Who in God’s name smokes in the barn? I was a smoker for 40 years and went to the parking lot behind the barn when I smoked at the barn. The BM is a smoker but only smokes when he’s in his truck. The barn has a busy lesson program and the unwritten rule is no smoking where the kids can see.
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@sascha, not arguing with you one bit. Just making the observation that barn owner/manager aren’t in business solely to make the horses happy. They’re a customer-service operation, and we’re paying the bills. They have just as much responsibility to us as they do to the animals.
In this case, the barn owner’s politics were well-publicized and aggressive. I gleaned that I could never have an honest discussion with this person about anything. I didn’t want my money enabling her to spread what she’s so intent on spreading. She has publicly acknowledged that politics shape how she does business.
She’s free to exercise that. And I’m free to exercise my right to walk away – and wonder if the money she’s spent on spreading her message was to the detriment of good fencing and a barn paint job.
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Ewww, that’s a whole other ball of dirty earwax! Yuck.
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This confuses me to no end. Just raise board $50-100 bucks and everybody gets what they need. One flake of hay is not enough to keep weight on in the winter and not enough to keep them busy and their tummies full.
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Not so much a “deal breaker” but a few barns I’ve ridden at had chickens or cats consistently getting in the way of horses during lessons, and the barn owner basically was not concerned (saying it was up to the rider to work around the animals). And when barn owners have lots of other types of animals (goats, rabbits, ducks), it can take up so much time on the part of the staff to take care of them it diverts energy away from the riders. Ditto breeding programs at a lesson barn.
Perhaps at larger barns with extensive staff, it’s not such a big deal, but for a smaller or mid-sized barns, if the barn is breeding several foals annually, has most of their social media devoted to their baby goats, rather than the riding program, it is one of those things that make me go “hmm…”
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Deal braker for me is lack of turnout and not feeding free choice hay (meaning - as much hay as a horse will eat without wasting it).
Other than that, I am very tolerant because I know no barn is perfect.
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Yes, it blew my mind as well! Definitely made me ask more pointed questions about the amount of hay given when looking at new barns now.
Know of a trainer whose clients had finally had enough and explained to her that she could be a trainer and have their business, or she could be a wannabe political influencer in the horse world. She had to decide - blasting her politics, or keeping them as clients, because it wasn’t going to be both.
She dropped blasting politics in her professional training space. Heard no more about it in horse world. What she is doing with the rest of her personal life is her business.
I suspect that making a living was the real reason behind the change. Filtering her student base for just those in line with her politics wouldn’t be financially feasible. She’s a good trainer, though.
If you are ever out this way, I can take you out to a barn storing hay in quantity in the barn behind the stalls, messily, with hay on the ground everywhere, and a chain-smoking, always-on-site BM. Who is also the instructor & trainer, one of the best in the larger area (sterling qualifications / credentials).
You can watch her smoke and chat with boarders in the barn and smoke and do barn chores. She even smokes and drops hot ash around the hay. If anyone is watching she theatrically steps on the ash, her one great gesture toward safety.
That’s not the only one I have ever seen. Although not common, thankfully.
It’s like they won’t believe the level of risk until something terrible happens. Prevention is not their thing, I guess.
What amazes me when people are unconcerned about the safety of their smaller animals around horses is why they aren’t protecting their own animals. One step or kick from a horse could injure a smaller animal badly enough to kill it or lead to euthanasia. Or at least a long and painful recovery. Why aren’t they concerned about those possibilities?
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Because “it won’t happen to me”.
It makes me crazy. Sometimes I am in awe of how much crap people “get away with”.
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I am a smoker and this just blows my mind. The only place I would dare smoke at the barn is in my trailer, which has no shavings and no hay when parked, and is 300 feet minimum from any structure. Even still, I have water to ash into and dispose the butt into.
People smoking anywhere near a barn is totally insane.
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Some of the request listed are extremely reasonable. Some not so much. Field arrangements are up the BO and I wouldn’t expect them to consult unless I was paying extra for a particular arrangement.
Smoking is a no/go in my barn but my farrier smokes and I have them go to the gravel area where the fire pit is or smoke in their own vehicle.
My deal breaker/purchased my own farm was due to my items being constantly misplaced/borrowed. That pushed all the buttons after spending an afternoon looking for my brushes vs enjoying a lovely afternoon grooming. Purchased my place shortly after.
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For anyone saying you can’t know ahead of time how a BO really is – you be the professional and ask for references! Ask to speak with their vet, as well as current and former boarders. Ask how long the boarders have been there (i.e. disregard a reference that’s only known the BO a few months, and consider it a red flag that they were offered as a reference.). A really good sign is low turnover, both of boarders and of staff. It means people are happy there – that their needs are being met (ie good horse care).
And then be prepared with references of your own. A good BO doesn’t want a bad boarder any more than you want a bad BO.
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Same.
I had my own farm for 20 years. Selling it and moving to boarding was an adjustment to say the least. The fact that I moved to a barn with a BO who wasn’t very knowledgeable (thinks she is, she’s not), has a “flexible relationship with the truth” as one of my friends once put it, and by her own admission will create things to be upset about if she has to…let’s just say it didn’t work out.
My main issue was the dishonesty…not doing what was agreed upon but saying she was…when it was obvious she wasn’t…one good thing about SmartPaks…you can’t say you fed the supplements when they’re still sitting there in the drawer. I couldn’t trust her and that was a source of frustration for me. I don’t want the barn to be a frustrating place. I teach high school…I get enough frustration every day, okay? LOL.
I moved to another place where the care was stellar, but almost the polar opposite. The BO is a doll, so conscientious and takes such great care of the horses, but almost to the point of being obsessive and worrying too much. And that resulted in her calling me daily to either ask my opinion on what should be done (blanket? no blanket? in? out? increase hay? increase feed? I saw this new supplement…try it? Your horse looked anxious and ran once today. Is he okay? and so on…) It was all well-meaning but began to be exhausting.
I now do self-care at that same barn with the sweet BO, and it’s the best of both worlds. Good facility, nice person who lives on-site and will let me know if there’s an issue, but I have control over what and when my horse eats, what he wears, whether he’s in or out, how much bedding to put in his stall, etc. I missed that control when I did full board.
I’m moving to another barn at the first of the year. It will be self-care as well. I’m paying a little extra to have my horse in his own private pasture with his own little barn. (He’s turned out alone now and is fine with it.) I’ll have my own storage for tack, feed, and hay. A place to park my trailer. And I will be able to take care of him myself and enjoy him and the other amenities of the barn (it’s a low-key, quiet place with some nice trails. Nothing fancy.)
The one thing I insisted on when moving was his individual accommodations. That’s why I was willing to pay more. Most horses in this area (and everyone at this barn) eat Coastal Bermuda hay. My guy can’t have it…he’ll colic, so I feed timothy/orchard. He can’t share a pasture with a horse eating the coastal without the risk of getting sick, so individual feeding is a must-have for him. Plus he gets important supplements, etc. that he must have. It’s just easier when he has his own place.
Anything else I can handle. I’m good at tuning people out and ignoring them. I go to the barn for the horse. My barn mates eventually figure that out. I’m friendly and cordial, but I’m not going to stand around and chit-chat. I’m there for the horse. 
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I do partial care now and do a few of the AM shifts at my barn and find the same. We had a change from a college kid poorly running things and BO not being on top of it (which is an issue in and of itself). When it came to light the number of complaints from nearly all the boarders, we worked out a co-op schedule with primarily the self care boarders. Our BO can be flaky and which I don’t love, and isn’t always as good as their word, but the group of people doing the work now is pretty solid so that helps make things more tolerable. Certainly not for everyone though. If I wasn’t able to be as involved as I am and have a voice there, I’d likely be moving along.
At both barns, I did find that being around as frequently as I tend to be gave me a whole different view of things than the boarders that were there a few times a week. They thought things were ducky and that wasn’t always the case.
The barn I was at previously I didn’t love the safety setup. The smaller barn I was in on the property was feet away from a road people would barrel down at 50+mph and stall doors weren’t always getting locked. It had a lot of pluses, but between that and no indoor, I did move along. It was run much more businesslike than my current barn though. It all seems to be tradeoffs.
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Yup.
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Yeah, cuz people will dare be honest if its bad?
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Well it certainly goes the other way. Farrier bet a case of beer that a crazy boarder would be asked to leave in 60 days or less, the second he saw her horse in the stall. He was right, and we bought him the beer. This was the “my horse doesn’t like the tractor because it’s green” lady.
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That’s why you ask for former boarders. And learn to read between the lines of what the vet says. There’s a big difference between a glowing reference and a neutral one.
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That lady was the BO at my last barn. I just couldn’t…
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And bless our patient horses for putting up with it!
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