Yeah, you are supposed to pay on site. That’s the most common way in the US for most things like parking, parks, sports facilities, boat launches etc. Whenever they do bring in pre-pay it’s only to control numbers and create a reservation system. I think it’s because it costs so much to do the payments here, I have to pay almost $5 fee to pay my gas bill with a bank transfer, credit card is the same. It’s infuriating.
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I think this works better for things like lessons. Because the man power needed to police a XC field is prohibitive. Without some sort of security or ticketing system, who is to stop someone from paying for one horse and bringing two in the trailer, etc?
Going back to that quote up thread: locks only keep honest people honest.
The honor system with clear expectations really is as good as anything else for situations like these.
I think any business needs to expect you are going to have the occasional person who tries to take advantage of you. The problem is as old as time.
With that said, that doesn’t mean the business can’t take action, especially when dealing with repeat offenders. They are within their right to go after what is owed to them.
It’s all about tradeoffs. You can try to thwart every crime, knowing someone will still probably get around even your best efforts. Or you can trust people to follow the rules and decide how much effort to put into going after those who don’t.
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This all has gotten me thinking about this little store in my town.
It was an odd mix of consignment shop and restaurant. The owners were as nice as can be; honestly a little too nice for my tastes, but that’s personal preference. They were the kind of people who would wanted to memorize your order, sit down and chat with you, bring you treats on the house. Bizarre to complain about that, I know; I’m just not that extroverted and sometimes just want to look around a store or eat in peace. I know some people love it, though. All in all, I liked them and wanted to support them…
But what was most off-putting to me was their absolutely insane level of security. Threatening signs everywhere about being on camera and theft being persecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Cameras everywhere, the kind that track you. And really annoyingly, they had these motion detectors both inside and outside the store that blasted a spotlight on you and played a pre-recorded announcement that you were under video surveillance.
It was just a disconcerting experience to eat or shop there.
The place closed within the year. I doubt it was due to losses from theft. Maybe it was just due to the tough economy for small town businesses. Or maybe, just maybe, people didn’t like being treated like a criminal from the moment they got out of their car. 
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Policing a cross country field is hard, and I have done it many times at CHP.
A pinny system would be great, but it only works at a place that holds schooling one event at a time, and you have to check in.
I inputted a bunch of the limitations and parameters to chatgpt and this is what it came up with :
- Controlled Entry / Pre-Booking Systems
Book before you ride: Use an app like SignUpGenius, Eventbrite, or EquiManage where riders must book a time slot and pay online in advance. No booking, no ride.
Automated gate access: Install a keypad or RFID gate (like Keypad Plus, BarnLogix, or Barn Owl), where a code is emailed/texted after payment. The code changes daily or weekly.
Numbered wristbands or tags: Paid riders pick up a visible wristband from a lockbox on arrival. Staff (or even other riders) can quickly see who hasn’t paid.
- On-Site Kiosk / QR Codes
Tap-to-pay station: Install a Square or Clover kiosk at the entrance with a card reader—no excuse about “I’ll Venmo later.”
QR codes everywhere: Have laminated QR signs linked to a single payment portal (Stripe Checkout, PayPal button, or Venmo business profile). The system sends an instant confirmation email/text that they can show if asked.
Photo upload verification: Payment portal can include a quick form where they must upload a pic of their horse or themselves—keeps records tidy.
- Membership or Pass Model
Annual or seasonal passes: Sell a “Windurra XC Pass” (digital or physical) with a photo ID or colored bridle tag. Spot checks are easy.
Punch card system: 10 rides for a set price, tracked in a digital system like RiderPass or even a Google Form with auto-updated Google Sheet.
- Peer Enforcement & Incentives
Offer a small discount or free ride credit to riders who pre-book and pay online (e.g., $75 vs. $80).
Create a “Windurra Riders” Facebook or WhatsApp group where rides are announced—peer culture builds compliance.
Quietly make a “blacklist” for non-payers—word travels fast in the horse world
- Legal / Policy Tweaks
Waiver tied to payment: Instead of “sign waiver, then pay,” have a single online form where waiver and payment happen together—no way to do one without the other.
Put visible signage at jumps saying: “Use of these facilities without payment is trespassing. Cameras in use.” (You don’t have to have cameras—but it deters freeloaders.)
If they already have cameras on the property, a simple license plate capture camera at the driveway entrance could track visitors and match them to bookings.
If Boyd wanted the least staff hassle, I’d recommend:
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Require all riders to pre-book and pre-pay online.
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Automated daily gate code or bridle tag for access.
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Spot check by staff when convenient, not constant policing.
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This thread has really taken me on a journey. (I only read the second FB post, not the one with the texts). First, I was wondering, why is Boyd going ballistic on someone for $80 who paid up in the end, expending so much social media capital?
I’m a freelance writer, editor, and writing tutor/coach, though, and once I heard this poster is a chronic nonpayer (allegedly, I don’t know anything about her, and I only know of Boyd from what I’ve seen at live and video events, social media, podcasts and interviews, and people who have enjoyed his clinics), I became much more sympathetic. I am currently owed over $800 by a client I’ll never see and who vanished into the Internet ether. I also have one client who routinely pays me late, half the amount, pays the other half slightly short, and then who I have to run after, showing them what they owe, resubmitting invoices. Even then, they are often $40 short, by which time I’m so exhausted, I sometimes don’t run after them for the full, full payment. Sometimes I do, other times I’m so busy and tired, I don’t. They also have done the “I don’t want to do PayPal, I want to do Zelle, no Venmo.”
Eventually, I had to make it so I accepted just about every payment method, so customers had no excuses, and even then they will often delay…“what is your email address…I need to verify before sending payment”? Literally the email that you’re communicating me with! The same as last month!
So I’ve sent some nasty texts and emails. Why don’t I cut them off? Because I need the money, and they are a reliable source of work.
This also makes me a little more sympathetic to counter the, “make payment more easy/create a system to catch cheats.” As an independent contractor, this can be exhausting. Paying people today is not hard, and when people act like it is, it’s usually a stalling technique. Even when I was still working with horse pros who would only accept PAPER CHECKS, which was an absolute pain in my behind, I still paid the provider for the service AS THEY WISHED TO BE PAID, when they wished to be paid, because that’s part of doing business.
All that being said though…taking a personal dispute (especially one where full context is needed) to social media is never a good look. As a writer, I have been in the position myself to contract editors, and I admit that I have a mental checklist never to hire one who takes to social media to complain about clients. Even if the person complaining is in the right, I’d always be afraid to get that person on a bad day/ be on the wrong end of a misunderstanding, and get put on blast. Once your reputation is sullied on social media (unless you’re very famous) it’s impossible to erase the traces.
So I don’t think this was a good look for Boyd. I have sent some very short communications late at night to people. But only instead of sending them to one person, he used the social media account to vent/shame/express his frustrations (which I also say isn’t a great look, to complain about how your business is struggling, despite the fact he’s clearly very talented, with backers, and works like a dog).
Sorry for the vent which was as much for myself I guess as all of you! Pay promptly, pay in full, put your phone in the drawer until you’ve calmed down unless it’s bleeding or colicking, I guess is my takeaway from all this.
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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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