The links don’t seem to work 
does anyone still have the screenshots? I’ve only been able to read his apology and the comments here and I’ll admit it’s hard to know where I stand without having all the details
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She took them down last night, as this thread was unfolding.
Perhaps that’s a coincidence. Or not. Everyone is at Fair Hill this weekend. Maybe they both thought better of things, and took a step back from airing the dispute on Facebook, and instead got busy riding and competing. If so… good for both of them.
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That’s why I was hoping for screenshots
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I’m not sure why she needed to specify that she didn’t want an accident on his property as if an accident in general would have been ok.
Boyd sounds like maybe the school and dash issue has been popping up more lately and he finally snapped. I think charging for the fifth horse was correct. It sounds like she had intensions of riding it so should have bought the ticket. Unless he starts charging per fence or a time limit per ride, if you bring a horse, you pay for a horse.
Was the online rant right? Nope. Have we all made mistakes? Yup.
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Perhaps he should consider simplifying his model to X$/schooling on the property, regardless of what part(s) you are using. He could still make it so you need to schedule for the arena/rings, but everything would be included in the one price. Would make tracking easier and you wouldn’t have to worry about someone paying for one amenity and using another.
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I feel like I’ve explained this before in this thread, but I’m going to try again.
This is the property.
The red X is the gate. The signs, the honor box, the rules, etc., are right inside the gate. You have to pass them to park your rig. The red circle is the XC course and the gallop track.
The orange circle is the stadium arena.
Blue circle is the new fabulous indoor and the dressage arena.
Purple is Boyd’s shedrows.
Black is Silva’s barn and the house.
Not sure where the conditioning pond or other amenities are.
You turn into Windurra off of a busy two lane highway. Trailer parking is by the side of the driveway, right next to the xc course.
This is a very busy place. Having an electronic gate, especially with people pulling off the highway, would be a freakin’ nightmare, and probably result in a traffic jam. My recent experice with electronic gates at a busy barn is not positive!
You absolutely can do everything on the Windurra website. You can book an appointment for the dressage or stadium arenas; you can sign and submit a waiver and YOU CAN PAY IN ADVANCE. I didn’t see anything about submitting a Coggins online, so I don’t know how they handle that.
But my point in posting the property was to show that it would be ridiculously easy to unload a couple of horses and school without paying. Like when you know the family is at a competition and it’s just staff in the barn. The map doesn’t really give you enough sense of how frickin’ far the gate and the xc is from the barns and the house, and that there are NO sight lines.
I am more than a little annoyed at all the people who have chimed in her to suggest that Boyd just run his business and his farm better. Yeeeessssh. And people should pay for schooling! Ahead of time! Cheerfully, bc the facility is amazing.
This is victim blaming at its finest.
The solution isn’t a toll booth at the entrance. Or a security guard or a check-in person. The solution is that people treat the facility with respect, or they close to the facility to all but a trusted circle of friends. I am sure those are also the financially viable solutions as well.
No, he shouldn’t have gone off on Cooper on social media. Agree, agree, agree. But the people who are suggesting that he and Silva are someone responsible for monitoring the property and collecting fees have lost the plot and should try running a horse business for a while.
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Ohh - I didn’t realize how busy a road they are on or how close to the entrance the honor box is located.
People who abuse the privilege suck and they mess it up for everyone. What a shame.
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There will always be people who suck. If he wants to not get swindled going forward, there are things he can do to try to mitigate his losses. That is not victim blaming, it is reality. He is running a business and since people suck, he has to be the one to make changes because they won’t unless they are forced to. Give some people an inch and they take a mile.
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The visual reference is useful here. And I agree 100% with your comments about the gate.
Someone said a few comments ago that they had a 90-10 issue when dealing with slow paying or non paying clients. This is probably true with respect to the situation at Windurra. 90% comply with payment terms… the other 10% have various issues.
Earlier, Texarkana noted this about Windurra
When one of the professionals she described also falls within that group of 10% who have chronic issues with meeting the payment policies… this can be a significant issue in terms of the fees and headache involved. But, in reality… it’s likely only an issue with a small handful of people,
To me… it absolutely makes sense to attempt to resolve the issues by communicating directly with the fellow professional involved. Though everyone could have handled their communication much better in this situation. Installing new gates, instituting new payment procedures, hiring someone to monitor the cross country field full time? That’s unnecessary expense and headache if the issue can be 95-99 % resolved with direct communication with the handful of chronic offenders.
Additionally, I think this comment from Amberley was insightful
Again… there are multiple professionals in this area who have businesses that rely on the convenient access they enjoy to Windurra. I’m sure they have all taken careful note of what went on with this. If any of them have been prone to payment issues up to this point… they likely will be much more careful going forward.
And again… for the record… I am not trying to normalize anything or say that the Facebook posts were a good way to go about resolving issues here. It could have been handled much better, and more professionally. But… I can see how giving Courtney a month long ban MIGHT result in a 95-99% solution for Windurra when it comes to other frequent users who fail to adhere to payment policies.
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I think you had some very valid points in your post, especially the part the part about this being an issue with a small group of people. I can also understand not wanting to inconvenience the 90% who come out and promptly pay.
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Outdated old model. Paying electronically, you can monitor incoming payments from your phone.
It is likely well worth having someone, on the day, dedicated to monitoring payments on their phone. Even if they are paid for it, the cost will be nominal compared with the time, money and frustration of chasing for payments, and processing paper payments. And there are techniques that make it close to failsafe.
Also – no more paper checks or cash. Get rid of the “box”. Electronic only. It’s better than paper, it’s immediately available without writing up deposit slips and carrying it all to the bank.
A business I work for has made this change recently. Electronic payment only, in advance, at the time or service or a bit before, per the customer’s preference. But nothing starts for the customer until payment is rec’d. The business has several dozen appointments per day now on this model. They are having much savings from the greatly reduced administrative burden and the immediately available funds.
More and more businesses are finding out why it works to go electronic, paid in advance or on arrival. If a few customers won’t follow and/or want to keep paying with paper, business as it is today may be better off without them.
I know there are people who will cling to old ways and think of excuses not to move forward, instead to fight for the old inefficiency, just because it’s familiar. That’s a them problem.
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Really? It doesn’t say much to me.
This public contretemps is not the usual in eventing. But of course eventing has it’s kerfuffles just like everything else. (One is re-energizing even now, on this forum in another thread.)
There are no spaces where everyone is a hero, all of the time. I can live with some humanity, and not write off an entire sporting enterprise.
Holding out for some perfect vision to be actualized doesn’t seem like a realistic expectation in any sport.
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Very true.
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The fact his post was left up from 3 days and unleashed the Fangirls from Hell is not okay, though. I would bet money on CC now receiving threatening messages from some of these nutjobs.
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I agree it should have been taken down almost as fast as the first one.
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It’s interesting how bent out of shape some people get when suggestions are thrown out there. Some of us have ran a busisness before (or are still running one), even in this very industry. Being lambasted for saying, “What if they implemented…” is something else. Especially when people are wanting things to be easier for Boyd and would like to see the facility to continue to thrive.
I get it. No one should have to take 20 different payment methods. No one should have to chase after clients for payment. No one should have to do anything beyond what is already being done at Windurra. People just need to pay and follow the rules. Yes, yes, and yes. However, there are times when taking some extra measures can increase your odds of having fewer issues. Maybe not in this case, and I get that things are limited due to the layout of the place.
Those that have just thrown ideas out there don’t need to be degraded. I am absolutely fascinated that is now considered “victim blaming at its finest” when it’s not blame that people are trying to throw, it’s help. Sure, may not be helpful at all, but many of us aren’t saying, “Boyd sucks and he needs to do xyz. Duh.” even though some are interpreting seemingly everything said as just that.
It’s a discussion. Points are brought up. Questions are brought up. Different processes are brought up.
It’s fine to say, “Yeah, but that wouldn’t work because xyz.” The offense taken to various ideas, is…interesting.
I get that it’s thankless work, and that this is a damn hard industry. You couldn’t pay me enough to return to it. Which is why I’m respectful of those that choose to still stay in the industry and/or support it. Always leave it better than you found it. Follow all landowner/facility rules. Pay the damn payment as you should, when you should, and in whatever method the business accepts. If they want Venmo, just pay Venmo, or whatever.
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So how do you prevent them from going through the gates without having paid if you don’t have anyone watching said gate?
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Forgot to add to my last post, but I get Boyd being fed the eff up. I get it. Who knows all of the background noise that led up to this. Who knows what he had going on leading up to that moment.
He probably felt a bit powerless, ironically enough. Should he have cooled off and posted something more professional? Yes. He’s human though. I don’t condone his outburst or even his post following that, but I can see why it would happen, on a human level.
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There are a number of different methods in use today in various types of facilities that can be reviewed for methods that work. Cost-wise, as well as effectiveness. Plus the suggestions of those working the most closely with Boyd’s process, often the best source of good ideas.
This thread is not the place to redesign Boyd’s schooling payment system for him. But it sounds like it would be a very useful project. He’s got a QR code up, he’s decided on payment in advance, so likely he is already looking at more options as well.
Part of every business is evolving as better, more cost & revenue efficient methods continue to emerge. There is more opportunity for this now than at most points in history.
People can think of hundreds of obstructionist reasons to refuse improvements, saying ‘can’t be done’, ‘won’t work’, etc. & so on. To refuse to even explore. Because: Change 
. But resisting improvement won’t keep a business at its best vitality and profitability over time.
My guess is that Boyd is on it already. Will be interesting to see how his process evolves over the next few years.
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I don’t have a strong opinion on this little contretemps, or that it went public. But here is how I personally would evaluate the two in conflict (although I don’t know enough or care enough to draw conclusions).
On each side: Is behavior of this nature infrequent, or frequent? Both the public and the private. Does it represent who the person is? Or is it a one-off, something that is not characteristic of most of their interactions?
The larger context of the behavior history, individually in the sport as well as with each other, is what I would go by. Re this incident and re expectations of future behavior. If I needed to judge, which I don’t.
Obviously there are many people who think this public incident is important (and perhaps the private side as well). Some people seem very concerned about how this incident reflects on each of them. But the real nature of each of them is background information, imo. For me, the background is information that I personally don’t have.
IMO what is important is what people can expect of each, going forward, based not just on this one incident, but on the history of the person in this milieu. That’s what matters. This incident may, or may not, give some signs and pointers of those expectations.
Just my opinion.
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