This is exactly what I was going to say. Ya the mice are gross and spread disease but the bigger issue for me would be the fact that there is so little care about that issue and so little care about cleanliness - what else are they going to miss? Will they notice colic signs or a laceration from turnout? That’s a huge red flag for me. Run.
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I am probably odd man out here, but you said you trust the handling of your horse and he is comfortable there and it is close to home.
My question might be about how often you are there and riding? Should their comfort be more important than the XX hours you spend at the barn? If you ride a lot, the arenas might be troublesome to deal with. If you expect you will be there less frequently during the winter, maybe the horse comfort wins.
I am also the the boarder who cleans up common areas, and I find when I do so, others start to be less messy.
It’s a tough one, but my inclination is like another poster and try to stay through winter.
BTW, this live mouse trap works WONDERS: I had to melt the plastic lid pieces together to make them stay attached, but it catches a lot of mice. They land in the bucket (shavings and birdseed in the bottom) and I take them a couple hundred yards away and release. Can catch mulitples since the paddle spins to dump them in bucket and the peanut butter doesn’t fall off, so it is primed for the next mouse.
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The unsanitary conditions and footing are problems, but what would get me is the leaving horses without shelter in severe weather. I lost a mare that way.
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I have an utter and deep seated horror of mice and rats.
No way in hell would I continue to spend my hard earned money to board my luxury pet at a facility infested with the creatures of my nightmares. HARD PASS.
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They’re coming right back. You have to release them miles away — and laws regarding relocation are another thing to consider.
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You must have some exceptional mice! Ours seem to be okay with being released in the nearby fields as they haven’t returned. If they did, it wouldn’t be hard to take them a few miles away. Much easier for us to do than kill traps.
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It all depends on what’s important to you and your horse. The mouse situation sounds horrible and disgusting but lots of turnout and lots of hay are very high on my list of must haves. If you could work with the BO to make sure the rings are dragged/maintained I’d be inclined to leave my horse there until the spring as driving 50 miles round trip in the winter is not something I’d enjoy. YMMV.
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Um, you’re supposed to put water in the bottom and drown 'em. 
That product is the retail version of the cheap ole DIY bucket people have been making for forever. Ask @Bluey
Catch and release makes us feel better, but it’s rarely in the best interest of the animals and ecosystem.
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Some horses just never get over doorway issues.
In a perfect world, every horse problem can be fixed with more training. But the world is not perfect.
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One place I boarded had a human door to the indoor that was the main entrance for horses and riders. The big garage door broke constantly so everyone just started using the human door. It was a little sketchy but the horses all seemed unbothered.
Ironically, it didn’t fix my horse’s claustrophobia, but now he WILL walk into the tack room if I duck in to grab something while holding his reins 
ETA some horses really do have quirks that you can’t always train out, or that they’ll revert to if one thing goes wrong. Not sure what OP’s horse does, but I think human doors as horse entrances are pretty uncommon - I’d hope OP won’t have to pick barn just based on doorways. Personally I’d rather clicker train and get the horse through “normal” doorways but have him at a barn without an unaddressed mouse infestation and footing that’s asking for an injury.
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THANK YOU!!! Unfortunately I’ve got one LOL.
I will say the barn I was looking at utilizes an ONLY human door in winter for turning in and out. Which is, tragically, a concern for me. But the biggest concern is the owner/trainer has a rap for beating a horse senseless for undesirable behavior. If I can trust the handlers are patient, it’s totally worth rolling the dice. But if I can’t guarantee there will be fair handling, it becomes a big concern for me. My horse has actually been really good at the new barn – which tells me they are handling him fairly
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UNLESS, you can and are willing to do self care/DIY and be the only one handling your horse. Even then, I personally would worry about what might happen if I couldn’t make it. That sort of thing is worrying enough with a horse that has All The Manners installed AND is afraid of nothing. With a horse that has a history of having trouble with something like small doorways - Nope, nope, nope, don’t do it. It can take very, very little to set off a person like that - horse look at them funny and boom it did something ‘wrong’ and gets to meet their temper. Staying with the mouse infestation would be better, sadly.
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I have to agree with you. I think the handling of my horse is my #1 priority when I’m choosing a barn.
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To all my fellow mice haters,
I found myself a lovely barn owned by a mouse hater. Discussed moving dates and confirmed the rate – and that’s when I found out the rate was more than was listed. It’s out of my budget and I don’t even know what to do now. I had some concerns with the facility as well, and at 54 miles roundtrip it’s not a barn I can visit on the daily.
FWIW I have not seen any mice in 3 days. I know they are there, some where.
Today I rode (avoiding the ruts of course) and two of the girls that work there really doted on my horse. He was very happy and relaxed. They seldom, if ever, are having problems with him.
I am not happy about many things, but I feel like my horse is treated very kindly. They have texted me when he had a tiny cut on his lip that bled. Small enough that I was surprised they noticed it. I know someone mentioned that. They DO pay attention to that sort of thing.
My friend said she’d clean up the area by our lockers. She also said she’d figure out how to drag the ring. I told her that she’s paying to be here and the business should be handling it – but if there’s no clutter and the arenas are drug, that makes me happier. She said she’ll talk to the owner too.
No shelter in the summer is a serious problem. I DO live close enough where I can go and bring him in. The problem is I can’t do it every time. @ShenanAnna I am so sorry to hear about your mare. That is a terrible thing. It only reaffirms my thinking that it is so unsafe.
I think I have to stay for now. I looked at 20+ barns this Spring and Summer. There’s nothing that fits all our needs that I can afford in my general area. I ride like 3 or 4 times a week but my horse is older and injured so a lesson program isn’t something we can commit to. It’s really limiting.
I think I’m trapped for now (much unlike the mice at my barn)
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Oh; I’m sorry you’re stuck there. You seem to have really tried to improve your horse’s life, as much as you can.
The two main problems that got the most attention on here, the vermin and arena footing seem to be (at least partly) fixable and you’re not the only boarder bothered by them.
The “no shelter” thing – I tried to take care of that myself by leaving my job and putting on a waterproof blanket when those cold rains came, but it wasn’t enough 
. And this was in the fall, winter hadn’t come yet.
Later, I realized that the other Thoroughbred there had a separate paddock with a 3 1/2 sided shed for shelter; he didn’t go out in the pasture. The paddock is adjacent to the pasture, though, and right against the barn where the other horses spend the night, so there was company and friends for the horse.
Perhaps there’s something you could arrange for your horse to have shelter?
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I really want to do what is best for him!!!
You’re right. Those two are fixable. The others do complain and claim it wasn’t like this before.
My horse does come into the stall Fall, Winter and Spring. It’s the summer they are out all the time and we get the crazy thunderstorms. Did you lose your mare in a thunderstorm?
I was debating purchasing a shelter or something, honestly. There are some not too crazy expensive ones available. But I feel the owner should have a shelter in each pasture!
It sounds like you’re one of several people (boarders) having the same three problems, and perhaps you could work together to fix at least some of them. The friend you mentioned sounds good.
Sure, it’s the boarding business’ job and responsibility to do these things, but sometimes they don’t and your horse suffers. I’m perfectly willing to do whatever is necessary, and took my boyfriend out one day to help me build a windbreak to my little Morgan’s shelter (another horse, another place that was pretty much self-care). The manager complimented me on my carpentry work. And the individual paddock in my last post looked very much like a do-it-yourself fencing job. Kinda crooked, very much out-of-place in the otherwise very-well-ordered boarding place. The horse’s owner was a young man, kinda sloppy.
You could speak to some of the other boarders and get an idea of what it was like before, what the owner or manager does about problems, and what they allow boarders to do. That should give you a significantly better idea of what can be done about the problems and who might get that done, even if you just conclude that you need to look harder for another boarding situation.
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Sounds like the farm could use a couple of good barn cats!
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We have offered!!!
