do not feed horse treats to the BOs dogs - especially after BO has told you that they give the dogs (that sleep in BOs house) diarrhea
The skunk in the bathroom… I just can’t imagine the reaction of the person on the toilet–! :eek: :lol:
Kim
Do not bring your daughter’s friends to the barn for her birthday party without permission and proceed to allow them to ride the horse that you are half leasing without the permission of me (BO) or the owner of the horse, Liability releases, or helmets.:eek:
Imagine my surprise when I came home one Sunday afternoon to find this going on without my knowledge or permission!
[QUOTE=MistyBlue;7905409]
*Please don’t tie your horse to a vehicle. ESPECIALLY someone else’s vehicle. And please pay for the repairs if you ignore this rule.
*Please don’t give your horse a bath outside with ice cold hose water when it’s 38 degrees and windy as hell outside. ESPECIALLY if you don’t own any blankets to warm the poor guy back up as he shivers and rattles and shakes all over the barn aisle afterwards.
*Don’t pour straight bleach into every stall’s auto waterer and leave it there. NO, they can NOT safely drink bleach!
*Please stop running over the chickens.
*Please don’t think it’s okay to use the dairy farm next door’s milking herd as “cutting practice.” Really…just don’t ever try that again.
*Don’t buy a second horse, ship it in when the BO isn’t there and stuff it in the stall along with your own horse because you don’t want to pay 2 board payments. Seriously.[/QUOTE]
:eek: Oh!!! I can’t imagine how you cope! Since when have people become so stupid?
Ok… if I had been presented with any cattle I would have been trying to “herd” them, when I was 10 YEARS OLD, because I knew nothing about cattle and had watched many “westerns”.
These people run loose unsupervised on your property? :eek:
Can you have them to only be allowed around the barn in pairs, (so that one might have a thought, that might make the other think twice before doing something stupid)?
It would scare me to death to have two clueless fools together. They magnify the silly ideas. It’s so much like Bill Engvall’s Here’s Your Sign song.
Prime Time-OMG!
No, just because my gelding gives you his cute begging face whenever you walk by with alfalfa doesn’t mean I’m starving him to death. And no it’s not OK to sneak him extra grain at night when you think no one is looking…
Good grief. Boarding horses really takes an iron constitution. On both sides.
Hey Crone!!! Good to see you!
From a boarder’s mom (me):
Do not camp out at the barn in your little camper truck over the weekends because you think it is so fun to get “back to nature”. And then take a “shower” with your boyfriend in the wash stall (and these are middle aged people).
That was a sight I can’t unsee when I came out to meet my daughter to hook up the trailer to go to a show early on a Saturday morning!
I know you told me you didn’t think I “should” have been at the barn that early, but whatever. Find a campground with real showers.
And to the young girl who “rescued a horse from a feed lot”, and then proceeded to pay $140.00 on a total 2-month board bill of $950.00, just no. Don’t get a horse if you can’t afford to keep it, and don’t whine to the BM that she should cut you some slack “since it was a rescue.”
[QUOTE=vicarious;7906786]
Do not bring your niece. nephew, neighbor, neighbor’s kids out for “pony rides” .
My insurance company takes a very dim view of it!!! I don’t care if you are certified by Teachers, Anonymous. You are not covered on MY policy.[/QUOTE]
This is why I specifically ask when we boarded if that was allowed. One of the joys, for me, of owning horses is sharing them with people I care about and kids. I’m not saying I bring every kid in but I do like to allow my nieces/nephews/friend’s well behaved children on for pony rides.
[QUOTE=AmarachAcres;7915723]
This is why I specifically ask when we boarded if that was allowed. One of the joys, for me, of owning horses is sharing them with people I care about and kids. I’m not saying I bring every kid in but I do like to allow my nieces/nephews/friend’s well behaved children on for pony rides.[/QUOTE]
Same here. I was a poor horse hungry kid once. I share her with as many as I can find! (I do require helmets though)
Not a BO but fellow boarder. Don’t tie your green-broke horse to the wood-stove pipe, than pull the “he’ll be ok” line.
Don’t let same green-broke horse wander loose in tack up area because “he knows how to ground tie, he just doesn’t want too right now”, Than get mad because my baby, new, timid mare two-foots him in the shoulder.
Don’t passive-agressively talk down about every other rider/horse/soul on the property.
Also, after all this, please don’t try and offer (read; TELL) me training advise for said mare.
My boarder has never done these things but here are some things I’ve witnessed at barns I boarded at:
Please tell someone if a hot fence is down. Don’t wait until you are done riding and see horses running around the property.
Please don’t “borrow” another co-op boarder’s bedding bags without asking first.
Please don’t loudly complain about children and horses when the child in question is quietly grooming HER horse before a lesson and not bothering you. On top of it, don’t then ask her to help you with something when she’s obviously upset from your actions.
Please don’t tell other boarders their horses aren’t worth the trainer/bo’s time and yours are, especially where said Trainer can hear you and cancel your lesson. Justice served.
Please don’t park your car right next to the tractor, refuse to move your car because you are riding, and then scream at the BO when your bumper got dented because they had to use the tractor before dark. She asked you 3 times to move it so they could get work done before dark.
Please don’t leave your horse saddled and bridled in it’s stall because someone is going to come test ride him and you have other plans.
Please don’t take it upon yourself to switch around horses’ stalls because you know who wants to be where. No, my gelding didn’t hate being near the main doors and the mare you switched him with cribs and was in a stall specially for her.
The worst one… please don’t take your drunk friend who has never ridden trail riding on your wife’s horse, at dusk. He rode her off a cliff. The friend lived, the horse didn’t. Everyone tried to stop them and called his wife who showed up as fast as she could but not fast enough.
that is so sad Amarach
[QUOTE=PaintedMare;7908112]
If a horse is in the cross ties in front of Dobbin’s stall, please do not walk up behind the horse and try to lead Dobbin UNDER THE CROSSTIES.[/QUOTE]
:o I confess, I did exactly this, when I was a new boarder. I hadn’t had a lot of experience with barns with aisle crossties before, and as I walked up, I thought, “Oh, there’s LOADS of room to pass with my saddled horse underneath.” Not considering that of course, the [thankfully!] stolid gelding parked there would naturally turn his head, thus dropping the crosstie on that side right under the flap of my saddle on my [blessedly tolerant young OTTB] gelding.
Ooops.
BIG notch collected on my newbie boarder learning curve.
Thankfully, both geldings were troopers and the owner of the other gelding was (i) right there, and (ii) incredibly kind and tolerant!!
Please don’t wash your horse trailer here in the middle of a drought when we are on a well.
Please don’t traverse the 8+ acres of fields between my house and the barn so you can hand-graze your mare in my backyard at 8 a.m. on a Sunday morning. And then KNOCK on my kitchen window and wave, just in case we didn’t see you out there.
Please don’t hitch your pony to our metal arena drag to “practice driving”, especially since said pony was never trained to drive at all.
LOL - who would have thought my mini melt down would have blossomed to 8 pages. It really does make me feel better to know that I am not the only one with the occasional whack-a-do.
[QUOTE=dotneko;7918331]
LOL - who would have thought my mini melt down would have blossomed to 8 pages. It really does make me feel better to know that I am not the only one with the occasional whack-a-do.[/QUOTE]
About 97% of all of that drama can be prevented by:
Screening potential clients and getting pro references;
Properly worded and signed comprehensive boarding contracts,
including signing off that they have read and understand your
BARN RULES;
Setting clear boundaries such as open hours, permitted areas, permitted activities, permitted guests etc.
Making it 100% clear this is a BUSINESS transaction. Not a favor, not “let’s share,” not BFF, not “work off your board,” but FEE TO BE PAID FOR SERVICES RENDERED. No different than the garage, the mortgage or the gas man.
Those other 3%, of course, are the stories we tell over drinks. :winkgrin:
That’s true. Lady Eboshi, but sometimes there are unbelievable things that even in your wildest dreams, a BO can’t factor into a contract.
I let my neighbor board his brand new mare and 4 month old foal. They arrived from a cross country trek and were settling in nicely. The ower, who had talked up a big story about how experienced he was turned out to be a nice guy but totally clueless.
A Week into their boarding arrangement, I came home from the grocery store to find the mare and the foal tied to the fence in my riding ring - no sign of their owner.
I flew into the ring, untied them and called him in a fury. He was very apologetic, and said he had just run home to get a brush he forgot.
Unbelievable. I had already set some guidelines for him, but they got much more specific that day.
[QUOTE=JeanM;7917540]
:o I confess, I did exactly this, when I was a new boarder. I hadn’t had a lot of experience with barns with aisle crossties before, and as I walked up, I thought, “Oh, there’s LOADS of room to pass with my saddled horse underneath.” Not considering that of course, the [thankfully!] stolid gelding parked there would naturally turn his head, thus dropping the crosstie on that side right under the flap of my saddle on my [blessedly tolerant young OTTB] gelding.
Ooops.
BIG notch collected on my newbie boarder learning curve.
Thankfully, both geldings were troopers and the owner of the other gelding was (i) right there, and (ii) incredibly kind and tolerant!![/QUOTE]
Oh cross-tie etiquette & safety is a learning curve! 
(albeit a learning curve that some people seem to never get…)
The boarder in my case not only tried to lead the gelding under the crossties, but then halfway under the crossties turned him 90 degrees to get him into his stall. Horse’s (large warmblood) butt was suddenly in tied horse’s face, tied horse skittered around, chaos ensued. Nobody was hurt thankfully but the owner of the crosstied horse happened to be our OCD boarder and she let naive boarder know EXACTLY what went wrong.
Don’t mess with rogue horse butts.
