I’d get yourselves on the waitlists now. I was in a similar situation (BO wouldn’t do any very necessary maintenance (flooding, footing, drainage, frozen faucets, fences…)), and trainer finally got fed up and moved. With little notice. And too a MUCH nice, and cheaper facility, but way too far away for me to follow… So we were suddenly stable-less. Not a fun situation in which to find one’s self.
[QUOTE=beau159;8460192]
Depending on what needs to be done, it very well may cost that much.
I am on the board for a local saddle club and we just added lights to the club’s arena this year. Since we are non-profit, even got the labor donated by the local electric company. But to dig the electrical in, put in the posts, and put on the lights, etc; even with the labor donation it was still about $17,000.
Granted, that it sounds like this place has existing structure but you don’t know what needs to be fixed.
Also, there are certain lights that need certain posts to hold them. Sounds silly, but it’s true. It could be that the current posts are not up to standards to put comparable lights on them, and would need to be replaced. Or maybe the electrical would need to be retrenched. Or who knows what.
But I just wanted to point out that it might be very possible that for labor and materials, that the price tag could be at $14,000. Not far-fetched at all.
If she hasn’t done so in over a year, I wouldn’t expect it to ever get done.
I don’t see anything changing.
If you are not happy, I would leave.[/QUOTE]
I too have some experience with what things cost at our club, and the quote for the lights seems realistic. And the costs for re-doing footing in arenas or paddocks is high as well, if you need to hire skilled workers and they need to rent the equipment. If you wanted to dig out the arena, install drainage, replace the footings, you are probably looking at about $30,000 each arena. As far as buying a tractor: $10,000? $15,000? Presumably there is some reason why the owner isn’t using his own tractors to harrow his own ring?
I have some friends who are in a very similar situation to Kate. They rented a formerly nice, now somewhat derelict, property for boarding/lessons, from the new owner. They have been able to get some things upgraded and fixed, but not everything, by a long shot. Horses are a very low-margin business. If you figure that Kate needs to feed herself and pay the rent on the property out of her income from the stables, you’ll see there is just no cushion to get things fixed. And the owner (in both cases) doesn’t really care as long as there is some place to park his trucks, and he is getting rent from Kate (or from my friends).
I would also be leery of boarders (you) trying to get involved in basic maintenance. First, you are paying enough that this is not your job. Second, it is not your job, and it is going to make your frustrated. Third, you don’t have the tools to do it. And finally, when boarders get too involved in trying to mitigate the deficiencies of a full-board facility, boundaries start to get blurred. The boarders start to feel “ownership” when they don’t have any, and the owners/ managers start to feel the boarders are getting in the way, doing things wrong, etc (which they might well be).
There’s just been a long thread on one of the other COTH forums about someone in exactly your situation. Only they waited until they had completely lost patience with their BM and then wanted to know if it was “fair” if they moved without giving 30 days notice and paying the next months rent (consensus: no, not legal).
I will repeat my thoughts on that: Pie in the Sky is standard operating procedure for the horse industry, because what we want and what we can afford are so far apart. In other words, don’t believe anything anyone says about the future (of their property, of the “prospect” they are trying to sell you, of their next year’s show plans, of their training program) until you see results. If the place has not been renovated in one year, it will never be renovated, because no one can afford to do it.
If the condition of the property is making it difficult for you to ride as you want and need to, it is time to start looking around for a place that meets your needs better. Give yourself time, give Kate proper notice, pay double board here and there for a month if necessary, be polite and regretful, but do it.
Someone else will take your spot, someone who doesn’t need the arena.
