I agree with Equkelly. This is this barn owner’s business model. Me personally - I would board less horses and raise the board so I had a better profit margin per horse, have the same net revenue, and stop trying to juggle horses where I did not have enough stalls. But I am not the barn owner. And the barn owner is not asking for advice.
This barn offers x,y,z and you want a,b,c. Yes this would drive me crazy as a boarder so I would need to go elsewhere.
OP, i do hope you are searching for a new barn. ASK your farrier or even your vet if there is anything that meets your criteria. Possibly a private farm would be good for you. place that is not advertised.
I think it would be 100% reasonable to ask for and to expect a proper stall cleaning in between horses: all manure picked out, wet spot removed.
However, I would also add that I have some concern for your horse’s skin condition. Having intervened on multiple occasions with neglected horses trapped in chronically filthy stalls or living in filthy conditions, I would say that while it might make sense that a skin condition would occur as a result of filthy conditions, that has not been my experience. Even horses with manure and urine matted into their fur typically have healthy skin underneath. (I will add that I wish these were things I did not know.) Also, 45 minutes of daily bathing of irritated skin (or even normal skin) could potentially be counter productive. Over-washing (or over-scrubbing) can be harsh/drying to equine skin.
If I were you, I would consider exploring other causes for your horse’s skin condition. Things like allergies, other types of contact dermatitis (perhaps something in the bedding), or some type of skin infection, nutritional issue or other condition that your vet might be able to shed some light on. I also think that getting your vet involved might serve multiple purposes: 1) delineate what is going on with your horse’s skin and help formulate a more effective treatment plan, but also 2) any commentary or advice from the vet might be taken more seriously by your BO than a complaint or request from you. No BO would want to be the BO that has horses with skin conditions possibly related to some deficiency of care.
Ultimately none of us can tell you what the best option for you is, but I personally think you sound like a conscientious owner who is trying to figure out the best plan is for your horse and I certainly haven’t found anything you have said or asked to be unreasonable.
These are very good points, but I think that there are some horses who have skin that may be more sensitive. That the BO isn’t interested (apparantly) in helping with this irritation/rash is very telling.
OP, I hope you are looking for another place. As others have suggested, you may look for a smaller place if there are none of the larger ones nearby. Local tack shops often have bulletin boards where people post things. You might check there. Good Luck.
And that’s the mindset that gets people in trouble. It’s not reasonable to demand that. Not at this facility. That’s not how they operate. It’s got absolutely nothing to do with any of our opinions on the matter, including OPs. Me? I think it’s gross, but that’s completely irrelevant.
But as a boarder the golden rule is you get with the program or you get out. Full care is not custom care. If your horse needs grain and 9 different supplements but the barn you’re at doesn’t feed grain, time to leave. Your horse needs to be blanketed but they don’t do that? Time to leave. Your horse has ulcers and needs alfalfa but they only feed grass? Time to leave. You need trailer parking but the facility doesn’t offer that? Time to leave. You want your horse to have crystal clean water tanks but this place only scrubs them out once every 2 months? Time to leave. OR you can ask if you can pay extra for special accommodations. Or you can do it yourself. (Or you can even pay the resident teenage barn rat to do it.)
Truthfully, I think when people are shopping for a boarding barn they put a little too much emphasis on things like the facility, the drive time, a restroom, even the head trainer, the tack room storage, and other perks and not nearly enough on the horse’s living arrangements and care. I know when I was looking at places I went around to over 30 barns within a 40 minute radius for months before i decided on the place I’m at. I looked at small private barns and huge training barns and everything in between. My priorities are things like safe fencing, safe pastures, shelter, quality hay and enough of it, and CLEAN water tanks. It drives me nuts people prioritize their own comfort over the horse’s care. Anyhow, I think that people look for the wrong things when they’re barn shopping and once they get there they realize the arrangements suck for the horse so they then try to get management to raise their standards and they never do.
Sorry people next time don’t get so dazzled by the heated lounge area with a 350 dollar espresso machine that you don’t even notice the water thanks haven’t been scrubbed out since March of 2013.
That I didn’t ask about the skin condition on this post doesn’t mean that I am not concerned about it, or trying everything I can to reverse it (the request for her stall to stay empty being one of the items I can’t control since it’s not my barn). Horse has been seen by various vets and determined to most likely be contact dermatitis and high sensitivity to mud, wet shavings, humidity, contact with ANYTHING not soft (no fly mask…most go in soft, non-mesh fly boots, etc). She’s on external and topical meds. The last thing both vets I have consulted about it have said if the horse can be out of the stall during the day, in at night (to prevent dew/mud from early morning contact), and the stall can stay dry during the day, it would be very helpful in controlling the situation. BO knows this. Has been given the same advice. (NOTE: I’m not blaming the BO, or asking her to help with any of the treatments, vet visits, meds applications…the only request is that the stall stay empty, given her condition, and also that nowhere in the contract or in the interview process was there anything about a horse going into anything other than a clean stall at the end of the day.)
The 45 minutes of treatment is prescribed by both vets. Hosing, then scrubbing with curaseb, waiting 10-15 minutes, hosing, then other applications…thus the 45 minutes.
Bottom line is that it sounds like it’s not a huge ask for a barn to keep one horse per stall and/or for it to be cleaned twice, so it does give me the information I need to pursue researching other places since I might be able to find a facility who can do this. Thanks everyone.
Sadly, I thought I was doing the best thing for my horse when I moved her there three years ago. It is far from a fancy place…detached indoor, cramped tack room, very old barn, but it was clean and BO was there and seemed on top of checking in on what the working students were doing, including scrubbing buckets, talking to them about checking them over when they came in from the paddock, etc. I was impressed at those initial visits, despite the lack of fancy facilities, which are nice, but the horse doesn’t care, so not the priority. I went there for the care and the training to help rehab my horse who was intermittently lame. For the latter it has been wonderful…she is sound and has properly developed muscles and so fit now (I ride, and the trainer has developed our plan…she doesn’t ride her much). The care used to be wonderful…not so much now as more and more horses are there now, and the staff has gotten less experienced.
Funniest thing I’ve heard in a while! Thanks for the laugh!
I didn’t say YOU were not concerned.
I said that your BARN OWNER (BO) didn’t APPEAR TO BE concerned. The BO may know many things, but if there is a medical condition in your horse that the BO may be able to help with, BO ~SHOULD~ HELP WITH.
Just my opinion… If it were my horse, and I’d tried all the things you mentioned, and gotten the attitude you said your BO gave you, then I’d be THINKING THOUGHTS that would very likely be followed with actions.
Thanks. 
I just feel like I’m so on my own with caring for this and trying to keep it under control.
Well, we here on CoTH may be physically, all over the world, in our hearts, we are with you. 'Cause we’re all horse people.
Hope you find a better place.
If your vet has told the BO that she needs to be in a dry stall at night and the BO has done zero things about this then it is time to move. I mean, clearly the BO’s business plan or financial situation or something has changed such that she now has more horses than stalls, which doesn’t bother me as much as it bothers others, but it completely inexcusable that your horse has a skin condition and the stall can’t get fully cleaned before the horse goes in at night. Clean the damn stall. Put down more bedding. This is a very simple, cheap fix in terms of staff time and bedding costs and the fact that she won’t do it is quite telling. And I don’t buy the “that’s not how this barn works so she shouldn’t ask for them to do it.” It’s gross and the horse has a skin condition. If you have to, swap the mare to another stall. Figure it out. It’s not like this is an 80+ horse facility where asking for any kind of deviation for the norm is a huge hassle.
OP, you aren’t nuts. This is ridiculous. You should move.
Boarding is like renting an apartment; you are paying for exclusive use of the stall. This should extend to bringing your own fittings (salt, buckets, hay net) as approved by BM. The only time this is ever NOT the case is if the barn is “overpopulated;” lacking a sufficient number of stalls for the number of clients’ horses. BIG. RED. FLAG.
A stall with bedding thin enough, and pee prolific enough, to give your horse CELLULITIS is not “messy”–it’s FILTHY. It also tells me they can’t pay for help, or enough bedding.
Teen riders used in the stated ways is also a red flag the barn can’t pay help, and bartering services for teen labor is not a recipe for positive cash flow. Minors handling Rx medications is a giant liability exposure for them (imagine Regumate!), may not even be legal, and is not a sign the place is a going concern.
Students as opposed to trainer riding/schooling your horse, simply put, is not the deal you signed up for and are paying good money for. Deal-breaker.
The trainer may be good, but seems separate from the barn management (commonplace) and that’s a Catch-22. Could s/he train you in another place?
You are actually in the lower price range for training board in CT. It may be close to what their market will bear, and their margin may not be sufficient hence the corner-cutting.
A tipoff might be the caliber of riders in this place. Accomplished, active showing and upper-level lesson clients with expensive horses won’t put up with what you describe. Sincere but inexperienced ammies on a tight budget might be persuaded they’re getting a “great deal.” It ain’t!
Think hard about your realistic goals for the next 3 years (first and foremost a healthy, sound horse!) and seek a place that produces exactly that demonstrably. Shop around!
I agree with most who say, you’re likely going to have to move. If BO has refused to make the alterations to keep your mare’s stall clean & dry to help with the skin condition, that is not likely to change. At the last barn I was at, we all had “our” stalls, but there would be a bit of float during the day when horses were being worked - the main aisle where the trainer worked - horses that were coming in to be worked or cooling down would get tossed in wherever if their “personal” stall was in a different wing - save for no one getting put in the stallion’s stall even if he was turned out at the time.
While I don’t 100% agree with the “you’re a guest” philosophy from some posters, I do understand the viewpoint. I am paying for use of the facility and if I am meeting the expectations of the boarding contract, I should be getting the services outlined. The BO is getting compensated, they are not housing my horse for free out of the goodness of their heart.
The only thing on your initial list that would be a deal breaker for me would be the shared stall situation if I was not made aware of that up front when signing the boarding contract.
If the farm was set up for pasture board to the point of the correct facing & size shelters in the fields for the pasture board horses - more horses than stalls would not necessarily be a deal-breaker for me.
I’d be on the fence about the underage afternoon feeders. I don’t know that I’d be super happy about no adults onsite at all while they were feeding, but it would also depend on whether you were talking about a 17 1/2 yo long term working student or a 14yo new lesson kid. Are they adding smartpak supplements or are there 15yo girls administering Regu-Mate?
At one barn I was at, the kid feeder was great - the 20-something barn manager, not so much… I had to go round and round with the BO over my “excess” smartpaks. The 20-something was supposed to feed supplements in the morning. I was almost a month ahead at one point. I finally got the point across when myself and several others with the same problem showed the BO the ship date on our smartpak accounts where they were getting shipped every 28 days ON.THE.DOT. We should have had at most a 7 day overlap.
My horse gets better care than this at a facility that charges a huge fraction of that price.
I would absolutely be moving.
If you have to ask the question, it’s time to move.
Thanks everyone. I’m researching/reaching out to various trainers and barns now, and going to watch one trainer/manager ride and teach lessons this weekend. That board, is of course, more expensive, but might be worth it for peace of mind and a clean stall.
Yabbut, you’d need to know more about the Southern CT market before advising the OP to do what you would do in the Treasure Valley, right?
@Crashing Boar ,
- Boarding is like renting an apartment; you are paying for exclusive use of the stall.
I have a quibble with this. No, most boarding contracts do not specify or rent you a specific stall and the comparison to renting an apartment is a bad one. Boarding means you are paying for services, a certain standard of care, including a stall, that is maintained by the barn. My boarding contract clearly stated that stalls could be changed/reassigned at the BM’s discretion, to more easily manage turnout or to separate incompatible horses because I had previous boarders become very upset when their horse was moved from “their” stall. And a board contract is nothing like a property lease, again, because it’s about services and standard of care, not leasing a property in the usual sense. If a prospective boarder expected to be assigned a permanent stall and treat it like a rental unit, I might suddenly lack openings.
I absolutely expected to be able to throw a horse in the aisle into the nearest empty stall in an emergency (though it would be picked/mucked before it’s next resident) without upsetting the boarder whose horse currently resided there. .
That said, I agree with the rest of your post. Not having enough stalls and double booking stalls would be a big issue, and the OP’s horses skin condition and the lack of concern about it would be a big issue.
OP, good luck in your search for a new barn.
Want to make sure I understand you: While I agree that it isn’t EXACTLY like an apartment lease, I DO EXPECT that the standard of care would include a stall of her own. It doesn’t have to be a particular stall. My mare has been in a number of stalls at her current barn, and she is happier in some than others. Is this what you mean?
For me, when the “standard of care” at a barn includes poop and pee piling and puddling in a shared stall to the point where the animal gets “diaper rash”, well, that would be a real issue for me!
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