Ughghhh they are the WORST! There is one at my barn who is absolutely insane..and he's not a witch actually...he's a guy..so would that make him a wizard?? XD anyway..this guy has two horses (one for him, one for his wife who isn't as bad as him but is still a little rude), and these horses are completely disrespectful. Pushy, rude, always have their ears pinned, etc. They also like to bite.

This guy is convinced that he is Clinton Anderson 2.0. He always shows off his "natural horsemanship skills" at the most inconvenient times, such as during a beginner rider's lesson, attempting to lunge his horse and fumbling around with it, while this poor beginner rider tries to steer her horse away from this guy who is taking up half the arena.

My friend, whose mare was quite trailer shy, was working with her mare around a trailer, getting her used to the trailer and letting her look inside it, attempting to load her, etc. They were doing perfectly fine, horse was relaxed and making progress, when this guy storms out to the driveway, takes the lead rope from my friend's hands, and proceeds to lunge my friend's horse at the trot and canter, chasing this mare around, etc. His reasoning was that "if the horse learns that she has to work OUTSIDE of the trailer, she'll want to go IN the trailer." Now he's totally gotten the mare worked into a nervous frenzy due to him chasing her, yelling, lunging her frantically, etc. My friend finally grabbed her horse back from the guy and told him to mind his own business, to which he finally left but said, "Fine, but that horse will never get in the trailer if you don't make it work." Ten minutes later my friend was loading the mare nicely!

This guy is also convinced that once he has entered the indoor arena/outdoor arena/grooming area, that that space is now HIS, and belongs to him only. If we come in to the arena to ride while he is in there fumbling around with his horse, he asks us to leave, even if we stay out of his way. Rude! Our barn rules clearly state that the arena is open to everyone at all times.

He also has decided that he wants to be a farrier, but is a terrible one. He does several of the boarders' horse's hooves (not mine, thank goodness, I have a good farrier!), and always trims their hooves too short, leaves hoof trimmings everywhere (doesn't clean up after himself), and one time, he couldn't get one of the horse's hooves he was trimming off the ground, so he gave up right away and put the horse in its stall. He never did go back and try again, and the horse's owner switched to a different farrier.

Anyways, this guy is always telling people how to ride their horses, telling them how to train them "his way", just butts into other people's business, and is super rude :P

 

so would that make him a wizard?? XD

This made my day!!! :'D

 

Hang in there.

I remember a couple like that. But, it really neat when you get older and when the barn witch comes up and says "I think (insert whatever)." You can just chuckle and ask "No kidding?" "Oh the heck..." or "L I B"

 

I've seen that tactic, someone snatches the lead from the owner and owner is so shocked that words won't come out. The guy is a bully so you gals needs to stand up for each other. If he wants to hog the arena, get your horses moving to ramp up the energy. His horse will start wondering if it should be running too. Next time he starts ask him if he went to school to learn to be a bully or do you work at it. Altho the barn witch may be annoying, in her heart she wants to be included. She's just going about it the wrong way. Try asking for her opinion on something "horse" and encourage some conversation.

 

LifeInTheIrons, wow. That sounds like quite the interesting duo you have there. I feel bad. I don't let other people touch my horse at all. Only my coach and the stable hands are allowed to handle them because they know how he works and how to work with him easily.

 

Oh the benefits of being an old fart. I've never actually witnessed anything like this. Nobody bothers me where I ride now. When I was younger, the very real possibility of getting thrashed with a lead rope probably prevented much of this behavior.

 

At a previous barn we had an older lady who owned an older (really older) donkey. Perfectly fine right? She came every day and walked her donkey (she herself was older and moved at the same shuffle pace that her donkey did. She cleaned her donkey's stall twice a day with fresh bedding. Honestly at this point I really felt for her, I was starting to realize that this barn was not the ideal place in any way and the care for the horses was going downhill fast.

And then she started. The way I lead "my" horse was wrong. This horse was late twenties and a saint so I lead her on a loose lead. When she was out in the arena with the other horses I would go in the arena and get her to follow me. Of course I was annoying her, because you know she had no other choice but to follow me. A while back I told a story about being tired and forgetting to clip my lead to my horses halter but my horse followed me back to her stall anyways. Yep, criticism for that. Criticism for the way I rode, criticism for the way I groomed.

But the final straw? She bought this special hay for her donkey because the hay at the barn wasn't that great. (I would agree it wasn't great and her donkey was pretty special needs) So every week or so she would measure out her donkey's hay and leave it in buckets in the "feed stall". It was a good plan and worked really well for her especially because the feed stall was the one right next to her donkey's stall... And then one day she starts yelling at all the kids who take lessons that we're stealing her donkey's hay. No one fesses up and the barn owner/manager are sure that none of the kids are doing it but nonetheless puzzled as to where the hay was going. Well that feed stall that's right next to the donkey's stall? Well its within perfect reach of the donkey. We caught the donkey in the act and pointed out to the owner that this is happening and offer to rearrange the stall. Owner refuses, this is the lesson girls fault. We ended up having to tell her that we needed to rearrange the feed stall for another reason and that we will take care of the girls that were "stealing". She didn't yell at us as much for it after that but would still mention it whenever someone was in the feed stall.

------

Also less of a "barn witch" but there was this lady down the street from one of the barns I rode at that would come up and yell at my coach in the middle of a lesson or conversation with someone that "EVERY SINGLE KID ON THE BLOCK HAD ASTHMA and we were the soul cause of their troubles with all this dust we were creating". She called the air control people (??) multiple times to report us and eventually they stopped responding to her complaints. She was the only one on the block that didn't have a horse.

-----

Another girl. Teenager who lived across the street from one of my past barns would insist that the girls who lessoned at the barn were trespassing on her property because one of her sprinkler heads in her front lawn was broken and clearly it wasn't because she rode/lead her horses across her front lawn all the time. Like seriously "her horses would never do such a thing as break her sprinkler heads".

She was a pretty poor rider and refused to take lessons. Eventually she decided she wanted to jump at this barn and while we were happy to let her ride her horse on the property for insurance reasons she wasn't allowed to jump her horse unless she was taking a lesson. So sure enough she signs herself up for lessons. Great, now maybe she'll listen to someone. Awesome. Welp, she comes to her first lesson all decked out in her new english gear, warms-up and is super excited to jump. Of course the trainer isn't about to let her take her horse over a 3' jump any time before she gets her act together on the flat. Anyways the girl leaves about half way through the lesson and complains to all her friends because all the trainer would do was criticize her. (In a very nice/patient way, I was lucky enough to witness this fiasco.)

She continued to badger the riders there until we told her she was now trespassing on the property and that she was no longer welcome under any circumstances. Not even to just talk to her friends. Made her angry but she did leave.

----

Well this was all very cathartic.

 

We've all been there, lol. I've boarded at a number of barns over the years, and at only one of them was there not at least one super unpleasant person. I was there during the school year and back home for the summer for four years, and never really got to know very many people there. Perhaps if I had I would have found that one person.

My personal "favorite" was the one from my current barn. In all honesty, she was never bad to me, but I heard horror stories. She was super hyper Christian, and I've heard of her getting into one lady's truck as she was leaving and telling her that she was going to hell if she didn't change her ways. I'm friends with the lady and have never noticed her being particularly bad... Either way, she liked to act as though she was the barn police on everything. The day I went to talk to the barn owner about moving my horse to their facility I spoke to the BO for awhile, and then she told me to explore the facilities at my leisure and let me know if I had any further questions. The lady clearly saw me talking to the BO, BO drove off in her car, and I started walking around looking at the facilities. She then felt the need to approach me while I was looking into a few of the paddocks and ask me what I was doing and if I needed any help. She clearly had the tone to imply that I did not belong where I was and acted as if I was being a deviant by examining the state of the pastures.

I ended up moving to that barn later that month, and she was overly friendly every time that I ran into her. Then one day my farrier came to take care of my horse and a friend of mine who also boards at the same place. The barn owner's husband is a farrier and he takes care of most horses on the property (including crazy lady's mare) but they're 100% ok with us using our own farrier provided that we keep our horses' feet maintained. My friend and I swap off times holding for the farrier, and she had held them that previous week.

That Saturday while warming up for a lesson the barn owner flagged me down and asked me what my farrier did with the nails from my horse's shoe job. I told her that I couldn't say for sure, but that I had previously told him to put the nails in the trash can and to ask my friend as she had held the horses. After my lesson I asked my friend what the issue was, and evidently Crazy Lady saw my friend putting some dirt into the wheelbarrow (manure/dirt/leaves/random crud goes in the wheelbarrow to be spread, trash/nails/etc goes in the trash can) and she assumed that my farrier put nails into the wheelbarrow. My friend told her that she had personally picked up every nail as it came off the horse, but Crazy Lady still felt the need to report it to the barn owner. BO asked my friend about it to be safe, and then friend confronted Crazy Lady about it. CL said "I don't want my horse to get injured because of someone else's negligence." From that point on she started treating my friend like a child with every aspect of horsemanship when she had previously been very friendly with her. Giving her highly unsolicited advice when riding, and once chewed her butt out for leaving one of her horses tied while she went to get the other one. The paddock was right next to the barn and she could still see her tied horse the entire time... Crazy Lady told her that her horse could have set back, broken free, ran out to the road, and been hit by a car. It would have taken a very determined horse to navigate himself all the way to the road from the back barn.

Either way, it only took a couple of times of reporting these incidents to the barn owner before Crazy Lady moved her horse. I heard from some people that she moved on her own volition, and I heard from others that she got kicked out. Shortly after I spoke to the barn owner and she said "I almost never have to kick people out, but I can make it really hard for them to stay". Not that she would ever take out her frustration on a horse, but she can be a royal pain if she has half a mind to.

The most annoying person recently has been the guy who likes to come into the arena and lunge his uncontrolled horse during lessons. His horse once shot out to the side during one of my lessons and almost hit me and my horse. My trainer went to the BO with that issue and she said that he'd have to control himself during lessons, but that we'd have to work with each other to find a compromise during normal business hours :P

Probably the worst other than Crazy Lady was the one at my original barn that acted like she owned the entire facility even though she didn't. We had been boarding together for as long as I owned a horse (and I knew her even before that during lessons) but I hadn't seen her regularly in several years while I was away for undergrad. I moved back to that barn, and the BO gave me a locker and the keys to put my stuff in. A couple of weeks later I was super busy with finals and wasn't able to come out that week. When I came back I opened up my locker to find a strange (but nice) saddle sitting on top of mine. I was puzzled, so I went out where the BO was tacking up and asked "Hey BO, when did I get a new saddle?" and Control Lady said "Oh, that's my old saddle! I got a new one so I put mine in there!"

I was absolutely fuming and thought my eyes were about to pop out of my head. It took a ton of energy out of me to not actively start cursing this lady out. This locker had previously been left unlocked and used as a sort of catch all for random objects that people didn't have room for in their lockers. This lady thought it was appropriate to make a copy of the key for that locker and keep it in her possession. She was IN THE TACK ROOM when BO gave me the keys for that locker, and it was very clear to anyone who would have managed to open it that a boarder was using it- there was a saddle, a couple of bridles, helmet, half chaps, grooming box, and various horse paraphernalia. She still thought it was appropriate to pop it open with an illegitimate key, put her "old" saddle on top of mine as though it was some sort of junk saddle (sorry my wintec is inferior to your schleese) and then act as though there was no issue. The only thing I could say to avoid having a fit at her was "I'll put it back in your locker. Give me any keys you have to that locker." Mind you, these were not the sort of lockers that you could have put a combination lock on or I would have.

 

Posted before I meant to... I've learned over the years that you need to be willing to put up with some nonsense when boarding at a boarding barn. It comes with the territory. But, I've also learned not to put up with the crud that lots of people like to try and throw at you. If I have any inkling that I can't deal with a situation involving another boarder I will go and talk to the barn owner. Their response to the situation will generally dictate the outcome, as has been the case with my current barn. When there were issues with Crazy Lady she has a nice long talk with CL and CL ended up moving. If not, CL would have had to deal with BO a lot more frequently if she didn't straighten out her behavior. When I had issues with Guy Lunging Crazy Horse she did a good job offering a compromise. GLCH would either lunge in the round pen during lessons or stick to a designated spot in the arena, but that we would have to work things out during non-lesson hours because he was a boarder as well. It all made sense, and that's how a barn should be run. In the ideal world the barn owner shouldn't have to be called in on childish matters, but horse boarders can be childish people at times and it's necessary.

 

hearing these stories makes me feel , over and over again, to be sooooo lucky to be at a no-drama barn. man, am I lucky!

 

From past experiences I am soooo glad to be at a no drama barn. New coach is a licensed counselor. Someone tried to pull a bunch of crap once, she walked to the gate letting them follow her, opened it, let them through and locked it behind them. Turned around and went about her day.

(The lady that did this was the previous owner of one of her lesson horses. She claimed that she wanted to come by and see him, coach's address is public because she runs a lesson barn. Anyways she came by and started rambling on and on and on about how coach should just give her back said horse (seller's remorse and all that) after coach put many hours of training into him. She tried to turn it into a debate over who had ownership *eyeroll*)

 

are you at 'show ' barns ? I had boarded at public stables, not a show stable, and had one gal scream at my niece and nephew, another niece told me. So i went to the offending woman,
said I board 4 horses here, you dont like it go the owner , you are not even a manager, and screamed you got it, in her face. about an hour later, the owner came out, the witch ran up to him , whining about me, as he walked up to me, i stated, if I have to put up with her crap me and my horses are gone tomorrow. Good luck finding someone to fill all those pens and pay rent on time. needless to say, we were not bothered again.

 

I have a guy at my Agistment so not sure what you would call that ?

Basically if you don't do it his way then you're a bad owner/rider, he absolutely bags on just about everyone and if you ride in the arena and he is their he judges you and tells the people around him what you did wrong. Also he's friends with the guy who runs the place so you can't complain. Everyone just avoids him, although he is a spectacular rider and is great with horses.

 

Also, let us not forget that unclipping the horse's lead from the halter and letting him walk into a trailer on his own is horribly dangerous.

I do the exact same thing with my horse. He self-loads and I don't tie him (so he can keep his head down and help respiratory system).

He's not going in fast enough, I should lead him in, I should tie him in the trailer, I should not allow him to walk around in the trailer freely.

Kill her with kindness.

Just say "Thank you for the advice." in a sweet voice, and continue on with what you are doing. It's none of her business.

My horse's tail is a "mess" because I don't comb it every day. I'm sorry for wanting to keep his tail thick.

This I would not "let go" so to speak. I would tell this lady that everyone knows you will have a THICKER tail if you comb it very infrequently. Every time you comb it out, you break off hairs.

I would educate her on that comment. Of course, she may choose not to listen. But I would tell her once why I don't comb my horse's tail every day, and then move on if she tries to comment further.

This guy is also convinced that once he has entered the indoor arena/outdoor arena/grooming area, that that space is now HIS, and belongs to him only. If we come in to the arena to ride while he is in there fumbling around with his horse, he asks us to leave, even if we stay out of his way. Rude! Our barn rules clearly state that the arena is open to everyone at all times.

This I would be speaking to the BO about! The arena is a community place and he has ZERO right to ask you to leave.



I've never been at a boarding barn per se, and I'm glad there isn't drama like this where I board! Yikes.

My only "incident" is where one of the other boarders decided to borrow MY trailer to practice loading her horse, when I wasn't around. The BO came and told me about it though, and let me know she told that boarder that is NOT acceptable!

 

You know how I deal with people like this, they start picking at things and I will simply say to them "Well that is your opinion, have a nice day."

Generally it makes them so frustrated with me that they couldn't get to me they will go seek an easier target.

 

Oh, man, I know too many of "those people". In fact, I have friends who are still at a previous barn I was at and they are telling me stories about just one of those barn witches. So glad I'm not there! Where I am now, I'm one of the older and more experienced riders, so people basically leave me alone.

I actually have almost the opposite problem. There are 4 girls between 20 and 22 years old and they all think they're the bees knees. They're training each other's horses and each other. Meanwhile, I just try to avoid them all and keep my mouth shut. As my trainer loves to say, "Not my monkeys, not my circus." I'm also the only boarder with a professional trainer that comes out to give me lessons.

I do get a little satisfaction out of watching their bad training skills backfire on them, though. Like teaching a horse to rear and then she commences rearing while the rider keeps trying to force said horse to side pass (incorrectly) and gets rears instead. Or boasting about the horse and his wonderful collection and how he goes wherever you want him to, and then he wipes his rider off on the side of the big barn door on his way out because he doesn't actually listen on the ground or under saddle.

 

I guess I have been really lucky where I have boarded, usually I had my horses at home but boarded occaisionally and if I received some unsolicitated advice (if it was good I listened to it) but if I didn't agree, I would just say "Oh really" and proceed with what I was doing and completely ignore the person. They usually got the message after a couple of times that I wasn't interested in what they were trying to tell me.
Woe betide anyone who tried to take my horse away from me when I was working with it without my permission.

Most of the time when I have boarded, the people have been pretty nice and supportive and I did receive some good advice at those times.

 

The manager at my barn can be 'rather' opinionated on things, but other than that it's drama free and everyone gets along pretty darn good. no lessons and no haul ins and nobody usually on the property except for the handful of boarders, the barn manager, and the occasional friend that tags along with me. nobody touches anybody else's tack unless they have permission, the arena is always free (and the odd time more than one person is using it we amicably agree to which areas each will use and we stick to that pretty well). i think i'm spoiled, lol.

 

*Houses horses on own property*

Oh thank goodness this isn't my life. I feel for you though. Really.

 

"Are you at 'show ' barns ? I had boarded at public stables, not a show stable, and had one gal scream at my niece and nephew, another niece told me. So i went to the offending woman, said I board 4 horses here, you dont like it go the owner , you are not even a manager, and screamed you got it, in her face. about an hour later, the owner came out, the witch ran up to him , whining about me, as he walked up to me, i stated, if I have to put up with her crap me and my horses are gone tomorrow. Good luck finding someone to fill all those pens and pay rent on time. needless to say, we were not bothered again."

Stevenson, oh yes I am. I'm the girl with the rescued, off-track horse in a barn full of warmbloods and other expensive horses. It can get crazy sometimes, but most of the people there are very relaxed, despite being very competitive showers. Out of probably 30 people, there's only 3 or 4 I don't get along with. I wish I could keep my horse at home. Lol.

These are some pretty freaking crazy things you guys are talking about here... O.O I'm so glad I haven't encountered some of these people yet, but the neighbors next to the stables are absolutely insane. They ride four-wheelers outside the pasture and are constantly drinking and partying. You wouldn't really expect those kinds of people next to a huge show barn, but we all have downfalls in the places we board. Guess I just gotta learn to cope and try not to choke anyone until I can keep my horse at home.

 

"Are you at 'show ' barns ? I had boarded at public stables, not a show stable, and had one gal scream at my niece and nephew, another niece told me. So i went to the offending woman, said I board 4 horses here, you dont like it go the owner , you are not even a manager, and screamed you got it, in her face. about an hour later, the owner came out, the witch ran up to him , whining about me, as he walked up to me, i stated, if I have to put up with her crap me and my horses are gone tomorrow. Good luck finding someone to fill all those pens and pay rent on time. needless to say, we were not bothered again."

Stevenson, oh yes I am. I'm the girl with the rescued, off-track horse in a barn full of warmbloods and other expensive horses. It can get crazy sometimes, but most of the people there are very relaxed, despite being very competitive showers. Out of probably 30 people, there's only 3 or 4 I don't get along with. I wish I could keep my horse at home. Lol.

These are some pretty freaking crazy things you guys are talking about here... O.O I'm so glad I haven't encountered some of these people yet, but the neighbors next to the stables are absolutely insane. They ride four-wheelers outside the pasture and are constantly drinking and partying. You wouldn't really expect those kinds of people next to a huge show barn, but we all have downfalls in the places we board. Guess I just gotta learn to cope and try not to choke anyone until I can keep my horse at home.

Also, it is apparently against this woman's barn nazi regime to use crops as swords. My friends and I were outside cantering beside each other and sword fighting with our crops. She wasn't even in the arena, just watching from the gate and complaining about us. "Crops are for disciplining horses only." Pft. I didn't buy a sparkly crop to not use it for sword fighting.

 

Thank goodness I've never had to board my horses as I don't suffer fools gladly. The worse I ever dealt with was a lady who did board horses and was the local 4-h leader. She was constantly calling me and asking me for stuff and then wouldn't take NO for an answer. One time it was could one of her boarders borrow my truck or if she couldn't borrow it would I take her boarder to the show. Another time it was could one of her 4-h kids show my gelding. Other things I don't remember now those were just the two that made me the maddest. Ticked me off so bad...I didn't even really know this woman she just occasionally came to some of our trail rides (told about them by other people I rode with certainly not by me). I finally had to get very rude with her to get her to quit calling. After that when we had the big rides I'd ask if she was coming and if she was my close riding buddies and I went somewhere else.

 

Quite funny really!

The woman who I am helping with her horse has a daughter, married with ill behaved children, was uppity with me and started telling me how ill mannered the young horse is.
She had also told me how to do something with him and that it was dangerous for me to be brushing him without having him tied. I use this as an exercise in manners and training to stand still, to move over without moving forward.
She told me it was a 'dangerous' horse, should be shot.
Should have seen her face when I just said to her, "I find that really interesting, it shows your level of ignorance and experience!"

She stomped off.

 

I sure don't miss the boarding days at all. When I use to board, forever ago...the other lady who boarded there thought she was hot stuff cause SHE showed and the mare I bought, who yes at first looked pretty ragged, thin, covered in ticks, and no muscle tone....well Lucy wasn't much to look at.

Needless to say...one afternoon she said something about my mare that caused me to turn around as I was leading Lucy out of the pasture, close the gate and pop off with a not so nice comment, one thing led to another and next thing were in a fist fight. She got the receiving end of my anger as I gave her a black eye for her trouble, the barn owner had to pull me away from her as her husband grabbed her.

I called my husband, while I cried and asked if he was going to get in trouble as her husband was in his chain of command, hubby was an officer too in the Army like her husband was, there was silence on the phone, then he asked if it was so and so's wife, I said yes, next thing I know I hear him and his soldiers cheering in the background. She wasn't well liked and was well known in the unit as the "Dragon Lady".

After that we gave one another a wide berth and I moved my horses across the street to the other barn with the barn owners horses. She moved long before I did but the barn owners and I, who are great friends of ours now, we still chuckle over that one.

 

Black eye


I had to laugh so much my sides are splitting.

 

I've never had to experience barn drama, just at home with a farrier and his wife. These two are devout Parelli worshippers. When they arrived, often a little early the horses weren't haltered so they'd have to show me how Parelli does it. I wasn't allowed to hold my own horse, the missus did. I was a bit miffed about this then about the third time I began to see the other side to this - let's sit back and enjoy the show and at times it was quite a show. I looked for the humor in it and found it.