My one boarder moved her horse closer to her home. Her horse is sound and he needed more consistent work to finish his rehab. She was driving over an hour. With the time change her daughter couldn’t make it up here after school to ride anymore. So the move.

She has a whole new team at her barn. New owners, stable manager, trainer, and instructors, farrier, and vet. At my barn, I’m chief cook and bottle washer. However, she doesn’t trust them yet to make the right decisions about her horse. She went through hell and back trying to get this horse sound for the last four years.

The new stable manager asked all the right questions, so I felt good about it. I know one of the specialty vets that is seeing him today, I’ve used her and I trust her opinion completely.

Now you’ve got a bunch of people who don’t know this horse trying to find their way in the dark. I sent a letter with all his shots, feeding, and general information along with him, but you just can’t remember to tell them all his quarks. So yesterday the trainer asked to see him go. Now remember this young girl has not been riding him for several years. He’s green broke. After he was no longer in pain, I started working with him and the mother. We brought him along nicely until he rodeo bucked her off. Gave the daughter a couple of lessons on how I trained him and she was doing well. Until yesterday.

So I get a call from the mom yesterday, he rodeo bucked the daughter off. Well the trainer doesn’t want to get on him, and she wants to put him on a lunge line and teach him how to do up and down transitions. Well I was working with the mom and horse on those. I get it, but the more you work a horse on a lunge to get the bucks out, the stronger you make him, and the longer it takes to get the edge off. The mom said she mentioned that to the trainer and the trainer assured her that it was just to teach him to slow down and extend. I reminded the mom to tell the trainer that he’s high for about the first 10 minutes and then settles down. The best way to handle it is to ride him at a trot, breaking forward motion with small circles. It gets his attention back on you, and what he’s supposed to be doing.

BUT, I am no longer the trainer. When do I back off and let the new trainer do her thing. Yes I know the horse, but it’s not my place anymore. I know the mother said she was going to check with me before she let anyone do anything with him, but……… I’m not sure if the trainer is just trying to make a dollar and prove that she can train or what. I also know that this trainer is going to get annoyed that the mom is checking with me.

When the mom asked, what should I do? I told her to allow the trainer to lunge him. She’s not going to harm anything (I hope). She really needs to find out what this horse is all about, and she believes this is the safest way.

When he bucked the mom off, he was just feeling his oats. The trainer believes it was for the same reason, and I kind of wanted to agree. When he dumped mom he just stood there and looked for her, then walked over and nuzzled her. When he bucked the daughter off he took off at a gallop, went over a jump (that he didn’t have to) and the trainer caught him. He is a horse you have to be still on or he gets mad. The daughter isn’t always still on him, but the trainer doesn’t know his quarks. I hate horses being blamed for the riders mistakes.

So we’ll see where this leads. I need to fade into the background and let this trainer take over, but it’s hard to do when the mom keeps calling and checking with me. I am thankful that this woman trusts me so completely. It does mean that I did my job well and she appreciates it, but I also fear that this horse, and these people will show up at my gate some day. It’s an hour drive through heavy traffic for a girl who just got her license last week. Not a good thing.

Hopefully she will learn to trust the new trainer and others at the barn. I laid a good foundation, now let the next person bring him to the next level.

It’s not going to be that easy because the mom wants to come up and take a lesson with me next week. Oh my!