I'm going to try to keep it short but here goes....
so I just started boarding a horse I bought about 5 months ago at a barn (he's a 5 yr old paint green broke and is amazing!) Which I feel like I am up against a wall with right now regarding finding him a decent place to board....
so here's the low down....the barn holds about 40 horses in medium sized stalls. They advertised turn out (didn't really specify too much on how many hrs of turnout ) but I assumed a decent amount daily. Come to find out they aren't getting out hardly at ALL let alone outside. I am patient and tried to understand why and the only thing I see is that they come out and feed twice a day and clean once a day but they must feel it's too much work to let them out and in during the morning? Gosh I am even having a hard time putting thus into words...anyways it is beginning to bother me immensely that all the people there are ok with this. My horse is in his stall all the time. I work him as much as possible which is about once a day for an hr to hr and a half. Some days I don't get out there but it's rare. I tried letting him out on my own but he gets anxious and runs and calls to the barn constant unless he can have a buddy out there (I know it's bc he needs to be with a herd) but I know they look down upon me taking out anyone else's horse bc liability bc I am just a boarder and I don't feel comfortable dealing with someone else's horse I don't know that well regardless of if they told me it's ok to let their horse out with mine. I have even wanted to leave my boy out for the day and come back myself and put him in but it's in my contract i have to be present there if he's outside and honestly with no buddy with him he's too anxious to leave unattended. So I feel like I'm hanging my head against a wall with this issue at the barn. I began looking elsewhere and am finding that so discouraging . Why? Bc each place is either great about turnout but no place good to ride or one place that is huge had stalls that are not in very good condition and on top of this someone warned me that they don't supply enough water during summer in pastures? ??? So I don't know who to trust or who to believe. All I know is I want my horse outside at least 5 hrs a day minimum and someplace I can work on my dream or becoming a barrel racer.
The whole situation has me depressed worried and fed up. I'm working hard to afford the boarding rates in my area (380) a month and don't know where to go from here. My favorite thing in the world is my horse and his well being is my number one thing so I guess my question is what do I give up for this? Do I find a place I can't really ride anywhere bc of footing and size of arena but that turns out? Or do I continue to slide by where I'm at ....what I mean is I work so hard to get him out that stall by lunging , riding him and even driving out there randomly to let him out in the indoor arena .....in order to have an ok indoor arena to work on the much needed training I am putting into making this horse go to the upper races in barrels? Any help would be so appreciated
so I just started boarding a horse I bought about 5 months ago at a barn (he's a 5 yr old paint green broke and is amazing!) Which I feel like I am up against a wall with right now regarding finding him a decent place to board....
so here's the low down....the barn holds about 40 horses in medium sized stalls. They advertised turn out (didn't really specify too much on how many hrs of turnout ) but I assumed a decent amount daily. Come to find out they aren't getting out hardly at ALL let alone outside. I am patient and tried to understand why and the only thing I see is that they come out and feed twice a day and clean once a day but they must feel it's too much work to let them out and in during the morning? Gosh I am even having a hard time putting thus into words...anyways it is beginning to bother me immensely that all the people there are ok with this. My horse is in his stall all the time. I work him as much as possible which is about once a day for an hr to hr and a half. Some days I don't get out there but it's rare. I tried letting him out on my own but he gets anxious and runs and calls to the barn constant unless he can have a buddy out there (I know it's bc he needs to be with a herd) but I know they look down upon me taking out anyone else's horse bc liability bc I am just a boarder and I don't feel comfortable dealing with someone else's horse I don't know that well regardless of if they told me it's ok to let their horse out with mine. I have even wanted to leave my boy out for the day and come back myself and put him in but it's in my contract i have to be present there if he's outside and honestly with no buddy with him he's too anxious to leave unattended. So I feel like I'm hanging my head against a wall with this issue at the barn. I began looking elsewhere and am finding that so discouraging . Why? Bc each place is either great about turnout but no place good to ride or one place that is huge had stalls that are not in very good condition and on top of this someone warned me that they don't supply enough water during summer in pastures? ??? So I don't know who to trust or who to believe. All I know is I want my horse outside at least 5 hrs a day minimum and someplace I can work on my dream or becoming a barrel racer.
The whole situation has me depressed worried and fed up. I'm working hard to afford the boarding rates in my area (380) a month and don't know where to go from here. My favorite thing in the world is my horse and his well being is my number one thing so I guess my question is what do I give up for this? Do I find a place I can't really ride anywhere bc of footing and size of arena but that turns out? Or do I continue to slide by where I'm at ....what I mean is I work so hard to get him out that stall by lunging , riding him and even driving out there randomly to let him out in the indoor arena .....in order to have an ok indoor arena to work on the much needed training I am putting into making this horse go to the upper races in barrels? Any help would be so appreciated