Barn Rules Over Time

[OverandOnward]

Just for what it’s worth, I think there has been a downhill decline over more than one generation as to how much physical and outdoor experience children are having. And adults. Even touch and sound, of varieties of objects not in their indoor world.

Kids today did less than I did, with both of us growing up in the burbs. I was free to roam the neighborhood with friends, and mess around in the local drainage ditch, which today’s kids mostly are not (that I know).

I did less than my mom did as a kid, who grew up partly in a country house where her daddy raised meat cattle, and partly in a house with a backyard, but closer to rural areas.

My mom did less than her mom (my granny), who grew up rural, in a poor family who ate what they raised on their farm. As adults, both of my grandmothers were housewives who maintained gardens and a few chickens until they were older and ‘retired’ from that much work outdoors in the heat & cold.

The skills of the early 20th century just aren’t needed by educated kids in the burbs in 2024. Kids today can routinely accomplish tasks and solve problems that were science fiction a couple of generations ago. An 11 year old introduced me to air drop, the best technology ever – something we could not have even explained to my grandmothers so that they would have understood it.

As horse people we are adapting to the times and how they impact our riding, our horses, and our horse sports. How they did it ‘back then’ or in non-progressive barns doesn’t really matter when dealing with riders newly in the sport today.

[OverandOnward]

A tiny anecdote …

A (non-horsey) friend’s high-schooler plays championship high-level lacrosse “outdoors”. The field is grass. BUT. It is so designed and maintained that the whole dam field is level. Even the sidelines. The grass is clipped and maintained to be flatter and smoother than a puffy carpet.

We were walking across the field once and I was laughing a bit at the comparison with a horse pasture, with lots of bumpy spots that started as a manure piles, and thick-thin rough sometimes weedy grass. You have to keep an eye on the ground to not trip. I made some unthinking remark that this flat level ‘grass’ field was “barely outdoors”. I got a side-eye look – I think she may have been enjoying that idea that her kid played an “outdoor sport”.

[RedHorses]

I thought of a weird one today.

Your freelance coach may not bring random people in to take lessons on your horse.

The person wasn’t part leasing, and the horse’s owner wasn’t there. It was not a situation I’d ever encountered before.

[Demerara_Stables]

Lol I’ve got one, with a back story.

Kept my mare at a small, private, mostly retired horses facility a few years ago. There were three, ~5 acre fields with horses on 24/7 turnout and a mostly empty barn. When I bought my farm and left, I kept in touch with the owner, including his new wife (we’ll call her Nancy), who knew nothing about horses or boarding but wanted to keep the facility open. She occasionally called me for advice and I referred people to the facility that I thought would be a good fit.

A woman emailed me one day asking to bring her horse to my farm for training. Unfortunately I was full but I referred her to Nancy’s farm. I hauled the horse there for her but for multiple reasons, I ended up not continuing to work with the horse.

One day I get a call from Nancy: “Hey Lauren, I have a question for you. Is it normal for someone to bring a trainer in to help them catch their horse in the field?”

Me: “Well yes, if the owner is having a hard time.”

Nancy: “Well the trainer is in the field on his own horse, trying to catch the boarder’s horse by roping it WITH OTHER HORSES IN THE FIELD.”

Me: “Nancy, you go out there right now and tell him to get out of the field and get off your property.”

What the actual F. Apparently boarder couldn’t catch her horse and natural horsemanship cowboy thought it would totally fine to chase her horse around trying to rope it.

Rule: No trainers on their non-resident horses allowed in the field, especially with other boarder’s horses present. 🤦🏻

[Buddy0227]

Wishing there was a video of that !!

[endlessclimb]

I had to have this conversation once. No, you may not volunteer my horse for livery-type trail rides without my permission (and the answer will be no).

Their response was “well, he seemed like he had a good time”.

[Baybear]

One of my favs “I board here so I have every right to bring my dogs here too”. Um no, but sometimes karma hits at just the right time. Last time she brough her pack of dogs, one chased every one riding in the ring, fortunately hers was one getting chased where horse kindly deposited her on the fence before kicking out at her dog. This same boarder also decided she could got 4-wheeling in the field during the summer. It’s a boarding barn not your private playground.

[Gnalli]

Yes, yes you would have…but you learned from me, and your baby sister, about not riding up up church porch stairs and trying to bring the pony in the house…

[Walk_N_Gal88]

Very true. But technically, Rebel only stuck his head inside the front door after getting onto the porch. Princess was the one who came inside

[Spudsmyguy]

Had a young girl who took lessons on one of the best school horses at a barn I boarded at. She tied the horse to the gate next to the wash bay instead of inside the wash bay to rinse after her lesson. Horse set back, pulled the gate off the hinges and took off down the street with the gate banging into his hind legs. Horse was laid up for months. Had to put that rule on the list to not tie horses to the gate. Common sense is not so common.

[Renn_aissance]

@Gnalli

but you learned from me, and your baby sister, about not riding up up church porch stairs and trying to bring the pony in the house…

“But that was one time.”

[mmeqcenter]

@BeeHoney

I’ve had to tell people they can’t bring all their garbage / items from their home clean out and put them in the farm dumpster,

OMG I thought this just happened to me. I didn’t have a dumpster, just a couple trash cans. And was on the dead-end of a dirt road, so could not get trash service. I had to take all my trash to the dump myself. And I had a boarder literally sit there and clean out their car, filling two trash cans. WHAT. How is “trash service” something you think your boarding barn is providing??

[mmeqcenter]

In central Ohio, yes, it’s typically the expectation in the indoor arena at any barn, regardless of discipline.

[Baybear]

We had a gal that used to dump her cigarette butts from her car on the ground where she parked at the barn. Talk about inconsiderate and disgusting. One day I picked them all up but them in a metal container and left them on her tack trunk.Gross

[endlessclimb]

People tying to gates, panels, and fence boards. Just… NO.

[mmeqcenter]

That’ll get someone banned from my property real quick. I have a zero-tolerance policy for cigarettes. Absolutely disgusting.

[Moss]

“Please don’t let your horse loose in the feed room to eat anything and everything in sight until said horse about pops.”

Never thought I would see that, and I think the owner doesn’t know any better.

[trubandloki]

@Moss

“Please don’t let your horse loose in the feed room to eat anything and everything in sight until said horse about pops.”

Never thought I would see that, and I think the owner doesn’t know any better.

This seems like it should not require the obvious horse knowledge to prevent you from doing it, just a tad bit of common sense should be enough to not do this with your horse. It is simply rude to allow your horse to do that.

[Moss]

It is very, very rude, but there is someone at my barn who does it.