Landed on this place after a lot of research and was super excited to sign up with them, but after…read morebooking a single lesson, I absolutely cannot recommend them.
This riding facility maintains a policy of penalizing customers $25 if they cancel a lesson within 24-hours of the start time. They feature this policy prominently on their site (in RED) and note that it is "strictly followed as a courtesy to the instructor." That's all good and well, but their instructor cancelled our first lesson approximately 4.5 hours ahead of time, and with zero apology at that.
Since nobody was ever available by phone, I reached out to the owner via email and made her aware of my disappointment with the situation, asking if the cancellation policy worked both ways or if respect for people's time was a one way street. I also made it clear I still wanted to take lessons from her barn and harbored no ill will toward the trainer, because I understand that things happen and people deserve a chance to make it right. I never asked for nor expected *anything*, not a $25 credit, not a discount, not a free lesson, not even an apology from the trainer, nothing. To her credit, the owner promptly responded with an apology and indicated she would work this out. I had hoped this meant she would connect with her trainer(s) and help get the lesson rescheduled and hopefully provide some assurances that this wouldn't happen again.
After three business days with no follow up, I emailed the owner again for an update. I pointed out that having already had one commitment broken by the trainer (out of the owner's control), I was hoping she planned to keep her commitment to sort this out (entirely within her control) so we could reschedule. I also reminded her that I was looking for weekly lessons through the balance of the year, which would have been prepaid after the first lesson had it not been cancelled, amounting to well over $3000. I once more extended the olive branch, indicating that while I was unsure how to interpret the lack of follow up, and that despite my gut instincts, I still wanted to give them a chance to make this right and do business with them.
The reply I received was another round of apologies, this time for the delay in her follow-up and (again) for the last minute cancellation by her trainer. This was immediately followed with a mealy-mouthed, passive aggressive "I'm not sure we're a good fit for you," cop out, with her ultimately suggesting I look elsewhere for lessons. I interpret that to mean that if you believe a barn should respect your time and hold themselves to the same standards that they demand of their customers, or if you have the temerity to give the owner feedback about a bad experience with a trainer, then you're not a good fit and are unwelcome here.
Regrettably, I cannot possibly recommend a barn that has unreliable, unapologetic, flaky instructors, not to mention an owner that cannot keep commitments and lacks basic business sense. This entire situation could have been resolved with a 2-minute phone call, but the owner would rather lose a customer and several thousand up-front dollars than expend even such minuscule effort. Why, oh why, would anyone recommend a barn that is run like this?
Pro-Tip™: Riding instruction is a people business, not a horse business. You'll keep more customers and make more money if you act like you understand the difference.