A Tail of 2 Stables
Yeah, i know, that title way cheesy. ;)
I am looking for a barn that is closer to where I'm living on the west side. The barn I currently have my horse at now is on the southeast side and takes anywhere from about 35 to 45 minutes to get there, depending on traffic. I also give lessons(which are stopping for the winter at the end of January), and feed 5 days a week, either morning or night., for exchange to keep my horse there. The place is really nice, has an indoor arena, but the only thing is that its not very busy, and there are not horses around my horses age.
Ideally I'd like to find a place closer, and thought i had the opportunity in a place I visited yesterday.
So I'd heard of this other place that was willing to work out a deal with me giving lessons and getting to have my horse at the place. That AND I'd be making money giving lessons AND possible do some training on the side. It takes about half an hour to get there. Sure, its still longer than I would like(ideally a max of 15 minutes), but it sounded really good, and I'd spend about 45 minutes talking with the lady earlier in the week, and felt pretty comfortable telling my current barn that I may be moving my horse in a couple months, if I didn't hate the place. Boy, am I really glad I added that last part.
The place sounded good.
But dear, sweet Jeebus, it was not good. It really, really was not good.
When I was on the phone with the lady earlier in the week, she mentioned she had a lot of animals, and exotic. An emu, camel, wolves, a zebra, many, many exotic birds, alpacas, and a shit ton of horses, ponies, miniature horses, and donkeys. I was excited. If anything it was to see the exotics, up close, and not far behind the bars of a zoo.
The first thing I noticed when we pulled up(I'd brought my boyfriend Ron, for moral support), was that there was a lot of ponies. Then the second thing was that there were 2 horses tied to a hitching post, which was way too low and horses tied WAY too loose. Nothing happened to either horse, but it made me cringe....and want to fix it immediately.
The second thing was the sheer amount of animals AND the conditions that they are in. Tons of creepy, draping cobwebs in the stalls and everything seemed in disarray. And it wasn't that they hadn't gotten around to it, some of these animals had been this way for what looked like years. There was crap(both junk and other wise) littering the barn and many of the animals were standing in small cages, sleeping on piles of smooshed down feces, with no fresh water (I understand if some of them don't have food in front of them all the time...some animals don't need to have it, or should have it). And the pens, fences and gates in the barns!!! Some of the pens indoors were tiny and barely gave the animals enough room to turn around, the fences were a majority of barb wire or skeezy looking wood, and the gates......... a lot of them them were off the hinges and really had to be manhandled to get them open.
And the person that ran this place said they did rescue work.
From what? This place needs a team of people and equipment(gawd, donated used to cripes sake) for at least a week solid for it to be up to what I would considered livable. I'm really feeling at odds to just turn this place in, but another part of me wants to try and help too. I'm not quite sure as of right now what I'm going to do, but I can say for sure that my horse will not be boarded there.
I am looking for a barn that is closer to where I'm living on the west side. The barn I currently have my horse at now is on the southeast side and takes anywhere from about 35 to 45 minutes to get there, depending on traffic. I also give lessons(which are stopping for the winter at the end of January), and feed 5 days a week, either morning or night., for exchange to keep my horse there. The place is really nice, has an indoor arena, but the only thing is that its not very busy, and there are not horses around my horses age.
Ideally I'd like to find a place closer, and thought i had the opportunity in a place I visited yesterday.
So I'd heard of this other place that was willing to work out a deal with me giving lessons and getting to have my horse at the place. That AND I'd be making money giving lessons AND possible do some training on the side. It takes about half an hour to get there. Sure, its still longer than I would like(ideally a max of 15 minutes), but it sounded really good, and I'd spend about 45 minutes talking with the lady earlier in the week, and felt pretty comfortable telling my current barn that I may be moving my horse in a couple months, if I didn't hate the place. Boy, am I really glad I added that last part.
The place sounded good.
But dear, sweet Jeebus, it was not good. It really, really was not good.
When I was on the phone with the lady earlier in the week, she mentioned she had a lot of animals, and exotic. An emu, camel, wolves, a zebra, many, many exotic birds, alpacas, and a shit ton of horses, ponies, miniature horses, and donkeys. I was excited. If anything it was to see the exotics, up close, and not far behind the bars of a zoo.
The first thing I noticed when we pulled up(I'd brought my boyfriend Ron, for moral support), was that there was a lot of ponies. Then the second thing was that there were 2 horses tied to a hitching post, which was way too low and horses tied WAY too loose. Nothing happened to either horse, but it made me cringe....and want to fix it immediately.
The second thing was the sheer amount of animals AND the conditions that they are in. Tons of creepy, draping cobwebs in the stalls and everything seemed in disarray. And it wasn't that they hadn't gotten around to it, some of these animals had been this way for what looked like years. There was crap(both junk and other wise) littering the barn and many of the animals were standing in small cages, sleeping on piles of smooshed down feces, with no fresh water (I understand if some of them don't have food in front of them all the time...some animals don't need to have it, or should have it). And the pens, fences and gates in the barns!!! Some of the pens indoors were tiny and barely gave the animals enough room to turn around, the fences were a majority of barb wire or skeezy looking wood, and the gates......... a lot of them them were off the hinges and really had to be manhandled to get them open.
And the person that ran this place said they did rescue work.
From what? This place needs a team of people and equipment(gawd, donated used to cripes sake) for at least a week solid for it to be up to what I would considered livable. I'm really feeling at odds to just turn this place in, but another part of me wants to try and help too. I'm not quite sure as of right now what I'm going to do, but I can say for sure that my horse will not be boarded there.