Hrm.
1. Gabi ("run him an hour every day before you ride")
2. Petra ("hold the reins up so he won't trip, you'll be fine.")
3. Luchtenhagen ("we use side reins on all our lesson horses, all the time, otherwise their backs will lose strength and we'll have to slaugher them.")
4. Mel. ("a dead deer was found in the hay" - well, over time her excuses ran out and she just never showed up or called, though she was the best with horses that I've seen here, sadly)
5. Katrin, ("take that blanket down off the fence while I'm riding cuz I don't want to deal with that!") and then altogether refusing to ride Mara.
6. Lukas, ("Mag is simply done for the day, I cannot continue.") with him jumping off just as Mag was rearing up obstinately, so, he rewarded that.
7. Katja, ("I'm not comfortable with you trying to pony your donkey off your horse. That has never gone well with me.") And she's the one who has the Liberty clinic with people sitting underneath their horses, in group that just met that day, with the horses bickering over their humans' heads.
8. Cologne trainer, ("You are BRUTAL!" and she did nothing to help me get along with her horse, much less learn something. She did NOTHING! She was an abomination to horse lovers, who truly wish to learn. She chose to look at her cell phone most of the lesson.)
That might be it -remind me if I've forgotten any! Most cannot set their cell phones down during a lesson.
But tonight I contacted Ani's trainer, who owns an Anglo Arab (a good sign?). I had observed her lesson once before. She teaches Western Dressage. So she went over the Dressage Training Pyramid with Ani in German (and I was trying to translate in my head). I think I've got it now in both languages.
Although this trainer, Susanne (Oh not another S name and NOT another Susanne!!!) apparently has spent time in Canada learning "Western" - I am hesitant to trust.
But her website says it's important that sometimes she get on the horse.
What! I've rarely seen that in Germany. The trainers I know are all chicken. We'll see if she comes through with that.
It is wasted time, I feel, time without either lessons or endurance conditioning.
Let's see what Susanne has to say about Mag and me.
From Angela's camera yesterday. Not bad!
6 comments:
Fingers, hooves, paws crossed this one is good. Her name says she's a lovely person, shhhhhh, my real name isn't Camryn 😇 Love the pix.
Reading this makes me sag. It is as though they live in another universe or something. Please don't let her ruin Mag. If you have any warning buzzers going off, I hope you will stop immediately You've made more progress on your own than with those so called trainers. Germans can have the weirdest ideas about horses. I'm sorry to say that and sorry if I offend anybody, but the things you relate constantly make me shake my head. You have good old American common sense.
Good pictures. I really like your glasses, btw. You make glasses look hip. :-)
I tend to think that I'm "wasting time" because my horse and I are mostly healthy and uninjured, but we've hardly been out at all this summer because of my borked truck and now the extreme smoke conditions. I remind myself to do the math: I hope to still ride this mare when she is 30 and I am nearly 70. In that timeline, a few months is no big deal. You have even more time than us, in theory!
Maybe you can watch Susanne give a lesson to someone else? You should also figure out what you consider is off-limits, but sometimes typical of western training with high head carriage horses (martingales, side reins, head tied to the side, heavy curb bits) and have an open conversation about timeline, commitment of hours riding, and objectives. Some trainers when given unrealistic objectives will amp up the tools and tricks which might end up being counterproductive for you and your horse.
You might also consider a more intensive bootcamp over several days vs 1 lesson a week for several weeks. When Im trying something new to me or my horse, the bootcamp style works best. When I am in maintenance or conditioning mode, a more relaxed schedule works best for me with lots of fun and trail rides in between.
Good luck!
"Camryn" Aha!
KB, No worries, no one will ruin him unless it's me: ) I'm happy to have some of that common sense you speak of! Out of all those bad experience, there was only one I confronted face to face, honestly. I said, "I cannot learn from you." (The one who called me brutal and couldn't part with her cell phone). See how I did that? I blamed myself for her crap-i-tude? *sigh* A confident person would have said, "YOU cannot teach me." I'm often too subtle and no one gets the subtlety. My mom taught me to be nice above all else...but no way will I pay someone who I do not believe in. It's just kind of pathetic how many people I've been unable to believe in!
Aarene, I hate how I look without my glasses, and last month I had to pose for a passport photo and America has decided no glasses allowed, so I look just awful on my new passport. As Peggy Hill says, "Glasses hide fine lines and wrinkles!" (Not sure what the difference is, but..) Thank you for the compliment. It's been a long time since anyone has said anything nice about my appearance - Americans are much more likely to say "Hey, nice pants!" : ) In fact I'm always tempted to go up to someone and say just that at the grocery store, but hold back, cuz..Germany.
ND, Oh I did! And I usually do. I've turned away a few that I was repulsed by with a simple observational visit. Off limits would be side reins (but not running martingales) and head tied to the side for more than 5 minutes (less is OK, under supervision in a safe area). I'm not against a curb bit if the horse likes it, but I think it's wrong of her to call riding with a Bosal "bitless riding" cuz although there is no bit, there is a lot of face pressure there, people in Germany don't know about Bosals. Bootcamp sounds nice if she is willing. Then again, as you know, we have no round pen, no arena, nothing here, it is all on the street or on the trail. Thanks, we've set a date for the 10th of Sept, the earliest she can be here (WTH! That is soooo far off!)
I have been through a few trainers myself. Maybe it's us? LOL, just kidding. I hope that this one really works out.
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