Should I move farms?

[Scribbler]

@tipzythegreat

I agree on the mice. There’s less, but I know they are still there. Plus most boarders appear to be serious hoarders. I just don’t have a good option - they are either expensive or just don’t have amenities.

@Scribbler her father was sick – and that’s “when things went to shit” … but I’ve seen him out and about and that was months ago. I think what happened is the trainer that used to be there bought her own place. So things she used to do (like drag the ring) have fallen by the wayside. She’s moving ONTO the property and said she’s going to invest into the barn. I don’t know if I believe it, but they are building an apartment on site for her father. She will at least be on site if the weather turns sour, I guess… but I won’t tolerate this forever, that’s for sure.

Ok.

So the barn owner lives offsite and has to commute to her own barn while also caretaking an aged father and possibly holding down a job?

And the barn used to be better because there was a trainer who was doing a lot of work, either in exchange for rent or as unpaid labor, until she got her own property?

Now she is building a suite on site for the elderly father and is she moving back onto the property?

Father could still be ill or have a chronic or fatal or degenerative disease even if you see him mobile from time to time. When older people start to decline they rarely fully bounce back.

My interpretation of these details is that barn owner was never the caretaker of the place in its “good” days and doesn’t have the skills, bandwidth, energy or cash to either do these jobs or hire someone else.

Does she ride or teach? If not, the condition of the rings may not matter to her. While trainer needed rings to earn her income.

[fivestrideline]

One place I boarded at had mice - huge heated barn + Midwest winter = almost inevitable. The mice ate the fleece off my sheepskin half pad.

BUT, the owners were doing everything in their power to control it. Everything had to be in containers, even treats. Traps were out, and they’d adopted some feral cats when the old one got too old. We never had mice in the grain and the staff were RELENTLESS about making people clean up and close containers. We still had mice (you’d hear them scrabbling in the lockers because that was the one place you could “forget” treats and leave them out), but it was a whole barn war effort. Anything less and you’re going to lose.

[fivestrideline]

Also, you say everywhere else is too expensive or no amenities - right now your ring is barely safe (hello DDFT injury), and you’re looking at doing a good bit of unpaid labor to try to fight the mice and clean up the place. If they ACTUALLY feed free choice hay and handle the horses well it may be worth the rest, but is this the owner doing all the care? Or is this staff that’s hired?

All of that could change very rapidly, so I’d just keep an eye on it. If Dad starts to require more attention or your board is below market value, that stellar care will be the first thing to slip - the barn maintenance already has.

Lastly, mice WILL eat horse hooves if the horses are inside enough, usually the newest growth at the top of the hoof. This usually happens when you’ve hit infestation population levels, and somehow the horses don’t really seem to mind.

[tipzythegreat]

@Scribbler I think you’re spot on. I’ve seen her ride very few times since I moved in and she sends her horse to Florida in the winter. She may just not realize how bad the rings are as she isn’t riding in them often. Her father had AFIB I believe but does a LOT of the barn work. I worry if something happens to him if nothing would get done. She does not teach.

There are a handful of others that work there- money off their board situation I think.

As far as the rings @fivestrideline, I do not ride in the ruts. My horse has a suspensory injury and this is why the footing really upsets me. If I ride inside I avoid the track and the rest of the indoor footing is good besides a wet spot. It just is NARROW which is annoying for riding when you have a big lazy horse.

Outside I find the best track available and only ride when the footing is not too wet or too dry. There’s always deep spots and I do my best to avoid them.

That’s terrible on the hooves. I think there’s enough crap around to keep the mice busy for now. I’ve never seen them in the aisles or stalls- just the lockers. My horse had bell boots too which can’t hurt.

The problem is you hear all the bad about every other barn. And then barns in my area are either nice and require lessons (which I’m not opposed to if it’s in budget) but my horse has a PSD injury and it takes everything to keep him going. My friends friend has a barn I’m interested in. Small and private. Gorgeous ring. It’s just miles of dirt roads- which in the winter in the Midwest is treacherous. I’ve slid into a ditch right in that area several winters ago.

I do also have a friend at my barn to keep an eye on my horse when I go away. That’s a big value add. Plus the hay and turnout. I’d never go back to my old farm now, even if I could afford it.

I’ll start barn touring again in the Spring, all the same. It’s exhausting!

[Ambitious_Kate]

I would leave for two reasons:

The footing: Accident waiting to happen.

The Mice: I am not afraid of mice, I think they are cute, especially deer mice with the big eyes and white bellies, but its the disease. Hanta virus is real, and there is no cure, and its from the feces of an infestation. I realize that mice are everywhere in barns, but if the barn isn’t kept clean, this is a real problem. and yours is bad, bad, bad.

I will also say the bugs/worms are not good either. The grain bins are not kept clean, and it means things are going rancid, maybe not the actual bags of grain, but the residue. Just go elsewhere. I would go to the friend’s friend’s barn now, but I am not afraid of snow and ice and drive a good vehicle for that, so.

[endlessclimb]

I think you’re stuck for now, but I would be looking. Mice are not a laughing matter.

In the meantime, can you drag a jump pole around the arena and water it (both with BO clearance) to make it decent enough for short flat rides? Would the BO be on board for a barn-wide “fall clean out” maybe?

[tipzythegreat]

I think, if I ask, they wouldn’t have any problem with me dragging (not with the tractor, of course).

That’s an idea on the clean out. Being so new, I don’t have the balls to ask for things. But I will think about how to casually ask for some sort of purge before it’s deep winter.

@Ambitious_Kate I didn’t know about Hanta virus – but I will certainly be very careful now. There isn’t really ventilation in the barn and my totes have been dropping free for some time. I haven’t seen a mouse now for going on two weeks. I’m sure they are still around, but hopefully it’s no longer a full blown infestation.

I’m wondering if the grain provider (local company) has meal worms in their factory. Because I’m 99% sure it’s meal worms. Not that they aren’t getting in from the barn, but the bags are kept on a raised pallet and are dumped into a plastic grain cart with a lid. We looked into the cart grain and didn’t see anything. My supplement bucket is located right below the hole where grain gets dumped into my horse’s bucket. My best guess is grain tumbled down into the bucket. I don’t think mealworm larvae are great crawlers to crawl from the ground up the side of a stall into a bucket… but I don’t really know. I’m wondering if the grain supplier has mealworm eggs in the grain. I’ve looked into it a little and they are hard to see.

I’m monitoring to see if more appear. If so, I’m going to talk to the BO because I don’t suspect she knows.

[endlessclimb]

Maybe if you offer to print out flyers for the fall clean out, make it into a pot luck thing too if you’re extra ambitious, it could actually happen.

The arena maintenance is a PITA, but it’s how I stayed at a low-cost barn for 20 years without being aggravated. If the BO is ok with it, perhaps you and other boarders could coordinate efforts to at least keep it watered and hand-drug.

[Nancy2]

I would be trying to get the boarders to clean up or just do it for them if it makes life easier. I would just go with the simple snap traps for the mice. Cheap and plentiful and use peanut butter as the bait.

Yes, ugly dealing with but make sure that your stuff is all in mice proof containers.