It’s one of the things that being a Barn Rats Leader has really taught me, the goal at each step is just to complete that step. It’s not like trying get someone ready for a lesson at a set time. If step one is catch your horse, and it takes you two hours to do so, then that’s today’s lesson. We are not going to rush it, to get to the next thing. It’s immensely liberating to be able to say “this small thing is the task” I will direct, suggest, maybe demonstrate, but this is YOUR task.
13 Likes
My mom recently realized (20+ years after she stopped having to drive me to the barn) that people are calling “Door!” She thought they were saying “Fore!” like on a golf course. But hey, at least she knew to shout something!
16 Likes
I think the thing to realize about the ‘door’ call is that it isn’t for the solidly-trained horses that don’t need it.
This is the home arena, not a show. The beginners, the greenies, the behavior problems, the reactive horse that doesn’t show and the owner coddles, may be in the arena. That’s who the call is for. (Actually many of those weaker specimens are present at shows, too.)
The reason for the call is accident prevention. That’s a very good reason.
That attitude that “if you haven’t trained your horse thoroughly, I don’t care what happens to you” is so inappropriate and out of place in a world filled with all levels of horses and riders. Who aren’t you and your thoroughly trained horse.
29 Likes
Our western barn has a door rule-postedon every arena door. There are four.
4 Likes
The water thing bothers me too. We often have folks their hose horses off and rely on the sprayer to be in shut off mode.
But the sprayer no longer works that way so water is dribbling for who knows how long. And the other thing is when we’ve not had rain in 2 months and some insist on bathing their horses . No we’re on a well. Sponge horse off. Save
The water please
4 Likes
All the discussion about yelling “Door!” makes me remember the time a dressage rider was doing a huge extended canter across the diagonal, heading right to a little door, and someone opened it without warning, just in time for her to hit them.
So it’s not just green horses and riders.
8 Likes
The barn I learned to call “door” at was a top international barn with all upper level riders and top show horses.
Well trained, yes.
But some top show horses also have a spark that is part of their brilliance, but also something that can go sideways and isn’t untrained because they need it.
.
16 Likes
It just seems like a polite no brainer to me. We are all out there trying to stay safe and have a good time, so why not potentially help someone to do so rather than willfully turning this into a combat sport?
It’s no different to working in a kitchen or any other busy and potentially dangerous environment. You just make people aware of your presence.
14 Likes
Most of this is not actual “rules” but rather a lack of basic manners
5 Likes
Yes, you are right. These things fall under “conversations I never imagined I’d have to have” and what I wrote was far from a complete list. When I opened my farm to boarders years ago I underestimated how much work the people management side of it would be. And yes, I have often felt like I was reminding people of basic manners.
12 Likes
That is indeed no lie. I have a very small place, 5 acres with four stalls and I’ve had a few boarders here and there over the years. I recently just took one in about six months ago after not boarding for about five years because there seem to have been a series of boarders with super sweet horses, but they were overloaded with crazy themselves and I just couldn’t take it anymore
3 Likes
Welcome to Mod-1’s job…and why CE was closed down. I don’t understand why adults cannot have a polite, civil conversation here on COTH.
The title of this thread is “Barn Rules”…seems to apply to this forum also.
5 Likes
More that we had to spell out:
-Do not use other people’s supplements, hay or feed. We always let everyone know when they get down to about four days worth of feed, plus they were out just about every day anyway. There was no excuse for them to run out unexpectedly.
-Do not feed Horse T anyone else’s feed but hers even if you’re running behind, and do NOT GIVER HER TREATS! Do not feed anyone another’s feed.
That one was honestly one of the things that pissed me off the worst. The way our feed program was set every horse had color coded (plus clearly labeled) feed buckets to have feed pre-portioned into. Their feed cans were also clearly labeled and there was a chalkboard with everyone’s feed requirements written out. 9 times out of 10, we had the feed set up in the buckets so it was easy to just bring horses in and drop buckets in the correct spots. Problem Boarders just didn’t care to pay attention when it was their evening to feed. We rotated feeding duties between four families in the afternoon with a schedule set a month in advance.
-Do not leave your saddles out in the hallway after your ride. Put it in the tack room or back into your car, just don’t leave it and the associated mess in the middle of the hallway
3 Likes
I left a barn some years ago because, even though I carefully made up and labeled the feed baggies (including meds!) for my horse, you’d find that the mishmash of child horse feeders basically threw any random baggie at any horse they came to, so who knew who got what. My good manners may have failed me when I discovered that.
The one that bugs me at the moment is not sweeping your crosstie area before you go out to ride so I have to do it before I can use it. I mean, I sweep as soon as I have picked feet because I can’t stand to walk through all that mess while I groom and tack up. I’m thinking of wrapping a broom for the barn Christmas party gift exchange.
8 Likes
hoof pickings in the aisle don’t vex me too badly, but leaving piles of manure in the aisle and on cross ties/washracks will make me go postal.
8 Likes
In a wash stall, it’s not just a courtesy issue (and let’s be honest, a smell issue, because hot fresh manure smells different than dry manure). It can also clog the drain. If a horse poops while you’re bathing, it’s an immediate stop, drop, scoop operation!
I will also add that it’s annoying when barns don’t leave muck buckets and pitchforks at the ready (preferably ones without holes or broken handles and pitchforks with most of their tongs intact) to make cleanup easier. I’ve been at barns that didn’t have them (and you’d have to find a fork in the equipment room and a wheelbarrow in or near a stall for cleanup).
11 Likes
My experience is that many barns do not have a safe place to put these things near the cross ties.
2 Likes
They don’t have to be UNDER the crossties, but in a near-enough, safe, reasonably accessible place. In other words, if your horse poops, you shouldn’t have to run all over the barn for 15 minutes looking for a way to clean it up.
12 Likes
Totally agree! A shovel in a muck bucket tucked into a corner near crossties works perfectly. Barn workers just dump the bucket when they go by with the wheelbarrow. One barn used rubber trash cans with lids to help cut down on flies.
People are much more likely to clean up after themselves if you make it easy. A bucket, shovel, and broom if possible is super helpful!
9 Likes
Yes there’s a paradox
Horses are a high skill, high risk, high speed, high cost, big time-investment sport. Maybe more even than downhill skiing, white water kayaking, extreme mountain biking, etc.
Yet many many of us started out as non athletic bookish nonphysical children who “loved horses.” Who would never have signed up for any other high speed high skill sport or maybe any other sports at all!
Good pro riders are usually good athletes, definitely cross over between jumping and skiing! But lots of us ammies are not athletically gifted
I at least played outdoors in the forest behind the house as a child. But honestly I feel like all the balance and proprioception and fitness and strength I got as a teen was developed through riding and barn chores. But I had my own horse so I learned fast.
So I’m not sure it’s generational entirely.
I do notice that adults who have hiked and camped are more comfortable trail riding while those who don’t get outdoors are terrified.
8 Likes
