Switching Barn Dilemma
I have a bit of a dilemma here. I currently board my horse at a frankly, wonderful farm. The woman who owns it (let's call her Ruth) and her family care very deeply for their farm and horses and keeps it in excellent condition. There is an awesome obstacle course, round pen, a big outdoor arena set up for barrels/poles, and a few acres of trails. It is a beautiful property. However, Ruth is older and has many health issues that have bled into her having a nasty personality at times. I began taking lessons from Ruth almost two years ago and she pretty much taught me basic control, an ability to hit the trails alone, and a semblance of trotting but that was it. She was my first real intro into the horse world and she thought I was ready to lease and then own despite me not being able to trot or canter well and also only taking weekly lessons/leasing the horse I eventually bought for about 8 months. She had bought my now horse, after I had taken about 3 and a half months of lessons, from a shady trainer who said she was a suitable beginner horse. However it was pretty obvious that the horse was drugged before being sold as this is that trainer's MO: she sells a horse who is in bad shape in order for the new owner to funnel money into fixing their hooves and putting some weight back on them before the drugs wear off and the "beginner" horse begins displaying disturbing green behaviors so then the new owner gives the horse back and now can be sold to whoever also as a "beginner" horse. Ruth has been conned like this at least 3 times by this trainer and my horse was no exception however after riding and getting to know my horse and assisting heavily in her rehabilitation(she was very underweight with a giant lump in her hindquarters from being kicked and many, many scars covering her body) , she just had a kind and sweet personality and I just could not abide by Ruth giving her back to this trainer. So Ruth pressured me into buying my now horse. This eventually led to many falls and being slightly afraid of my new horse. Honestly, now that I've joined this community I realize now how shady this whole thing was and while I love my horse, I definitely acknowledge I jumped into ownership waaaaay too early and without doing my due diligence. Luckily I met better people and my horse and I joined up with a different, better trainer that has helped so much with both putting good miles on an anxious, neurotic horse and training a beginner up to actually being able to enjoy a greenish horse that has more go than woah as well as build my confidence . I also have started taking lessons through another trainer to improve my horsemanship and the like to just get better in general.
Now, my problem is that we have a new person at the barn who, just like me, has been taking lessons weekly for about 4 months now but is still VERY much a beginner. Ruth is now feeding the notion that she should purchase one of Ruth's personal horses who has some soundness issues that we all know will get worse with age. This girl is jumping at the chance to own a horse and is going to just trust the owner as I did and not ask for a PPE or anything like that, just jump headlong into ownership. I've tried to explain that she should probably search elsewhere for someone to give her real lessons but she and I don't really know each other so it's unlikely that she will listen to me.
Now, there is a barn less than 15 minutes from my house that has significantly more trails and the same amenities (minus the obstacle course) that is also less expensive. Ruth's barn is over 30 minutes away and because when I purchased my horse we just had a verbal agreement on price of board she has now raised board from $450 to $500. The barn closer to me has a lower board that includes more, however the people that work there sometimes do not have the best customer service (it is a popular trail ride stable/party pavilion rental for the general public) however I have not heard anything explicitly bad when it comes to private boarding and I have a coworker who boards his horse here and he's been pleased with it for years.
However, I know with a surety that if I decide to switch barns I will be essentially putting Ruth out of business as she has lost 2 leasers (they graduated high school and left for college last summer) and recently 1 boarder due to her horse having an allergy to pine straw. And another boarder has recently put one of her two horses up for sale so in the next few months she will lose another "boarder" in a sense. So, if I leave she will most certainly not have enough income to keep the barn operational. So I don't really know what to do because of this. And despite everything I do consider her a good friend and I know if I leave she will no longer consider me a friend considering I'll be the reason she has to shut her doors and downsize/possibly sell.
I'm also sorry that this turned into a longer post than I originally meant but I needed to put it all out there.
Submitted January 22, 2020 at 01:33PM by lifebythesea
via reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/Horses/comments/eshq53/switching_barn_dilemma/?utm_source=ifttt
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