B.O. closes barn doors during summer nights. Am I overreacting?

[Isitme]

I already know my answer, but am I overreacting? What would you do if the rest of the care is great?

Moved to a new barn last year and love it. Small private barn, care is wonderful, In and Out stall leading to large grass turnout, water never a problem, love the B.O., who lives on the premises.

Through casual conversation with B.O.; I was told the barn is closed up in the summer all night. Stall windows were never opened, but a nice breeze came through.

Now I realize that ALL the doors are closed too from night until morning.
Exception, the top of a Dutch door on the opposite side of the barn from my horse.

No fans.
Now that summer is here, the barn is hot during the day with the doors opened. (To be expected) I can’t imagine what it is like at night with doors and windows shut. Hot, stifling, still air.

I spoke to the B.O., but always receive vague answers and can’t pin her down. She’ll give me the impression that she will open the doors, then at times, I get the impression that the doors are still shut.

Can’t do Drive-by at midnight, as the driveway is very long and I’d be noticed.

My horse will normally go out to the paddock area to go to the bathroom, but I noticed that area has been very clean lately, leading me to believe the doors are still closed at night.

I was told the reason behind doing this, but not sure if I believe it or not, as it is trivial.

Knowing the majority of other Boarding Barns in the area, I’d certainly prefer to stay where I am, but won’t jeopardize my horse’s health.

I am in a hot and humid area during the summer.

[crosscreeksh]

Speechless…I can’t think of any explanation…good or not!!

[showmanship]

I’m just curious on the reason of closing the doors at night.

I guess I’d try to have a straight conversation with BO face to face and see if there can be a compromise? Nightly turnout (with access to water)?

[candyappy]

If the paddock is attached why would they not be able to use that overnight? I would request that the door to your horse’s paddock be left open 24/7. If they won’t work with you, then I would move. It must be stifling in there during the humid summer nights with no ventilation.

[ThreeFigs]

i too like open, airy barns in summer – don’t mind them being that way in the winter either unless there’s a blizzard. My BO is the same as yours – seems to like things closed up tight so the horses can “enjoy” the ammonia smell and the heat.

I don’t like it, but it’s a bargain for all the other good things about the place. Best I can do is open my horse’s window. which I have to do frequently, cuz BO comes along and closes it! She insists the ventilation in the barn allows for good airflow. She must not smell the place in the morning…

[Appsolute]

Ufff - I can’t think of any benefits that would out weigh the cons of closing up a barn - stale air and ammonia aren’t good for them!

While it has certain hassles, I am glad my horse is in a “mare motel” as the air flow is excellent.

[Princess_Sparkles]

Definitely not overreacting. I run a boarding barn and I could not imagine making horses live in sweltering conditions like that. Every single horse has an open window in their stall and the big sliding doors are ALL the way open all the time when it is warm (and I’m in Canada, so 15 C is warm, especially in the spring! LOL).

Because we have solid sliding doors on all the stalls, we also allow each horse’s owner to decide if their horse uses a stall guard rather than having the door shut at night. Since our horses get tons of turnout and are a pretty docile bunch of mostly pleasure horses, most of our boarders have just stall guards keeping them in at night. This allows for much better airflow into each stall and the horses can hang their heads out farther to get the cooler air in the aisle.

Please tell me if the reason you were given was more or less crazy than the one a boarder gave me once, admonishing me for leaving the doors open:
She told me that coyotes would come into the barn, run into the stalls, chase the horses around the stalls causing them to break through the stall guards, which would cause them to run down the aisle and barrel through the barriers that contain the aisle, so they could then barrel down the driveway, through the gate and finally to the road where they would get hit by a car and die.

Yeah, she didn’t last long. . . I caught her closing up my barn tight one night without permission and she was gonzo. . .

[Ghazzu]

That would be an absolute deal breaker for me.
Not worth sacrificing my horses’ long-term respiratory health for any amenity or convenience.

[PeanutButterPony]

I have a horse on layup right now, stalled all day (shedrow, under a fan), out all night- dealing with COPD/RAO-

unless you want to send your horses to me so mine has company…those barn doors have GOT to stay open.

[CHT]

Depends on the barn. Our barn has super high ceilings, so ventilation/air quality isn’t really an issue. If strong winds or a storm is in the forecast, the barn doors are shut, otherwise I leave one, or both open. It was hard to convince DH that leaving the barn doors open was safe though!

Can you get to the barn when it opens in the morning to see what it is really like after being shut up all night?

[Tha_Ridge]

I’ve never been in a barn that didn’t shut the doors at night… I always thought it was a safety issue—if a horse somehow gets out of their stall, they’re at least semi-contained in the aisle. However, windows stayed open, except during storms or the most frigid winter days.

[Calamber]

I managed two barns in Virginia Beach during winter and summer, the barn sliding doors stayed open and the outside windows closed at night. There is no way I would ever, ever leave doors closed in the summer and fall unless the barn did not have a perimeter fence.

[SnicklefritzG]

Something should be left open for ventilation whether it’s the windows or the doors to the barn. Good airflow is important!

How many people would want to sit in a hot car with no air movement or an office with no ventilation? I can’t imagine a horse being happy under related conditions.

Some BO’s have what seem like silly rules that they stick to no matter what. If it’s their barn, their rules, but some stuff makes no sense. I boarder for a very short time at a barn that I discovered later did not feed horses any forage during the day. If there was no grass, too bad! So in essence, horses would be out from 7am until 4 or 5pm with nothing to eat in the winter. When I asked about tossing hay out or putting out round bales, they said “we can’t do that because if we do, the horses will fight”.

That was a a dumb-@$$ response. What it really translated to was “We are spending so much money on X, Y, and Z for ourselves, that we don’t have any left to feed our boarders’ horses the right amount of hay. Sorry, but our place is only for air ferns”.

Needless to say I left. It wasn’t worth trying to negotiate for a different situation for my horse there.

OP, I’d have another conversation with the BO to let her know you are concerned about air flow and would like your horse to have option X, Y, or Z (whether that be open windows, access to run-in, or whatever). If she hems and haws about it, start looking for another place. If you find one that you think is acceptable, but still want to make an effort to work things out, then you could say “I really like X and Y feature of your barn, but the airflow is of enough concern to me that I may need to find another place. I would prefer to say though if we can work something out. What could we arrive on as a compromise?”

If that doesn’t work, put in your notice.

A question for you OP - how much actual horse experience does this BO have? I boarded at another place where the farm was owned and managed by someone who was only a casual rider and didn’t have a lot of equestrian knowledge. They just wanted a farm to run because one of their kids was very into horses. This created a lot of problems because things this BO did were sometimes dangerous, even to the point where she herself got injured. Yet here she is making decisions that can affect the health and safety of some very nice performance horses. Sometimes there are certain BO who do this for their own ego trip and no amount of discussion will work.

[JFJ]

I can’t imagine shutting barn doors in the summer. It is easy enough to put up a board or gate or some sort of barrier to keep the horses in the barn, God forbid someone gets out of their stall in the middle of the night. Would love to hear her reasoning?!

[Appsolute]

[QUOTE=Tha Ridge;8192693]
I’ve never been in a barn that didn’t shut the doors at night… I always thought it was a safety issue—if a horse somehow gets out of their stall, they’re at least semi-contained in the aisle.[/QUOTE]

This depends on the property lay out as well - the vast majority of stables I have boarded at have perimeter fencing and a driveway gate (the one that didn’t was close to a mile up a private drive from a main road).

And assuming the horses are also kept in paddocks and fields at times - I don’t see why they are more likely to get out of a stall - then a paddock.

[yaya]

The only time my barn doors and windows are shut at night in the summer is when there is a hurricane coming. And even with Katrina, that was only for the one night when it hit! Opened everything back up that afternoon. Can’t imagine closing up the barn every night in the summer. Was bad enough with everything open but no power for the fans for a month!

[FineAlready]

I’m also very curious as to the reason given for closing the barn (including windows) up tight at night. The BO where I board does “seal” the barn at night to keep the cats away from predators. However, all of the stall windows are open, and one of the huge overhead doors is “sealed” with a large mesh zip down/roll up screen, so there is still air flow in the summer.

I wouldn’t be very happy with an air-tight barn in the summer.

OP, if you tell us why the BO insists on closing up the barn, maybe we can come up with some solutions for you to suggest to her?

[Zu_Zu]

Unacceptable ! and Dangerous !

Closed doors in the summer heat & humidity :eek: NO !

Simply unacceptable ! Could prove to be life-threatening !

[Isitme]

[QUOTE=Princess Sparkles;8192601]
Definitely not overreacting. I run a boarding barn and I could not imagine making horses live in sweltering conditions like that. Every single horse has an open window in their stall and the big sliding doors are ALL the way open all the time when it is warm (and I’m in Canada, so 15 C is warm, especially in the spring! LOL).

Because we have solid sliding doors on all the stalls, we also allow each horse’s owner to decide if their horse uses a stall guard rather than having the door shut at night. Since our horses get tons of turnout and are a pretty docile bunch of mostly pleasure horses, most of our boarders have just stall guards keeping them in at night. This allows for much better airflow into each stall and the horses can hang their heads out farther to get the cooler air in the aisle.

Please tell me if the reason you were given was more or less crazy than the one a boarder gave me once, admonishing me for leaving the doors open:
She told me that coyotes would come into the barn, run into the stalls, chase the horses around the stalls causing them to break through the stall guards, which would cause them to run down the aisle and barrel through the barriers that contain the aisle, so they could then barrel down the driveway, through the gate and finally to the road where they would get hit by a car and die.

Yeah, she didn’t last long. . . I caught her closing up my barn tight one night without permission and she was gonzo. . .[/QUOTE]

Actually, the reason is a bit more crazy.

[FineAlready]

Okay, honestly, what is the reason?! Concerned about alien invasion?