I had been riding for a few years prior to seeking lessons from Joy at Weber Training Stables. Originally I sought Joy out to train my husband who, at 59 years old, decided he wanted to start riding horses. After watching my husband train with the trainer I had been using, I realized he needed a more comprehensive trainer who would train him individually according to his needs and abilities. Joy is that woman. After a few months of working with Joy, I could see the incredible advances my husband was making. It wasn’t long before I quit my old trainer and jumped on board with Weber Training Stables too.

At that time I owned Chance, a three year old draft/quarter horse mix, who was being trained by someone else. The trainer I was using for Chance was working on his ground manners and after a year of ground training insisted that Chance had a bad attitude and most likely would not be able to be ridden for years. At that point I fired that trainer and told Joy about the situation. Joy asked if she could meet my horse. After a brief meeting I hired Joy to train Chance. Within a week Joy was riding him. Every day Chance would anxiously await Joy’s lesson. Within a few weeks I was riding my horse. The relationship between my horse and me could not be better. Joy continues to fine tune Chance, but within a very short period of time she has given me a dream horse. I have even watched her train a horse that others told the owner to put down because the horse was not trainable. That horse is calm now and responsive.

We could not possibly be happier. The experience Joy has comes through in every aspect of her relationship with horses. She is truly a diamond in the world of trainers. I know because I have gone through several. Whether you are a brand new rider, or an advanced horseperson, Joy is the trainer for you. She is constantly teaching you how to ride better. She is excellent at training a green horse, fine tuning horses that have been around for years, and teaching their owners how to constantly improve and refine their riding skills.

Thanks Joy!

Conny Korper
Los Angeles, California

My daughter Tammi is one of the young riders pictured in the “ Champions in the Making” section of the “Lessons” page; a few of the pictures of her are at shows, where she won Blue Ribbons on a regular basis, out-performing many nationally-ranked riders in her age group in the various Midwestern horse association shows. Her success serves as a testimonial to Joy Weber’s philosophy of “non-assembly line training”.

My daughter came to Joy with some good basics and training from another stable in the area, but there came a point where she just wasn’t progressing there because of the “one size fits all” style of training. The philosophy there was to push the rider through whatever the instructor felt they should be doing at that point; regardless of if the rider had enough confidence to try. Some riders may benefit from this philosophy, but my daughter wasn’t one of them. Though she was working at an intermediate level and she had friends at the stable the training itself was no longer of much benefit. In fact it seemed to be doing more harm than good. She discontinued there, and when Joy took over Meadow Grove Farms my daughter started training with her.

Under Joy’s thoughtfully intuitive training my daughter became known as “the Equitation Queen”. She was soon consistently ‘in the ribbons’ in both English and Western classes, be they Equitation/Horsemanship or Pleasure. We had a great victory when she and some of Joy’s other students went to a show at the previous training barn and won or placed well in pretty much every class they participated in, “beating out” the students at the host barn for the ribbons.

Joy takes each student as that student and works with them in the way each individual student learns, cognitively, emotionally, and physically, much as she does with the horses she trains. The result is a much more confident and self-assured rider, and a calmer, more responsive horse.

Anna Simmons
Winona, Minnisota