He’s such an ass for trying to make his place accessible and make schooling easy. --
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Also cc companies take 2.5% and allow people to charge back. There is a reason farms take cash or ET only.
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Side note:
Isn’t it bonkers how many ways we have to pay these days?
Cash, check, debit card, credit card, paypal, venmo, cashapp, zelle, apple pay, google pay… electronic bank wire, cashier’s check, rolls of soon to be obsolete pennies, gold doubloons…
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Maybe he needs to be less generous and think more like the business owner that he is,. I know plenty of small business owners that had to change the way they did business because they were being taken advantage of by customers. I also know small business owners who decided that making changes wasn’t worth the hassle and stayed with the status quo’s.
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No the people who leave without paying are a**holes. I was just throwing out ideas to get him the money he is entitled to .
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I absolutely do not condone the behavior demonstrated by Boyd here, but I don’t agree he is doing something wrong with regards to payments/accessibility/whatever. Providing a place to school is incredibly generous and his signs are clear. I’m sure y’all have heard the expression “locks only keep honest thieves out”. It applies to everything else too; someone somewhere is always looking for ways to take advantage of people and that is not a Boyd specific problem.
You[g] have to be really careful. Landowners are fewer and fewer these days and if you[g] want to enjoy the privilege of riding on their land, you[g] need to show them your gratitude. By paying for the services and leaving the place better than you found it, and honestly, a heartfelt face-to-face “thank you for letting me use your venue”. It goes a long way. I completely emphasize with Boyd there.
I’m involved in a small local chapter that has a very modest schooling fee for their ring / XC ($25 per ride or pay a yearly due of $175 and ride any time you want). People take advantage of it and it makes me so mad. You can’t find a cheaper place to school in this area, and we (volunteers) work so hard to make the place what it is; many of the jumps are professionally designed and come from big name events. Sometimes people honestly forget – and that is fine, we are all human, I’ve done it myself – but we also have some repeat ‘customers’ who feel they can show up and use it and not pay. I completely emphasize with Boyd’s frustration about chasing payment there.
Landowners are getting burned out. Many events have closed their doors the last decade over cited competitor/rider entitlement and exhaustion. It’s all connected – from the way we treat our peers to the way we treat our venues. It would be a shame to lose a state of the art facility because of a few bad actors ruining it for the rest of us. Unfortunately, that is just the way it goes until someone challenges the status quo.
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I absolutely lover your post and I think you have some great points. I wish people would be more respectful of landowners/ businesses. It stinks when an individual or business has to turn into a jerk to get paid what they are entitled to!
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I don’t know that some of us are saying that he’s doing anything wrong when it comes to collecting payment, as much as we are just throwing other ideas out there that may or may not reduce some of the issues and/or stressors. Yeah, you shouldn’t have to change, and this should be good enough, but…people.
I do think that people need to express far more gratuity and respect toward land owners. Some people can’t even do that within boarding barns. Prompt payment (according to the rules), cleaning up, being honest, being thankful, and not being sh*tty is harder than one would think, apparently 
Again, people even get oddly entitled at boarding facilities. Sure, these are all things that you pay for, but you don’t own the place. Be respectful, follow rules and procedures. This goes for any property that you’re on that isn’t yours. Don’t think that you don’t have to do x thing that everyone else has to.
On the other hand, you do have to put your foot down right out of the gate as the LO (land owner). Don’t let anyone deviate from the rules. If payment is due before entering or leaving the property, apply that to everyone, always. Letting someone get away with something different, even just once, is kind of unfair to all parties involved, really.
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Very useful advice. For everyone to read.
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Should people respect the rules and pay before riding, absolutely! Will all of them follow the rules, no way. There are always going to be people who think the rules don’t apply to them, or who are going to try to cheat the system. Is it right, NO, but it is reality.
When my family had income properties, there were always people who didn’t pay on time. Rent was due on the first of the month. If I did not get paid, I served a 14 day notice to quit on the second. That would happen once and then the tenant would get with the program. (The first 14 day notice to quit a tenant receives can be cured by the tenant paying, or making an arrangement with the landlord within the 14 days, the second one the landlord can evict even if they then pay up.)
I did have a few instances where a tenant had a hardship one month and as long as they came to me beforehand we worked a payment plan out.
In contrast, my sister and mother had tenants that routinely paid late in dribs and drabs. They allowed the behavior because they didn’t want to go through with the expense of an eviction, and they are terrible business people. They were forever chasing tenants for payment. The tenants would make a payment plan and then not stick to it, so eventually they would end up in housing court, (owing thousands in back rent), where the arbitrator would set up another payment plan for the tenant, who still wouldn’t pay, and in the end, mom and sis would be out thousands of dollars more.
I think BM was very unprofessional in his SM post. I do understand his frustration. Sadly if you let people take an inch, they will take a mile.
What should have happened IMO is the first time CC didn’t pay before use, BM should have had a talk with her and emphasized that she needs to pay on time and then next infraction should have resulted in whatever ban he deemed appropriate. Alternatively, he should have banned her for the first infraction. Anything less is just asking to be taken advantage of in the future. It sucks, but that is the reality we live in.
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Why do they not have online booking and payment system ? I do understand Boyd’s frustration but they could make life easier this way.
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Any schooling facilities we use here in Ireland are booked and paid online, we also use that system for our own client lessons, no need to be chasing anyone for payment in this day and age.
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Another suggestion would be to offer a monthly package for people like CC who use the facility a lot. They could be allocated 20 schools a week or something and they get a small discount for paying monthly. Then it’s one payment and they can easily set up a system to track the number of schools.
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They do have online payment, that’s Venmo and it’s basically the only widespread one in the US without fees. Feeless transfers don’t exist here.
There is no need to book xc, you can share the space and you aren’t renting it. The arena hire system in Ireland has to do with liability insurance and doesn’t exist in the US. People just pay a schooling fee and sign a waiver they’re not renting anything.
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this.
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In reading all of this too- I am honestly more concerned about the waiver! Who and how is it being policed that the folks who show up actually have a waiver in place?!
There has been some super insightful conversation here, which has been great. I didn’t love the way he handled it, but i also fully grasp the idea that some people are very good at representing themselves a particular way, and know that written words can be shared (its why if I have to talk to a peer or a subordinate strongly- I often tackle it first in person or on the phone! Followed by a polite but firm email covering everything we discussed) .
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One positive development: they have now both taken down the FB posts.
I hope that means there’s been resolution satisfactory to both parties and that everyone is moving forward.
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I thought about that too! It could open Windurra up to huge liability if someone falls off and hurts themselves before they sign the waiver? They could lose everything.
My whole business is in the horse world and because of this I sympathize with Boyd. I hate chasing for payment. And when you have to do it over and over again, let alone with the SAME client…. It makes you want to quit. 90% of people in the horse world are great about paying but the 10%…. I do wonder if they ask the grocery store if they can decide to pay for their food after they go home and eat it.
The other thing too, not related to payment, but the facility is in PA and PA is a little more strict about coggins (and other diseases) than states on the west coast. Having to handle that info is a pain and it does take time. So even if your horse never leaves the trailer, it was still on the property, it must be recorded as being there, and they must have the proper paperwork ready if the state asks for it. So I don’t think it’s unreasonable to tell them they have to pay something for that.
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Ah ok, but can people turn up and use the facility without prepaying ? That’s what I was thinking could be avoided with online booking and paying upfront.
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