Question: Earlier in the show season, a friend asked me to trailer her horse to a local horse show. I agreed and we settled on a price of a dollar per mile. When the show was over, I let her know that the trip was 225 miles round trip. Six weeks have passed, and I’m still waiting to get paid. I’m getting annoyed. What should I do?
What’s your favorite horse show? I bet you can tell me in five seconds flat. Why is it your favorite? Some of you will say it’s the food—the caramel apples at the New England Equitation Finals! Others might say Lake Placid because of the super intense grand prix, and the fact that there’s so much to do, see and eat in the lovely town.
’Tis the season for “away” horse shows. You and your horse, on the road, at the show, footloose and fancy-free, no email, perhaps limited cell phone capability, no computers…bliss! At the end of the day, you put your horse to bed and return to the hotel room, which is …littered with sweaty horse show clothes, half-eaten food and paddock boot dirt. There’s not an inch of room on the sink counter or a clean towel to be found. Ah, roommates!
Question: A bunch of the girls at the barn are graduating from high school soon. One has mailed me a graduation announcement. Am I obligated to send her a gift? And if I give her a gift, shouldn’t I give the others a gift as well?
Answer: ‘Tis the season of graduations and weddings, and if you’re been invited to several, your joy may be somewhat tempered by the inherent gifting obligations that accompany these celebrations.
Question: There’s a new boarder in our barn. I’ve met her twice, and we’ve chatted about our horses, etc. Yesterday, I was introducing her to one of the trainers, and I completely blanked on her name. It was so embarrassing! What should you do when you’ve made yourself look like a complete goofball?
Question: I board at a large barn with more than 60 stalls, 10 turn-out spaces and only five grooming bays. My horses are pasture boarded, and often I have to stand outside and wait to get into the barn where the grooming bays are located because all five bays are being used—often by boarders who could be tacking up in their stalls. I get annoyed by this, especially when it’s cold, rainy or snowing. Is it rude to ask a boarder to tack up in a stall so I can have one of the grooming bays?
Question: I have a boarder who won't talk to me when she has questions or concerns; instead she leaves notes on the board. Several times, she has indicated annoyance that her horse didn’t have hay. The vet put her horse on thyroid meds, and as a result he's dropped some weight and looks good. But now, if the owner comes to the barn early, she puts half a bale of hay out in his run-in shed and outside. Most of it is wasted.
Last week, after my post on “barn manners,” I put out a request on the COTH forum asking readers to share their questions, concerns and rants. Oh, my! There are some rude people at the barn. You can follow the thread here.
Recently, we had a barn meeting for boarders. About a week later, there was a meeting for barn workers. Since I fit into both categories, I was at both meetings.
For the boarders, it was a chance for the trainer to remind us all to pick up after ourselves and to set some general guidelines. It was all good.
At the workers meeting, there was talk about how to decide whether to turn out horses when it’s rainy or muddy. And we talked about the best way to alert boarders when they are getting low on supplements, among other things. It was a positive, productive gathering.
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