New barn woes

[OverandOnward]

Sometimes it’s hard to know if it’s the horse, the barn, or what, as we aren’t there all day, we don’t see everything. That’s the whole point of a board barn, we are outsourcing care.

So yeah, knowing some horses will settle into some situations less readily than others, we want to give everything time to resolve.

But – if you feel fairly sure that the barn has problems, please don’t stay just because you don’t want to feel like “that boarder”. There is a lot of variation in the quality of board barns and it just isn’t possible to know everything until you are there for a time. Even if you dug in and researched before choosing it.

It’s ok to move a few times before you find the right situation. Just imo.

[Rackonteur]

@greywithchrome

3 months. The farm was actually awesome and so was the manager but it was just not a fit for my horse. I felt I gave her enough time to settle in and she just wasn’t herself. Spooky and scared and uncomfortable. I questioned my decision to move up until the last day (I even talked to an animal communicator about it lol) but was so validated when the first time I went to visit her at the new farm I immediately had my horse back

@Chestnut24

to greywithchrome… sorry I don’t know how to do the quote box )
May I ask how long you gave your horse to settle in this case?

3 months, according to the post.

[TwiSedai]

About 3 days. Brought my young horse to this place, was highly recommended. BO put him in a pasture with two other geldings. Geldings ran him for a while, BO insisted that was the only place they could put him and they’d work it out. The horses finally chilled out a bit, I had to leave (I can’t remember why, work or something) and BO promised me they would keep a very close eye on mine all day and let me know how he was doing.

Not even two hours later, someone I knew whose kid was riding there called me. They had heard my new guy had just moved there, so went to the pasture to say hi and…didn’t see him. No barn owner or workers anywhere in sight. Rushed out there, found him in the next pasture (that luckily was empty and closed up, the horses usually there were all at a polo match). Walking the fence line and judging from the sweat and skid marks in the ground, we figured out they had started running him again until he jumped the fence to get away, found where he leaped. Who knows how long they ran him for, and thank GOD he didn’t jump the fence line on the opposite side that bordered the public greenway. Barn owner didn’t ever apologize.

A good friend of mine heard and called to let me know a spot at the barn she was at had opened up and they’d take me right away or hold the spot for me for a month or so. I’d been wanting to go there anyways originally, but I hate burning bridges so I tried to talk to the BO about the situation, thinking maybe we could at least come up with something that might work for a month or so. Before I could finish speaking, she started tearing into me. Was really quite nasty, lots of cussing. Then demanded I move the horse that day. I couldn’t do it until the next day, but you bet I got him out of there as soon as I could. I then got texts from her vet ex-husband telling me aaaall the things he decided was wrong with my horse, that I was an awful owner and would probably kill him (I don’t think this horse was even 3 yet, there was nothing wrong with him). Demanded I pay the full month’s board. I had left a check for half a month, which I felt was pretty generous of me considering it took my horse a while to get back to normal after that.

Thankfully, that place wasn’t open all that much longer after this. Closed down a few years after. I think the BO had a few too many head injuries over the years and had some TBI stuff going on contributing to how awful she was to me.

So, yeah. 3 days.

[FjordBCRF]

@TwiSedai

I think the BO had a few too many head injuries over the years and had some TBI stuff going on contributing to how awful she was to me.

Honest to Pete, I wonder about this more and more as time goes on. Heck, I wonder with myself sometimes when I find I can’t recall something like I used to.

One of the barns I left in a hurry had a similar sounding BO so I can commiserate. Glad you moved out of these as quick as you could!

[LSMarnell]

20 days. I was already planning our escape as my horse had been left with no water 3 times in just 20 days already. I committed to showing up twice a day to check until I could find somewhere else…only to catch the BO’s daughter smoking crack in the barn.
I called a friend and she came and got us and took my horse to her barn temporarily. What a lifesaver!

[widge]

@LSMarnell

smoking crack

Wow, didn’t see that coming.

For me, I left a barn in 6 weeks. I wrote a post on here about it because I was struggling as a new horse owner and everyone else there seemed happy. I now endure the 140-mile round trip to a barn with fantastic care. It’s not ideal for me but it is for my horse.

[OverandOnward]

I could not do a commute that long, but I actually understand why someone would!

My longest was 45 miles one way, and entirely worth it. It helped a great deal that the drive was through the countryside and very pleasant. It was wonderful to be at that barn and I would love to be able to go back.

[Cowgirl]

I have had a few. One was brand new. Owner was someone I knew from another barn as a boarder. Enticed me and another friend to move in, and promised a bunch of things. We moved over, stupidly without fully checking it out. Stalls had a half bale of shavings in, no ventilation, was completely shut up at night and made your eyes water; indoor had 8 inches of sand in it. One of the house trainers was keeping all her competition horses at another barn so they could continue their season. Moved out within a month.

Most recently with both of my young horses to colt starters. First horse went to an upscale place where the trainers were mentored by a very famous colt starter. I paid extra for turnout. My horse was never turned out and then I saw that their program was starve and bully. Took my horse home after a few months and it took two years to rehab him from that. Second horse was sent to a different colt starter at a high end dressage barn. Care was so bad (irregular or skipped feedings, rotating stalls and turnout, left tied up in his stall for hours without access to his hay) that my horse developed ulcers immediately. Needless to say, I moved him home before he was solid under saddle and I am taking my own life in my hands, alone at home, to get him started. He needed four months off after that experience because of a sore back. I want out of horses after all this. I want to be done.

[TwiSedai]

I’m so sorry you are dealing with that. Part of me would love to send my greenie off for a couple of months, but I’m hesitant mostly for fear of that happening.

[Cowgirl]

Don’t send them out! If you can have someone come to your place, it is so much better for them to be started in a familiar environment. Both of my horses were stressed out to the max. My older youngster was tied down and flipped by the trainer and had a lot of physical and mental rehab (plus they starved him to control him). I was lucky in that no bones were broken but he had muscle damage and assymetry (they rode him only to his weaker side), bruising and a lot of mental damage that I am still working to overcome. If he was difficult, well, no wonder since he was in a stall 24/7. The other one was traumatized by the insecure living arrangements, the inconsistent food, and the young trainer sometimes riding him in an ill fitting saddle for up to two hours. Initially, I had tried to get a trainer to come to my home, but they were so unreliable about showing up that I had to stop that plan. I should have looked longer and harder. Nothing replaces your own care and some boarding barns have weird ideas about proper care, especially for young horses. I saw a lot in all my years of boarding and some of the highest end barns provided the worst level of care. One barn bedded practically a foot deep but piled it all in the center so that horses were always getting cast, but they wouldn’t take any suggestions to do anything else.

[Elliot12]

This was six years ago --it was2 days. Horses had been turned out one winter morning while stalls were cleaned. My 4 yr old was put in small, frozen, rutty paddock & when we came that night, he was very lame. BO handed my check back, I told her to keep it. She refused. I certainly didn’t agree with her horsekeeping but she did show some integrity.
No permanent damage

[Angela_Freda]

Why do people hire or employ wholly unqualified people to handle care that they charge an Arm and a leg for?
The reasons board is $$$ is, or should be, in part due to the pay required to hire quality staff.
But we all know that is not the case, that any warm, partially ambulatory body will do, in order to do the work which gets charged so much for.

And we wonder why horse sports are dying.
This is one nail in that coffin.

[Alterration]

@Angela_Freda

Why do people hire or employ wholly unqualified people to handle care that they charge an Arm and a leg for?
The reasons board is $$$ is, or should be, in part due to the pay required to hire quality staff.
But we all know that is not the case, that any warm, partially ambulatory body will do, in order to do the work which gets charged so much for.

Sometimes it’s really hard to hire people, and board is definitely not enough to cover what it costs to have someone qualified taking care of the horses.

I don’t think that’s the case in Amberly’s sad case - that just sounds like a case of weird “oh, mom can do it” but in general - barn staff are in short supply. I see postings every day on our local FB pages, looking for barn help, and we’ve struggled here to get quality help. Sometimes you can get people who know things, but they are flaky. Other times you can get people who are reliable, who don’t know things. Many times you just get ghosted.

It’s really hard physical labor. Not too many people are interested in both the equine side of it and the physical labor side of it anymore. And if you want to separate that out into two separate responsibilities, you need two people, increasing the cost, the workers comp etc.

@Angela_Freda

And we wonder why horse sports are dying.
This is one nail in that coffin.

Well, sorta? I think it’s rather because board prices haven’t kept up with the cost of everything, which means that local barns are folding left and right and going to developers. That’s likely where our barn will go when I decide I’m done keeping horses on my land. It’s infinitely more valuable as development land than as a farmette.

Board would have to be well upwards of $1800/mo for me to even pay myself here, and I don’t have an indoor. Who is going to pay that? No one. I closed my barn to outside boarders. It’s cheaper that way.

[Angela_Freda]

Trust me I know.
Boarder for decades, worker for decades.

@Alterration

Sometimes you can get people who know things, but they are flaky. Other times you can get people who are reliable, who don’t know things. Many times you just get ghosted.

Last place was so relieved to get me, I show up early, am conscientious, skilled, hard working, and helpful even in things outside my job description.
But in the end it paid me far, far less than minimum wage.
But the owners were spending $$$ on trips and horses, and equipment for riding.
So there’s two sides to that ‘we can’t afford good help’ thing.
They also refused to compensate me in other ways beyond money, like with riding lessons, or a lease or the like. Many among their lesson string sorely needed remedial riding to fix training that was getting flaky from being ridden only by lesson folks, but they saw zero value in giving me rides on those horses to fix those simple issues. My favorite part about riding is the basic training- the installation of brakes and sharpening of attention to the rider. But Their motto is ‘no one rides for free’. Their loss.

It’s a dog that chases it’s tail.
Board doesn’t offer income to cover quality employees, but boarding barns lament thaty can’t find quality employees, boarders wish the barn hired quality employees, but they can’t afford board that would pay what those workers are worth or can live on.
.
There are two sides to this problem, and not seeing the other side is truly the crux of the problem.

[Cowgirl]

True. The highest end barn I ever boarded at would not pay for qualified help nor provide housing (which is an important part of compensation for barn help). They did have one 500 sf efficiency apartment which housed the main worker. There were 36 horses on the property, so one person wasn’t enough, and they worked them to death. They hired someone who couldn’t speak or understand english AND had no horse experience. This guy put blankets on horses BACKWARDS. They threw rocks at horses they couldn’t catch. Many competition horses had turnout boots and you don’t even want to know how those were put on. Board at this place at this time was well over $1,000/month and required about double that amount for monthly training (rides or lessons or a combo). This is the place that had a foot of shavings in the center of the stall and horses were always getting cast. They overfed hay as well, and the combination of too much hay and too much bedding made the stalls a living nightmare. If they had fed and bedded properly, maybe they could have afforded quality staff. Who knows. My horse got hurt at that place, stupid injuries and much more frequently than the multiuse barn that was hundreds cheaper and didn’t require training fees.

[Alterration]

@Angela_Freda

Board doesn’t offer income to cover quality employees, but boarding barns lament thaty can’t find quality employees, boarders wish the barn hired quality employees, but they can’t afford board that would pay what those workers are worth or can live on.
.
There are two sides to this problem, and not seeing the other side is truly the crux of the problem.

Oh, I’ve definitely seen the other side as a boarder. Which is why I bought my farm.

Having my horses get their promised feed and turnout had been increasingly hard. Hearing that my old guy was difficult to bring in (he is only difficult when he is last, because he panics, which I told them about and they promised they would bring him in first) after I spent $10k on rehab for his hind suspensories and he was still healing just made me violently ill. Having him then turned out in a dry lot no bigger than a stall in Midwest heat with no water because it was “too hard” and seeing that they started to only get 3 flakes a day max hay…

Fancy barn. Nice indoor. Great footing. Crap owner and staff. Expensive board.

That barn had 9 colics over the span of a year. Several that required hospital stays.

That barn still is full. Why? It looks fancy. Nice amenities.

There’s another component in here of the mindset of those wealthy enough to purchase said facilities - but it’s pre-coffee so I can’t articulate that here.

I’ve seen both sides.

[trubandloki]

@Alterration

(he is only difficult when he is last, because he panics,

Oh my gosh.
I went thru this very same thing.

We discussed it so many times, yes the very easy going horse totally panics when he is last and then runs around like a total fool, getting himself into a frothing sweaty freaking out mess that is hard to lead.
If you bring him in any time but last, a toddler can do it.
But they would keep leaving him out there until last, and then complain that he was not getting with the program. Their theory was that if they made him wait, he would realize it was no big deal. So what that he was pulling shoes. So what that they were literally shoving him in a stall coated in sweat foam and breathing hard.
I moved him as quickly as I could once I realized what was going on, because there is no getting people like this understanding this stuff.

[Alterration]

3 barns I had that problem with him at.

You do get tired of moving after awhile and hearing “your horse is so difficult only I can bring him in” when he is the horse that I trust my aged mother with. He ONLY forgets his ground manners when he is panicked like that and even then a growl and knock it off with the occasional bump on the halter if he is really bad does it just fine.

I even had another horse there who they could have easily shuffled to bring in last if it was a “they all panic” sort of situation.

I dunno. Being a boarder is hard. Running a boarding barn is miserable. Why the heck do any of us do this at all? Oh I know, because we all have this sickness in the head that makes us have horses.

[OverandOnward]

@Cowgirl

They threw rocks at horses they couldn’t catch.

That’s an old school country method of teaching horses to come in at feeding time. If people know how to do it, it works. The rocks have to arc up and land near the horses from out of the sky.

The idea is that the horses don’t know that people caused the rocks to fall. The horses think that it is safer to come in than stay out. And they gradually learn to come in themselves, no rocks, when the people show up at a certain time, and/or when they are called, or other noise signal. At some point they don’t need rocks any more. Unless you have a new horse who doesn’t understand to follow the others.

It works for dogs as well, to teach and reinforce a longer-range ‘come’. It just has to be done correctly.

But … no, it is not something that should even be thought of at a nice board barn that wants to keep customers.

[OverandOnward]

@Alterration

Being a boarder is hard. Running a boarding barn is miserable. Why the heck do any of us do this at all? Oh I know, because we all have this sickness in the head that makes us have horses.

Yeah nailed it.

I’d probably be better off to forget the horses. But I can’t think of what else life would consist of, what would be the purpose of life. Anyone know?