So, here’s the story, and I’m really just venting here, but of course opinions are welcome as well. Just PLEASE don’t judge me, I know what I did wrong and it won’t happen again. Trust me.
Last June, a woman I know casually from the venue I frequently show at approached me about boarding at my farm. She worked at the show facility (she’s since then been fired) and boarded her horse there as well. She had been out one other time and had remarked how she wished she could move her mare to my place. We both agreed it would really nice to have a riding buddy and what I would charge her for board would be considerably less than what the show facility was charging for board. She is struggling financially and was having trouble paying the high dollar board at the previous facility. I offered a stall, shavings, private turnout and use of my lighted arena for $200 a month, with her providing all her own feed and hay. We decided she would move it beginning of June, but she actually arrived middle of the month. She had fed for me over Memorial Day weekend so we decided to call it even on board for that month.
July rolls around and I don’t receive a board check. I ask politely when I can expect it, and I’m told tearfully that her husband has lost his job, and she doesn’t have the money, and can they possibly do stuff around the farm to make up the difference until he finds work. I’m not happy about it, but I agree. She came out…I think twice? and mucked stalls. Mind you, she doesn’t work outside the home, she stays home with the kids.
She doesn’t want her mare out in the heat, so while we’re not getting paid, her mare is still being brought in, turned out, and cared for. Stall being cleaned, daily, by my DH who is retired and was saddled with most of that because I work. He cut short many a golf game and trip to Home Depot to get her mare in because she would get ugly if the mare was left out “Um, hey, I’m not trying to be a problem but remember you SAID she could be in and it’s VERY bad for her to be in the heat” type comments. FYI this is not a sweating problem. She feels like the coat getting discolored from the sun is a “health issue”.
I also asked if her husband, who rides but doesn’t have a horse, would be willing to work my older horse a couple times a week, I don’t have time to work two horses and it’s good for him to hack around once in a while. Sure! they said. He got on him maybe 4 times.
Bad right? It gets worse. They’ve got kids, a baby and a two year old. The two year old roams free on the property, despite my requesting, even PLEADING that they watch her. One night she disappeared for 20 or 30 minutes, and we found her locked in my chicken coop. Another time I was riding at dusk, and happened to catch a glimpse of her disappearing into the woods that flanks my property, which is a hunting preserve. Loaded with coyotes, too.
August rolls around, and no payment, same sob story. Same thing for October and November. Husband by now is working again, but they’re behind on their bills and crying and apologies and promises ensue along with how GUILTY she feels about not paying every time the mention of board comes up.
I’m a generous person, as you probably have gathered by now. Or perhaps you’ve pegged me for an idiot. I guess that’s correct also, in this instance.
Stupid crap is cropping up by now. Boarder doesn’t believe in worming, she gives DE. Boarder wants smart packs, apple cider vinegar and garlic put into food and apple cider vinegar mixed into water. Uh, news flash, when the supplements and crap you want mixed into the food outweigh the actual FOOD, your horse wont’ eat it. And she doesn’t drink water with vinegar in it.
Colder weather arrives and now we’re being asked to blanket her horse, who might I add, is ugly about it and doesn’t hesitate to kick out. We take our lives in our hands every time we do it. We live in the south, and it doesn’t really get THAT cold, but the blanket she has is a monstrous high neck that weighs a ton and would be really great, say, if we lived Minnesota. In February. And it’s a huge PIA the put on and take off. Two weeks ago I texted her that her horse seemed too warm, and did she have anything lighter weight. She texted back “what time did you check her, because I JUST left the farm, and my horse most assuredly was NOT warm”. Texted her back “I checked her sometime after 4”. I get a response “I checked her at 4:09 and she was fine, but I’ll bring another blanket out”.
OK, what the actual F was THAT? Did she just call me a liar?
Last weekend the straw that broke the back arrived in the form of bagged alfalfa. Boarder has never stayed on top of her feed and hay, and she regularly has to “borrow” beet pulp and feed from me when she runs out. I’ll text her that she’s out and I’ll get crickets until days later when I get a “bringing feed out today!” response. Anyway, her horse has a history of colic and she wants her on alfalfa mix. She can’t really afford it, so her answer was to bring out the bagged stuff, and then instruct DH and I to soak it in a bucket and give it to her horse 2 times a day, 3 if it’s cold. Yes, you understood that correctly, lug a 20lb bucket of soaked alfalfa into her field, and pour it into a large feed pan. Multiple times a day. Never even asked if we’d be willing to do this “chore” we’ve been assigned (we’re not).
Then it dawns on me. We’re the unpaid frigging barn help on our own property. She manages to pay the farrier and the feed guy, and get a lesson every few weeks but us? Naw. We’re not in the budget.
She got her notice to leave on Sunday, I’ve given her two weeks to get off the property. If her mare is still here, I’m loading her up and dropping her off at her house. Seriously, I’m THAT furious about this whole thing.
Moral of the story: I’m out of the boarding business FOREVER. And I need to work on my tendencies of being a doormat.
