My Horse Boarding Rant!

Most of you know how I try to keep this blog positive but I must warn you that this is an overwhelmingly negative post...

While technically I do own a horse, I have not been immediately responsible for one for over eight months. I HATE not having a horse at home and some days I MISS having one so bad it hurts.

But... oh my goodness there is a “but”!

What I don’t miss is boarding.

I absolutely loathed having to board out my horse. I hated worrying about all the people and potential hazards my horse was being subjected to and stressing over such things as: facilities not being maintained, what kind and quantity of hay and grain was being fed (with or without my permission or against my specific direction), not to mention unsafe herd management and stallion handling practices (such as sending a 14 year old girl (your barn help) out to saddle a stallion up right next to the mares.)

I also found it exceedingly difficult to watch people make stupid, unsafe, or ignorant decisions .... My post on that green girl with Flicka Syndrome was not case specific. I used to see it all the time… and worse! I’d walk around the barn having to turn a blind eye, my stomach turning in knots as I watched a toddler walk under the legs of his mother's horse... or 3-year-olds leading his grandfather's horse with the lead rope wrapped around his hand and dangling around between his legs. I hated watching ignorant people feed their horses hay so dusty and moldy that it had to be "shaken" out before being fed...Horses who, while not starving, were used like pack mules and fed the bare minimum. I found it difficult to watch a mare with wounds left to fester or a stall left un-cleaned for a week, waters left unfilled and feet left to grow long. Sometimes, (or most of the time), I couldn’t turn a blind eye and I’d end up mucking that stall, filling that water, or washing out that wound and more often than not I’d catch nothing but shit for it. I am far from a perfect horsewoman…but I think most of good animal husbandry comes down to employing a little common sense and a good dose of compassion.
Some barns are better than others. The small and private tend to be better but they also generally lack facilities. The larger, fancier barns don’t have as much neglect but are not immune to ignorance or abuse.... The "high class" barns are filled with their own sort...barn managers that refuse to feed your 14.2HH cutting horse anything but rolled oats and alfalfa (which only made her mental) and the same young children left unattended, ignored, or uneducated on safe handling practices. I’d still have to watching dead-lame horses being schooled on, dumbloods be beaten on and horses who sit for months staring at the four walls of their stall.

Sure I've had some good times at the barn and met some fantastic people. But I've boarded since I was twelve years old and I've had enough. I've been in small barns, big barns, fancy, private... full board, self board, semi… I've done it all.

And I don’t want to do it anymore. Right now the excitement of buying a new horse is actually OUTWEIGHED by the stress of having to find a barn where I will have to deal with the least amount of drama, neglect, abuse, and ignorance…and somewhere that will actually feed, clean and water my horse in a caring and consistent fashion (and within a half hour drive of home.)

What do I expect from a barn? What’s reasonable?