[Superminion]

Most everyone here has made a stupid decision when dealing with a horse at some point in time.

My only concern, and I mean this kindly, is that when we are still learning, it is best not to "teach".

When I was a child, I would have known NOT to get on a horse that was shaking with fear.

I had lessons from the age of 7yrs, (and an obnoxious pony of my own at 8) however taking lessons was not what would have stopped me from getting on that horse.
If you spend time with horses,on the ground as well as riding, for any reasonable period of time, you really should know better.

I was an enthusiastic "no fear" 10 yr old but after only 3 years riding (and being bucked off pony for the first month I had him) I would have known better than to get on that horse.

That said, we all make mistakes.

I think the worry many of us have with this situation is that such a (big) mistake was made by someone who is teaching/training.

I wish you (the young lady) a speedy recovery. If you are reading this, take heart, the only positive to being injured is the spare time in which to contemplate what you did wrong!

I speak from experience..

I've been quietly following this thread... but just had to venture in to say that I LOVE this post.

Great job Skydy.

[skydy]

I've been quietly following this thread... but just had to venture in to say that I LOVE this post.

Great job Skydy.

Thank you.

[Discobold]

From my behind-the-keyboard, I-don't-know-any-of-the-players-and-can-only-comment-on-what-I-read perspective, there seems to be more than one batshit crazy person in this saga

[WildandWickedWarmbloods]

With everyone quoting everyone else on this thread, it's twice as long as it would be w/o the quotes.

Is the horse still eligible to go to whatever rescue it was to go to in Maine? And is that rescue in Maine the one that had the falling out with AC4H a while back on this forum?

[skydy]

From my behind-the-keyboard, I-don't-know-any-of-the-players-and-can-only-comment-on-what-I-read perspective, there seems to be more than one batshit crazy person in this saga

There must be something in the air, because on many COTH forums right now people are being very uncivil to one another.. I know that COTH can have some lively and heated debates,and I enjoy them,and sometimes participate.

However, the off topic nastiness interferes with the exchange of opinons and ideas, and makes it not so fun to be here..

[Liberty]

...Is the horse still eligible to go to whatever rescue it was to go to in Maine? And is that rescue in Maine the one that had the falling out with AC4H a while back on this forum?

I'd like to know those answers, too.

[lawndart]

Perhaps instead of arguing if we should have private or national healthcare, we should be advocating some type of certification system for trainers. ANYONE can hang out a shingle in the USA. Is certification required in Canada?

Two different people have asked me why I don't give at least beginner lessons since I have a farm, and arena I have absolutely no desire to teach, nor should I. I'll freely admit I have no qualifications for it, but most people think nothing of jumping into it feet first.

I quit reading the blog at "I screamed Baby she broke my leg!" because I cannot stand over dramatization in writing. So I may have missed where she is actually wonderful, qualified, whatever.

Having owned two Peruvian Paso's they are a very sensitive horse. If you are used to working with QH's or Warmbloods, you could easily overface them. They do however send clear signals, so this trainer either discounted them, or missed them.

I hope the blogger recovers well, and applies the lessons learned in this instance to her future rides.

[Eye in the Sky]

Shaky scared horse = no ride. Period.

This is what natural and logical consequences look like when one throws reason out the proverbial door.

I hope she recovers and learns from this.

[oliverreed]

I have been thinking non-stop about this poor horse since yesterday when the first post came up. I would take her in a heartbeat if I had the money. I would take - oh, maybe 6 months doing nothing but grooming, hanging out with treats, hand walking all over the place. She could be out 24/7 or all day/in at night. I may be a rank-ish ammy but have learned enough on this forum and from my own trainer and my own Paso, who was incredibly reactive and spooky when I got him (at age 3.5, just gelded, WHAT was I thinking!) that I think I could do it. I sure hope she finds the right home.

I wish there was something we COTHers could do to help that happen. Anyone??

[ddashaq]

I, too, am wishing the young lady a swift recovery. It sucks making a foolish decision, made worse by putting it out there on the internet. Luckily, when I was training horses, blogs did not exist yet so the only ones who knew about the foolish scrapes I got myself into were myself and the horses. Helped by the fact that I never took on problem horses since I believe it takes a certain sort of trainer to be really good at that.

Sounds like the mare has a good owner so I am hopeful things will end well for her.

[Jealoushe]

I have been thinking non-stop about this poor horse since yesterday when the first post came up. I would take her in a heartbeat if I had the money. I would take - oh, maybe 6 months doing nothing but grooming, hanging out with treats, hand walking all over the place. She could be out 24/7 or all day/in at night. I may be a rank-ish ammy but have learned enough on this forum and from my own trainer and my own Paso, who was incredibly reactive and spooky when I got him (at age 3.5, just gelded, WHAT was I thinking!) that I think I could do it. I sure hope she finds the right home.

I wish there was something we COTHers could do to help that happen. Anyone??

You could always reach out to Dom and see what the situation is with the mare.

[oliverreed]

Well, good news. I joined a FB page where Dom and the horse's owner both post. Ownwer is going to continue to work with her, serious ground work for a while. She says she'll make a decision sometime in the summer.

[meupatdoes]

Would love to see you take on this horse.

Feel free to have Dom pass my contact info along to the owner.

At least it seems the horse is starting to have several options, as people reflect on its situation some more, instead of just automatically the great pasture in the sky because the human had to get it all done in three days for a good youtube video.

[oliverreed]

Yes, Meup. I have recommended a very reputable nationally known Paso Fino trainer whom I know personally, I bought my horse through his facility. Owner is considering.

[BarbaricYawp]

I don't know how you and Meup managed to spring to life on this planet with perfect horsemanship preprogrammed into you, but Congratulations!! It must be totally fabulous to be perfect!!

All this little lady is doing is sharing her mistakes. If the critics here are human, then y'all have made your share of wicked errors also. I mean, even George Morris didn't know anything at one time.

For some reason, I am still alive despite a respectable list of 'judgement errors' in the past. I mean, how many unsupervised kids with horses don't commit an impressive list of sins?

BUT, you know, you can't talk about that stuff. You've gotta, somehow, project this image that you ALWAYS knew how to do this stuff. Somehow the skill is worth more if it is innate than if it is hard won through sweat and hard work???

Which, by the way.... is going to involve making a LOT of errors along the way also.

Quit flailing around Isabeau. I'm not taking sides here and I'm not attacking this trainer, simply pointing out that she doesn't have the chops to handle this particular horse. And if you will read my original response to the OP, I offered up my personal failure with a horse very much like this one. Part of maturing as a horseperson is learning to listen to people who *have* made the mistakes already so you can avoid the same errors. Otherwise you are simply a hardhead. Since I'm very nearly old enough to be this trainers mother (-sigh-), my concern is that she doesn't get hurt more than she already has. There was nothing in her blogpost indicating that she wouldn't consider getting back on this horse, which (again, my opinion only) would be a Bad Idea. And I guess I'm a fogey enough to be appalled at the concept that someone might put themselves in harms way simply to build an internet following.

[BarbaricYawp]

Yes, Meup. I have recommended a very reputable nationally known Paso Fino trainer whom I know personally, I bought my horse through his facility. Owner is considering.

That's the best news I've heard all day (although the day is still young... and the better news would be that the owner has actually decided to take that offer LOL). That mare is actually very good and in the right hands could be brilliant.

[oliverreed]

And you know who I'm talking about, right?

[BarbaricYawp]

And you know who I'm talking about, right?

I do indeed. And I encouraged the same decision on FB. Let's think positively.

[Callista17]

Feel free to have Dom pass my contact info along to the owner.

At least it seems the horse is starting to have several options, as people reflect on its situation some more, instead of just automatically the great pasture in the sky because the human had to get it all done in three days for a good youtube video.

Yep- meupatdoes would have the mare feeling better about everything too. I have a good idea where it would start too. Take it from someone whose horse she's ridden.

I don't know this person/story, but....I've been to the blog...I thought I was reading a fairy tale/nightmare. It's hard to imagine this was all reality.

[FineAlready]

I've been thinking about this situation a lot. I do agree that all of us make mistakes with our horses at some point that end in either ourselves or our horses getting injured. And even if we or our horses don't get injured, we have all had close calls where we know we should have done things differently.

Heck, my horse was injured at a show because of a bad decision on the part of a young assistant trainer. I still think that trainer is a nice person and a good horsewoman. She just made a mistake, and it happened to be with my horse. I'm not mad at her about it, and I know for sure that she learned from it. I would trust her to ride my horse again, anytime (she has since moved out of state).

I guess the difference in my mind is that the assistant trainer that was dealing with my horse wasn't showboating or taking video to show what a great rider she is (and she IS a great rider). She WAS focusing on my horse and thought she was making the best decision at the time. It just turned out not to be the best decision. That kind of thing happens to all of us.

The young trainer that is the subject of this thread seems to take a lot of video of herself on "problem" horses doing things that seem like bad ideas. It looks like showboating to me. It looks like what she wants is a "good video" rather than what is right for the horse. I watched some of the other videos that were available on her blog and on her training website, and in several of them, I felt she may have been intentionally causing some of the bad behavior for purposes of the video. There was video of her on a bay gelding that kept rearing, crow hopping, and backing up. She first got on between a mounting block and a wall with a bunch of jumps against it (dangerous location to get on a rearer!) and the horse walked off just fine and all looked relaxed. She then turned the horse and asked the videographer if the camera was on, and, when she found out that it was on, the horse then immediately started acting up. To me, it looked like she was holding him back and asking him to go forward at the same time, which is practically guaranteed to produce a rear on a horse that has a propensity for it. This went on for some time, and she kept stopping the horse and making it stand in place (again, absolutely WRONG thing to do with a rearer). I just kept wanted to yell - GO FORWARD! Eventually, she walked around the arena normally and got off. I don't know. I wasn't there. I don't know the horse in question. But to me, it looked like when she stopped messing with him and giving him mixed signals, off he walked, calm as could be. It seemed like she was putting on a "show" so that she would have a good "after" video. Of course, I could be wrong. But I do maintain that she made a LOT of bad decisions in just that one video while riding a known rearer, so I don't really think she should be riding known rearers. A lot of these same mistakes were repeated on the video of the mare that ultimately ended up breaking this girl's leg.

I really do feel bad that she got hurt. It's a serious injury, and the recovery will probably be a long one. I just hope she fully recovers. And I really hope she will reconsider her approach to "problem" horses and also leave those with rearing problems to someone more capable of handling the problem.

As for the insurance bit...well, yes, I do think she bears personal responsiblity for carrying at LEAST catastrophic coverage which would have helped her out in this situation. My goodness, her occupation is basically "daredevil." To do what she does, even if she WAS making great decisions all the time, she really should be insured. What other countries do is really irrelevant on this point - she lives in the U.S. and her available options are what they are. Catastrophic coverage is quite affordable. If she wasn't willing to obtain such coverage, she probably shouldn't be doing the kind of work she does. Again, she is young. This is a hard lesson, but hopefully it IS a lesson to her and she will take it to heart.