Where Has The Work Ethic Gone?
I am sure you like what is this girl talking about! The last couple of weeks there was one of the biggest horse shows of the year in Tulsa, Oklahoma, NSBA World Show. I watched some of the trainers and how they were working horses, treating clients, and just doing their job and was shocked at how many were putting their horses through mini boot camps! Then the idea to win at all costs blows my mind, but I see my horses as family, and I have won many trophies and prizes so I won’t be crushed if I don’t win.
It seems more and more like so many are only concerned about the winning and the money than doing the job and being consistent. Pushing a horse only right before a show then drugging it, yup that’s an issue in the industry, so it will perform at its best even though you half-assed it in training all year. Why do we do that? I have seen it first had with my own experience with trainers. I have had trainers that don’t do the work regularly and then do the boot camp mentality and lie to me about things they are injecting into my horses. Then I have been so unbelievably lucky to have found a trainer that works hard year-round to have our horses ready. I would always go with the latte trainer!
Trainers are in a tough position for sure. Clients want to win, want the trophy and if that doesn’t happen, I am sure the trainer gets an ear full. But that is a whole other blog right there on the client view. So much pressure and mental and physical beat down when it comes to training horses. I have all my horses’ home with me right now and I can say that it is tough to work all of them and get jobs done and other things. It is a toll on a person mentally and physically. But why do the career if you aren’t ready to put forth the consistent effort always?
In any job you must work hard, and consistently do your job. If you don’t do what is asked of you daily you get fired, but trainers tend to do what they want, and no one fires them. I was sucked in on that too for a year and then I started to catch them in lies and realized they weren’t doing the daily training only right before a show or at the show. Talk about giving your horse PTSD! I saw this one trainer I had say they were working my young horse daily and training him. We got to a big show that he said he was ready for and the poor horse was ridden multiple times in the middle of the night, it was blatantly obvious he wasn’t ready. Those are the things that irritate me. Was it really that hard to ride him at home daily or few days a week? Apparently so. He did it with other horse as well. Then I moved to a trainer that loves her job and works tirelessly every day to work all the horses. I think having the right number of horses in training matters. If you have too many horses that you can’t handle, then obviously they fall through the cracks but if you only take what you know you can ride daily then it is such a better environment.
Then I see the fact that trainers will haul horses to a show and have the client pay for classes, stalls, and mileage to get there, but they don’t show them in the classes! Why take the horse if you aren’t going to show it? I don’t get that; it is expensive, and I sometimes feel that trainers think the owners are made of money because they pay for the horse to go. Why not think of the horse and the client? If you didn’t do the work, you know it, you know you’re not ready! So why waste time and money of someone? I have the biggest issue with that when I saw that with some trainers and the lies, they tell the client to get them not to be mad at them is mind-blowing. Here is a crazy reminder, client pays the bills and pays the trainer to do a job, so do your job!
There isn’t one thing that has changed the industry to have more of the lack of work ethic, but I do think it is that they take on too many horses and honestly can’t work them all consistently. I think money and winning is top priority. I also think it is the lack of communication by trainers and clients. I say that because some clients are delusional on what their horse can do and some trainers have a hard time to convey reality of that clients horse to them. If my horse isn’t good at something tell me because I will eventually figure it out.
Love,
Julie + Decker