This is such a pet peeve of mine. I’ve boarded before with a girl who was super cheap so she’d borrow everyone else’s (very nice) things – from fly spray to stirrups – and never allow anyone to return the favor. And woe betide anyone who is around if she loses anything… it isn’t her fault, someone else must’ve stolen it!
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I haven’t lived on a farm, but have done some board barn care from time to time over the years. In the last year or so I’ve actually worked for the barn for a few months. Also did the mornings (with stall cleaning) when the BO was sick with covid, and helped other times when another thing or two came up with the BO family.
On the one hand, doing the routine and socializing with the horses on an almost 'tourist ’ basis is kind of enjoyable.
On the other hand, it brings it home to me why I board. And don’t own a farm.
It. Is. Endless. I do my assigned chore list (as endless as it seems to me – for 2 or 3 hours). After I’ve done my shift and left, the BO always has a list of other stuff to see to that day. From one-off stuff (review new supplements; fix something) to farm routine. Even down to eyes on every horse every day, more than once, whether that horse works or not. Fixing stuff is practically a daily routine as there is always something.
This barn does 4 feedings daily as well as free-access hay. The horses are turned out either daytimes or nighttimes based on the season. For the people the farm routines starts at 7 am and ends at 10:30 pm. The care is excellent by most any standard. This is for ‘only’ 8 to 12 horses, not a large board barn by many standards.
And then when there is an unusual weather event it goes to a whole other level. Even a week of hard rain qualifies, as everything turns into a sea of mud, which affects both the farm routine and the horses. And aggravates the people no end.
Anyway. Thank god for the good BO/BM’s! Without them many of us would not be able to have horses and ride horses.
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Yeah, you don’t have to own a farm to know how hard the work can be, and how the weather can really affect things!
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I have to say I find my tiny farm with two horses to be far easier work than being full time staff in a “big barn”. Turn in and out for 40 horses is a chore I hope I never have to repeat.
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But it does make people realize how much work and how much the weather affects the care of multiple horses versus just one.
Yeah it’s no big deal to forget to sweep up after your horse, but when 20 other people do the same it becomes a big deal. I have found that people who have only had horses in full care sometimes don’t make that connection all the time.
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Turnout of a barn that big, the day after they’ve been in for days… 🤦
The muck tubs in the aisle and groom stalls… Omg they get really bad, really fast.
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Get the 30" chain out and ready for use!
My favorite is the owner who says “no, you can’t use a chain on Poopsie”. Yeah, ok, you turn the horse out then. I don’t have time to do the flat halter tango with 30 other horses waiting to go out. Edit: and tearing the barn down in the meantime!
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Turning out two at a time. Most days is ok, but when it’s not ok…
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Or when you’re working in a big barn where chains and leading two at a time are prohibited by BO. Lots of fun. Bonus when you’re expected to dodge lightning bolts for turn in as a summer storm has popped up. Good times. /s/
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At the last barn, when I moved my mare in, the barn manager said that he normally used a chain. I told him I doubted he would need one, that I’d rarely used a chain on my mare, and that she had been handled by children without ever needing a chain. He watched me lead her around, and agreed with me. BUT – unlike in some barns, he made it clear that it was optional, for well-behaved horses.
It’s not like I’m some horse-whisperer, just that unlike many sport horses, my mare had good ground manners trained in when she was young.
Use of a chain would not be a deal breaker for me if it was used correctly. No looping it and fastening it to itself, obviously, and at least one wrap around the noseband.
When I was in charge of staff at a big barn I didn’t let them lead 2 at a time with the exception of two tiny shetlands and two elderly horses who were a bonded pair. Yes it’s faster, but speed isn’t worth the safety risk.
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My biggest pet peeve as a boarder, when the rules only apply to boarders but not the owner. And the owner says “my barn my rules, I can do what I want”. Which yes, their name is on the mortgage, but you don’t have to sweep up after yourself, or put your tack away. I am A-type personality, I love an organized facility, and when a BO acts like you need to put things back in the right place or you’ll get scolded, but they don’t have to, blows my mind. I am not sweeping up after you just because you own the place. I think you should have to put your stuff away too.
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I’ve been in barns where the No leading two at a time rule was congruent with the rest of the barn’s SOPs and at others where it wasn’t.
Regardless I don’t wanna turn out 40 horses ever again 
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One of the best handlers at a barn where I boarded would lead 5 at a time a quarter mile down a farm road to pasture. Morning and evening. As the BO said, they had failed to lay out the farm for efficiency.
I would not recommend, but in 20 years he never had an incident.
He could get a new horse into the routine very quickly. It helps that horses kind of do what the other horses do, I guess.
He did have an assistant who drove down to help manage the gate. The assistant had a disability and couldn’t help lead. For some reason this was what the farm had landed on, for decades.
However when he was on vacation and I helped by leading just two of those same horses, both sweet kind personalities, there was the one who was marching forward to get there promptly and the other who was hanging back looking over his shoulder “aren’t the others coming, too?” I was being split in half while trying to correct both of them at once.
Definitely a learned skill! 
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I had a pretty good rider come in to put some rides on my horse while I was semi-laid up until I found out all she was doing was lunging him. I was paying for this? Heck, I can lunge standing on one leg and save myself the money. I love the gal I have now that’s riding him.
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I have kept my chain shank in my box because I didn’t trust the staff to use it correctly. In those instances I left a rope halter. Pony definitely needed a chain once in a while and she knew when it was on. I just didn’t trust people to not yank her face off to “let her know it was there” which seemed to be the MO. Thankfully we weren’t at that barn for long but yeah I’ve definitely said “no you can’t use a chain shank on poopsie” 
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Amen to that!
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I never had to turn out that many, but at one farm it would have been about 26. I quickly figure out which 2 would work well together and had them going out 2 at a time, because eastern Ontario and winter, and 30 odd stalls to clean after the herd was out, means you don’t want to waste steps!! Thankfully I didn’t have to bring in for the evening, the farm owners did that and I was usually long gone at that time of the day.
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I think I might have turn out PTSD. I agonized over my farm layout until I had it set up so every possible turn out option can be done by opening and closing gates. (Stalls open to paddocks that open to more paddocks). I do not have to lead horses anywhere. It’s fabulous
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