Since we’re a pretty tight-knit facility, I didn’t see a problem in asking the leaser via text if she could put her treats in a safe place, as the rest of us did. I’d like to understand how this would put you off, because I’m not sure I’d feel the same way given the roles were reversed. Valid points though, thanks!
3 Likes
If you texted me after seeing me at the barn it would put me off. Also, I’ve had a boarder turned barn worker get way too involved in my horse. I have zero problem confronting her in person and through text. In your shoes, if I were to have an idea for everyone, I would talk to management like you did, but do a group text with all the boarders about said mouse issue.
OP, it’s not that you did anything wrong per se. I don’t know the relationships at your barn. However I’m willing to bet the teen knows you don’t like her. So she, while agreeing eventually, dragged it out because she could. And you keep referring to her as a leaser. That doesn’t make her less than.
5 Likes
It is disgusting to see evidence of mice and do nothing about it - Mice are part of barn life - but they can be controlled.
3 Likes
Part of the problem with communicating via email/text is that the reader can infer the tone of the message because there is no tone in email/text.
For example, my gut reaction to the above is that it’s passive aggressive and is singling the one individual out as the only one not with the messenger’s program. It would annoy me.
The OP asked why another poster would be offended at all by this situation, so I’ll offer that for me it really is all about how the message is delivered. As mentioned above, I really don’t like passive aggressive BS and will call it out pretty much all the time.
2 communication examples at the same barn:
-
Someone posted a bunch of anonymous notes complaining that someone had reported her to management repeatedly for hogging turn outs suggesting that “rude” person instead just talk to her. It wasn’t me, but I was so annoyed at having my tack room door papered with these notes, I wrote a 1-page response “suggesting” that instead of writing anonymous notes, perhaps the author could leave the rest of the barn out of it and just not hog the turn outs, signed it and provided my phone number it case the person wanted to discuss further. Granted, not my finest hour but coincidentally perhaps, she stopped hogging the turn outs.
-
Someone called me out for driving too fast in the early morning to the back of the property to get my trailer. She approached me in a very calm way and asked me to please slow down and follow the speed limit as there were kids around. She was right. That was our first conversation and we’re still friends 20 years later.
5 Likes
Exactly.
I don’t appreciate “suggestions” or “requests” from other boarders. (It’s always the same ones, too.) My business relationship is with the barn owner and their management. That is who I reserve bandwidth for, not whatever boarder has decided to take up a cause that even said boarder recognizes management doesnt want to be bothered with.
There are some boarders at my current barn I flat out refuse to interact with. They are full of great ideas and suggestions for everyone and yet somehow they know better than to bring their BS to my doorstep. It’s amazing how peaceful life is if you make it very clear that that dog ain’t gonna hunt in your field.
If they even tried to natter at me about my locker contents (honestly!!) I would just stare at them with ‘WTAF is the matter with you’ written all over my face until they went away, and then mention to management they may want to get their fkn boarders under control and tell them to stop surveilling other people’s lockers. My patience for this “helpfully concerned” bullsh*t is ZERO.
I talk to management if I have an issue, they can also talk to management if they have an issue, and we can all let management manage their barn and their boarders how management sees fit. If management is not going to exercise management over either rodents or “helpful” boarders, I am not going to board there.
I’m perfectly happy to mind my own business and get along with others, but part of sticking to my own boundaries is that 1. I don’t appoint myself to management or supervisory roles that don’t belong to me and 2. I communicate effectively that I don’t appreciate it when other people do, either.
8 Likes
i just meant it might be too complicated if you are baiting tthem to come to your trap, but using repellant at the same time. They might not come to the trap if they smell the repellant.
Eye rolling can go both ways.
Just sayin
1 Like
Honestly, you sound like a “Young People”
Every now and then an article appears in the paper about hantavirus, guess where it comes from? Mice!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthohantavirus
Rats follow mice in the chain of progression.
6 Likes
I think it’s fascinating what different personalities think is acceptable or unacceptable. Makes you really have to realize that even if YOU think something is totally okay, or not okay, doesn’t mean that everyone will feel the same. Also the types of places people are used to boarding at seems to help form that opinion as well. A well-run barn with managers that are on top of things is so different from places where the boarders have to pick up slack and get together often to do things themselves.
10 Likes
I’d rather be associated with the “young people” than the bitter folks on this board who wax rhapsodic about their hard working days as barn rats out of one side of their mouth while complaining bitterly about any child/teen left unattended for more than 5 minutes out of the other. You can’t have it both ways. Sadly with 5 decades in horses my demographic is with the complainers. But I do hate to see the way the younger set is attacked on here. I know plenty of hard working kids. Further, read the whole thread, the OP has used every opportunity to get little digs in against this girl. She doesn’t like her.
I know about the hantavirus. I also know that you really can only take care of your own space - we are talking about lockers here. If barn management isn’t going to address the overall issue than take care of your own area and don’t blame the mice problem on the kid. One easily accessed bag of treats does not create an infestation.
6 Likes
I agree on both accounts. I am in a supervisor/mentor type position and something that is at the forefront of my mind constantly is that different people react differently to the same stimuli - it isn’t just cultural but upbringing and current issues. So the same person who is going through a tough patch may react differently to a stimuli than when they are smooth sailing in life. It does make internet advice a bit hard as we are not seeing the situation and are definitely coloring it with our own lense.
Also, on the point of boarding places…I can’t remember the last time I had a mouse issue. I kept my tack in the open in the back of the run-in-shed in one place without any chewing issues. The run in had a half wall and platform and grain was kept there, along with hay and any tack you wanted - it was a field board situation. I know keep my horse at a nice facility with a tack room and have an open container of treats that is never bothered by mice and no chewing issues with the multitudes of blankets and saddle pads and tack there. So, I have trouble seeing how a room could have those issues, but we have real floors also so maybe that’s part of it.
3 Likes
Since locker neighbor is a teen, she probably is being passive aggressive in how she’s responding to someone she knows doesn’t like her. She also probably thinks she’s being ganged up on a bit since op both talked to her in person and text and another boarder came at her with the same issue, so now she probably thinks OP and fellow boarders are talking shit about her. So she’s even less likely to do what you want. Let management deal with it. Tell them your ideas and they can talk to her.
2 Likes
We must be reading different posts, bc i have not seen anything insulting about the locker neighbor.
4 Likes
We had a ranch dog almost die from eating a critter that had eaten anti-coag.
2 Likes
Yeah if somebody took it upon themselves to leave poison around my property where my dogs live…
They would not be forgiven.
5 Likes
Why didn’t you just buy her a tin? I read several times where you said you were going to, but didn’t. I think it would have been a nice gesture.
3 Likes
PLEASE don’t use poison bait. You may inadvertently poison your local birds of prey, especially owls, through secondary poisoning.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/a…on-kills-owls/
https://www.audubon.org/magazine/jan…nts-have-safer
3 Likes
I agree that it is difficult to interpret the situation fully as we are conversing in a forum and without actual tone of voice. I can assure everyone that no bullying, harassment, over-stepping or “bossing around” occurred. I truly do like to evaluate the appropriateness of every situation and feel like what I pursued was not out of bounds. I appreciate everyone’s advice and input in this thread!
Final update: locker neighbor has kept the treats away. There was no need to purchase a tin as she beat me to it. She actually approached me the other day and thanked me as the mice situation has improved. They’re still lurking around as expected, but thankfully not being as “trashy” as they once were. I still have my 3 mouse traps loaded as well as all crevices stuffed with steel wool.
NO poison was ever considered but I appreciate the concern.
I agree that “leaving it to management” would have been the easiest and least confrontational thing to do, however, it was attempted with no result. This is when I, and fellow boarders, took it upon ourselves to attempt to fix the issue. We were successful, and hopefully no feelings, ego or pride were injured.
I was once too, a young, hard-working teen that couldn’t afford luxuries like my own horse or saddle. Experiencing this, I did my absolute best to respect other people’s things and wishes (especially if it was as easy as keeping treats away from places that were accessible to the mice). That does NOT excuse locker neighbor’s behavior, attitude or retaliation in this matter. For those of you who were acting in her defense: it was noted, but likely ignored.
Thanks again for everyone’s input and best wishes!
7 Likes
The added info of lack of other boarding options in your area makes the rest make sense. I’ve only lived places with about a million barns, so I’d have just moved if Barn management did nothing about mice. But, that’s great your mouse-proofing is working, and locker-mate stepped up finally!
2 Likes
Not sure this is true. At least as far as the pet poison hot line is concerned.
