We moved out horse tonight to another boarding facility. It was hard moving him. He was in a wonderful barn where they took exceptional care of their horses, but our Indie needed to get out more often and unfortunately do to the amount of horses in the barn they were unable to turn him out daily.
When you are looking for a boarding facility what do you look for? Our first priority is safety first for our horse and child. We also look at the condition of the facility. We want to make sure he barn is well kept and the horses there are taken care of. An indoor arena is a must. Living in Oregon the weather is unpredictable and if we had an outdoor arena only we'd only ride about 4 months out of the year. Because I have a young daughter the environment is very important. I want to make sure the other boarders and the owner is respectful and there is limited drama.
I did a little research on what to look for when researching a boarding facility. I found an article which laid everything out. There were things I never thought of for example the type of riding done in the barn. Maddie shows Pinto and she had a hard time relating to the kids in our old barn because they were all 4-h kids and didn't understand the importance of practicing.
For anyone looking for a facility here's the link to the article I found:
http://voices.yahoo.com/finding-horse-boarding-stable-303659.html
It's exciting to make changes and scary all at the same time. I know our move is the best thing for our Indie, but its always hard leaving things behind especially the wonderful people we met and formed relationships with.
A Horse Show Mom can be a boarding facility's best customer and yet also their worst due to the high standards they need to keep top level show horses competing!
ReplyDeleteWe're new to showing a very humbled. Though I do believe it is important for Maddie and Indie to practice, I also believe in her enjoying what she is doing.
DeleteWe've boarded for twenty-something years and have been through a number of different places. Ultimately for us it comes down to our horses care. Since they are there 24-7, it's their well-being that's number 1. I always look at the other horses being boarded there and judge what I think about their care...do they look happy? how are their feet and weight? We've also tried to avoid big, generic boarding stables which usually come packaged with drama and people who just think they're horse people. I like to stick to a barn ran by other show people with similar interests.
ReplyDeletewe were in a trail riding 4-h barn before which was fun, but I agree with sticking to like minded people. The kids always wanted play on their horses and Maddie really needed to practice. They would tease her about always practicing.
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ReplyDelete"Maddie shows Pinto and she had a hard time relating to the kids in our old barn because they were all 4-h kids and didn't understand the importance of practicing."
ReplyDeleteThat's kind of an unfair blanket statement to make. I know plenty of 4Hers that understand the importance of practicing! 4H may not be your thing, but to assume that 4Hers are anything less than some girl at a breed show is rather ignorant. Maybe it would have been better stated, we're looking for a barn that better suits our training/showing needs. That makes it sound less like a us vs. them reason to leave.