Fed Up with Boarding Stable

I'm just curious, when you went to look at these places were they terrible right away? Or did things just happen later and the place changed? My friend boarded at a place that started out nice, but through change of owners/legal/lease/land issues ended up being really terrible. I've never had to board and hopefully never will have too... Not that any place would probably take my horse... He's nicknamed Jaws for a reason (he isn't as bad as he used to be though!)

My place changed ownership while I was there. The new owners did a good job for a few months, but then everything went south from there.

I hope you get a response! I've asked that question on several threads!

Never, ever move to a place based on promises. "Yes we are building an indoor" "Yes we will be adding drinking cups" etc. You need to decide based on what is there at the time.

It's also not a bad idea to schedule an interview and then do a follow up 'drop in'. Of course during normal barn hours.

I was at one boarding barn that was not terrible from the beginning. If it was, we wouldn't have been there. But as soon as we said we didn't want to take lessons things went downhill fast. Though we stayed here for a year before moving them. The move was because they were not trimming our gelding's hooves after we had been paying and requesting it get done. We believe that he would only had rasped and nothing would actually be done because his hoof would look done on the outside, though nothing changed on the underneath.
When we moved to a new barn and got the farrier out there, he said they weren't done in years (I have photos if anyone's interested).
Our new barn is good. I did a drive by before going and talking to the BO. We had talked numerous times back and forth via e-mail and everything that she has said she has lived up to. We are very pleased with the barn and the care. (She stayed up/caught when our gelding was colicing at 2am and stayed there with him and us until about 5am. She broke up a fight between my mare and 2 other horses, as well as calling the vet when our other gelding cut his eyelid. Granted every barn owner should do that, but I feel that in all this situations she went above and beyond)

The stable I use right now looked great when I first got there. Pens were cleaned twice a day and the horses were fed the correct amounts. But over time, (I started being there a lot during feeding time in evening) the horses were being fed smaller and smaller flakes (which was NOT going to work for me while I was putting weight on my TB) and the stalls were only getting cleaned a couple times a week. Every horse there has thrush. The arena was only dragged when one of the boarders did it and we had to dig out the big rocks in the stalls and round pen ourselves. I can't wait to move at the end of the month.

That is awful. The screw you can't exactly see, but the rebar.. come on!! There that lazy they can't even take that out!!

Okay, I sympathize on the fact that your horse got a screw in his hoof, that really is unfortunate. However, keep in mind that you were the one who decided to place your horse in someone else's care. I know that not everyone is able to keep their horses on their own property, which is where boarding becomes very handy. When you do board a horse it is your responsibility to tour the facility, get to know the owners/managers and make sure that you feel comfortable keeping your horse with them. If this place is really that unfit for horses, and the management really is that bad, wouldn't you have picked up on that in the beginning after meeting the management and touring the facility?

I had to comment on this, you really should be able to trust who you put in charge of your horses care but I do agree they can be very tricky and persuasive. When I was boarding Saban when I first got him I made a deal to help them clean as much as possible, I cleaned stalls twice a day as they needed, they never did anything to my horse(that I knew of) but he allowed stallions to be boarded and the new Lusitano Stallion that was there was a very well trained and sweet stallion but the BO was scared of him. The owner of the stallion was the one who fed him everyday etc, but had to go out of town for about five days. And the BO said that he would feed him and take care of him and I didnt work that week, but they thought they were being funny when telling me that they didnt feed the horse or give him water the whole time his owner was out of town, me and my horse and the other guy with his stallion both moved because I felt as if I could not trust them if ever I had to go out of town etc.

That sucks about the nail! I'm so worried that a boarder will step on a nail or something because although our place is nice and clean we are constantly improving our facilities and MEN arn't as detail oriented at cleaning up stuff like that.

Quick question: I live on site. We turn out at night right now unless its raining. Lets say theres a 30%-50% chance of rain and they say go ahead and turn them out but it starts storming. Would you be mad if they got left outside?

I would not be mad if the horses were out in the rain. They are horses after all, they are not going to melt. If it was the winter and 10 below outside, then yes I would mind hehe. Or if it was a major storm (lightening) I would want to bring them in.