BOs - Things you never thought you had to tell your boarders NOT to do......

[trubandloki]

[QUOTE=AliCat;7906057]
Why are people peeing in hay lofts and trailers is there are stalls (assuming there are not actual toilets available?[/QUOTE]
I would assume they are doing in those places because there are far fewer people who might accidentally walk in on them in those places. A busy barn is hard to find a stall to pee in sometimes.

[QUOTE=Kodiak;7906191]
I don’t care that a different horse was cleaner/already at the gate/otherwise easier to get than yours. You’re supposed to ride your OWN horse.[/QUOTE]
:eek:
I am floored at this one. I can not believe someone would really do this.

[AffirmedHope]

[QUOTE=trubandloki;7911117]

:eek:
I am floored at this one. I can not believe someone would really do this.[/QUOTE]

I had a “friend” who would bring people out to ride and she would ride her horse and then put her friends on my horse. She would only tell me about it after the fact. For some reason she felt that because she worked off her board there, she could do as she pleased.

[DaniW]

[QUOTE=dacasodivine;7905535]
Please do not use the only hose to wash both your horses and your dogs (with the special shampoo nozzle thing attached to it) while the rest of us have to wait to fill water buckets.

It was a small shedrow barn. The hose hogger did this regularly and would say she was almost done when asked for the hose to fill buckets She would wash one horse, scrap it, put it away then do the next. When done with the horses she would wash 1 or 2 dogs and towel dry them. She would not give up the hose until completely done. Sometimes, when in a hurry someone would go take it and remove the nozzle. She always got mad but oh well.[/QUOTE]

wow, I would would have taken the hose out of her hands after the second request was ignored.

[mp]

While your older child is taking a lesson, please don’t walk around the barn with your 3 y.o., allow her to walk behind my horse and pet him on the hind legs while I’m tacking up.

Please do not try to bully the young instructor into allowing your child to ride without a helmet. I’m not the BO or BM, but I will blast you for that. The instructor would lose her job and your child could lose a lot more … like the ability to speak coherently.

Same woman in both instances. I don’t think she likes her kids.

[WSS2012]

No, it’s not okay to leave all the feed and water buckets attached to every X-Tie in the aisle and in a castle formation in the manure pit.
No, it is not okay to show up before barn hours with ought prior permission or a reason other than you want to feed your horse yourself before 6 am.
Please don’t yell at me, shove me and call the cops because I told you it was not okay to show up before barn hours.
Please don’t ask another boarders non-horsey husband to try to load your rearing horse because you’re tired and frustrated with him not loading after 3 hours.
No, it’s not alright to let your 2 yo pee in the isle or on my trailer…yes, I do understand its less volume than a horse pee.
Please don’t bring my yearling in to keep your horse company and forget to give her water or hay because you want your horse in 4 hours before diner time.
No it’s not okay to give your horse an extra 50lb of hay because he doesn’t seem to be eating it.
No it’s not okay to take bales of hay and bags of feed with you when you leave as you decide to move to another barn that you’re doing rough board at.
Sorry, I’m not wrapping your horses feet in vet wrap because you don’t want to put winter shoes on your horse and the paddocks are icy.
Please don’t change your horses feed ration with ought telling me, sorry I’m not psychic.
Yes, Please call the vet to sew up the deep 4" gash, No, alu-spray is not going to cut it on this.
Yes, Please call the vet, your horse is swollen in hives the size of softballs from hoof to muzzle; No, a human Benadryl pill is not going to do the trick.
Yes, please call the vet your horse has a temp of 104 and can barely walk.
Yes, Please call the vet……

[Jeito]

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Hilarious. Locking the barn cat in the grain room does not belong on the list. Those cats are sneaky.

[dotneko]

[QUOTE=Jeito;7911415]
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Hilarious. Locking the barn cat in the grain room does not belong on the list. Those cats are sneaky.[/QUOTE]

It belongs if they intentionally locked her in to keep her out of the indoor while they were riding and then forgot to let her out

[Calvinator]

I am not personally a BO/BM, but work at a barn and can relate to many of these stories/have heard my BO have to tell boarders not to do some crazy things!

• No, your dad who “used to race thoroughbreds” in his childhood can not take over the arena while attempting to “train” your 4 year old to be a hunter.
• No, you can not invite all the lesson kids to watch you “free jump” your horse as high as possible. You do not even know how to set up a line let alone free jump a horse.
• No, when other boarders are having difficulties with their horse they do not need you to lunge their horse.
• You are in no way a horse trainer or riding instructor. GET THAT IN YOUR HEAD.
• Your horse has a back problem, it did not buck off the trainer because it “doesn’t like her”. The fact that you didn’t know but just thought it needed to be ridden with 3 extremely thick pads for comfort is not an excuse. This would’ve been a good thing to tell the trainer before so she could’ve been aware of the back problem.
• You can not come into the arena and start lunging your horse on the same circle someone is riding on WITHOUT ASKING causing the horse being ridden to feel like it is being chased by the horse being lunged up its butt and take off. Cue dirty look and rider moving to the other end of the arena.
• Do not come crying to the BO/Trainer about the problems you are having with your horse when they explicitly told you not to buy a 17hh extremely green 4 year old when you can barely handle the school ponies but you decided to do it anyways.

All the same boarder, luckily she left after a few months.

[Caol_Ila]

Your fellow boarder kindly giving you permission to take her horse out of her field so she can keep yours company while it’s shod, something which should not take more than an hour, DOES NOT mean you can keep that boarder’s horse in her stable all day because you and your farrier can’t use any of the communication technology available to you and work out that said farrier is coming at 4pm, not 10am.

You cannot ride your horse through a field of about a dozen horses, ones it doesn’t even live with, using “natural horsemanship” to catch a horse. Yes, that horse is a pain to catch, but making the whole herd go insane because some knob is riding a horse who they don’t know through their field will not help.

That last was a TRAINER, and the BO kicked her off the property shortly after that incident.

[Trevelyan96]

We have a winner! I had to read this twice thinking my eyes had deceived me.

[Rivendellhorses]

Dear person leasing the 18h draftx that weighs 2500Ibs. (or so)
~please do not tie him to the 2x4s. there are cross ties you can use OR use the 4x4 with ties.

~please do not tie the horse to the tree branch next to the tack shed. He CAN pull the branch off the tree AND demolish the shed if he wants to.

~please do not wander around the farm with the horse out of sight and out of the fenced in areas, when you are not holding him. He’s quiet, but he’s still a horse. Also, where is his lead rope?

~Do not get pissed off at me when i asked you again to not tie the horse to the tree branch. This is MY farm and YOU do not pay me anything. Having a hissy fit will not make you my favorite person.

~Do not bitch at the owner over the fact that drafty has learned to put his head down and eat grass when out on trails. She hasn’t been on him in 3 years due to children. That is all your doing.

~If one of my students says hello to you, be an adult and respond in kind. I don’t care if you dislike the fact that she has large amounts of tattoos and facial piercings. She is still human and deserving of respect.

~Do not have a conniption fit over the fact that I had the farrier out on a day you decided to come and ride. (Rider never had a set schedule). You can wait for the horse to be done and go out. It is not my job to tell you when the horse is getting done. That is the owners’ job, and it was always written on the board in the barn. Flipping out on me for not telling you before you tacked him up is also not going to make me do any favors for you. I can’t see you from my area of the house, so please tell me how i should have known you were here?

(I dealt with him for a good long time as the owner of the horse was going through a bad divorce, had a job change, and was trying to sell her house. Thankfully he decided to leave before i ended up kicking him out. He is not welcome back on the farm, though, as I was very very close to telling her I didn’t want him there).

Person who I leased my super quiet, but slightly green horse to:

~When you came out to try him both in the arena and out on trails, you seemed to be a good rider. AND you claimed to have worked with ott standardbreds. Sounded great.

~When we go out on trails, please do not ask me to not go down trails that don’t have downed logs. We are in the woods. I don’t know all of the trails. Trees come down every storm. Please tell me how to do this for you? Freaking out at every log is giving ME a headache. Let alone my horse…

~Please do not scream at my horse for stepping high over a log. You can ride. Please do it.

~Please do not decide to (instead of going around a different log), get off my horse and then complain about having to get back on him when you walk around the log.

~When we are on a different trail ride and I am on my spastic mare who i am trying to keep control of, (i was going to ride leased horse as my other horses had been in lessons…and then lessor decided to come. sigh…this mare isn’t bad…but she will passage/piaffe the whole ride/toss her head/just act up like that. not dangerous, just opinionated.) do not scream at me when my horse starts acting up. I KNOW she is. calm yourself and wait a minute for me to get her forward.

~On the same trail ride, please keep the leased horse going forward. You can walk him through the empty ditch. If i could get spastic mare through the ditch without dying, you can do it too. And listen to me when i tell you what to do. When i say put leg on, do it. Don’t get off again. This is the 4th time this ride? Cause now i have to make sure it’s not him being a brat.

~Same trail ride, please tell me again that leased gelding has something in his feet and that I should get off Spastic Mare and check for you. Umm…how am i supposed to do this? And then how am i supposed to get back on spastic mare?

~Different day…Please do not send your boyfriend out to the arena and have him freaking out on me about something. You can have him ask me a question. And no, that horse has never had back shoes and no you didn’t manage to pull them off if he did. (How would that have happened?)

~I appreciate that you liked my horse, but the lease was for 3 days a week. And you showed up 2 times a month. So while i don’t like that you “vanished” without notice, at least i didn’t have to tell you it wasn’t working out.

~Boarder…i don’t need 15 emails in one night about the fact that you dropped of your horse’s blanket. I know. I saw you.
~Boarder… yes your elderly tb gelding should wear front shoes when you are determined to keep him galloping out in the woods. Taking those off when you are still riding him will not make him happy. Thank you for listening to the vet, when myself and the farrier were not good enough. And wow. Your horse will now run up the hills again. yay.
~boarder…your horse isn’t a big hay eater. We do have to give him more grain to compensate for this. He’s ancient and has a sway back. I know what he’s supposed to get. Also please stop giving him the supplements he doesn’t like. Then we end up throwing out half his food.

Farm i work at
Former boarder:
~No your dog is not welcome at the farm. He does not listen. YOU do not listen. I had to pull the dog off the baby goat. That was NOT playing and I will get in your face about it.
~Your horse has EPM. The vet told you he needs to be in a small enclosure. Cutting the large 2 acre field in half does not count.
~Please do not stay at the farm for over 6 hours doing nothing. You are getting very creepy.
~We get that you are very much into Parelli. But your toys do not need to be all over the farm. Clean up your crap. And please do not try to do your “Spechul bonding skillz” in areas that are not fenced in. Your horse will most likely not stay around.
~Telling the farm owner lies will not make her daughter love you. The owner is in her late 80s. Stop starting drama.
~No you can not bring your son’s dog over. He also does not listen. And you do need to close the window in the car when you lock him up. Cause oh look, he got out. And he’s out chasing the neighbor’s horses. yea…
~When the amount of “organic” supplements you are feeding your horses, covers over the amount of grain that they are eating, you may want to cut back on them. I wouldn’t eat my food either.
~You probably should not be riding your EPM horse. He can’t walk straight.
~Putting lots of brightly colored nylon yarn around your horse’s neck, will not be a way to keep your horse from getting shot by the hunters in the woods. They may get caught on something and hang themselves, though.

That boarder lasted 7 months. and it was a huge fight at the very end and they were kicked out. The husband was very quiet…cause it had happened at every other farm they boarded at…yea…She on the other hand, tried to go behind my boss’s back to her husband and plead her case. He just laughed at her.

[McGurk]

Okay, one more -

Please do not come down to the ring and interrupt while I am teaching for anything other than a truly life threatening emergency. The person in the ring has paid for my time and attention, when you interrupt, you are stealing from him or her. If I let the lesson run over to cover your interruption, I am then being disrespectful to the next student, who had the foresight to book my time and attention in advance.

Your definition of life threatening emergency and mine differ. If you ask me to leave the ring during a paid for lesson, there better frickin’ be arterial bleeding or a sucking chest wound.

However, this led to one of the funniest conversations I have ever had: Needy, interrupting student/boarder, the cause of the above rules, comes down to the ring in the middle of a lesson and hangs by the gate looking apologetic, and says “I know you said not to bother you in the ring unless it was an emergency, but I just needed to know…did you put that skunk in the bathroom for a reason?”

[dotneko]

Well, what happened with the skunk??

[tikihorse2]

[QUOTE=dotneko;7912420]
Well, what happened with the skunk??[/QUOTE]

Yeah! That was hilarious!

Kim

[Aven]

Do not put your horse up for sale, not tell me but give people my phone number when they ask you questions.

Do not sell said horse with no notice and have people come take horse off property when I wasn’t home and not leave a note. (the panic in coming home and missing a horse…)

Then again these were the people who went out and bought a 14 year old AQHA brood mare in foal to a morgan who’s only training was in western years ago for their 12 year old daughter’s dressage horse without me even knowing they were looking for a horse. Oh and they bought it, had it delivered to their house and didn’t have any food. I found out as they called me up to find who I bought hay from…

[McGurk]

The end of the skunk story - I knew had a skunk living or occasionally visiting the tack room, but the only time it was a problem was when a visitor’s Jack Russell tried to dig him out. :eek:

So for some reason, skunk wandered into the tiny tack room bathroom and hid behind the commode. Interrupting boarder goes in, drops trou, sits and…skunk walks out from behind the commode. I just can’t even imagine.

I forgave her for that one interruption, politely excused myself to the student with apologies, left the ring, and went up to the barn and veeeeeerrrrrrrryyyyyy gently shoo’d skunk out of the tackroom.

[sid]

[QUOTE=McGurk;7912255]
Okay, one more -

Please do not come down to the ring and interrupt while I am teaching for anything other than a truly life threatening emergency. The person in the ring has paid for my time and attention, when you interrupt, you are stealing from him or her. If I let the lesson run over to cover your interruption, I am then being disrespectful to the next student, who had the foresight to book my time and attention in advance.

Your definition of life threatening emergency and mine differ. If you ask me to leave the ring during a paid for lesson, there better frickin’ be arterial bleeding or a sucking chest wound.

However, this led to one of the funniest conversations I have ever had: Needy, interrupting student/boarder, the cause of the above rules, comes down to the ring in the middle of a lesson and hangs by the gate looking apologetic, and says “I know you said not to bother you in the ring unless it was an emergency, but I just needed to know…did you put that skunk in the bathroom for a reason?”[/QUOTE]

:lol:

The way our instructor dealt with this on my farm was to tell the interrupter, the needy and intruder-types…“Please respect my time – this is a hobby for you, but a business for me”.

[wood_snake]

Ahh. The Needy Boarder.

There have been so many over the years.

It’s made so much worse because they often are truly nice people. Or truly wounded.

All my phone rules exist due to them.
Don’t call me after 8pm. Ever. Being the most important and most often ignored. And yes, texting counts.

This is NOT your barn. I know you would love to own your own place and keep your horse at home. You haven’t done that yet.
I am not OK with you pretending you are the BM. You are not helping me.

Yes. I know. The barn is your second home. That’s fine.
However, your dog is not welcome.
Your unsupervised small children are not welcome.
The “friend” you barely know from work, who you encourage to drop by the barn whenever she wants, is not welcome.

Please do not stage a tearful, hurt feelings, passive aggressive attempt to change my mind or make me feel bad for you. I don’t react to manipulation very well.

On the other hand the aggressive boarder is even more annoying.

My worst one would come out at 1 am. Get her friends horse out, use my bridle, put another friend, who had never ridden before, on the horse and tell her to gallop up and down the road.
They were training it to be a race horse.
This happened several times before I found out.
The friend who was riding (she was small, like a jockey, don’t ya know) finally fell off hard and got hurt.

There is also the boarder who has ‘black stallion syndrome’.

No. I won’t haul your horse to the pet store so you can get its photo with Santa.
No. I won’t help you get on your horse, who hasn’t been ridden in 5 years, 2 hours before her new owners come pick her up, because you want to “sit on her one last time.” It doesn’t matter that “she’s so smart and loves you”, she will not be OK.
It’s not OK to refuse to geld your now 2 year old, grade, crooked legged colt because he’s so sweet he should have babies and stallions make better friends.

It’s not OK. It’s never going to be OK.

[McGurk]

And a tangent to that story -

Please don’t bring your Jack Russell to the barn and let him wander unsupervised.

If you do, don’t be surprised when he tries to dig out the skunk under the tack room, or at the result.

Or your lack of warm welcome thereafter.

[AppendixQHLover]

The skunk is classic…