From another thread, posted by Miss Motivation:
This could spin off a long thread on crazy things that happen at barns. As a BO… I could offer a few that would surprise you!
Spinoff from a thread about a missing bottle of liniment, and how to prevent “borrowing”/using without permission/tack, supplies and even feed growing legs and walking off.
What’s your best/most crazy/most maddening story?
I’m waiting for the person to post about the liniment stealee who puts dye in it.
I know it’s hypothetical, but it’s cray-zee. Can you beat it?
I was following my former BO around the barn one day chatting w/ her as she was
busy grooming one of HER horses. She went over to a boarder’s stall and grabbed a bottle of fly spray off the stall door, used it generously on her own horse, then went to the lavatory sink and re-filled the flyspray bottle with WATER. Then put it back on the boarder’s stall door.
This same BO on several separate occasions admired a new pair of handmade leather training reins I had just gotten. She would finger them by trying the nice stainless clips and the soft leather, while they were on my horse.
Guess what item I was missing when I changed barns?
Quite a few years back a good friend of mine had a sweet young (3 or 4) gelding she’d bred herself.
Trainer, and supposed ‘best friend’, at barn “borrowed” horse for a jumping lesson (without permission) knowing full well horse had had an illness that damaged his front legs.
Needless to say my friend moved out and it took 20 years before my friend would speak to this person again.
Oh and another one was a barn I formerly boarded at: the BM’s kids walked in on a couple of married (but not to each other) boarders…who were having an affair.
[QUOTE=Obsidian Fire;8304784]
Oh and another one was a barn I formerly boarded at: the BM’s kids walked in on a couple of married (but not to each other) boarders…who were having an affair.[/QUOTE]
Yeeaaahhh … walking in on a boarder and her SO having sex in the tack room one morning is definitely the top of my crazy list. Made more so by the fact that she yelled at me for walking in to the tackroom to do my normal morning BO/BM stuff and took umbrage when I insisted that they take their activities elsewhere.
Way back when I was boarding, there was a gal who thought quite highly of my tack choices. So much so that she liked to make use of my things. A memorable incident was one winter evening when I couldn’t find my bridle; I strolled to the crowded indoor to find this gal riding. Yup, using my bridle. Which had a nifty brass plate that had my actual name on it. She then proceeded to argue that it was not my bridle, nameplate notwithstanding. That probably ranks #2 on the crazy list.
[QUOTE=keysfins;8304657]
From another thread, posted by Miss Motivation:
Spinoff from a thread about a missing bottle of liniment, and how to prevent “borrowing”/using without permission/tack, supplies and even feed growing legs and walking off.
What’s your best/most crazy/most maddening story?[/QUOTE]
Not so crazy, but just dumb I thought… Had a muck bucket and a stall pick next to my stall with my horse’s name on it. The stall pick used to wander a bit, but not surprising. The day I was surprised I found it at the next stall over and someone had written “Luna” on handle. Never mind you could still see where it said “Grace” on it on both sides of the handle. One about 3 inches away from where they wrote… I thought that took a lot of nerve… So I took it back, crossed out Luna and wrote Grace another 10 times up and down the whole thing… It didn’t wander off again…
[QUOTE=coloredhorse;8304846]
Yeeaaahhh … walking in on a boarder and her SO having sex in the tack room one morning is definitely the top of my crazy list. Made more so by the fact that she yelled at me for walking in to the tackroom to do my normal morning BO/BM stuff and took umbrage when I insisted that they take their activities elsewhere.
Way back when I was boarding, there was a gal who thought quite highly of my tack choices. So much so that she liked to make use of my things. A memorable incident was one winter evening when I couldn’t find my bridle; I strolled to the crowded indoor to find this gal riding. Yup, using my bridle. Which had a nifty brass plate that had my actual name on it. She then proceeded to argue that it was not my bridle, nameplate notwithstanding. That probably ranks #2 on the crazy list.[/QUOTE]
I hope you removed the bridle from the horse…:lol:
In the several months that I have been regularly perusing this forum, I have read numerous tales of people engaging in sexual acts in tack rooms, and the only thing I can think is WHY. When I am at the barn and covered in dirt, sweat, and horse hair, it would not cross my mind to start getting it on.
[QUOTE=Obsidian Fire;8305653]
I hope you removed the bridle from the horse…:lol:[/QUOTE]
The best part was when she started to argue that I was not me …
One of the craziest BO stories I have was from my very first barn back in 2003. I was there maybe…2 weeks in total. When I called a hauler to move to a new barn, she (hauler) told me flat out that we needed to call the police to escort us because the BO was known to get physical. I couldn’t believe anyone would do that so I didn’t. No joke, BO body slammed me into a wall and literally threw a partial bag of grain at me all while screaming things like “Your horses belong at the glue factory” and other lovely stuff. This is the same lady who threatened to sue the local Big 10 university when they took her name off the “recommended boarding stables” list for students BECAUSE of her crazy ways. So they just took the whole list down. I know other people who had similar issues with this BO. She’s out of the business now (thank God) but she was truly cray cray.
Another good one…I still had 3 horses at the time. Paid full board so 3 stalls, and they had their own private paddock for the day. I went in one day and ran into a couple of boarders who stopped me and said, “OMG, your mare and gelding are so sweet together.” When I inquired further, turned out that BO had been putting two of them in a stall together -OR-just leaving all of them out all night so she could put her daughter’s horses in. When I asked about this, she denied it. And I believed her. I really trusted her. And I put my gelding down and he’s buried there. I mean I really believed her. But one night, my friend, who was also half leasing one of mine, went out to check and guess what? Mine were out and in their stalls were the BO’s horses. My friend then called BO (who worked nights thus was not at farm, night chores were done) and asked her if the horses were in. BO said they were. Friend was all “Um, you’re a lying blankety blank because I’m standing here at the farm looking at all three of them outside.” I got an email the next morning from the BO’s daughter stating that my horses were in their stalls and they would not be let out, fed or watered unless I did it myself and to GTFO. I had 'em out by noon.
I’ve otherwise had pretty benign boarding situations which is my preference. But those were my first two boarding experiences.
The trainer where I used to board at way back when had a show coming up with clients and the trailer he was going to use fell through. I said if it was local and he still needed a trailer to let me know and I might be able to lend him mine, since I was going trail riding with a friend and she had her own.
Trail ride plans fell through so I went out to the barn to just ride and guess what’s missing? My trailer, with all of my tack in it. Called the trainer and he said he must have misunderstood, that he thought I had said he could use it (the previous conversation was via text so unsure of how that could’ve been misconstrued). So I said alright, but all my tack is in there- where are you so I can come pick it up? Because very clearly in my text I said he could use it LOCALLY. He says he’s in VA, about 7 hours away. Oh, and it’s an APHA show so he’ll be there 2 more nights.
Put a hitch lock on it the next day. I’ve had a lot of things go missing over the years, but that trailer is something I can’t replace so easily!
This one still makes me angry.
There was a nasty outbreak of strangles at the barn I boarded at. My horse got it pretty bad. I went out for my lesson one morning (the BO taught me) and checked my horses temp. It read 104.3! I hadn’t been out to the barn at all that week so I told the BO I wouldn’t be in the lesson (it was a group lesson and she was teaching before hand so I told her in person since she was already there. Btw I still had the thermometer in my hand with the reading). When I told her she denied the horse has a fever and said I must have done it wrong as the horse was not sick. I told her to take the temp then but she refused. Then she told me my horse would be fine to ride as he has already had 5cc of banamine. When I asked why she gave banamine to a healthy horse I got the door slammed in my face and told to be in the ring with my horse tacked up in 10 minutes (whitch would be my lesson time).
Found out the next day that my horse has been sick all week by the BO son who was taking care of all the sick horses. He kept a book of tempatures and other symptoms that he showed me. Turns out my guy was running one of the highest longest lasting fevers. He was off feed all week aswell. Glad I stood my ground and didn’t ride.
Anyone who seems to think a boarding contract is unnecessary, needs to read this.
Here are a few:
After we left one barn a boarder who was still there ran into me a few weeks later. She said she so understood why we left, considering the BO had been feeding our horses the cattle hay instead of the good horse hay. WHAT?
Another barn: Boarder always complained about kids being there. One preteen was minding her own business while grooming her horse in the cross ties. The boarder begins ranting about how much room she is taking and how kids these days think everything is about them. I laid into her and she went crying to the BO. The preteen was the BO’s daughter.
Oh boy does this thread make me glad my horses live at home!!
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