Ah, boarding. I don’t miss it.
Lesson students used my saddle, brushes, and in one day fed an entire 5-lb bag of mints I had JUST bought. BO said “well it’s a lesson barn with boarders, it’s expected that your stuff will get used.”
Excuse me, no.
Same barn refused to increase my one horse’s hay and grain even though I asked them to, including asking how much it would cost me (ready to pay), constantly for two months. Then when I left they stopped giving either of them adequate hay, giving them about one flake a day, and then tried to back-charge the entire barn a “hay surcharge” for the month before because hay prices had gone up; then when I was finally gone they told people that I refused to let them feed my horse more.
I paid extra at another barn for extra hay. I had to remind the barn workers no less than five times that my horse was to get more hay. There was a sign in the hay loft they threw from. I happened to frequently be out there while they fed dinner, and would watch them consistently give her two flakes instead of four. BO was very apologetic, but geeze it isn’t hard people.
Another barn, BO had five grass fields and one dry lot, total of about five acres for 32 horses. Would only put boarded horses in the dry lot with a crappy round bale. My gelding is a dumb hard keeper. When I asked for my horse to be fed more alfalfa, he said I should get him more grain. I got my horse alfalfa cubes and the grain he suggested. It was supposed to be used as a supplemental top dress in addition to the barn grain, with clear written instructions. In three days he’d fed the entire bag of my grain, none of his. No transition. It’s a miracle my horse didn’t colic.
One barn I worked at to pay off board, he told me he just needed me to feed and turn in/out four mornings per week for free board, which I did. One of the horses that got turned out in the mornings was a night-mare who would suddenly run backwards to get away from you while walking. Long story short, after a couple weeks she’d been doing a lot better, then he changed the field she went in. Walking through knee-high snow 1000’ from the barn, I open the field gate, she rears, lands on my shoulder, and peaces out. Turned out I broke my finger and wasn’t allowed to do barn work for two weeks. BO flipped out on me and tried to make me back pay him for the previous five weeks board that I’d already worked off.
I guess my one story that’s truly drama, not just a crappy BO doing crappy BO things - gave notice for a multitude of reasons at this one barn. Once I gave notice, BO wouldn’t even glance in my direction, much less speak to me or return my texts or calls. That’s fine. So day of moving arrives, I grab a small bucket with a bit of grain to entice my horse into the trailer, he hops right on for once in his life, and is eating his little handful of grain while I load up the rest of my stuff. She walks over, silent, sticks her arm in the trailer and startles my guy, grabs the bucket, throws the grain on the floor, and stomps away. Like I wasn’t going to put your stupid $2 bucket back in the barn, lady.
