Sensible advice needed re "changing " instructor?

[Rarah]

Following on from my "conflicting advice re lameness" I need to call on you mature people here from some advice....

http://www.newrider.co.uk/forum/search.php?searchid=791590

Bascially since my last thread (above) I've had Logic ridden in the arena and out on the road in walk and trot. I've watched her and she appeared sound. My yard manager has had a look and still insists there's nothing wrong with her.

I took Logic on a long hack today, she was absolutely full of beans! She took about half an hour to warm up properly, so was a bit of a plod to start with but after that there was no stopping her! Absolutely raring to go on uphill canters etc without any encouragement from me and I'm assuming that if she was in any pain, she would have stayed ploddy for the whole of the hack.

I just don't know what to do with regards to my instructor. She's coming to see me on Friday for my lesson, she said we would lunge to check her for soundness and then ride if she's okay.

I know my instructor means well. She must have genuinely thought Logic was lame last Friday. I don't want to hurt her feelings and tell her I ignored her advice and turned my horse out and carried out riding as normal.

I'm the type of person who likes to be straight with someone and just say it like it is, but don't want to upset her. (Did consider just lieing and saying I can't afford lessons at the moment but it's not really me)

I've had what's been described as "bad advice" from her before and I'm really wanting to call it a day and try someone else.

Any pearls of wisdom?

Thanks

[andreaB]

i'd be tempted to tell her that you want to take a break from lessons for a while as you are not sounding very proctive about them at all

i would then personally take a braek for a couple of weeks & ten have trial lessons with other instructors

i think to quite a large degree the choice of instructor is quite a personal thing , alot of people need to feel that they & their horse gel with the instructor

its fairly common for alot of instructors not to keep clients on a long term basis , however you often find that the really god ones do , i'd employ mine full time if i won the lottery:D

[Clare-22]

I agree with AndreaB :) If you don't want to hurt her feelings perhaps say that you are giving lessons a miss for a bit due to the "lameness". Instuctors are used to people coming and going, I went through 3 instructors in as many months before I found my current one and I trust her completely and things have improved so much as a result.

The instuctor at your yard sounded nice, are you hoping to have some lessons with her?

[Afellpony]

I agree with what's been said before. If you dont want to tell her you're thinking of changing trainers, tell her you're giving both you and the horse a few weeks off. I know it's difficult but if you feel you've come to the end of the road with your present RI then yes, you should have a change.

[Mehitabel]

if the lameness thing was the last straw - then just call her and cancel - 'something has come up', and say you;'ll get in touch when you want to rebook but you won't for the minute.

but it really isn't unusual for a lameness to pass off in an hour or so - she could have been perfectly correct that he was lame when she saw him and sound when your YO assessed him later.