Boarding an Endurance Horse

[Bruce Murdock <bmurdock@cyberhighway.net>]

I am offering this story, in the hopes that none of you get caught in the same situation I did. If you are in a situation where you have to board, be very careful that the facility is familiar with what your horse does. I found out the hard way that you can  never bridge the gap between the needs of a horse being conditioned for endurance, and one that spends its whole life in an arena. 

After boarding at a facility which deals mostly with show and roping horses for the last 9 months, Star now has a new home. After one of those "Its none of my business, but .... " lectures from the owners son, where I was informed how badly I was mismanaging my horse, "she shouldn't be fed any of that stuff (LMF Ener-G), all she needs is alfalfa", "you're going to explode her heart", "she'll colic on that much grain", "your vet doesn't know anything", "you're over working her, she's not in condition to be ridden that far", etc. I found out just how little my explanations of nutrition, energy requirements, fitness criteria, etc. had sunk in. All of the head shaking and OK's didn't mean that what you are explaining is being understood, there just isn't any way for them to relate. When I tried to explain to the owner, and suggested we sit down and discuss the situation, she went totally ballistic on me, and told me Star had to be gone that day (11:30 AM???). 

After many increasingly desperate phone calls, I finally found another boarding facility. This one has other endurance horses, knows a lot more about training and nutrition, and asked questions that led me to believe they actually understood. It's less convenient, but hopefully there won't be the same problems.

Based on this experience, I'll be a lot more willing to spend some extra dollars rather than have to cope with another situation like this.

Bruce (Arrrgh!!!) & Star ( You mean there's actually somebody here that will ride with me?)
Emmett, ID