Boarding problems :/ HELP!

So for those who don't know. I'm a sophomore in college, and my school is about a 3 hour drive from my home. I elected after my first semester to move Moon down to school with me, because no one can look after him while i'm at school and i miss my baby boy.

So I look far and wide in my area for a boarding place (this city where I am going to school is pretty country, but oddly enough, is lacking good boarding places, seriously) I found one, run by a former student and her (boyfriend? Brother? Cousin? I honestly don't know the relationship between the two of them) She is really nice and answered my multiple questions, and is a great price for full care ( 14x14 stall, feed 2x a day, automatic waters, hay 2x a day, stall clean up, turn out in private turn out 12 hours a day, blanket, supplements, use of the arena with lights, parking my trailer, a race track, cows, and tons of acres for just 'trail' riding around.) all for $325 a month. What a deal! So My dad brings moon down, and we signed a contract with various rules blah blah nothing crazy out of the norm. The first month, goes GREAT. I'm loving it, its even better then my last barn and cheaper too!

Tragically, (I'm gonna call my main barn owner sally for this post) Sally gets into a horrible motor cycle accident and is injured pretty bad. Both arms broken, leg broken, pelvis broken. Basically she is out of commission for a long time. Now this is bad because Sally and (we will call her male counter part Butt Face for this post) Butt Face run this barn single handedly by themselves, no other help. (Sally really did all the work and Butt Face just kinda helped supervise) (Also, this barn at full capacity could suport about 80 horses, and currently holds maybe 40-50) So what ends up happening is other boarders start 'helping out Sally and Butt Face' (doing it for free while Sally and Butt Face still get paid) This is fine and all, but the care really starts to go down as time passes. At first I kept telling myself things will get better when she heals. She was hurt in November I think (could be wrong) its now march, and shes walking around on 1 crutch, so almost totally healed. Things continue to spiral down.

To avoid telling many long stories about me being unhappy with things they did, I'll just make a small list and feel free to inquire if you wish, all these things have happened more than once, I'll spare you the other ones that just happened once:
(to clarify, not all of these things happened before the accident, things were getting slowly worse before it happened too)
-Arrived at the barn and unable to find my horse because he has been moved to a different paddock without me being told
-Arrived at the barn and found him in heavy blankets and sweating when its 70 degrees F outside.
-Asked him to be blanketed when its cold outside (I would call and ask her to and she said yes I'll do it, and i'll go out the next day and find him bare and shivering) (he is body clipped and needs blankets most of the time because its still a little cold here)
-Asked and asked and asked for him to get his many supplements I spend a fortune on and he still isn't getting them no matter how many times I ask and she says yes I'll do it, he isn't getting them.
Arrived late at night at the barn and him not yet fed (sometimes as late as 11 pm)
-Watched Butt face "training" someones horse for a client (he isn't a horse trainer by any standards) and while riding, get off and kick the ever living hell out of the poor horses belly. Try as I might, couldn't figure out what the horse did "wrong"
-The first month of board, he got wood shaving in his stall and it was changed often, and now its just dirt and it gets picked less often
-and finally, the last nail in the coffin, I've been giving riding lessons to some friends after school to pick up some extra cash on the side with the permission of Sally before I signed the contract. I asked if giving little lessons to friends were ok, she said no problem. I gave lessons to literally a total of 3 people since I started boarding with Sally and Butt Face, and Sara has walked around during them, never said a word. No problem right? Wrong. I was giving a lesson to one of my friends and Butt Face brings in someone elses poor little 2-3 year old horse to the arena and I can only imagine will endure some of Butt Faces 'training' I quickly conclude my lesson and the girl leaves. I elect to ride Moon for an additional 5 minutes, when I'm finished, I get off and move back some poles I was using earlier (Side note, Butt Face has a major problem with Arena equipment such as cones, barrels and poles being left out. He likes them pushed up against the side of the area so you have to get off and move them every time you wanna use them. Makes sense right? Right.) So I move them back knowing he'd pitch a fit if I don't. And head to the gate. When Butt Face sees me leaving, he screams across the arena "MORGAN, DID YOU LEAVE THESE CONES OUT?!>!" "No BUTTFACE, they were there when I came in" (I'm not the only person in the arena, there are 2 other riders still in there using the cones.) He doesn't reply right away. I'm out the gate, headed toward the barn, Butt Face rides over on this poor two year old already is a stressed out sweat and says, "oh and one more thing, IF I CATCH YOU GIVING LESSONS OUT HERE AGAIN AND YOU'RE GETTING PAID FOR THEM, I'M GONNA BE F#CKING P1SSED.'' I am dumb struck and don't even comprehend or know how to react to Butt Face screaming these words at me when I'm not 10 feet from him. I mutter, ".......OK...... Do you mind if I just bring my friends out here with me to hang out and stuff?" "IF THEY DO, THEY BETTER SIGN A WAIVER WITH ME, OR THEY CAN'T BE HERE DAMN IT. IF I F#CKING CATCH YOU GETTING PAID AGAIN, I'M GONNA BE F#CKING P1SSED @%$^$%&@^&@$" I'll spare the rest of his conversation with me, but he rode away swearing me up and down while I stand there wondering what the hell just hit me. Butt Face is a bad man and bad horseman. I just walked away defeated and called and told my friends we could no longer continue lessons.

Cookies to you if you read my petty ramblings. I want to move so bad because I'm worried Moon will be next on Butt Face's Sh1t list.

This is what got me though. On Facebook, I posted a status that read, "If you know of a place to board your horse in (My town), let me know !"




Sally Replied..... ( I totally forgot we were FB friends because she truly never uses it)

" Hey, if you let me know if you are looking for an English or Western barn I can def give you the names of some!"


What on earth.... Is this back handed? Is this her way of telling me she wants me to leave? What does this even mean?

I'm on the look for a new place, but now I'm terrified of what is happening at my barn now when I'm not there.

Help, help help!

Ugh, that is such a lousy situation. We don't have a ton of boarding barns here but enough that we've always been able to scramble out of a lousy situation. Living in prime farming country, there's usually SOMEWHERE we can take our horses in a pinch.

Is it at all possible to talk to Sally about Butt Face and his bad attitude? Or the things that have been happening?

Unfortunately in situations like these, the best advice given is usually just stay polite and GTFO as fast as you can.

Are you friends with any boarders? Is it at all possible to band together and work together to ensure adequate care? Do you know of anyone else unhappy or aware of the issues?

I've considered talking to Sally about Butt Face, but I just know she would find a way to side with him. Not sure why she submits to him on everything, but she does, he must be intimidating to her as well.

I've never said anything cross or less than polite to either of these people, thats the sick part. If I said something and deserved this, that's one thing, but I haven't! I plan to leave soon and take him back to my home town (was planning to do so anyway for the summer and just bring him back for next semester, but now I might be taking him back a month or two early, and just never return.)

I am not really friends with too many people at the barn, I tend to go and no one is there when I ride because I go during the week when most people are at work, but the few people I do know seem to love and be very close to Sally. No one seems to care one way or another for Butt Face, but I DEFINITELY feel singled out so I know that no one would be able to empathize with the way he has treated me. Best solution is just to leave and find something, anything better than this.

I went to the barn today, and I was legit scared to go. Like I asked my boyfriend to go with me because I had no idea what to expect. He didn't go, but I went, and luckily no one was around, so i went to catch Mooner, and he was acting like a wild man in the paddock (oh, and yes he was moved again, took me 10 minutes to search the paddocks to find him) Normally hes already at the gate before I get there and is diving into the halter. He would not be caught today. I would get close, go to halter him, and he'd bolt. Makes me think Butt Face has been up to his tricks with my horse... I have no proof obviously, but it sure makes me worry. He was fine once I had him caught and he settled down after being with me a few minutes, and we did ground work and had a short ride, and all was well. After I unsaddled, I was brushing him, and Butt Face and Sally drove up (they live on the property, so the drove down the driveway from their house) and went to do something in the barn (not feed of course....) and Butt Face gave me the worst look in the world. Dagger stares, no joke. I just put Moon away and bolted. He scares me. I'm talking with my dad on monday and seeing when he can come get him

Another discovery today? Moon's feed is in a trash bucket and I usually put his supplement buckets around it or in the bucket on top of the feed so they stay fresh with the trash can lid on. I opened up the bucket to see how full it was and saw to my horror, someone DUMPED AN ENTIRE BUCKET OF HIS JOINT SUPPLEMENT INTO THE TRASHCAN. Gone. Totally. Gone. Ruined the feed, wasted a perfectly good bucket of supplements. Gone.

I've had it up to here. I know that I am one of the VERY FEW full care boarders, according to sally, 90% of the boarders are partial or self care boarders, so they are responsible for the things like that. With so few full care boarders, you think taking care of them (since they pay the most) wouldn't be so hard.... I haven't heard a single complaint from anyone else about care. Probably because they worry about doing it themselves. I can't afford to drive out to the barn all the time to do what they do (its about a 20-25 minute drive from my dorm to the barn) Not sure what the other boarders would think if I expressed my concerns over care. Worth a shot though.

I saw a new boarder moving in today, I wanted nothing more then to tell them to take their money to someone else, but I didn't get the opportunity.

I appreciate your input and support Moki. I do really hope I can get things resolved soon. I'm so sick of this.

I've been through stuff like that at boarding barns and the best advice I can give is just keep your head down and get out of there. If you want to message me where you're going to school I have friends with horses at most of the state schools and can put some feelers out for barns for you if you'd like.