“Feed my horse every day.”
“Don’t tell me my horse won’t eat if you haven’t bothered to feed him that day. I will come check.”
:no:
I have some! These are from a few places, but mostly from the same place (none are from where I currently board, thankfully!):
Don’t aggressively lunge a horse that is colicking, especially horses that are obviously surgical colics!
Don’t keep the horses in almost every single day all winter long because it is “too cold” outside, or because the path to the paddocks is icy (hello, as a species, people learned ice management techniques centuries ago!), and then don’t also keep them in all Spring because it is “too muddy” underneath the dry ground (yes, seriously, the BO told me that the ground was muddy underneath the dry, cracking ground). Um…I suppose it is if you dig down far enough…
Don’t lie to me. About anything. Ever. This includes, but is not limited to, a Strangles outbreak in the barn.
If a horse poops in its automatic waterer that is only large enough for the horse’s muzzle to fit into, the horse won’t be able to drink until you clean that out. No, it won’t drink the water anyway despite the poop.
If I pay you to do a training ride on my horse, I’m really going to have to ask that you actually DO the training ride rather than just charge for it.
No, please don’t lunge my horse that is being rehabbed from a suspensory injury because he is “too fresh.” And, then, when he falls on the lungeline and is so lame that you think he may have broken his hind leg, please don’t just toss him in a stall to bleed and swell further for the 45 minutes it takes me to get there. Perhaps you could cold hose him like you said you would do?
Please employ at least moderately competent staff. I’m not asking for miracles here. Definitely don’t employ severely mentally handicapped people through a placement program and then fail to supervise them.
Please do not chase the horses with the tractor. I do not care if you “like to watch them run”.
No, lunge lines are not a “fix” for the 20 feet of fence that is down next to the highway.
Please feed my horse every day.
The green slime growing on the sides of the trough is not “good for them”.
Please feed my horse every day.
Please feed my horse every day.
Please feed my horse every day.
Do not tough my horse’s cribbing collar. Yes, I know how you did it “back in the day” but you see, when my horse is leaning against his stall wall, barely responsive and we have to cut the thing off, that means he could not breathe.
If my horse is in cross ties, please not not come founcing up behind him with an arm full of bonding PVC pipes without warning. Yes, I would have moved him for you to get through. Yes, that halter looked expensive because it was expensive (RIP Walsh).
Please feed my horse every day (why is it always this one?)
If I’m paying XXX for full care one month, I should not have to pay the same amount for self care the next month. I do not care if you lost your help. (We did went ahead and did self care, that !@#$% would have let them starve. Devil of a woman)
Just because you want us to leave by X does not give you a right to turn the electricity off in the barn. Spoiler alert: we need to see to care for our horses since you won’t.
I could list a hundred more. I’ve boarded at some awful places over the years. So happy to be where I am now!
This is from several different barns all over the country.
Don’t over feed grain to my horse especially after the Vet told you it was bad for her.
Don’t give my horse a 6 inch Arab bridle path because that is what you are used to.
Don’t tell new boarder you have grooms who will untack her horse and cool it out for her, when you don’t. It was quite embarrassing for her when she flung her reins at me and told me to take care of her horse.
Don’t tell lesson students to go ahead and use my tack
Don’t tell another border go ahead and use my trailer while I’m in the hospital.
Don’t tell said border it’s okay if the plugs are incompatible just drive you’ll be okay.
Don’t tell everyone who want to lunge their horse to go ahead and use my equipment.
Don’t promise that I will give someone a ride to a show without asking me first including if I am even going to the show.
Don’t tell me my yearling is dead when it is another border’s yearling that ran into the tree and broke it’s neck.
Don t let your GSD bite at the face of every horse that hangs its head over the stall door. ( amazing how this was only seen as a problem after the BO’s daughter’s show horse needed stitches.)
My horse is very neat she only poops in one corner making it easier for you to clean the stall please don’t put her hay in that corner.
I’m so glad I got my own place 30 years ago.
The correct way to do up blanket leg straps is not to loop it three times around the leg then knot it to itself.
While your employee telling you the water trough is full and me telling you it’s empty again might seem confusing and contradictory while you sit at your desk rubbing your head, resolving the confusion only requires walking 200 yards that way.
The geriatric retiree herd is in the middle of the main road again. That’s probably going to keep happening while you leave them out to mow the grass outside fields unless you start closing the front gate.
No, the 16 year old who started taking lessons last year is not an appropriate stand in instructor. If the Grand Prix rider I signed up for is sick this week, just credit me a week and we’ll try again next week.
Banning boarder’s from bringing on-leash dogs might be a good idea, but I’m pretty sure it won’t solve the immediate problem that your dogs keep biting people and chasing people.
I’m going to take the vet’s advice and retire the horse. While I’m sure the homoeopathic paw-paw ointment you sell via party-plan is great stuff I don’t think it will work in this case.
There’s no harm in planting a bunch of saplings, but I’m pretty sure that the reason arid regions and wet regions have different trees is that oaks don’t like a desert climate rather than because oaks make it rain more.
It is possible that all those boarders slipped checks in the box and left during the night without saying goodbye “like adults” because all of them are individually terrible people. It’s also possible that your husband flunging himself, screaming on the hood of the departing car of the only one that gave notice during the daytime was a factor.
The boarders have been talking between themselves. We’d prefer it if your husband did not clean his gun in the middle of the barn. We’d also prefer if he did not drink 12 beers in a session in the middle of the barn. Needless to say, cleaning his gun in the middle of the barn while drinking 12 beers is also on the not preferred list.
Yes actually, for the amount I’m paying to keep three horses here, I do think access from early in the morning to early in the evening is reasonable to expect.
When you said you were introducing an 8am opening time with exceptions for people leaving for a show, trudging down the driveway glowering in your pajamas every every weekend day at 6am to unlock the gate was a pretty obvious side effect.
I could go on all day. It’s good that I now have my own place so the only BO craziness I have to deal with is my own.
Oh, I will play…
Please turnout as agreed in boarding contract. 15 mins in the indoor while you muck out the stall is not what we agreed to.
Recommending a shock collar for playful behavior in turnout is not gonna fly…sorry.
Shavingsgo thoughout the stall, not a couple pitchforks full in the center of the stall.
When horse isnt eating new supplements, dumping feeding after feeding in the corner feeder isnt helping. I now have 20 pounds of feed to dump out of bolted to the wall feeder.
The boots for turnout are for turnout, not for in his stall at night. They come on and off every day.
Summer turnout during the day requires filled water troughs. Bone dry at 11 in the morning means they werent filled…this happened so many times i pulled out of there without notice.
My vet and I have come up with the feeding regimine. Adjusting to what you think horse should get is not ok. (grain cut in 1/2 without notice)
Thinks will only be right when i can get my horse at home where i know its done correctly becaus ei do it.
Don’t STARVE my horse.
No - horses can’t live on two “scoops” of complete feed a day. No, its not better for them to not get any hay. No, sunken flanks are not normal. I don’t care if you find hay “messy”.
Don’t roll your eyes and say its unnecessary that I am buying and feeding my own hay.
The older horse isn’t thin because he is old - its because you don’t feed them enough. His owner had every right to start crying when she saw him, and the vet confirmed that he is skinny for no other reason than lack of food.
Oh - and horses need water ALL the time - especially when you are feeding pellets. Its “not okay” to feed dinner and leave the water buckets empty.
(so glad not to be putting up with that crap any more, and getting the eye roll treatment for watering and feeding my horse daily because the BO wouldn’t).
Please don’t tell me my horse doesn’t finish his hay overnight. I come at 5pm, an hour after they are fed hay, and he had already finished. For a week in a row.
Please don’t tell me that each horse is allotted 20 lbs of hay per day but then only give him 10 lbs because “he isn’t finishing” his hay. See above.
Please make sure to check the water troughs every other day in summer. Boarders who are paying full board should not have to come out each day to fill troughs. Similarly, in winter, boarders should not have to come out to chip ice out of the troughs so horses can drink.
Please don’t turn my horse out in a small enclosed area with another horse that is a known kicker who is wearing hind shoes without talking with me first. I love him having a turnout buddy, but I would like some communication. And, as much as I enjoy looking after his 60 sutures and having him on two weeks of stall rest, I enjoyed my hunter unmarred.
Please move my horse to a new paddock when the fence around the paddock falls down. Letting no-climb wire, broken wood fragments, and nails remain in the paddock for an extended amount of time is not appropriate.
Please teach your workers to drag the arena properly so that it does not have huge waves along the sides. Then periodically add footing so that your claims of “high end riding arena” are actually founded.
Please don’t make me feel guilty for coming to the barn to see my horse because you are in a bad mood.
Thank you all for this thread!!
I have had some really good boarding experiences, but a couple much like what I have been reading here.
It makes the “getting up to do stalls, mucking the paddocks, going down to do late check on a FREEZING NIGHT” worth it.
Again, thanks!
And to those awesome BM’s and BO’s THANK YOU!
I just remembered one, though.
Please don’t go through my things, take the items you like, and hide them from me, so you can keep them.
When my horse is not drinking because the automatic waterer in his new stall is corroded and turning the water BLACK, please don’t tell me that my horse is too picky and that the last horse drank out of it fine.
>:-l
Oh yeah, I’m mad. His temporary bucket better be getting filled. And I’m hoping its a temporary bucket.
Horses need water. Like, ALWAYS. It is not okay for them to be on turnout from 8am until 2pm with no access to water. The “dew on the grass” isn’t good enough.
And… then I left.
Okay, I’m glad I have the horses at home now. Thank you for the reminder!
My contribution:
Please check that the tank heaters are working when it’s -15 degrees. Hauling out the axe to break about 6 inches of ice isn’t fun for anyone.
Please train your staff to recognize sopping wet, steaming hot hay. The fact those three flakes weigh about 80 lbs should be a good clue.
If I buy my stall rest horse a load of hay because he needs free choice for his sanity and you don’t offer that…please FEED IT TO HIM free choice like we discussed. No, the one flake you’re giving him twice a day isn’t enough.
[QUOTE=CrowneDragon;7909175]
Yeahbut, it’s his MOM. He knows. :winkgrin:[/QUOTE]
Yeah, that was funny. I saw the colt mounting the mare and getting full penetration. I then saw the BO’s working student a bit later and said diplomatically, “Is Marcus gelded now?”
“Nope,” she answered.
“Huh, well, I saw him mounting his mum,” I said.
“Oh, he’s too young!” explained Working Student. At which point, I decided it so, so, so wasn’t my problem.
If there’s a deep freeze and your well breaks, part of providing full care means GET THE HORSES $#^%ING WATER! Telling your employees they can’t help the boarders who are trying to take water to horses so they can, you know, SURVIVE, is BS.
I left quickly after that one, too. And had the boarders not taken care of getting every single horse there water, I would have enjoyed filing the criminal complaint against the BO/BM who was too busy with his girlfriend to ensure adequate care.
If you have boarders post their phone numbers on their stalls so anyone who finds the horses with problems can call, you should teach your employees that if two of them have to haul a horse away from the fence he has been stuck and thrashing in and then help stand because he’s so woozy, they should call. The 17 hours between my horse getting cast and my finding him with three stovepipe legs and a bloody nose for bashing his head were far too many - poor guy. At least he was a good patient despite the discomfort.
Telling me my horses should be fed less because they poop to much, is not funny.
Please keep cleaning my horses stall. Yes I know I just gave my 30 days notice but I still paid you and my horse needs his stall cleaned.
Don’t use my stuff and then drop it on the ground when you are done. Yes that is way I started locking my stuff up. I’m sorry it is inconvenient for you to get to my stuff now.
Dear BO,
Your daughter having a riding lesson at another barn doesn’t absolve you of the need to feed my horse dinner. Failure to plan on your part now means I drove 30 min to find a mad, hungry horse that I can’t work. Thanks so much.
You still need to feed the horse, too!
Please don’t stick my mare in a round pen with no water and no hay all day because the NEW horse chased her…how is that my mare’s fault?
Please don’t feed my 17.1 6 yr old trakehner 1 flake of hay at night because ‘he wastes it’ Really? At 7 pm when I was out he had not a leaf left.
Don’t use my keifer bridle and kk bit on your school horse and then think I won’t notice that its hanging with your stuff and a crappy $20 bridle is on my hook. I will notice. seriously
Don’t scream at my husband because you think he left a cigarette butt on the driveway ( he didn’t) and let you reining trainer smoke in the HAY BARN because you think he’s hot. This will not impress us.
And if you do, you should probably get a better acting coach, because I probably won’t buy it when my horse ties up and you pretend to not know why…
**Thank you for these threads that remind me why I am glad to be out of the horse ownership game! Never again!
[QUOTE=Appsolute;7909768]
Oh - and horses need water ALL the time - especially when you are feeding pellets. Its “not okay” to feed dinner and leave the water buckets empty.[/QUOTE]
I need to save this one for the ‘Things you should not have to tell your leaser who is also a Vet Tech’ thread. Oy Vey. Again, thanks for the reminder why being horseless is a blessing!
Oh boy, this is a good thread. How happy am I right now to finally have my horses at home??
Don’t turn my horse out with a different, strange horse every day in a small paddock for less than one hour and call that adequate turnout. Resulting in an abscessing shoulder from a kick and a huge bite wound across her back
Don’t put my horse back in her stall bleeding and not call me or the vet when you find her cast in the paddock.
I get that you have stall mattresses but it takes more than 2 shovels full of sawdust to absorb 23 hours of urine.
Feed my horse what I’m telling you to. No, I don’t care that she eats more than the warmbloods in the barn.
Feed my horse.
My friend’s ulcer prone TB should not be out of hay by 7pm.
Don’t lie to me about what you are feeding my horse.
I just spend $500 in vet bills because you took the gate off the hinges and the horses rush through to eat in the adjoining paddock resulting in a flayed open shoulder. 3 months later it is NOT OK to take it off the hinges again.
Don’t lie to me about what you are feeding my horse when I buy the grain and I know exactly how fast it should be disappearing.
