For those of y'all that are thinking about moving
boarding barns here's my list of things I check and why; an unethical boarding
barn here in town tried to kill my horse and threatened me over some "issues"
with Star's care, I ended up walking out of that facility leading a severly ill
horse; I will never board another horse again without doing some extensive
background checks on the owners. My current situation is a leased barn by
myself, the only thing I could get with Star, she had Strangles when we
left.
1) Here in North Carolina you can do a civil and
criminal background check by name at your local courthouse. People that I
boarded with last summer had judgements agains them by 2 boarders for injuries,
one vet, and one farrier. If I'd know that would I have boarded there? They also
had criminal convictions. I felt like I was invading people's privacy doing
that, but I'm paying them to care for my animal and I want to know what kind of
person they are.
2) Call local equine associations. When I checked
on this barn after the fact they had been rejected for membership in both county
associations.
3) Find boarders that have left there for various
reasons, I found some people by asking around at Southern States. I also talked
to current boarders, but they were like I was, happy for a short time and left
like I did with severly ill horses.
4) Get references from both vet and farrier. I
always just got vet referrences, but farriers know more what goes on at farms
than vets do alot of times.
Just my two cents; I've boarded at four places. One
was pretty good, but my horse didn't fit in. Next one my horse got beat and
starved. Third place was very country, but we were happy, left to have people to
ride with... fourth place was a nightmare!
In my opinion, and just opinion, I prefer the boarding facilities like the
one I'm at now. I only pay $50 mth. I go EVERY day to the barn and
feed, water, clean the stall, etc. I have a mare, and a stallion. The
mare is allowed to stay out in the pasture, and she does. I feed her
grain in the afternoons while I'm there, and thats that. My
stallion however has to stay in a stall. I feed him in the afternoons
and fill up both water buckets. If the round pen isn't TOO wet I let him
out while I'm cleaning his stall out, or getting his food ready.
Everyone that boards there does the same. Then we all leave out however
much hay and feed we want them to have for breakfast, and the owner puts it in
their stalls before he goes to work in the morning. They have my number
in case anything goes wrong.
Honestly, I don't think it's fair to own a horse if you can't spend at
least 30min a day to feed it. I understand not having anywhere to keep
it though. My husband and I are trying to buy a house right now with enough
room to keep my horses, but we are living in an apartment right now.
