After writing the last blog about not having horses anymore, I received six (6) comments in my inbox rather quickly, all asking me to describe or detail for them the situation(s) at the various barns Laura and I have been associated with or had dealings with. I don't want to rattle off their names, as that could be a legal mess, but I will give details and if anyone has any specific questions about one or the other, they can DM me on Facebook or IG and ask. I can't and won't take comments here on the blog site.
We'll start with Indiana barns.
1. The first barn was in Brownsburg, Indiana, just north of the main thoroughfare for Indianapolis (HWY 36) and it was west of Indianapolis proper. It had a name, it has since been sold as the owners died, and I have no idea how it is now. When we went there were 68 horses on the property, and we were led to believe there was 100 acres of land. We just couldn't see it, but it was "back there, over that fence line" and like morons, we never checked it out. The entire time we were there, which was about 4 or 5 months, maybe a bit longer, I don't know, there were upward of 68-90 horses and all crammed on about 22-24 acres which included the barn area that took up 2 acres or so. Yeah, not cool. The manager let the horses run into their barn stalls at about 3:30 p.m. so he could get to his other barn that he let horses run into their stalls around 4:30.
At this barn the manager ran the place, his word was gold, the owners didn't listen to a single one of the boarders. If he didn't like you, your horse may just not be fed well. It was that sort of barn. He leased 6 of his own horses to young influential girls who he then trained as barrel races. They didn't do a bad job, no, they were pretty good, but then again they had to be or he would yank the horse from them and shun them from the barn. It was a MAD HOUSE trying to get arena time, and forget about complaining. It didn't work. We left and when we did the owners tried to steal my daughter's horse and claim she owed them board. No, she worked for her board. They just wanted her Half Arab bay gelding and they were willing to steal him. You'll find that there are a great many people who do that sort of thing. Oh, and one more thing about that particular barn; they had an Amish farrier that they called names and made fun of behind his back. That never set well with me.
2. We left that barn and literally walked Laura's horse to the barn just south of it. The two barns shared a fence line. It was obvious that the land that the first barn owner was trying to convince me that he owned was in fact the second barn we went to. This barn was HUGE in terms of the barn and the stalls, and the indoor arena, and the great fencing. Things looks up for us, or so we thought. I didn't have a horse at that time. I had one at the first barn and went horseless until we got to the 3rd barn. It only took another few months before that was to happen because the owner of the 2nd barn was a new widow, having lost his barrel-racing wife to cancer, and he went through the inheritance like water! He didn't use it to better the place, and yep, he sold it. Gone!
There you go. I'm glad I didn't have a horse there! Laura had that same Half Arab and guess what, the 2nd guy tried to steal him as well. It was just amazing!! She got word of it, and was able to walk him to the 3rd barn about a mile away. She couldn't ride him as she had to do the escape after dark! She didn't owe the man a penny, having worked for her board again, but that didn't stop him for coming to the 3rd barn and demanding that she surrender her horse. Well, yeah, that didn't happen. He's an idiot. During the time we were there we had to deal with the criminal felon from the 1st barn walking over and trying to take Laura's horse twice. At least he was inept at it, and was caught both times by someone at the barn. No charges were brought. He claimed he was just exercising the animal - - go away.
3. The 3rd barn was about a mile away and into the woods a bit. It was called Natural something. I won't go into names. The owner was sweet enough, his wife however was a commanding bitch. She ran the joint, but by running it she gave the reins to about 6 girls all under the age of 17, all of which (if you know much about girls) fought constantly over this, that or the other, and they would dead-lock and dig their heels in and the result was you didn't get your horses fed, watered, cared for, or worked. You paid for it, but nothing really happened. Then, you'd come over to ride your horse and find that someone had saddled it up for a paid trail ride EVEN THOUGH you didn't authorize it to be used. You'd come over to ride and find that your horse was sweaty and bathed, and he was tired and didn't want to go out with you. You'd ask about it, they'd say he was just hosed down a minute or so to keep him cool. Yeah, OK, and where were the saddles, the pads, the helmets, all of which should have been in my tack room? They were in someone else's tack box or tack room. They kept trying to say my stuff was really their stuff. I had to keep retrieving my things, or keep them in my trunk, and you just shouldn't have to do that. I would complain and one or the other of the owners promised to look into it. It didn't change. We left.
4. The 4th barn was a mess and 1/2 too. It was owned by a man who was married and the owners had a 16 year old son. They lived in an apartment inside the barn, but they hadn't closed the back door that led into the barn, and you could hear them inside their house fighting, talking about you, and then their son came out naked once to get his rope or something - - yeah, there was that. The kid would also take young girls as young as 13 into the covered round pen to have sex with them. Naturally, we reported this to the police, and guess what, the police told the owners who reported it!! Are you serious? We were asked to leave. I didn't mind, it was a manic place and the owners were too into their own thing to be good barn owners anyway. They had expensive horses that the watched and those horses were cared for but the mutts or mongrels of the world (mine) were never even given grain. I had to do that even though I was paying for them to do it. Again, if they were giving lessons, which they did all the time, you couldn't use the barn. It's just the same old, same old. Not worth the hassle. Gotta go.
5. The 5th was hilarious! A woman claiming to own the place, had 11 horses on 14 acres. That's not too bad, and it wasn't too overwhelming. She had an 8 stall brick barn without doors, so it got cold in the winter for sure. She charged a good price, and she claimed we could come out whenever we wanted to as long as it wasn't too early or too late. We understood. She claimed to live in the house on the property too. She claimed the silver jeep was her boyfriend's and he would be in and out of the gate, or on the property, and not to worry about him. She took cash, and that's always a clue that there may be an issue, as she didn't give a receipt. I asked for one. I wasn't given one.
We put our horses on the property, we were locked out of the gate. We climbed over the gate and we had the police called on us. We had to prove the animals were ours, and that can be hard to do. Luckily I had the papers to mine, but my daughter's horse was grade. The woman didn't own the place, she was a thief. She'd steal horses and take them to slaughter for money. The guy in the silver jeep was her boyfriend, but he kept watch over who was coming and going, and let her haul horses away. The owners lived in the house at the end and had hired her to feed their horses. She did feed their horses, but she stole YOUR horses and sold them to slaughter. THANK GOD we got our horses out before they were next. NOTHING happened to her. the owners did NOT CARE that she was doing that. WHATEVER!
6. The only barn I would go back to was Ellin Daum's place at On Eagle's Wings in Plainfield, Indiana. I'll use her name and her barn's name because she was a sweety, she did it right, she charged a bit more, but she took care of the animals. I didn't appreciate some of the things that happened that were beyond my control, but I won't get into it. Suffice it to say that family is family, and we don't always have much to say about that. I think every place should have a restroom, hers at least had a port-a-potty, and that's about the only bad thing I can say about the barn. I didn't like one of her workers, but she was fired soon enough, and we didn't have to put up with her much. I also didn't like that there was not enough space to actually ride in, and again, that's a reason to leave. If the place doesn't have what you want, you leave. At least Ellin was (and is) a learned soul when it comes to being on top of things, and she was and is a Christian who treats people with respect. She didn't lie to us. That was a first.
That's it for Indiana. Now on to Oklahoma.
1. In no particular order. We'll start with Luther. Luther is the name of the closest city. The owner wasn't the owner, but at least this time she said she wasn't. She let us know right away that she was the manager. She had 260 acres to care for, and space for as many animals as you really wanted. We tend to have one or two each, no more, and she had a 1/4 acre pen to keep them in at night, and they could be allowed to wander the front yard area of about 30 acres if they were easier to keep and catch. If they were not, they had to be walked to the smaller pastures of 1/2 an acre to 2 acres. It just depended on the day, the weather, etc. She was good enough. She was sweet enough. She cared for the animals, and she let us know when things were bad. Things were bad a great deal more often than they really should have been in my opinion. She allowed ex-cons to run the show, and they stole the horses. There you go.
Then there were the times she fed bad hay and you had to pay the vet bills for her mistakes or lose your spot at the barn, and you know that can be a real issue if you have no place to go! She would use MY hay for her horses. She would rescue and retrieve rescued horses and beg for donations online pretending the horses were going to slaughter. She thought we didn't know it was her, but we recognized a few of the things in the photos online. She used a fake name, a fake address, a second phone, the works. She used our supplements for her horses. She literally allowed Laura's baby horse to die because she didn't give it the meds Laura paid for, but used them for her horses. It went on and on. She took one of our friend's horses and let her literally starve to the point of near death, never having the nerve to call our friend to let her know she was doing so because she felt the friend should have paid more in board. Their agreement was met, but this chick wanted MORE. After suckering us out of the 4th horse and using us for all she could, we left.
Laura went back to help her a few times only to help the animals. Laura actually adopted from her again but only to save the animal. Later the lady was found guilty of having dead animals, neglected animals, and abused animals. She fled. The actual owners NEVER KNEW that this woman had so many animals on their property. Shaking my head!
2. OK, this was not the worst place in the world but it was the worst as far as the managers not having a clue as to what they had or how to maintain it. The house and 70 acres was owned by Mr. and Mrs. Jones on the hill and they rented or leased the space and barn to the managers asking for X amount of money monthly. Anything they could make over and above that was theirs to keep. What a sweet deal. We never had that sort of luck. The problems started immediately when we realized that we couldn't board inside the barn, but we had to rent a 3/4 acre tract for our two horses. They didn't care if you had 4 on the pasture though. We know it would not be safe or wise to do that, but yeah, there were about a dozen or more other people who stacked horses on top of horses and guess what, in order to relieve the pressure the managers let our pasture be the overflow!
Oh, and guess what, often times our horses were beaten, bit, kicked, and attacked by the over flow horses. We had to pay the bills for that. They had an outdoor arena, no indoor. They had 50 acres in the back to ride on but the problem with that is they also had 70+ horses on it at $300 a pop for people who hoard animals and don't want to actually care for them. The owners did not care, turned their heads, and the managers didn't stop the horses from being aggressive when you wanted to ride out on the land. The final straw was when the managers went to a rodeo competition (it was a joke, the woman was obese, couldn't ride, and had a bum knee to boot) and the horses were NOT FED or watered and it was JULY. At least she and frozen ice pops for the boarders. We left.
3. This one was a real treat until it wasn't. The owner was OK, but he was old and he was set in his ways. The manager was Hispanic and would cuss us in Spanish not realizing we understood him. He refused to listen to you, did his thing, and was not bothered by trying to do his job. You could get his boss, the owner, to speak with him, but then your horse ended up in the wrong area, it came up lame, it wasn't fed, you get the drill. You do what he says or he hurts your horse. We had a hell of a time trying to prove that to the owner. Then we found out the owner sold the place and kicked the manager out before he kicked the boarders out. Another boarder took over the managing position, and the 40 acres dwindled down to 5 acres, the best indoor you could imagine, and three bathrooms! He only kept 5 boarders at that point, and we were not one of them. We had to leave. When we first got there however, Laura's horse was hurt and it was the owner's horse's fault, and Laura still had to pay the vet bill. He was kind enough to move the aggressor, but yeah, $700 for the vet to come out, x-ray and care for her mare, and she couldn't ride for 2 months, so that's another $350 in board x 2 months for time at the barn without being able to ride.
4. This one was just out of the park laughable. A former Navy Seal and the man who actually did invent something cool back in the 80's, owned and operated this place. He was and is the biggest egomaniac on the face of the Earth. I think I had a horse on the property for a minute, but due to his aggressive behavior, and his penchant for starting up motorcycles, airplane engines, NASCAR type engines, shooting off shotguns, and just being an idiot moron, I decided that paying him to not feed my animal was just not going to happen. You paid him $500 for the 3-acre pasture, and you fed every day. It wasn't that far away so we did that for a minute, but every damn time we went to ride he would gun up another engine and spook the horses intentionally. He would shoot his shotguns and spook the horses intentionally, he'd make you feel as if it was your lack of training, and he was not shy about his tactics. He has been divorced four times I'm told. I can't see why anyone would marry him in the first place. We left. Our friend however, has several of her horses there, but she doesn't actually ride, so that's not that big of an issue for her.
5. The next manager/owner issue to come up was a place near my mom's house in Arcadia. It took a good minute to get there, but it was safe enough, they had trails, an indoor, they had an outdoor arena, and they had great dogs. Love the dogs. Her place was, as many were, managed not owned. Again, she could have as many horses as was legal or possible and again, she overstepped the limit to make more money. This seems to be a pattern. It was in fact a problem. We found out that on one or more occasions, because there was a legitimate boarding facility across the way from her, that the place had been turned over to the sheriff for well-being checks more often than not, and we were the last in so the first to be asked to leave.
No worries. The lady didn't strike us as being someone who did her job anyway. She announced she was pregnant about 2 weeks into our contract with her. She wanted to lower the board, and ask us to come out and feed. We couldn't do that. We were asked to leave. Great. You'd think we could just go across the street to the other facility, but no, we had western horses and that place was strictly for English riders, and the board was over the top pricey, something like $800 a month, and only indoor stalls, and you had to pay for 2 lessons a week as well. NOPE.
6. I can say the name of this place only because it is gone, and the owners are gone, and thank God for that. The place was Bridlewood, owned and operated by Elizabeth Lee, a would-have-been cowgirl back in the 70s I think. She was God's gift to rodeo I guess, at least she thought she was. She ran a tight barn but you had to do things her way or go away. She had a contract that was so one-sided you'd think you were in Ft. Knox. You didn't have a damn thing to complain about or you were gone, and you didn't get out of your contract just because she asked you to leave. Nope, she expected two months notice or you had to pay those two months. No one gives two months.
We had to sell our horses to get out from under it. No problems for me, but it was an issue for Laura. She had to stick it out until she was finished and even then the horse she owned was abused and mistreated so it was probably better if we had just left and paid the money. Laura was going to a competition, but because the horse she was going to use was going to be going up against one of Elizabeth's friends, the woman put Laura's horse in a pasture way in back where there were stickers and burrs on the plants. The horse was covered in them and we couldn't go to the show. Wow. That was just one of her tricks. She was a mess!
Over the course of time she was arrested I'm told, and it was for either lying to the law or obstruction of justice. Not sure, it's more or less rumors, but she headed off to Peru. That much we know! She sold the place immediately afterwards, but she sold it to another con artist. The buyer took full advantage of Lee, and stole her equipment, basically raped the land of fencing, and anything else she could take, and she left without payment. Wow. Just wow.
The place was then sold to another man, I won't say his name, but he was and is the biggest prick next to the Navy Seal. They would be two-peas in a pod for sure, not sure which would come out smelling worse to be honest. Laura had a horse there, not me, and the man invited Laura on a trail ride. Laura accepted, and told the man that her young gelding was in training, he was fresh and she wanted to take it slowly. OK, yeah, but that didn't happen. The man pushed off of Laura's horse when he took off, literally smashing into Laura, causing her gelding to bolt, Laura had to bail, the bastard comes full circle accusing Laura (a trainer, mind you) of not being able to handle her horse. He berated her over and over again, and all the while he never attempted to help her. She was injured from the saddle and the fall, but all this guy could do was brag about his experiences with run away horses. We left. We left, we gave bad reviews, we called anyone and everyone we could to warn them about that cursed property and the owners thereof.
7. This place. Oh, this place. We were there a number of times. We would go, get fed up with the owners and leave politely. We would go back, hoping they had changed. They had not changed. They are not going to change. They are right, you are wrong, and you'll never know what they know. You'll never do what they have done. You'll never be as good at anything as they have always been, and you just have no reason to think you can breathe their air. All they want from you is the board money, and to tell you exactly what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. The ONLY reason we went back three times I think, is because they do know what they are doing when it comes to feeding, watering, and cleaning the animals paddocks. I say paddocks because we had our horses in paddocks. They have two pastures, but they are for their horses basically. They have a mare pasture where they had 2 horses and boarded 3 others. One of the boarder's mares was so aggressive I would never have considered allowing my horse to be in the pasture. They didn't care. It was OBVIOUSLY our inferior horses that were not worthy. Are you getting what I'm saying?
The man was a former roping champion and he was in his 70s with health issues that didn't stop him from grumpying around, driving his Gator around to spy on you, and tell you how everything you were attempting to do was wrong. The woman was in her 70s, but younger than him, and she told you when you could breathe, how you could breathe, and the fact that she had been thrown over 6 times in two years had nothing to do with her horse or her ability to ride, it was always someone else's fault, and we'll leave it at that. We left. We decided it was in fact, ENOUGH. Their ONLY saving grace was the fact that I could take a skinny horse there from a rescue and expect them to actually keep it fed, watered, and get it fat and healthy. They were good at that. NOTHING ELSE.
8. This one was a flash in the pan. It was a managed property owned by a man who didn't even know the manager. He leased it, he turned his head. The manager had a mother who also owned a stable in the city. They both did pony-club type lessons and they both refused to let anyone use their arenas if they were doing lessons. They were always doing lessons. There were young girls running the barns who thought they owned the barns. You couldn't talk to them. They had their headsets on and refused to give you eye-contact. You couldn't complain, no one listened. I left and sold my horse, Laura stayed and her horse was used for lessons again. This just happened and happened over again. We'd show up at night to ride so we could use the arena, and the girls were having parties with boys and alcohol and running around without much clothing in the barns. Nope.
9. Finally, and this was the last place we were at, the farm that could have been the best and just wasn't allowed to be. This place was in the country and city, it was over 80 acres and all fenced off into 3-5 acre tracts with one being 8 acres, supposedly to use for open riding. That lasted until a trainer brought her 7 horses over and took over the only real riding area outdoors that wasn't an arena. There were two indoor arenas, but you couldn't use them if they were doing damn lessons, and get this, they were always doing a lesson! You just couldn't force the owner to respect your time or relationship to the barn. It was endless. If you didn't call the owner right in front of the trainers and scream about it, you didn't get your 20-30 minutes of riding time. How KIND OF THEM to allow us 30 minutes when we pay our board!
The owner decided to sell his place too. We were just settled in, we both had horses, we were both riding, we were both happy, and bam....he's selling. He asked all of us to leave, having only his trainers and their lessons there so he could show the place off to any would be buyers. He was and is asking 3x the amount the place is worth, so yeah, it's not going to sell, and we were out again. I just decided enough was enough, and I was done. While we were there however, we had to endure the theft of our equipment, people chasing our horses for the hell of it, and by people I mean the owners drunken drugged out son with his younger than legal girlfriend.
We often came up to the barn after dark, and when the bad trainer was there, she allowed her daughter to have co-ed parties with alcohol; the girls were 15 and 17. Are you serious? We let the owners know because ultimately he could be in trouble for it, but he knew it would blow over and didn't do anything. When that trainer left and took 15 horses with her, he thought she was taking boarder's horses. NO, she had 15 horses and never paid a penny for their keep. He allowed her 5. Oh...OK....wise up people! Pay attention to your own personal property and what takes place on it.
So by now you can either say we have the worst luck, or you can pretty much figure out that there just aren't good horse barns to use. If you're not an owner or a manager (maybe a trainer at the barn) you don't have squat to say. You have NOTHING to offer, and all they want is your money. Hand it over, shut your mouth, don't bother us with details, and golly-gosh, if we're using your horse, stealing your things, not feeding, watering, or caring for the animals, don't get all puffed up about it...just move on to the next barn. That is the collective attitude of these people.
There is so much more I could say. I could tell you that the girls having the parties were drug runners too. We were threatened. I could tell you that we had our tires slashed. We had our hay infused with stickers. We had motor oil put into the water troughs. It was just NOT a good thing - - when it really should have been. I told Laura we can either keep beating our heads against the walls, or buy our own land. I decided to stop the horse thing altogether. I'm just going to rent my place and be on my own. If Laura wants to keep it going she can, but as of this day we are both horse free - - not a good feeling on one hand, but the best on the other hand because it means we don't have to deal with the owners, the managers, the other boarders, the trainers, or the expense.
GIANT SIGH!!
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