Barn rule about minors and supervision?

[Groom_amp_Taxi]

Happened into a situation last night where it appeared two sisters (I’d estimate older is 13-14 and younger is 8-9 years old) had been dropped off at barn to ride without any adult supervision. Their regular trainer had not been there all day. There was one adult on the property when I arrived, but she works with a different trainer and was working with her own horse.

In my mind, this is not ok. As a parent, if you are dropping a kid off for a lesson and you know the trainer is on the property, fine. If the trainer isn’t there and you need to leave, you check first to see if there is another adult who will be there until you come back who is willing to keep a watchful eye.

So - does your barn or trainer have a rule addressing this?

[atr]

This would absolutely not be OK with me, either.

And yes, though we have no junior boarders at present, and we aren’t a junior-centric barn, it is in the greater barn rules that children on the property must be supervised by an adult.

As a boarder, I have no interest in feeling responsible for the safety of someone else’s children in my personal time.

[the_phantom]

I’ve worked at two barns with a lot of junior riders present. Both had a rule that anyone under 16 had to be accompanied on the property by an adult. They also had age/experience-based restrictions on who can enter pastures to catch horses. The rules might be bent for responsible 14/15 year olds, especially if they leased a horse or were barn staff. But absolutely not an 8 year old. That is super irresponsible of the parents, not to mention an inconvenience to others at the barn who end up becoming the children’s de facto supervisors.

[Ready_To_Riot]

I would only be worried about the 8 year old. I’ve o it boarded at back yard barns (luckily I’ve had them ‘home’ since I was 16), so I’ve never had to deal with barn rules. At 13, I was dropped off at the barn with my moms cell phone and was completely alone. Sure, it was probably dangerous. I wore a helmet though and I survived. I didn’t need help with anything but probably needed someone there in case my horse decided to be an ass and throw me and I got injured in reality though, child or adult would need that. But an 8 year old… Probably in people’s way…

[snowrider]

I rode alone all the time at that age, lots of kids do. We had access to a phone and a list of people to call if we needed to, for the record this only ever occurred for horse injuries. I think this is entirely situation dependent, lots of teenage kids are as responsible as amateur adults.

[TheJenners]

When I was a BO, I had a rule that juveniles under the age of 14 had to be supervised by an adult.

[ladyj79]

I am never ever happy when there are unaccompanied minors, let’s say under 15/16. Especially when the barn is not busy. I also think it’s a huge insurance no no.

[saje]

Unfortunately I think this is one of those things that’s really situational. I wouldn’t want kids dropped off without my (or some barn staff) knowing they were there, especially if I wasn’t on the property. And I wouldn’t want an 8 yo there alone.

But I’ve known 13-14 yo kids who were FAR safer & more responsible at the barn than beginner horse-owning/leasing adults. At one barn I managed there was a 10 yo girl that was essentially my assistant, and damned good at it. She had a crap home life (really ugly divorce) so her mom would pretty much have her spend her summer days at the barn. They were friends of the BO which is how it started, but I was absolutely confident that when I left her a list of who needed lunches and who needed grooming it would be done & done right. There were horses she was not allowed to handle without help and she respected that, the schoolies she took care of like they were her own. Hell, I had her keep an eye on one of the scatterbrained adult boarders!

I know kids like that don’t grown on trees but they DO exist, and it’s worth it for both parties if that can be acknowledged and fostered rather than adhere to a fairly arbitrary cutoff number.

[Gainer]

I was (briefly) at a barn that had no rules about unaccompanied minors. The minivans would barely slow down while the parents dropped their kids off for the day, unsupervised.

Besides the usual issues with feral kids, the barn owner/manager was a registered sex offender (35 y.o. adult having sex with a 14 y.o. minor).

[JanM]

The legal liability of dropping off a kid as young as the little sister is huge. Where I work (not a barn, an office for the federal government) everyone who works with 18 and under children must have a special background check. The greatest danger isn’t getting hurt at the barn, but something else happening.

The parent was totally wrong leaving the younger child. How do they know everyone at the barn is a good person? They don’t know that, and it’s just a way to occupy the younger child. I bet the barn insurance agent would be very upset about unattended minors without adult supervision.

[copper1]

Back in the day (LOL!) kids were at barns alone all the time and if they got hurt, well. These days, with all the liability issues it is not a great idea (wasn’t then either, really) Even if the kids are fairly responsible there needs to be an adult in charge, not another boarder who is not responsible for day care.

[DressageFancy]

Just a funny note on unsupervised kids at the barn: I have a friend who is a BO. About suppertime one evening a mom dropped off three girls ages 11 to 13. (They own and board a horse there.) My friend went to the house to fix supper for her family. Happens to glance out the door and sees bubble lights in her driveway! By the time she gets out the door there are two cop cars in the drive. Now, you have to understand that the large barn sits very near the curve of a fairly buisy road. Turns out the girls were popping out from behind the barn and mooning the traffic as the cars came around the curve! Of course the girls couldn’t be found when the cops were there. But, boy did they and their mother get a mouthfull later!

[furlong47]

To me, the younger kid there should be supervised by an adult but the older kid would be borderline OK depending on maturity. At age 15 I worked in a boarding barn on weekends and was often alone part or all of the day working and riding (boarders coming in and out, sometimes I had other teens helping and sometimes not). Pre cell phone era too. There were others who would be dropped off and could be trusted to take care of/ride their horse or help in the barn. By 16 they can drive themselves to the barn so really shouldn’t need an adult after that. It’s still good to use a buddy system when riding, especially jumping, but that’s not always feasible. There are other ways to help keep safe these days such as special apps or having someone come by if you don’t check in at a regular interval.

[trubandloki]

I think barns should have a rule and they can then make an exception to the rule for the responsible kids.
Having a 13yo watch an 8yo at the barn with no adult around is crazy.

[SuckerForHorses]

I’ll preface this by saying that things are a lot different today (people are sue-happy) and it’s obviously different with a boarding barn (versus horses kept at home), and a boarding barn can of course implement any rules it so chooses…

…but when I was 9 years old, I cared for, handled, and rode, unsupervised and mostly alone, several miles a day out on the trails and dirt roads.

As a boarding barn owner, I can see where one might want rules in place regarding age.

As a kid, I would have had much less horse time if I had to have an adult with me every time I was at the barn/handling my horse.

[GoForAGallop]

It has literally nothing to do with the skill level of the children, however old they may be, and everything to do with the fact that there’s probably not a single insurance company out there that will cover a barn with unattended minors. (Now, whether all these barns are telling their insurance companies there are unattended minors, is a different story.)

Most (good) barns I know of in my area have a 16.5yo age limit to be unattended. (Figuring, I suppose, that if a kid can actually drive themselves to the barn, their parents aren’t going to want to come and sit and watch.) But I’ve been in plenty that set 18 as the minimum.

And every good barn I’ve been at, if you’re unattended, expects you to leave a note on the board if you’re going out on a trail (even not solo) with the time you left. As an adult with a spooky horse, I’d ride solo a lot but also send my trainer a quick text when I got on/off so she knew I wasn’t dead.

[S1969]

Are these “lesson students” or board a horse there? To me, that is one big difference. Who would even know how to reach someone in case of an emergency if these are two of 100 different kids that lesson on any given weekend? I personally have left barns that didn’t seem to supervise the younger lesson students. As a parent that stayed to supervise my own kids, I was constantly annoyed at the expectation of helping supervise other younger lesson kids that were dropped off for half a day to learn “horsemanship”…if the barn owners want to encourage this - they need appropriate and hands-on supervision.

(I will always remember stumbling upon 3 little girls - ages 7-9 maybe? - practicing picking out a pony’s feet. Two on their knees holding up a hind foot, and the 3rd on her knees directly behind the horse picking out the hoof. :no: )

If they board a horse - then that’s something that might be allowed (especially the 13 year old) but only with the knowledge and approval of the Barn Owner. I wouldn’t expect a parent to have to stay on site for hours, but I would think the BO/manager/trainer should know they are there. Not sure about the 8 year old…but I have seen it done (with permission) and be fine. But only with permission.

[findeight]

More and more barns are discouraging unattended kids and taking steps not to be used as Day Care. Partly because of insurance and often due to negative feedback from other clients.

Common sense should figure in here too, who knows about the background of everybody in that barn including hay guy, farrier or non public contact barn staff, typically there short term. Or even the trainer, BO or BM. Parents will grill other service providers and schools over employee background yet drop the kid at a barn in an industry known for a transient work force and lots of under the table dealing to avoid a paper trail.

Last few barns I was in it was driver’s license age to be there without an adult as it was the most practical to enforce.

As I look back on lower end to mid level barns I hung out in as an older teen and young adult? I realize things I did not at the time and none of those things are good, certainly not for unsupervised young children. Suffice it to say as I got older, I got pickier about the barns I chose even if it cost me more.

[Foxglove6]

If the kids are responsible and respectful, what’s the problem? Unless you’re the BO or BM, it’s not your problem. I would love to see less helicopter parenting. If the kids make trouble or get hurt, they lose the privilege of doing things on their own. That’s how I grew up. I don’t see what the concern is beyond “Suzie might get hurt, Suzie might upset Dobbin, Suzie is an insurance issue” none of which is the business of anyone but the parent or BO/BM.

We have plenty of preteens at my barn and they are all safe horse boarders/riders. Maybe not good, but not dangerous. When they affect me or my horse, I say something to them. Otherwise, I just steer clear of them.

[findeight]

How about Suzie doesn’t have a horse to ride after the lesson, there are no chores for a 10 year old, no horses she can handle, no other kids and there’s nobody to watch her?

Depends on the barn, general purpose boarding barn is more likely to tolerate loose kids then a serious training barn, especially if Suzie has a horse boarded there. Barn policies differ… and some barns just don’t care. A few still are not insured.