12/05/2024
Written by Amy Skinner "When you pay for a lesson or training, you aren’t buying an hour of my time. You’re paying for thousands of hours of sweat, struggle, success and tears. You’re buying injuries, mistakes, and revelations. You’re buying nights awake thinking about a horse or student I need to help more, thinking about what could be bothering a certain horse. Searching on the internet about possible medical causes for certain behaviours. You’re paying for the time i spend updating owners late at night about how their horse is doing. For the emotional toll it sometimes takes on a trainer when an owner is dealing with big emotions. You’re buying hours of hauling hay, mucking stalls and grooming, of carefully checking your horse over like It was my own. You’re paying for my further education, because i still take lessons as frequently as possible. You’re paying for my care, concern, over dinner conversation, and you inevitably become a central part of my life.
You can’t put a price on education, or personal development, or the bliss of finally being “with” a horse. Thank you for sharing with me, teaching me, and letting me teach you, while I put food on my table and hay in my barn with the most fulfilling job ever. "❤️
