went on to call her every name under the sun including an effing c!
She criticised everything that was done and reduced my friend to tears at no point did she ever explain what she required and why she tunred from being an apparently nice woman into an absolute cow!
This has absolutely knocked my friends confidence and she is by no means a bad rider and I gave her a big hug as she sobbed about the appalling day she had. Additionally she had no money to show for the day.
I insisted she rang the woman (who I wanted to rip limb from limb!) and ask for her wages. the ruddy woman had the audacity to say she was crying now and felt very let down and that my friend should stay quiet about the whole thing and not tell anyone what had happened and should return to work with her.
I then went with my friend to the yard to ensure she was paid and enroute the poor kid had palpitations and felt physically sick, I hoped that the woman would want to try to explain herself and I could tell her what an unprofessional bullying cow she was however when we arrived she put on an act of sweetness and light and even made out she knew me but backed off when she got short shrift and a cold reception.
With wages, well the pitence of £35, we left the yard.
Sadly this is not the first time I have heard of professional riders treating their staff like shite and thinking they can speak to them in any way.
The stupid woman insisted my friend should be 'loyal' to her and not mention the wages did not go through the books, so she's failing to notify the Inland Revenue as well!
I personally will ensure everyone possible knows what an appalling individual this woman is!!!!!
 
I had a similar experience with a rather well known dressage rider (well known enough to have had a horse at advanced level at last years nationals). My day's trial was a complete nightmare, I was left to clip a strange pony I didn't know, without anybody to help me when the bl00dy thing started trying to kick me across the stable. She critized how long it took to do a decent clip on this horrible pony (dodging teeth and heels does tend to make a clip take longer!), complained about my tack cleaning (well I did win my old pony club's best turned out award for 3 years in a row at camp!) and was generally down right rude. Ok, I didn't get the foul language but she was cutting and scathing in very b1tchy ways. I decided I couldn't be bothered to try to get any money out of her and didn't return!
 
I had a similar experience with a rather well known dressage rider (well known enough to have had a horse at advanced level at last years nationals). My day's trial was a complete nightmare, I was left to clip a strange pony I didn't know, without anybody to help me when the bl00dy thing started trying to kick me across the stable. She critized how long it took to do a decent clip on this horrible pony (dodging teeth and heels does tend to make a clip take longer!), complained about my tack cleaning (well I did win my old pony club's best turned out award for 3 years in a row at camp!) and was generally down right rude. Ok, I didn't get the foul language but she was cutting and scathing in very b1tchy ways. I decided I couldn't be bothered to try to get any money out of her and didn't return!
 
Poor girl - that sounds awful. People in general are though and you find them in any circle - your firend needs to put it down to bad experience, forget about it and find a job with someone decent!

I think it's fair to say, though, that all pro riders aren't like this. I work for a pro rider at weekends and she is lovely - I've had many office jobs where i've been treated like dirt though! Sounds like the SJ'er woman was just a total cow.
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We used to be visited by some 'pros' when I worked in a tack shop. Some of them were so nice and polite and so down to earth. Two SJ's that will remain nameless even bought their children in and they were 3 of the most polite and pleasant children I have ever met.
On the other hand several SJ's and some Dressage 'stars; were so far up their own ar*es they were chewing on intestine! One female so called SJ thought she was so much more than she was and was so bad to deal with that when we saw her car pull up we would all try and be busy!
Really is no need for it.
 
Regardless of what level they are there's no need to be so utterly abusive.
If the lady wasn't happy she should have at least explained why without resorting to destroying a young girls confidence. Changing the amount she was paying her is also way way out of order and i wonder if she would have tried that with someone who was less easily intimidated.
 
I hate to be boring, but she has to pay her the national minimum wage too - which she obviously isn't doing
 
Ive also had the same experience when I was 17 - went to a yard had high hopes and was worked like a dog and was expected to clean out 10 stables within an hour! The stables were a complete state too..horses hadnt been cleaned out over the weekend and I was told off for going too slow and taking out too much...the lady pushed the wheely back into the stable and tipped the whole lot back out...
I left in the end....the horses looked miserable and I was paid penuts...unforuntately in this day and age people should have respect for each other, be fair and treat people with dignity but in this line of work people can take total advantage...!

Funnily enough my manager spoke to me like crap after handing in my notice today and Ive just walked out of my coffee bar job...! Have another job lined up but at the same time thought - life is just too short to put up with this rubbish and walked out! Not always the best thing to do if you dont have another job in the pipeline - but your friend will find another horsey job again soon just put it down to lesson learnt and to never be treated like that again!! Hugs...
 
If you feel very strongly dob her in to the tax office, but in short grooms should vote with their feet if they are being abused. I know a couple of girls with a professional showjumper and they are always moaning about him but the bottom line is no-one is forcing them to stay.
 
I agree with Amymay......not all pro's are like this.

When I was 18 I worked for a well known (in the South West anyway
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) Showjumper and she acted the same way - i jumped her horses and she got increasingly frustrate with me and didn't even attempt to hide it, said I couldn't ride her horses because I would ruin them
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and when one of her horses studded me at a show she said i deserved it - and it was all my fault!!
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I think it was a definite clash of personalities - my best friend worked for her for 3 years and had no problems

She really knocked my confidence, and only now have i been confident in my ability to jump bigger things. for for 4 years i thought i was too crap to jump
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now I know better hehe

don't let this person put your daughter off, like I was xx
 
[ QUOTE ]
I hate to be boring, but she has to pay her the national minimum wage too - which she obviously isn't doing

[/ QUOTE ]

Unfortunately the minimum wage does kick in until you are 22 years old or over and is £4.60/hr for 18-21 year olds, so it might not apply to OP friend.
It is in your friends interest to have her earnings put through the books properly (ie so the HMRC know about it), as otherwise she will have gaps in her National Insurance contributions and will not receive full state pension allowances when she retires!
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Yes, yes, I know I'm an extremely boring accountant!!!
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I am appalled to hear these stories. What planet are these employers living on?

They should at least be having an "induction" period - not left to clip an unkown animal by themselves, or be shouted at, etc. etc.

New employees should be shown how they want things done (the mucking out) - and you should also have all the conditions down in writing before you start.
 
i experienced something similar at a racing yard, i was told i would be riding tohe racehorses, not the yearlings and when i got there for my first day was forced to ride four yealings all at different stage sof their training.....the final one had only been backed 2 weeks prior to me riding it. i fell off, hurt my back and got shouted at. I went home and decided not to go back. i tried calling them the next day to say i wouldnt be returning but got no answer so left a message for them to call me.....5 years on i am still waiting for the call........
 
I'm pretty sure there is a minimum wage for 16 year olds too? But if she is 19 she should be getting 4.60 if OP post is right.

I would gather any evidence she could (phone messages, letters etc) and report her to inland revenue. Too many people in this industry get away with paying less than minimum wage. Even if woman doesn't get prossecuted, it could be the wake up call she needs to start at least paying her staff properly.

The rudeness is sadly something she just has to put down to experience though. Bless her, my confidence would be in tatters after that too.
 
£3.40 for 16 or over and no longer of complusary school age (ie not applicable for weekend work whilst still at school), then £4.60 18-21 and £5.52 22 and over.
OP friend is 19 so should be getting at least £4.60/hr. You can report people to the Revenue anonymously through their website, I believe, www.hmrc.gov.uk. It's the only way with some people. They should know better.
 
A young woman I knew went to work for a quite well known woman in the NE, had to have time off for a bad back, was bullied into working after the Dr. had signed a sick note (partly due to living in a tied cottage) ended up with a permenantly damaged back, BUT sued the woman and won!
 
How awful, the woman sounds a complete bitch. Why do some of them feel they have to be like that. It must be so tempting to report her to Revenue and Customs...
 
I worked for Michael Matz who was an olympic showjumper, and now trains race horses - I can not say a bad thing about him - it was certainly not an easy job, but he was not above anything, I have seen him hot walk many horses, hold horses for the farrier, give horses baths, etc.
 
You don't need to be a pro to treat your staff badly. I rode at a riding school for 5 years, when I left school I started there as a working pupil. On my first day the older of the other two working pupils told me to take down all the haynets, muck out all the stables, (I think there were at least a dozen horses kept in at the time), catch 3 of the ponies, brush them and tack them up for our lesson at 10 o'clock. Then the two of them disappeared into the house and stayed there. Sometime around 12 o'clock I was still trying to muck out. And got told off for being too slow.
A couple of days later I was told [by the same WP] that my lunch was no longer being provided as there wasn't enough food/time to prepare lunches for all three WPs (this was apparently a newbie "initiation" thing)
I quit after 5 days

Another time I went to live-in as a groom for a woman with 3 horses. I was there for a week, the entire time I was there the woman never spoke to me, she'd send one of her teenage daughters out to tell me what to do with the horses, then the husband would yell at me for doing things wrong, when I explained that that's what the daughter had told me to do I thought he was going to slap me! Final straw came when I stood still for a minute after a 12 hour "shift" and the husband screamed at me that I wasn't being paid to stand around doing nothing...
 
Feeling thoroughly vindictive I'm going to report her to the tax office, local council for business rates on her stables and Dept of Work and Pensions, may she learn her lesson!!
 
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