Boarding Barn Issues

Sorry for the long above post, just needed to vent, and didn't realize how much I had written.

I once had my horse at a barn for a summer where the owner did things like ask me why I didn't lead my horse around with a stud chain over her nose. Huh? My horse has near perfect ground manners, which I pointed out, and crazy BO said that if something scared the horse and she jumped forward, then what would the mere halter do to stop her (and a chain wouldn't scare her or anything, right).

The worst thing she did though, was I when went away visiting the parents in another state for two weeks. I phoned the BO at one point, just to ask how Gypsum was getting on. I'd asked the BO to ride Gypsum while I was gone. In spite of her weird ideas, as illustrated above, she was an okay rider. Had some odd ideas in that department as well, but at least they were fairly harmless ones in the case of a schoolmaster like Gypsum, i.e. a horse shouldn't be worked in collection or even on contact for more than 15 minutes, ever. Fine, whatever, so she gets to faff about on a long rein for two weeks. Big deal. Anyway when I rang her the BO replied that she'd called the vet and had the vet do a blood test for EPM*. What? She said that Gypsum was stiff to the right (like what horse isn't) and that was a sign of early EPM. I observed that most horses are stiff to one side or another and her response was that a lot more horses have EPM than are diagnosed. What about horses in the Western US or UK where they don't even *have* EPM (I have told this story to UK friends and they are like, "what is that?")? Her response is that EPM obviously exists in these places but people don't know about it yet. I had also vaccinated the horse against EPM before I'd moved her from Colorado to the East Coast. Obviously crazy didn't know this, nor did the vet, as no one bothered to tell me they were sticking needles into my horse until after the fact.

Needless to say, the results came back very very low positive, as you would expect if you'd been vaccinated for something. I told the vet about the vaccinations when they phoned me with the results. "Oh, we were unaware of that when we drew the blood from your horse." No duh -- cause no one told me you *were* drawing blood from my horse, you eedjits. And I had to foot the $150 vet bill. Was not impressed.

*Blood tests for this are somewhat vague and inconclusive. To diagnose it properly you need to do a spinal tap, which is a far more invasive procedure.

i am so lucky that we have our own stables lol

I should add that Crazy also thought she was one of the few people on the planet who could ride a horse "properly" and claimed she had "invented" natural horsemanship long before Pat Parelli, Monty Roberts et. al. got there. Apparently they all had gotten their ideas from her. Who knew.

oh ok thats weird lol

I bought my horse in 10/07 and we are now at our 3rd stable and plan to be there a few years.

The 1st stable he coliced 2X (lack of forage, hay, pecking order stress, other horses biting him, and other humans hitting him and using whip).

The 2nd stable his health improved, yet owner lied, did not feed him grain I was paying him to be fed, not allowed water during the day, injuries that left scars, and pecking order issues. He would constantly change the stable hours to suit his personal needs. Was each of those for 6 mths each. Left the 2nd stable without notice. Three (3) months later his house burnt down! I know, its awful! Yet, the owner was so cheap that he could afford to take a vacation every other month, yet refused to fix his water pump! Thus, the fire engines were unable to save his house! A month or so later, he kicked off about 16 other boarders! Geesh.

My current stable is nice, yet no access to trails. I enjoy the comraderie, yet also the privacy. I do not like to mix mares and geldings, the owner did this and that mare tore him up! Now he is in a pasture by himself, and things are OK now. I do a few chores and the owner is nice enough to take me out in her horse trailer for trail rides, otherwise I ride in the arean. I have access 24/7, which is great!

Good lord, I'm going to hug my BO when I see her this week. I've only ever been at one facility, my horse loves it, and the owners treat him like he's their own. My stuff is never messed with, Hoove always gets his hay and feed...they even hold him for the farrier if I can't get down.

My only complaint is the barn is a 45 min drive from my house. : /

I'm having tons of issues at my current barn which I've been at for five years, but we can't afford to go anywhere else. At least for now. It's come to the point where I dread going out there because of certain other boarders whom I can't stand. I've been searching for a new, affordable stable but so far nothing has come up. We'd pack up and leave in two seconds if we found a good barn. I could write a novel on all the problems at this place.

You know, I've only been to one farm my entire life. And the coach there is very assertive. I learnt to ride there and I'm never leaving. It's been 7 years and I wouldn't dare leave them... why? Because I know I'm safe, my horses are safe, and my items are safe there.
They have dogs who bark at the sight of a new car or person. They bark so loud, people look to see who would come out. The house overlooks the entire stable area & pastures, I couldn't even imagine someone trying to steal something from the farm without being seen.
The coach/owner there is very trusting, but she has never accepted a boarder or new student who seemed to be sneaky or secretive.

Its such a safe and excellent environment. Nothing has ever been stolen or broken. I like it that way - you could leave your $3000 saddle on the saddle stand drying from oiling overnight, and come back 3 days later and see someone has kindly put it back on its rack for you, even taking the time to put the saddle cover over. And if you leave the bit on your bridle dirty, you'll come back seeing it cleaned. Sure, we all take responsibility to do it ourselves, but sometimes we're in a hurry and forget. Lazy riders aren't accepted to ride or board there. And I know my stuff is safe in the tack room during shows - knowing the barn dogs are in there (very friendly and harmless, but so big that a stranger would presume they are guard dogs) and that the door is locked and all my things are safe.

It's a clean environment, so no, I've never experienced the bad.