So, today I found out my trainer has been dishonest in her dealings with training my horse.

My horse has a live camera in his stall so I can see when my trainer takes him out and returns him. I happened to be looking at the live feed this last Thursday and noticed she was taking him out for his weekly training ride. However, not 8 minutes later she puts him back and charges me $30 for a "30 minute ride". I decided to let it go, but today something prompted me to investigate the training sessions my horse has received the past month.

Ultimately, I discovered that for the past month my trainer has been charging me $40 for a supposed 45 minute ride, but has only been riding him for 12 minutes, including tack up time. Unfortunately, the video camera history doesn’t go beyond September, but she was riding him the month of August as well.

I asked her about pricing on training rides and she said it is $30 for 30 minutes, $40 for 45, and $60 for 1 hour. She then proceeded to say, “I ride for as long as I feel he [my horse] needs that day to get something accomplished.”

Heck no. You charge me for a 45 minute ride so I expect you to ride him for 45 minutes! I can’t even begin to imagine how much money I have lost in the past couple months for 12 minute rides when I thought my horse was getting 45 minutes.

I have been thinking about how I feel like my horse isn’t progressing and now I know why. I feel like the only solution now is to switch barns since my trainer also happens to be the barn owner.

I have been at this barn for the past 3-4 years and it is the first barn out of the many I had been to that allowed me to advance to the point I could get my first horse. It is the barn that solidified my decision to be an eventer. This same trainer went with me to look at my horse when I bought him 4 months ago.

I hate the idea of moving my horse when he just settled in. I admired my trainer and loved my barn family. I feel betrayed and I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around it because I am just shocked.

Honestly this isn't the first shady thing your trainer has done, so I'm not entirely surprised, but I'm super sorry this has happened to you. I really hope you find another barn soon that suits your horse and yourself better and is more honest about their rides.

One of the worst things that can happen with a trainer is having that trust you have with them broken. If you're paying that much for her to ride your horse she should be riding him for that allotted time. If she truly thinks he doesn't need that much time she should not be charging you more than necessary. I hope you can find a better trainer, one that you can trust to take care of your horse the way that you would.

You aren't wrong Puck. I thought we had worked out everything that had happened with the accident, but clearly there is a deeper problem that has to do with personal ethics and professionalism.

"I ride for as long as I feel he needs that day to get something accomplished" and then riding him for 12 minutes is shameful horsemanship. What exactly did she accomplish is 12 minutes? Warming her ass in the saddle? I spend at least 20 minutes on warming up alone, before I even start properly working my horses. I'm completely baffled. I don't understand why she even bothered tacking him up. Pretty idiotic, if she knew there's camera in his stable. I mean, she could've at least took him out for 45 minutes and done nothing with him so it looked like he was being ridden for 45 minutes. She either genuinely thinks 12 minutes is a sufficient ride or she didn't think her scam through properly. All this tells me is that she's a terrible trainer, a terrible horsewoman, a terrible person and also a terrible scammer. I'm sorry to come on here and completely slate your trainer, but just reading about that has seriously pissed me off. It's a complete abuse of trust and disgraceful that she took advantage of your trust in her. I'm not sure what $45 exchanges into pounds but I still know that it sure as hell isn't cheap. I cannot stand anything more than terrible trainers who abuse their riders (hence the rant). I see it all the time in many different ways.

God knows what else happens behind your back. Please please please get away from someone like that