Since I've owned Gali, I've had him at five different barns. I've owned him for four years. It absolutely sucks to have to move around so much, and totally strengthens my desire to have my own place as soon as I possibly can.
First, he was at a place called Holly Tree. I learned to ride there, I was there for over a decade. Gali was there for just over a year. I don't mind saying the name publicly, nor do I mind saying how much of a shithole the farm became. The owner took in so many "rescue" horses and "project" horses, but even when working students got these scrappy horses in shape and doing great work, the owner refused to sell them. Absolutely refused. It was clearly an instance of animal hoarding. Several "boarders" had just left horses there, and the owner was totally cool with that. When a few racehorses came in to be trained, the owner poured all of her effort into those horses, feeding them well and making sure they got priority turnout, while Gali and Katie and all of the other dressage horses got fed "stretchy hay" when she couldn't feed them the correct amount of grain, and left their stalls in complete ruin. Leaving was the only option I had.
Second place was a gorgeous facility, beautiful fields, (mostly) great boarders, and a farm owner who went from the most generous, helpful person in the world to a slightly-manic, drama-creating guy in a matter of months. He didn't have a good reputation in the horse world, but we lasted there for almost two years before I got fed up with him talking behind my back to my friends and spreading rumors about me. At the same time that was uncovered, Gali went lame and I decided to give pasture boarding a shot, so I moved to farm #3.
I've written the most on this blog about Farm #3. I liked the fields, I loved the track, I loved my friends who boarded with me. Gali, however, wasn't happy. He didn't get along with his fieldmates, he just was gradually getting more and more grumpy. The farm was also far away, and I barely had time to see him. I didn't have any sort of control over his feed, which is something that bothers me, and when I found out the barn owner had him up to a ridiculously high amount of grain, I brought out a weight builder for him. She lectured me about how he's keeping weight fine and it's a pain in the ass to give him a supplement and that there's no such thing as Insulin resistance or Equine Metabolic Syndrome anyway, and I didn't know nearly as much as she did. I took the supplement home, wrote out a chart of what he was to get, put it in an easy container with an easy to use scoop, and brought it out again. She wasn't there when I would get there (late evenings, coming home from school), so I left a note saying "Hey, this is what I want done for Gali, this is why, this is what I did to make it easy for you. Thanks." Apparently, leaving a note was a bad idea. I got cursed out and the owner began ignoring me completely. I stayed for two months and was just uncomfortable there... so when a new farm opened up literally five minutes from my house, I moved Gali over.
Farm #4 was fantastic. The trainer was a great trainer. I was back taking weekly lessons. I could see my horse any day of the week, any time. The fields were great, he was happy, I was happy, the farm was exactly what I wanted. And then... the trainer decided she couldn't handle boarders anymore, and shut the farm down. It's a damn shame.
This past weekend, I moved Gali to farm #5. It's closer to school, and it has an indoor. The owners are very nice and seem to be very knowledgeable about horses. There are a few things that concern me, but out of the twenty-some farms I called and the five farms I looked at, it seems like the best fit for Gali and I while I finish up at Rutgers. There's an indoor, which means I have absolutely no excuse to not ride four days a week, every week. I hope he is happy, and I hope that he continues to settle in as well as he has been settling.
I'm proud of him - when I first moved to Holly Tree, he got loose, barged through my trainer and slammed into the indoor in a "wild horse!" fit. At farm #2, everybody thought he was insane because he nearly took down the fences and stall doors for at least a month. At farm #3, he ran like a lunatic for the first week, got loose the second week, and was a handful under saddle for the first month. At Farm #4, he was so herdbound that I had to ride him in a square pen or he'd bolt back to the barn for the first two weeks! And on Friday, he stepped off of the trainer... and dropped his head to graze. He settled into his temporary stall well, and I even hopped on him in the indoor. After a short w/t/c in both directions to show him the scary new things, he was barely puffing. He was relaxing and munching hay by the time I put all of my tack away. Maybe he's finally growing up.
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