Frustrated, angry, upset .. just need to vent!

Wow. I would not be able to bite my tongue. No ones money issues come before the care of my own animals. She can't take that, tell her off. You are responsible for your horses care. If the farrier = bad care, get a new farrier. Period.

Does she get money from the "natural" farrier?

No she told me she let him slide because it was only 3 women who use him. But 6 of us are so far wanting to use the new farrier I found. Along with about 3 others who are tired of the barn farrier. They are not out at the barn often but saw us using him the other night and claimed they had also been running into problems with their horses' feet

She is mad at me for bringing this new farrier in, and is basically blaming me for possibly causing her to lose her discount with horrible barn farrier. I wish she would wake up and realize that if so many are voicing their displeasure and actively seeking a change than something is seriously wrong. She claims to be a business horse person and says that's what this is all about. I feel like a true horse person would be investigating why the barn farrier is suddenly losing a lot of clients.

I guess I will just wait to see where the hammer falls. Drifter is staying with the new farrier, that's a no brainer. Whether he is staying on this boarding facility property or not... only time will tell.

On a lighter note.. here is some links to some videos we took today of him. Sorry for the incessant clucking in the first one. I was not clucking at Drifter. A boarder had her beagle Hank at the barn and was lord knows where while he tried to amuse himself chasing Drifter. We were trying to get him to come to us because he kept running into the arena
I wish I had video of him while he was under the previous farrier's care. He would not move out in the trot, and he would drag his hind feet because his toes were so long. We still have a lot to work on, and we are not fully over the bad trim yet but he is doing much better! It was wonderful to see him move like this today. I could tell he felt much better.

And ignore the messed up titles please. I was uploading the videos from my phone and got confused

A lot of older horse folk are hard to talk to or reason with. They have more than half of their lives in the horse business, but what they fail to understand is that a lot of the things they know are extremely outdated.

I had an issue with the barn farrier one time. My BO insisted she was the best around, so I used her. I mentioned my gelding was gimping on rocks. So she sawed off his toes so his feet looked like squares and never pressure tested him. A week later he blew an abscess she could have caught and dug out. I paid her to hack up his feet and miss an abscess. She also had a bad habit of making horses sore after she worked on them. Great professional, there.

I never used her again. I had taken a farrier class prior so I dug the rest of the abscess out and trimmed his feet myself until I could find a new farrier. The BO was angry and insulted. She had been into horses longer than I had been living, so she obviously could pick a farrier better than I could, or at least felt she could. I found a decent farrier.

Honestly, a good farrier wouldn't have hacked off half his foot (she said she was taking the toe off to stop him from tripping, and he was only tripping because of the abscess) to cover an abscess, failed to pressure test a sore hoof, and then cause horses to go lame after a trim. It made me furious.

The farrier issue was the first of many issues that me and the BO argued about. I'm guessing your BO is upset because you are showing more education in the equine field than she is comfortable with, and she feels threatened.

If this farrier was so great, he wouldn't be losing clients.

What I'm seeing is an opportunity for you to help.... if the new farrier is willing. Since quite a few boarders are complaining about the BO's farrier's work and she's losing money over it.. I would be all about finding out if it's possible for the new farrier to work out the same discount deal with the BO (and fire the idiotic one) or maybe even a better deal. This would benefit everyone, BO would save more money (which is her priority) and the horses would be properly taken care of (which is the right priority!). I know it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks and any sort of change like that is more difficult with someone of that age.. but if it hits her pocket book right I'm sure she'd be all over that!

I don't see why she should be getting a deal from the farrier. She doesn't own all the horses in question and since any carrier can come, she doesn't control the business either. I think see just being cheap.
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What does your $65.00 a month cover? Feed and hay, or do you bring those in yourself? Even if you're providing your own hay and feed, $65.00 a month doesn't cover her electric and water bills for the facility, not to mention her insurance costs and real estate taxes.

She probably NEEDS that discount from the farrier, so I'd think since you don't want to use her crappy farrier (I wouldn't either), you should be willing to pay at least $100.00-$125.00 a month for the use of the facility.

I can appreciate your frustration. The BO is off her rocker. At her age, she went through the depression and squeaks when she walks.

What a nasty, rude, underhanded thing to say. You'll be old someday too, if you're lucky and don't die young.

Speed Racer. Pointing out that folks who went through the Depression is me understanding that those folks had to deal with real life housing and hunger issues that most of us will never realize those hardships in our lifetime. It is a known fact that most people who lived through that error are a little different when it comes to money. Google it. I was indeed giving a reason to overlook some of her bad behavior because of a life tragedy that forever might have changed her life. To me, it was a compassionate way to forgive her current behavior. Sorry you took offense. None was meant.