Friday 19 July 2013

Distance Doesn't Love Me

I checked out the barn that is currently the farthest away at 37 minutes. I can honestly say that it is a nice spot and has a lot of wonderful features:

Turnout
- any kind of turnout situation I want (day, night, 24/7, etc.)
- max 4 horses per turnout
- automatic waterers in the turnout, even in winter
- several different turnouts, all with grass
- when the grass runs out, they will cart in round bales so that the horses are never without food (they are fat and happy)

Facilities
- a crazy large indoor (like twice the size of my current indoor and probably 4 times the size of my last indoor)
- no bathroom but I can use the one in the house
- access to trails
- heated locker room and good size lockers

Care
- feed choice of beet pulp, fat and fibre (which Walker is on), sweet feed, oats, or anything I want up to the price of fat and fibre
- will feed supplements obviously
- horses must be wormed every 3 months

Instruction
- outside coaches welcome
- barn owner teaches lessons for low price (privates the cost of group lessons) - Note: she's a nurse and her husband is a paramedic and they have a 4 year old.  I got the impression that they are super busy and she kept saying "but you can have outside coaches too" which I suspect would simply be easiest for them


Other
- board is $100 cheaper than my current board
- she has a working boarder option that would decrease board by $50 more if I worked only 5 hours a month
- currently the barn owner has 5 horses of her own and only 2 boarders; they are generally all on 24/7 turnout

Concerns
- very private, which can be both a good and bad thing.  It means I get my privacy (and access to the rocking indoor arena any time I want), but no one around to help me as much
- because of its privacy, I worry about little things like who will deworm Walker (because I can no longer accomplish that after his bout with oral medicines...)
- lessons - I can take them with her but she seems busy which means that I might have to get a trainer in. This would probably be costly because she'd be travelling a long distance just for one person.  I was also hoping to take lessons on other horses while Walker is getting better and I simply doubt that's an option there with the setup
- it is up a hill - the road will be somewhat slippery in winter and I know it will be freezing at that time of year (they even said as much)
- the distance

Overall
I think it is a great facility with very accomodating owners.  I think it would be great for someone looking to retire their horse or someone who is very advanced and doesn't need the instruction or else is looking to bring a trainer in to further their instruction.  I'm not saying I won't take it, but I worry slightly that with the distance, I may not get to see Walker as much as I used to.  The upside is that it might be a chance to take lessons at other barns because obviously this lady doesn't care in the least.  I could try out a jumping barn and get to do some of the things that I can't with Walker.  Because of the reduced price, I could probably afford to join a lesson program at any barn I wanted on horses doing some other disciplines and afford to take a few lessons on Walker with the barn owner. 

I think that if it were closer or I lived a different lifestyle that didn't keep me at work late at night sometimes, I would jump at it.  For the meantime, I've contacted a couple other barns to put some feelers out there.  They might not have any availability, in which case I'll probably take this one (because I could always leave later), or I still might take this one even if the other ones are available.  I would love to have Walker out and settled in by August, but I may be pushing my luck on that one since I haven't even talked to my current barn owner...

6 comments:

  1. Don't you have to give 30 days at your current barn? That facility sounds really nice, but if you have worries about it then probably best to keep looking. Good luck!

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    1. There was no discussion of giving notice - no contract, no mention of it. Although it would worry me not to give that much notice, which is why I'm hesitant

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  2. I would encourage you to touch base with your current barn owner. You want her hearing that you're thinking of moving from you, not from this blog or from someone else who stumbled across it...

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    1. Yeah. I know. I've been thinking about that. I guess it's because I wasn't sure if I was going to leave, and I'm still not even sure - it depends on if I found something suitable. I didn't want to talk to him and then decide I'm staying. But now I'm starting to think we need to talk.

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  3. Decisions decisions... hopefully you can decide whats best for you :)

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  4. Sounds like lots of decisions to be made. I agree with the others though, might want to talk with your current barn owner, just so she doesn't find out from somewhere else.

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