Wow! I am glad I found this thread (and dodged a bullet)
My daughter was spending a lot of time “working” up at Ellen’s barn and I started to hear all of the crazy stories and drama that was occurring up there.
I knew that something was up when I realized that all of these kids were laboring around the barn from sun up until sun down - mostly taking care of Ellen’s personal horses (and cleaning our her cars, camper, etc.) and then witnessing Ellen berating and disciplining these kids like they are paid adult employees. I get it, the kids love to work the horses… but the lack of respect that Ellen demonstrated to her client’s blew my mind. As time went on we realized that she treated her employees just as bad and watched them come and go, a new employee every few months it seemed; each time Ellen would post an excuse on Facebook about why they left.
Recently, the amount of “incidents” started to rise once again. Issues with bad feed making horses sick (Ellen switched to a different feed that the kids reported was “powdery” and “smelled funny”), major dog attacks (recently two of Ellen’s pit bulls brought down a horse in it’s run), gates being left open and horses getting onto the major highway and getting injured, damaging cars & street signs, etc.; and even a horse 'breaking its neck" (how does that happen?)
All of her employees and several of her boarders have left the barn over the past month. My concern is that (somehow) she continues to do business, putting animals, children, and employees at risk daily. Meanwhile, selfishly using that barn’s revenue to support her own horses, continue to pursue her washed-up career as an eventer, and fund her alcoholism.
We have moved on and are now working on breaking some bad (unsafe) habits that my daughter picked up while spending time with Ellen. Hopefully, she will eventually be pushed out and someone else can take over Rockwall Hills and run it like a legitimate business. It has so much potential for greatness - but Ellen remains. so… good luck
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