I didn’t want mine out when there was lightening or the possibility of hail and for sure didn’t want them standing under a tree.
My last two would be running flat out around the paddock trying to escape the hail when they had open stalls and an awning. 
Barns should be well grounded for lightening strikes.
My feelings on the subject may be colored by the experience of losing five pasture horses at once, at the barn I worked for, to a lightening strike. They had shelter available, but like many horses, they didn’t use it on their own.
What a fascinating thread.
First - I bring my horses in (if possible) when it storms. In the Midwest sometimes the forecasts are dead wrong and though I try, sometimes they’ve been forced to be outside for a pop up because I’m not home or in a meeting. They don’t even go in their shelter, which is annoying, just stand there with their heads down looking miserable (per the camera footage).
Anyway, your tone read to me as an aggressive response to a polite request. As a former boarding barn owner, the things boarders do that they don’t think are harmful are innumerable so you can’t really let boarders do whatever they want without telling you because if you give them an inch they take a mile.
I had to resort to saying “please ask first” when a boarder took it upon herself to have her husband put the windows in the stalls (they are taken out in the summer and only put in in the very cold), but I didn’t want them in because we were still doing a lot of deep cleaning in the barn and it was kicking up a lot of dust.
I had another boarder conspiring with a different boarder to change paddock groupings (she talked to them so it was “ok” in her estimation) but she wasn’t considering the whole farm and other shared fencelines that had to be managed. So with no understanding of how difficult it was to find a setup that worked for all of the other horses she wanted me to change hers because she didn’t like her paddock.
We always want to treat boarding as though we are the customer and barns are providing a service but the reality is more like the barns are providing a boarding school for your 1200 lb toddler, and many others, and barn owners are just trying to keep the place standing up.
So - back to the point - yes, I’m sure you felt like her asking you to leave was harsh but you directly refused a request. That may not be what you meant, but that is 100% what you said. I’d have ejected you too.
And I don’t think you’re a bad person for wanting your horse in or anything like that - I’m sure you’re lovely.
Although I obviously prefer my horse be sheltered during storms, I always try to treat boarding as an invited guest at someone’s home. Both barns I am at are small, private and the owners live right there. They both do their best. The place I’d like to move my retired one from just has some poor management practices that I’m not fond of. The owner is a great guy and I like him a lot so that makes it hard. But every time I’m at either place, I always remind myself “this is someone’s home. How would I want boarders behaving/interacting?”
I can only imagine how difficult it is to have boarders or to board your horse. I always kept mine at home.
I totally understand the concerns about lightening strikes. I think we all take it pretty seriously and it’s a very real risk, the question really is, how to best mitigate the risk in a reasonable / workable way.
So just to ask, what would ideal management look like to you? Let’s say it’s summer at a 30 horse boarding barn, let’s assume a sturdy new barn that has correctly installed lightening rods, and the horses are turned out at night, and an unexpected thunderstorm or hail storm crops up somewhere between the hours of 7pm and 7am, when there are no workers present on site, and the BM is home/changed/showered and attending to other aspects of his/her life (dinner, family, social occasion, sleep). Should the BM run out there his/herself and put horses in? Should they call employees in from home to help? Should the BM hire a night watchman/after hours employee to staff the barn during those hours to deal with this situation?
Another scenario: let’s say the BM checks the weather reports at 3pm while they are starting the evening feed and there is a 50% chance of storms. This is a super common scenario where I am–some varying chance of storms. Should the BM leave all the horses in overnight? Would the clients want their horses to have their turnout curtailed by so much? And would the clients want to pay increased boarding fees to cover the increased costs of stall cleaning and bedding? And also consider the horses being hot in their stalls overnight or leaving fans on overnight which is a significant fire risk.
I don’t have all the answers here, just trying to point out that there are some complexities and costs associated with running a barn that keeps horses in the barn during storms, if that’s what you want as an owner.
The only way to mitigate the risk is to have good shelters in turnout and hope the horses use them. They often won’t.
I believe the issue here was, that the farm where the OP boarded had no shelters at all in turn out.
I kept mine at home so I was able to manage them according to their needs.
As the thread went on, it went from “I wasn’t asking her to bring them in” to “I don’t want them outside without shelter” which was a little confusing.
Again, speaking from experience as a barn owner, my boarders knew that I prioritized outside-time. If I could put them outside more, that was what I was going to try. Not for cost-savings, but for their health (poop is poop and it has to be cleaned up no matter where it’s at). But I didn’t have show horses here - I had mostly retirees and alternative types of people who felt that horses belonged a bit more naturally but weren’t willing to go the whole way to pasture-board only.
Forecasts are absolutely impossible here in the midwest. Today, the forecast said chance of light drizzle. Within 20 minutes we had thunder and lightning so bad I was worried we were going to lose power. Thankfully I gambled at 6:30 this morning when the forecast still said “potential drizzle” and kept them in.
In the past, sometimes I’ve been right, and they could go out and everyone was happy. Sometimes I I’ve been wrong and kept them in, and they should have been out. Sometimes I’ve been wrong, and it stormed and they were stuck outside. More than once, on a beautiful sunny 0 chance of severe weather day I’ve had to sprint outside because it was absolutely pouring and starting to thunder.
The Midwest is tough like that.
My horses never ever ever went under the trees or into their shelter on a stormy day. I wish they had. They just stood there like idiots with their heads down so that rain didn’t go in their ears. When it pours like that, you can’t even get them to come in. They just stand there. So then it’s the humans who are running out in the rain and dodging lightning bolts (ok, not literally - just painting a picture) trying to drag these animals in who are like “nope, we just don’t water in our ears, we’re cool”.
Anyway -
If you board at a place and your expectation is that they will bring them in any time it storms because “storms are bad and terrifying and horses should never be outside in them”, and your barn owner is leaning more toward “outside is better for them, even if it storms, because though we don’t like it occasionally sh*t happens”, there’s a conflict of core values.
Neither are wrong. They are just two different ways of dealing with horses - one will err more on the side of caution and keep them in (but potentially invite other issues that horses can have being stallbound) and one will err more on the side of caution and turn them out (which could mean there is a risk of lightning strike).
Either way, the horses will try to kill themselves, so it’s a matter of which one you feel is MORE of a risk as a barn owner. And that’s the barn owner/manager’s right to do so. Sure, there may be some language in the contract but 99% of the time there is nuance that doesn’t go into the contract.
As a boarder, you have to find the barn owner/manager who jives with your horsecare desires and core values. And that’s tough! This one didn’t work out, and I would suggest finding a show barn (they tend to be a little more on the “less turnout is better and safer for horses” side.
That’s why vetting a barn is SO much like dating. You’re not just looking for proximity, care quality, and trianing but you’re also looking at philosophies - and that’s tough. No shame to either party for leaving a situation that isn’t a match!
@skydy feel free to research this topic yourself, but normal sized wooden or metal paddock sheds do not provide protection from lightening. I understand that this is counterintuitive, but seeking shelter in a shed is more dangerous, not less, than no shed at all (from a lightening perspective).
FWIW I’m not arguing against run in sheds. They offer many benefits in other types of weather conditions. Really I’m trying to point out that this is one of those risks of livestock management that doesn’t have a clear cut answer.
I realize that a small shed wouldn’t necessarily be ideal for lightening protection but it helps for hail and is better for lightening than standing under a tree. Of course, if the horse doesn’t go in the shed, then it’s no good for anything. The five pasture horses I knew that were killed by a lightening strike (boarding and training barn) had a very large, grounded, wooden barn available to them, they just didn’t use it.
Mine were too silly to come into the barn to escape from the hail. That’s why I always brought them in, of course there were only two of them and the barn was close to the house.
As far as the OP is concerned, I don’t blame them for wanting some sort of shelter available for her horse when it’s turned out, or for wanting the horse brought in the barn during a storm. However, I get that in a boarding situation you have to go with the barn policies or find another situation for your horse.
The current availability of weather radar has to be a big plus for horse owners these days.
I’ve only lived in one place that had pretty accurate forecasts, and that was because it rarely rained in the summer. That was California. Here in Colorado and when I live in South Carolina, I’ve been surprised by storms a lot. Even New Jersey wasn’t all that predictable. It’s been a lot of years since I lived in either California or New Jersey, so with climate change, things might have changed versus my experience.
Colorado is well known for lightning deaths due to surprise storms. I thought I was going to die one day. I went out with a group on a trail ride on a gorgeous sunny day, no storms in the forecast, no wind. We got up the side of a hill and all of a sudden a huge storm came over the ridge. It had hail so big it hurt, and lightning so close that people’s hair and horses’ manes were standing up with the electric charge in the air. We were several miles from the barn and had to go along big power lines to get back. We actually made it back safely, and none of the horses bolted, even though some of the riders were pretty inexperienced.
I ended up buying the horse I was riding that day, because I was so impressed with his behavior in extremely adverse conditions. What I didn’t know is that he absolutely could not deal with going out without his buddies. After being lawn darted way too often and getting badly hurt, I sold him to another nose to tail trail ride place for next to nothing, because that was his comfort zone. I disclosed his problems when I sold him.
Rebecca
Even with radar it can change in an instant here - pop ups are common and terrifying.
Also - I despise midwestern weather 
I think you can tell.
I’ve got 5 different weather apps on my phone, plus 2 different radar apps. They are all different providers and have different data. It’s exhausting.
I bet it is.
Yes, people hiking in the foothills or mountains are often caught unawares as well. Apparently being above the timberline is not where you want to be in a thunderstorm.
It happens at lower elevations, too. The bike path I used to use had signs all over to get your butt inside if you heard thunder. The catch was that it was quite far from any kind of structure for most of that path. It went through Parker and northern Douglas County, nowhere near the foothills or mountains. Every once in a while I’d see a story in the Denver Post about people getting hit or having a near miss, mostly on golf courses.
Rebecca
Definitely. This happened in May of this year:
https://www.drovers.com/news/beef-production/lightning-kills-colorado-rancher-and-34-cows-saturday
That was so sad. We saw it in our local newspaper. I was always concerned during thunder storms when we had the horses at home as we were on the highest piece of land for quite a distance. My well head got struck one summer, which was not far from the corral. Luckily the energy didn’t travel far, but it did kill our pump. We got very, very lucky as it just fried a fuse.
The first house we owned in Colorado got hit directly by lightning twice. It was at the top of a hill. After the previous owner moved out, we found a scorch mark on the master bedroom wall. They’d told us it had been hit, but didn’t mention the damage.
Then, a couple of years later, I was lying in bed reading, and a bolt of lightning practically sizzled past my nose, as I was close to the window. It hit the rain gutter outside the window and once again knocked out a lot of electronics. Even though we took the direct strike, we didn’t lose anything. Several neighbors had garage door openers fry, and one person’s washing machine got zapped. There were some other odds and end of damage, but no people or critters were hurt, and no structural damage.
Rebecca
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