Each boarding ficility has its own good and bad points. At one place I've visited, 20 horses had to stay in a not too big camp with absolutely no green in sight, only dust and no stabling facilities. Another place there was very nicely build stables, but each and every owner had to attend to their horses themselves. If they can't be there, the horse just don't get fed. And yet another place with plenty of grazing and good stables but with very poor fencing, where one constantly hear about this horse got out of his camp and that horse got out of his camp. I've also seen some very nice places, places where I would love to take my horse to. The best I've seen had really BIG camps, with plenty of grazing, near the beach, only 4 or 5 horses in each camp, place for jumping, an arena and round pen. Unfortunately the owner sold the place and the new owner did not carry on with the horses, a real shame. Now there might be other horsy heavens out there that I don't know of, but for now my horsy heaven is right here in my back yard.
I don't want anyone who are thinking about bringing their horses to my place to have any misconceptions, so would like to try and list here both the good and the bad about my place.
I'll start with the bad. Not all of what I'm listing here I consider bad, but these are the things I've heard complaints about.
- Two of my camps are open fields (no bush) and do not contain shelter. Horses are bound to at some or other time spend some time in these camps.
- The ground is not level or flat everywhere, there are ditches and also a number of cement floors of previous structures in some of the camps.
- In order to get to the arena and round pen from the stables one need to go round a newly build chicken camp. I don't consider this as really being bad, but rather an opportunity to extend my ride a little bit.
- My round pen and arena don't have any special footing, basically just a field with wood fencing round it.
- What seem to put most people off is that I have a very different way of working with horses, compared to what the general in thing tend to be. I practice natural horsemanship. I believe in using as little equipment possible to get the job done quickly and efficiently.
- Every time anyone interact with any horse, even if it is just walking past the horse in a field, that person is effectively teaching that horse something. Since my methods are different from most other people and I will be spending a lot of time with your horse, I'd like to invite you to come and have a look at how I interact with the horses.
Now on the up side:
- You won't find horses by me that are scared of me, run away from me or difficult to catch by me. That is because of the methods I use, the same methods so many people dislike cause they don't understand them.
- In three years I've been here, not once has a horse escaped. Seen places where escaping is a daily affair.
- I have 5 grazing camps, so each horse could potentially have his own camp for himself, but I prefer to have them all together as a heard and move them from camp to camp. Once the horses move out of a camp, the grass get 2 to 3 months time to grow before the horses move back into that camp.
- I like riding out and is always keen if you are looking for a riding partner. Though I haven't had the opportunity to ride out for a long time, cause none of my current boarders ride out much and riding alone is not fun, so you'll have to be a bit patient with me and my horse till we get used to it again.
I am working on improving my place, but all the work gets done by myself so it is taking a long time. So if you bring your horse to my place you'll have to except it for what it is
now and not for what it might be in the future. It will probably take me a lifetime to get all the things done I really would like to do.
