Help me make a difficult decision...

Move!
As long as your horse gets out all day every day in winter, it will be quite alright sleeping inside. And you'll never know, maybe if you and your friends get together on this and talk to the BO, something can be done with pasture 24/7 for next winter.

The dragon IS awfully cute......but I'm afraid my kitties would consider him a meal

Move asap ! Even if the barn you move to isnt perfect, at least you don't have to worry about your horse getting hurt. If you don't end up loving it there, you at least buy yourself some time to find another place with out the worry of the barn owner turning on you or your horse getting hurt.

I've always gone by "actions speaks louder than words" and "words are cheap." It always rankles me when someone promises and then fails to follow through.

Don't get me wrong: I don't expect perfection. I am speaking about the overall pattern of behavior. It would bother me immensely to watch such problems grow and the fees being jacked up and still nothing is done. Especially if the money is clearly going elsewhere. (Not that it is.)

But I am just responding to what you have told us. Of course there may be mitigating circumstances that I am unaware.

I am just hearing your discomfort with the situation and agreeing that those are things that would give me pause. Going else where might be a very smart move.

I would move also. Lack of concern for safety is unacceptable!

Add me to the list of those who would move.

The only negatives you said about the second barn were no auto waterers in stalls. I assume there are still buckets though. I don't really see that as being an issue.

The hay is in the barn. Everywhere I have boarded is the same way. I know it's not ideal, but I am yet to find anywhere that does not do this.

AlexS, I guess I might have a paranoia concerning hay in barns, although I realize that keeping hay in barns is a common practice. You see, the barn where my horse was kept as a youngster before I bought him, burnt down to the ground one day - the fire started in the hay storage. Luckily, there were only two horses in the barn at the moment (the others were in the pastures), and one of them was mine. They were lead timely and safely out of danger,, but my horse still reacts with heightened attitude towards any flames and bigger smoke, so it has somehow been sealed in our memories.

It is true, automatic waterers are not that common actually, I've just got used to them in my current barn. There is still the possibility to keep a bucket in your horses stall and the BO or a barn hand will clean and fill them for the horses every morning and evening, so I guess it shouldn't be a problem at all.

Meanwhile, I had a long talk with the owner of the third option. The place sounds almost too good to be true, but for now I will be boarding in the second option with my two friends and their horses from April, and just look how everything will be going.

For a little while today I considered staying in my current barn due to emotional attachments (the other boarders and the trails are fantastic, it's like leaving a family!), but then I realized that I am fearing the upcoming chat with my BO regarding me leaving. That made me understand one thing - what good can rise from a place in which I fear the person that should be trusted over anyone else?

Sometimes changes are very hard, but we have to be considerate about both those of whom we are responsible, and ourselves. And, to add to my choice, I just got a titbit of information that my Dressage trainer is giving lessons also in this barn, as it is not far from my current place. And my farrier already agreed to visit us in the new place. That's a good start! I'll just have to get an additional lock for my geldings' stall - he's a genius when it comes to opening any locks he can reach, and then letting out all of his buddies. :)

Saranda.. be careful about locking your horse in his stall. Maybe it'd be better to just use the rope from the halter to tie a quick release (with the tail through so it cannot be pulled apart) around his stall door so he isn't trapped..

I might have used the wrong name for it, Sky, as I just realized - late hours make my English skills worse. :) He is not going to be locked in his stall, as in with a key and a lock - I was thinking of something more like this -



Just lower than he can reach with his teeth, but easy to open for a human. Was latch the correct name for it?

Yeah that makes more sense :) Lock I think of like bike chair or padlock.. had me freaked! But yeah a latch/bolt type thing wouldn't be bad :)

My barn ain't pretty, but its functional and safe with two arenas and loads of trails. Ontop of that, the BO is great and the times I've left her to board somewhere else, she willingly trailered me.

I hit one case with a different BO who went batpoop crazy when I told her I was leaving. To the point where I almost needed a lawyer to obtain my freedom. She was psychotic!

I think you should move. The grass is always greener on the other side. There could be some issues with the new place. But you'll never know how great it could be unless you jump the fence.