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Sounds pretty unprofessional. And good riders don't always make good teachers. Often it's the opposite, if you're a naturally good rider, teaching is really difficult. It took me a long time to learn to break things down for people because I ride so much off of feel. She get better with time though, you never know.

As for her critique of Cimmaron, it could go a couple different ways. I give an honest assessment of horses that I see, but it doesn't mean I don't like them. One of the ponies at the barn I work at has posty legs, a short back, a short, bull neck that's set on top of her shoulder, no withers which makes saddle fitting nearly impossible, and crappy feet. She's also like an energizer bunny and has no sense of self-preservation when it comes to work. She gets frantic, she's easily distracted, herd-bound, and insecure. I love this little mare though. She's my personal favorite to ride (She's like a couch! And she's a workaholic, which I love.) She may be a little hot when I ride her, but with a little respect work, she's an angel on the ground, and she's a saint for the stuff that she puts up with during her lessons. I'm the only staff member currently who insists on proper saddle fit (and the flack I've gotten about that is part of why I'm leaving) so she goes regularly in saddles that fit her TERRIBLY. She's a hard fit, granted, but the western saddle that they like to put her in gouges into her withers. And she never complains. Her back is sore, but she never says so. Her riders can scream, wiggle, throw things at her, and she won't say a word. If they kick her, she gets nervous because she thinks she's being bad and doesn't know what to do. But that's understandable and I don't want my riders kicking their horses. (I don't want them screaming or throwing things either, but eh, it's the nature of the beast).

As a new instructor coming into a program it takes a while to get to know the horses. If you've seen several people ride a horse, and ridden them yourself, and observe a consistent misbehavior, it's not unreasonable to have a low opinion of them. A good horse person will allow the opinion to be flexible, however, and change as they observe different things. Another one of our mares, I really disliked when I first got here. I just didn't like her personality. We didn't get along. I still don't like to ride her myself, but she's one of the best therapy horses we have, and we've become friends. For one of my independent riders lessons, I actually have to sit on a mounting block at the end of the arena rather than stand out in the middle because the rider can't keep her from coming in to me looking for pets. Opinions change, and people grow.

I'm not saying you're overreacting necessarily, just to give her a little bit of time to adjust to a new place and keep an open mind. It's hard coming into an already established barn and learning all of the riders and horses.

One of the instructors at the place my best friend works has a grudge against their fjord mare. She thinks she's a liability because she nipped a few leaders who weren't really paying attention to her. My friend diagnosed it as she was bored and liked their reactions when she nipped at them, so she upped her work level and did more mental work with her, as well as giving her leaders special instructions for her. She's fantastic now. This started last September and this instructor STILL refuses to use this mare in her lessons. Their director is probably going to have to give her an ultimatum for their next session because with balancing horse use, there's no choice anymore. This particular instructor shows about every sign of unprofessional behavior in the book though. It's a really really frustrating situation, and I'm sorry you're having to deal with it.

Hm, the way I see it, you don't along with every person you meet so why should we get along with every horse we meet? Sometimes personalities clash. Though she should have the professionalism to overcome her own personal problems. Or she may not be comfortable enough with the horse to use her and is afraid of someone getting hurt. Since everyone is leaving the riding lessons it sounds like she isn't doing a very good job of teaching. You may be a bit biased since you love the horse.

I had a bad instructor once. Nothing I ever did was right I only made mistakes. After about a month I quit her lessons it must have a year before I wanted to get on a horse.

She is a good rider though. She just hasnt ridden Cim to see what Cim is like. She puts the kids on her, and then blames everything on poor Cimmaron.

She also doesnt like a another well known school pony there named Chester. Why? Because hes too slow. Hes fine once he gets going. Hes one of the most reliable horses there. He's the first horse I cantered on. He's spook free, GREAT on trails, and absolutely AMAZING with the young ones.

I'm not a huge fan of Chester. But I would still recommend him to any child. She just erks me.

I don't understand how some instructors you'll learn how to ride only riding good horses.
It's the 'bad' ones that teach you everything you need to know! You'll never learn how to get any horse to bend the way you want if you're only on horses that bend perfectly every time you ask. You have to ride the ones to are bad at bending to learn how to make a horse move and look good!