Factual document from non-partisan sources, Can you manage that?
Oh, you mean I should provide documentation in support of my replies, not that my “replies should be documented”. Got it.
I did. I provided your own posts as the source of my comments on your posts.
Done and dusted.
I do understand that your own words cannot be considered non-partisan so, no, I guess I cannot manage that. I can only refer to your own words on which I’m basing my replies. 
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As for me, well, I admit, I read a lot. I have an excellent memory for what I read. I’m not going to apologize for it.
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If you cant support your own applies, I can’t help you. or @Sdel.
You both should apologize for your responses, but i’m pretty sure you won’t.
I’ll respond to your idiotic posts in the future.
I don’t know what your definition of unqualified is but let me tell you a story. I have worked in the industry for over 20 years, and in that time have blanketed idk how many creatures. Lots. I’m not uneducated either, I have a PhD in animal science and I’m currently in vet school. I have had 2 blanketing incidents. One was a horse in stall…door closed but not latched to blanket, horse shoves door open, trips over half on blanket into aisle way…not sure how that happened but whatever, horse fine, person screamed. Next loose horse in field who was nearly impossible to catch - I warned owner that I couldn’t catch him and that it was not really my job to train said horse. She insisted on leaving the blanket off in the afternoon and wanted me to blanket at night to which I told her no but she became so aggressive that I gave in. Get blanket mostly on and horse runs away, rips blanket. I cobble it back together and text picture to my boss (GP trainer with 50 years experience) who says stupid horse. Owner sends me the nastiest text I have ever received to which I say go F yourself and screenshot to boss…who tells her that if she ever speaks to someone like that again she’s gone. She was gone shortly after.
When my now 16 yearly was a yearling he did something similar and ripped his blanket and tripped. I think most of the time the blanket is a lot weaker than the horse. There are always things that can happen, but if you want to be in control of them then don’t have other people blanket the horse. We still blanket loose unless it’s a horse with a known problem that lives outside, and then we usually tell the owner to do it. I’d like to know if anyone who cares for a large number of horses actually takes time to halter and remove from the field. It would literally add an hour to my day. I do back leg straps first so that it basically just falls off in most cases if the horse leaves, or over the head and then hold on and walk straight back still holding it to do leg straps. And when I say we - I mean myself and boss whos credentials are described above, a full time guy who has 3 degrees and 20 years of horse experience but just like the slower pace and a part time person who was a racetrack groom for 30 years. No one is unqualified. It’s just the way we do things and if people don’t like it they can leave. Some do (over other things), some we tell to, and some stay - same as any industry.
Here’s a secret. No barn worker wants your feedback unless they ask for it. They almost always have more experience than you or at the very least just don’t care. If you don’t like it, leave. But don’t email them on christmas. We talk behind the boarders backs about how annoying they are all the time…don’t give us another reason too or you will find yourself on thin ice.
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um…what? My applies?
I reply to your words. Which I copy-paste for your convenience. The end.
You absolutely should apologise for your apoplectic hissy fits, taunts, and insults in this thread. It’s honestly gotten unhinged from you. Loads of people really did want to give you the insight you asked for. This is a community full of repeat players and you are distinguishing yourself in a really bad way. It makes no sense.
Blasting people b/c you don’t like their answers, insulting their intelligence, denying their experience, and generally being aggressive and reactive is not a good look.
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@J-Lu, the thing is that you seem to purposely leave out information that could clear up people’s understanding of the situation. Was the hot wire run because when the mare was introduced to the adjacent paddock she and your gelding managed to do some damage? Because if that’s NOT what happened, then you’ve not clearly communicated the situation. YOUR posts make it sound like that’s what happened. When people take you at your word about this and then repeat it or make inferences based on the information that YOU’VE given, you then flip out at them and tell them they don’t know what they’re talking about. But you never seem to clarify anything. You contradict yourself and insult people and round and round we go.
Regardless of why the hot wire is there, feeding a horse near hot wire and blanketing a horse near hot wire is just an accident waiting to happen. I don’t care how experienced the person is who is doing the blanketing. An experienced person wouldn’t attempt to blanket a horse that is close to hot wire.
Do YOU think it’s wise to feed and blanket a horse near hot wire? Because you’ve not said anything about it. My instinct would’ve been to blame that before blaming the person who was blanketing.
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@anon56064099’s reply was one of the most measured responses out there.
- It absolutely matters
When boarding barn owners tell you it is a thankless job, you have exactly zero idea how thankless even though you help on some days (which I am sure is appreciated). ZERO.
Making no money to be beaten up by the physical labor (and often the horses), fielding constant complaints by boarders who claim to know better than you, while you deal with their horses who are simultaneously damaging the land and facility as well as putting you and the help in peril daily, dealing with staffing and supply issues, and the every day worries about the horses because horses do stupid sh*t every single day…It is a 24/7 always on call job and if you manage to get paid for it at all a day’s work is less than an hour or two at McD’s.
The industry is suffering. Board has NOT kept up with inflation. Well meaning barn owners artificially hold prices down because they know people would no longer be able to afford their horses, or they can afford to do so because they inherited their facility and don’t have to buy hay, or whatever. But they don’t typically pass the same costs on to you - the boarder - that a regular business does. No matter whether you pay $600-1200, it’s not until board is up above $2k that you can truly make the margins that you might in literally any other business.
And it is people like you who think because they drag a few times or fill water troughs or even clean a stall or two every once in awhile that “know how it is” who are the absolute worst because you do not. Unequivocally do not.
Even the things you’ve mentioned that they have done sound like very well meaning people who are trying to bend over backward to make you happy. And still you aren’t happy because Pookie shocked himself and there are rocks in the arena.
You would be out of my barn so fast you wouldn’t have a chance to whip your blanket on Pookie before you got on the trailer.
I say this with love - you have to understand - but you do not understand running or owning a boarding barn in the least. When people say it is thankless, that does not begin to describe it.
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Are you suggesting that your posts, as the horse’s owner, are… Objective? 
Objective is definitely not a word I’d apply to any of your chaotic and emotional posts insulting the horse knowledge of basically everyone on this thread.
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Somehow I’m not surprised the BOs find the horse aggressive and reactive 
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I would think the location of the hot wire would be an additional stressor for the horses. There is a natural level of snark that comes out when feeding horses. I recently had to alter the set up of my run in due to snarking over the divider. One of my horses can be stressed and worried in closed spaces. She would start it trying to get ahead and assert her space and then get extra defensive by the closed nature of the space. The other horses were reacting by getting very aggressive at feeding time. Once I witnessed the one horse kick at the divider while the other horse reared up to reach over and bite her butt. These were horses that would happily share a stall to munch hay, hung out next to the divider to stay close, and were joined at the hip in open pasture. The divider was changed out the next day to a full height solid barrier where the food goes and the problem has been completely eliminated.
I can’t imagine how, if I had instead chosen to install a hot wire that it would have had a positive change on what fueled the behavior vs just making the horses more uptight about it.
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This whole thread has reminded me of how much I try not to be “that” boarder.
Boarding horses is a labor of love. The horses are rarely the problem. Yes they are destructive on the daily, and can take an emotional toll with their ability to try to kill themselves every single flipping day of their lives. The people on the other hand, whoooo humdigiddy.
I board an older but very nice facility where the owner and barn manager go out of their way to “try” to make everyone happy. The board price is probably the lowest in the county. And I watch people where I board with their demands…
Some people need to take the 2 x 4’s out of their arse.
And barn owners and barn managers need to perfect the mare glare.
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Sure - thanks for the additional context and I’m sorry for your frustration. My impression is that you’re lashing out at a lot of folks who are simply trying to help you as well as (what appear to be) your well-intentioned barn owners. To quote the great Taylor Swift (
) - ‘Are you ok?’
Boarding and life is very stressful at times and horses are hard - for all of us!
To respond to a few things you say with the hope it’s helpful:
-
Our intent around ‘people who know how to work with horses’ and ‘professionals’ is the same. Knowledgeable horse people who would be working in a barn daily are professionals. You want professionals (whose knowledge base and primary occupation is to take care of horses) managing your horse. This is unrealistic at lower price points.
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In my response, I assume you and your horse are the best boarding pair to ever exist. So, there’s no need to defend your horse or yourself in that regard - I’m assuming the best.
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My (admittedly fixed) view after so many years working with horses is that becoming a good horse person requires you to develop exceptional people skills. If you don’t have them and you rely on others to care for your horse (as we all do at varying levels), you’re not as developed or as competent as you can be. This will eventually impact the level of care your horse receives no matter the setting. Some of us make the decision to bring our horses home as a reasonable alternative when we cannot access what we feel are acceptable standards of care otherwise. Over time, my definition of ‘acceptable’ has gotten a lot broader and I had better success with boarding when focusing on the basics. Blanketing in a warm climate is not a basic unless the horse is underweight, particularly sensitive (i.e. shivering), ill or clipped.
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Just like horses, people are individuals and learning to honor, respect and show grace to them is a prerequisite for receiving good care. In a 10+ year relationship, it really doesn’t matter who was ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, it matters that they were offended by your approach and that you have an opportunity to apologize, clarify that safety for their daughter was your primary concern (if that’s the case), and work to remedy the problem should they ask for and want solutions on the matter.
A few solutions (that I would communicate after several days had passed since this is in fact not an emergency) might be …
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I will teach your daughter next time I’m out since this is a problem that doesn’t impact anyone but me.
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I will cover the cost of the ‘blanket lesson’ I suggested your daughter take with the trainer since this doesn’t impact anyone but me.
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My horse doesn’t need to be blanketed when the ‘regular’ person can’t do it.
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I can hire someone to blanket my horse when the experienced person cannot do it if you’ll just let me know in advance when you won’t be around. I’ll confirm they’re insured and sign a waiver.
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If you’d prefer to hire directly, you can hire a knowledgeable barn sitter and I will shoulder the full cost for the additional labor. I can also find the sitter if you’d like - this doesn’t have to become ‘another’ problem for you to manage.
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I will pay the onsite trainer to blanket my horse when the normal blanketer is not around.
I think the people you meet along the way during your horse journey are important - you’ll remember and reflect on them positively for decades to come! Even the negative feelings surrounding those you dislike will fade with time and experience. Allowing this closeness builds connection, empathy and a feeling of camaraderie among us. We all need this - horses are hard.
Life is not an exercise in what SHOULD be, it’s an exercise in accepting what is. You have a healthy horse, I hope and presume you are also healthy, AND you have a long, strong relationship you’ve built with another group of folks who have shared caring for said horse for over a decade.
Don’t lose sight of the good that’s happened along the way and the experiences you’ve shared to date. I would encourage you to try to approach your situation with gratitude and empathy for others instead of rigidity and a fixed ‘who is wrong here’ mindset.
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I think this is lovely. I didn’t always feel this way when boarding when I felt I was being ‘difficult’, but truly, the barn owners I know don’t hate or resent their boarders. We understand more than most that horses are HARD and that there is no perfect situation.
However, the impact of several years of historic inflationary pressures, labor shortages, more extreme weather patterns, and other social trends that have swept equestrian circles (24/7 hay, a loss of basic training/handling skills, an eschewing of professional expertise (vet, farrier, etc) in lieu of more holistic practices), and 24/7 access to barn owners has made a dent in the average boarding owner’s psyche. Many are leaving open stalls instead of filling them in my area where there is significant demand. It’s more common now for boarders to have very little notice and knowledge as to the impact of these inputs until they’re asked to leave. It’s certainly something to be aware of!
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Thanks so much! 
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I think your posts are wonderful and your humor and kindness are palpable but I do believe your message is falling on deaf ears with it comes to the OP. I have managed numerous facilities including training/boarding facilities for Grand Prix riders but I have been told I that have no horse knowledge on this thread. 
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Thank you so much! Maybe if not helpful to the OP or useful in this instance, it helps someone who is able to receive it That’s why and how I participate occasionally on social media but to your point, yes, don’t think additional replies may be fruitful on this thread.
I’m a people person and like to help and ‘gab’ online particularly in the depths of winter when I’m feeling more isolated than normal! My best to you, love your profile picture
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I agree with @Warmblood1 - your posts are excellent and your tone is on point. I think you are speaking really well to an issue that has indeed been bubbling up everywhere for the last few years… the mismatch between expectations about care and budget on the part of boarders and the challenges barn owners face in terms of the costs they deal with to provide a boarding service.
I do think the days of barns that primarily offer boarding are necessarily coming to an end, and more and more places will involve a commitment to a set monthly training/lesson requirement, as that is where the profit margin is. At least in my area. As far as smaller private farms that offer boarding to a few key people? I think the property owners who do this are incredibly generous. I wouldn’t/wont do it… except MAYBE a retirement board situation for one of my pro friends… as they would be much more likely than others to appreciate it for what it is.
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Thank you! And yes, I think after three years of trial and error and further observation, it’s a distinct and settled change we’ll all need to navigate. I doubt I’ll own horses after we eventually sell my farm - just cannot justify the expense or stress of it. I do see more private farm owners switching to retirement board and many adding language to their public ISO ads such as ‘priority given to boarders who rarely visit their horses’ 
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[quote=“anon56064099, post:420, topic:792082, full:true”]
Thank you so much! Maybe if not helpful to the OP or useful in this instance, it helps someone who is able to receive it That’s why and how I participate occasionally on social media but to your point, yes, don’t think additional replies may be fruitful on this thread.
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