I started taking lessons from Andrea in late 2021. I came in with a few years riding experience, after having taken a long hiatus from riding.
She put me on an extremely lazy and stubborn mare which I didn't complain about at all, until an incident a couple months later. The mare she put me on was blind in one eye.... we were walking along when a child outside the arena made a sound in the dirt on the side of the blind eye and the mare freaked out and suddenly bolted, galloped across the arena and started bucking until I flew off. A very unfortunate incident, especially because I landed on my ankle and sprained it badly.
The incident was definitely not because of a mistake I made - I had the mare walking slowly - we were cooling down after the lesson, and the mare went from walking calmly to going nuts in a split second because of a sound.
I messaged Andrea a couple days later and politely requested to be switched to a different lesson horse, citing the horse's extreme stubbornness and laziness, and saying that I didn't feel comfortable on the horse after the incident. She didn't respond for 2 weeks until I followed up again, a couple days before what was supposed to be my first lesson back.
She literally responded by kicking me out of her program, saying "Unfortunately, I feel that my program is not a good fit for you at this time."
It left a really bad taste in my mouth. She put me on a horse that clearly had an issue with being extremely reactive, and then when the horse bucked me off and injured me, she let me hang for 2 weeks and then kicked me out of her program.
To be clear, I understand that falls and accidents happen in the horse world. It's not my first time falling off a horse. But the fact that she ignored me for 2 weeks and then kicked me out of her lessons like I had done something wrong is honestly so upsetting and unprofessional.
---EDIT: IN RESPONSE TO HER REPLY---
I understand you claimed that you didn't have another horse for me. But if you had any interest at all in keeping me as a student you could have:
1) Switched me to the other horse you had me riding in the 1st two weeks I took lessons
2) At least tried me out on another lesson horse before cutting me out
3) Asked if I would be willing to give that same horse another try
4) Attempted to find another solution with me, such as suggesting I lease another horse at the barn and continue taking lessons with you
5) Asked me about rescheduling my lessons to another day since in your Yelp response, you cited my "scheduling needs" as a reason you just couldn't continue with me
6) Tried literally anything else to try to work it out with me, instead of immediately dropping me
But you didn't try any of that - you ignored me for 2 weeks, then sent me that text, making it clear I had been dropped from your lessons. It's pretty clear you had no interest in working with me further and got rid of me at the first possible opportunity. I was nothing but kind and respectful in all our interactions, so I genuinely don't know what I did to deserve that kind of treatment. read more