Melinda Routh, Sport Horses Of Rohan Irresponsible and Flaky Valparaiso Indiana

I started paying Melinda for lessons for my teenage daughter this past winter. Melinda cancelled several (as did we, I wasn't upset about the actual cancellations) however, she did not make up the lessons that she had cancelled that we had paid for in advance. Instead, she had my daughter come to the barn and just "play" without talking to me about the number of lessons still required to make up what she had cancelled. When I asked her about this, she said, "Well, you haven't paid me." I responded with, "Yes, I have. You still owe us lessons for ones that you've cancelled." She insisted that its being made up because my daughter was allowed to come and ride her horses without instruction.

This was my first red flag.

Then she offered my daughter a summer position in her barn. My daughter gave up another position because she thought that the position with Melinda would be a better opportunity. My daughter was at her barn sometimes 9+ hours/day. Several times when my daughter was leaving, Melinda would yell at her and tell her that it wasn't OK for her to leave. (Even after being at the barn way later than what we'd all agreed on) When Melinda and I had specifically discussed the terms of my daughter's employment, she told me that she would only be required to clean the stalls in the morning (before 10am) and that the rest of the day would just be helping Melinda with her summer camps and various other small duties around the barn, but that my daughter would be free to go by mid-afternoon.

This all struck me as flaky and unprofessional, but the final straw was when Melinda left my teenage daughter alone in the barn with a group of young girls attending summer camp. My daughter was being picked up for the day by my mother when she discovered that Melinda was not in the barn. She called Melinda on her cellphone to find out where she was, and Melinda became very angry and combative and told my daughter that her services would no longer be necessary. She called my cellphone multiple times. When I spoke to her, I told her that we never agreed that it would be OK for my daughter to assume sole responsibility for a group of young girls around horses in a barn. There was so much that could happen, and my 15 year old daughter should never have been put in that position. Melinda insisted that is part of the "job description" (I never recieved a job description!) and that if I don't know that is how summer camps are run, then I'm kind of clueless. (This was implied) I told her that I have personally worked at a lot of summer camps, and that all of the teenage staff were NEVER left alone with young children, all were required to have CPR and First Aid training, and that I had never signed my daughter up for a summer camp position in the first place. She was a barn hand. Melinda yelled and screamed at me and then told me that the whole problem is that my daughter has a "Serious problem with authority".

I hung up on her, and she called back and left me a voicemail saying that if I ever say anything bad about her she will, "come after me legally."

I think that all parents should know that Melinda left a bunch of young girls unattended in a horse barn only supervised by a 15 year old girl who didn't know that she was supposed to be supervising. I think all parents should know that Melinda takes a very lax attitude toward lessons and you don't get what you pay for.

Mother
LaPorte, Indiana
U.S.A.