I paid my non-horsey sister to farm sit while I went out of town to watch a friend at a show. There wasn’t that much for her to do - I never expected to have her clean stalls. Just make sure the horses had hay and water at all times. Neither of them ate much grain so if she forgot to do that it was not a big deal.
I got home to horses without a scrap of hay. But she did, however, rearrange my silverware drawers. Did not hire her again.
The way the supplements are set up, she still would have fed too much. If she didn’t read 4 separate instruction sheets, coupled with my walking her through the daily routine - there was no fixin’ it!
@SusanO she stripped all the good bedding out of the Old Man’s stall, in good faith. Where I boarded for 20 years the stalls got picked once a week and stripped once a week. She wasn’t familiar at all with how to keep a stall that’s picked daily and shavings added whenever needed. That said - those 12 dollars of shavings in the compost bin mock me on a daily basis lol
Tell yourself daily that you are thankful that it is only $12 of shavings.
With how much shavings cost now, that number could have been much more scary.
2.5 bags of fresh ones (roughly 5 bucks a piece)! Bless my mom, she thought she’d surprise me, and that she was doing me a favor. When I saw the bare mats, she could see it on my face even though I tried not to show it and she immediately apologized. Ohhh momma. It’s no big deal.
I do this too! My farm sitters are horsey people, and could follow the feed board, but I try to make it as easy and straightforward and quick as possible.
I figure making sure everything is very clear not only keeps me happy because stuff is done the way it should be, but also eliminates a stressor for the sitter. When I watched critters for others, I hated it when I wasn’t sure about something and had to guess. 
There was no guessing. There’s only one can of grain on the whole property, supplements are pre-made, and the instructions were listed out in 4 different places and they all matched exactly. She just can’t read. Love her to bits, but I’m not surprised - she can be forgetful, and was so excited that I asked her to watch him she lost her mind a bit. If I would have put it in bags, he still would have gotten double, and then ran out on day 2. Trust me.
1.5 scoops grain + supplement AM
1.5 scoops grain PM
I totally get it Endless, I really do.
Not horse care, because my mother is not that type of person (that I would ask to take care of horses, ever), but just about anything else. She is very crafty and loves to make things for people, if you ask her for this exact pink ball (made up thing), with examples, you provide all the stuff to make it, with clear instructions on what you want and why you want it pink and round and just like the example. When you go to pick it up you have a blue square and her so proud of the blue square as she tells you how the blue square is so much better than the pink ball would have been and that is why she made it a blue square.
She also depooped the back yard (thank you mom!) but threw the plastic bag in the compost bin. Ma, you’re a lifelong gardener. You know better than that!
I just laugh and shake my head. She is the kindest woman on earth and is SO smart with lawyer stuff, but can be a space cadet with day to day life.
I knew for a fact that Niko won’t hurt anyone, for any reason, ever. He won’t hurt himself, either. He is the COOLEST horse in those regards. I have implicit trust in him at all times. If he says NO there’s a reason you’d better be listening to. He is the only horse I’d have allowed my mom to watch, because he will read between the lines and keep them both alive.
And, enjoy his double-grain rations with a cheshire cat grin.
PS: I now have to lock the back gate to the back yard because he knows how to open it. It was forbidden fruit before, but now that he’s been in there… smart, smart old man…
You know he told her that amount is what you really meant for him to have. 
He is the King of begging and mooching. He has no vices, doesn’t crowd you, isn’t obnoxious - just acts totally pathetic and therefore he gets whatever he wants LOL
We hired a friend of our daughter’s to house/farm sit when we went to Europe for a month. This guy fostered dogs and was supposedly very responsible and wonderful with animals. My friend in the neighborhood offered to keep an eye on things and make sure the sitter was doing what he was supposed to. The day we were heading home, my friend emailed to say my mare wasn’t looking good, very thin. It was a little late to be telling me this.
We got home and found the sitter had left my mare tied to a post in 95 degree temperatures with no water, instead of loose in the corral and pasture where she belonged. This was while he was picking us up at the airport, so it was a couple of hours. Most of the hay we’d put in the tack room for him to use was still there, my daughter’s rabbit had chewed up stuff in her room (bunny was never supposed to be loose without supervision), and our dog was completely traumatized. The house was filthy, every bed was slept in, a key for missing for a car he didn’t have permission to use (which was pretty egregious as we’d given him permission to use another one). Oh, and he fell in the bathroom while drunk (he was underage for drinking) and destroyed a bunch of stuff. What a nightmare.
Rebecca
Holy cow. My mom and her fiance did have a mini-just-them-two party, leaving me dirty pans and cold breakfast sausage to clean up - I’ll take that over your nightmare any day!
And this is why I just paid $1600 to board my cats for a couple of weeks. Sigh.
Which I would not have begrudged quite so much if the place hadn’t gone downhill dramatically since we last boarded there, as well as putting it’s prices up. I’m not going back there.
I have to find a local kid who wants to earn some money and has a dragon mother who won’t let them get away with anything. I think I’ll ask my library friends at the next book group.
We got lucky a couple of years later. We found out our neighbor’s caregiver was raised on a horse ranch. He was a very nice guy and my horses loved him. By then, our daughter had taken her bunny to live with her off campus, so that was one less critter to worry about.
The dog turned out to be the problem. We tried leaving her with our daughter (the dog was hers originally), but Pepper had never lived anywhere other than at our house, and the poor girl was miserable. We were surprised as Pepper was crazy about our daughter.
The next time we went away, we’d had to euthanize Pepper a few months before. She was in heart failure at age 13. I still miss her. She was feral when we got her, and soon figured out that living in a house with humans to love and take care of you was a great gig. She was wicked smart and just a joy to have around.
Rebecca
That so reminds me of my mom when we went on a 5 day trip one year. I asked her to clean the litterboxes and feed the cats. I put the big garbage can by the door so all she had to do was put the bags in the can. I came home to a basement full of bags of cat crap and stink. I asked her why she didn’t put that in the garbage can by the door - she said she didn’t know (I am sure I told her and you could not miss the can). Hindsight was that this was the start of her decline - she’s 90 now and still going strong, but still does things like that.
Replying to my thread to say that I just now took this braid out to re-do, and it was still in okay shape for around the barn; lasted over a month, could’ve left it in longer. Some hair near his ears came out, as is usually the case when it’s been running-braided for a while – I’m okay with that, because I want him to be very comfortable in a head-down grazing position.
If I’d had a clinic or lesson or show to attend with him, I’d have freshened it sooner, but it was fine, kept his mane out of his way and was a cooler hairdo, especially since we still had 90s weather during October (including upper 90s).
Remind me, how long is his mane?
To his knees.
Went to visit Grundy today. She’s doing great. Friend asked me about the sass around food, so this is going to be her thing.
Tried on her elegant side pull. 
Grundy comes home this weekend and I am so excited to have her back. My Old Man, who has been the best boy being alone for a month, agrees.
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