What do you do when a horse trainer steals from you

I had to let go of a horse trainer, Mindy, because of numerous events, cancelling 7 times in 4 weeks, being late, oh and the best one, us asking if everything is okay, and her screaming at us! Anyways, I had to let her go because she wouldn't stop screaming and we had had it with her. She had 2 sessions left with us. $100.00, she will not give it to us. I called left messages, nothing! I even called and told her that is she needed time or a payment schedule, that was fine. NOTHING!! After trying to retrieve our refund for over a month, I called her and my mother called her.

All of a sudden, she has made up lessons that we never had!! To make things better, later that night we get a call from the sheriffs dept. She says we "threatened" her! We never did, we just want our money back, why would we threaten her? Taking her to small claims with cost us more, and we can't aford to take off work. WHAT DO WE DO!! It's frustrating that people think they can do this to others!

This woman sounds mentally ill, unfortunately the horse world seems to attract a lot of people who need help but won't/can't get it.

She definately does not sound like she is worth 50$/leson. I worked at a camp/stable where one of the directors had an anger problem and would constantly yell at little kids putting them in tears. She put many of the staff in tears as well.

If you are paying for a service you deserve a certain level of respect. You respect her by showing up, being polite, listening, paying on time she does not have the right to yell and scream.