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Discussion on Worst 'guest rider' evar let all the horses out
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Member:
stek
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Posted on Friday, Sep 11, 2009 - 11:12 am:
I got home from work last night to find all my horses had been let out by a guest of one of our boarders (who calls herself a trainer!!). Thank goodness the horses went left at the end of the driveway and onto our neighbor's property instead of right and out onto the road an beyond, and nobody appears to be hurt.
She had to make a special effort to let them out as every place a horse can be taken in our out of a field we have two gates with a 'holding area' in between. Apparently she let the first gate open, a horse slipped by her when she was bringing the horse she was to ride through the other gate, then she let the horse she was leading go to try and catch the loose one (?!?!), the two of them took off together and the remaining 4 horses freaked out and ran through the other gate which she had only half-closed.
Do I ban this person from riding on my property, or do I give her a second chance? I was too steamed last night to talk to her much, didn't want to say anything I didn't really mean. But I'm still not sure how to handle this...
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Member:
leslie1
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Posted on Friday, Sep 11, 2009 - 11:31 am:
LOL...Wow! Shes like manny, mo and curly all in one! Or Lucy Ricardo!
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Member:
canter
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Posted on Friday, Sep 11, 2009 - 1:02 pm:
Well, Shannon, you asked: Heck yes, ban her for life! This wasn't one simple mistake, it was sheer stupidity, over and over and over. Even a very careful person can have a horse slip through a gate, but to let the one go to catch the other is beyond words. And then to not double check gates before trying to round up the 2 loose horses??? This could have been a complete disaster. I would not want someone that careless/thoughtless around the barn. Thankfully, no-one was hurt, but had a horse been hit by a car, the potential for a lawsuit is huge. Never mind the emotional/financial damage of having a severely injured or killed horse.
I don't blame you for being steamed and commend you for your restraint in not giving her h*** at that time!
And if you want to give her a second chance, I would recommend that she not be allowed unless you are there...after you've given her a few pointers in careful horse handling and gate "management".
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Member:
pattyb
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Posted on Friday, Sep 11, 2009 - 1:03 pm:
LOLOLOLOL Leslie! That was goooooood!
It's your place Shannon....your place, your rules. What is it about some so called "trainers" that they can't handle being told what to do? I'd give her a second chance but I would be specific about the behavior you expect from anyone's guest...if she can't handle it, you don't need her there.
I have a trainer who lives near me and for the first two years, her horses would get out at night and come to my house to set off the outdoor alarm. I've lived here 17 years and have not once had my horses get out and go to someone else's house so, I've had to roll my eyes more than once wondering if I had a nitwit for a neighbor. This "trainer" was relying on one strand of electric wire to keep her horses in....... what an idiot.
Good luck Shannon.
PS: Leslie...my favorite Lucy episode was the one where the lawn mower took off with her and took her into town...then threw her neighbor's competition tulip beds.
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Member:
mrose
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Posted on Friday, Sep 11, 2009 - 2:43 pm:
I'm not laughing, Shannon. I've had similar things happen to me and it's not funny. Thank goodness we live at the end of a dirt road and not in town. If this was an "ordinary" boarder I wouldn't feel quite so harshly towards her as I would with her calling herself a "trainer." Some people just have absolutely no common sense and quite literally don't know enough to close the gate to keep a horse from walking through it. On the other hand, there are also those who have some grudge against you and do something like this to get even. I've had incidents with both types over the years....another reason I no longer have boarders. This person is obviously no real trainer! I'd have a talk with her, and I'd walk her through the gates and instruct her on the right way to removed horses without letting all the others out. I'd also ask her her opinion about what she could have done to prevent this..ie, quickly tie up one horse, shut a gate, how to catch a horse (bucket with grain,)etc. I'd also tell her that if this ever happens again, infact if there are any problems at all concerning her horse or her actions at your place, she is gone. Of course, to do all this without screaming and yelling is going to take more patience and control than I'd be able to exhibit. The minute I got the horses back in I'd be in her face. Good luck. I'm sure glad no one was hurt.
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Member:
shanson
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Posted on Friday, Sep 11, 2009 - 7:16 pm:
Wow... Was she sober? If not, I'd ban her.
If she was sober, I guess I'd make decision after talking to her and gauging her level of contrition, attitude about learning from her mistakes, and general mental competence. If she cops an attitude, ban her.
I'd also talk to the boarder who invited this "trainer" onto your property to ride. If the decision is to give trainer another chance, I wouldn't allow her on the property unsupervised for a while.
Was she there when you discovered this? What on earth did she have to say for herself?!?
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Member:
scooter
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Posted on Friday, Sep 11, 2009 - 11:17 pm:
YIKES finding your horses loose is one terrible feeling.
Shannon I think I would base my decision on how this "trainer" feels about it. If she is sorry and just had a duh day, and accepts full responsibility I would consider forgiving it.
Depending on the situation she might have just paniced and let the other horse go in hopes of catching the other one before it took off, as we know we can't run after a horse with another in tow. I can see myself doing that when paniced and not thinking. Unfortunately horses never adhere to our plans!
It really depends on the person, I know if I did something stupid like that it would NEVER happen again! But if she is trying to put the blame on your fencing or the horses I wouldn't have her back on my property.
Glad everything turned out well, that is one scary situation.
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Member:
pattyb
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Posted on Saturday, Sep 12, 2009 - 12:47 am:
All kidding aside.....she's a perfect example of why I don't board any horses here, especially if she cops an attitude when you talk to her. I have very little patience with certain situations and that would absolutely be one of them.
(((((Shannon)))))
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Member:
ajudson1
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Posted on Saturday, Sep 12, 2009 - 8:15 am:
I wouldn't make any decisions until talking to her, and waiting til the smoke clears (the smoke comin' outa your ears, lol!) It might have just been an "Oh S**T" moment when one thing went wrong, and then it just snowballed.
I have an interesting assortment of gates/alleys and what has to be hooked where, to keep the fences electric, can be confusing to someone not used to the set up.
And I have even made mistakes with leaving the doors & gates open. One night I came back from a ride when it was just about totally dark, only to find the other 3 horses grazing on the lawn! Where they could have run into the clothes lines, and, well, gotten clothes lined around their necks!
I had left both the inner and outer door open on Tango's stall, the big sliding doors open on the back of the barn, PLUS the gate of the round pen open. And I am the one always lecturing SHUT doors that you open, and shut GATES that you open.
So, yours was a scary situation, but no one got hurt.
Have horses? S*** Happens!
Let us know what her response is...I could be waay off base, and she may be a real ditz of course,
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Member:
dsibley
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Posted on Saturday, Sep 12, 2009 - 9:48 am:
My boarding contract states that boarders are responsible for their guests. In this situation, given the potential consequences, I might be inclined to tell the boarder that you just can't allow 'outsiders' to bring horses out of the turnouts. If the boarder wants a trainer to ride her horse, she needs to go get it. That way you aren't stuck babysitting, and you have taken measures to keep it from happening again.
From a legal perspective (no, I am not an attorney, but I slept at a Holiday Inn Express...hehe) what happened the first time would probably not be considered negligence on your part. However, if you do not take any measures to keep it from happening again and someone's horse is hurt, that might be a different story.
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Member:
pattyb
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Posted on Saturday, Sep 12, 2009 - 10:00 am:
Excellent points dieliz. From a legal stand point alone, not allowing guests in the pasture could go a looooong way into preventing an injury/lawsuit....especially when kids are involved. Kid takes friend in pasture to catch horse, someone else's horse spooks and runs over guest, land owners fault. Keeping them out of the pasture sounds like a really great idea.
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Member:
stek
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Posted on Saturday, Sep 12, 2009 - 12:46 pm:
Thanks for all the advice guys. We have only been boarding for a couple years and it has been an adventure already. I do like sharing our place with like-minded individuals, but unfortunately even with the best of intentions those carefully screened boarders can come with idiot trainers, farriers, etc.
I think I've decided to give this girl a second chance. She did appear to be genuinely sorry, and I think as you said Diane things just snowballed on her. I think her backwards logic for letting the horse she was leading go to catch the other was that she knew horse #1 pretty well and thought he would just start grazing and she'd be able to catch him again no problem.
I am working on updating our farm rules to include requirements that all new boarders and their guests go through a brief orientation with me to go over the safe horse handling practices we expect to be followed. This will apply to everyone who even so much as touches a lead rope or walks into a pasture. (I would love to make pastures off limits to guests but they have to go through our upper field to get out onto the trails at all).
We already have a rule that all guests need to sign a release of liability but I think going over things like how to safely bring a horse through a gate, how we expect horses to be led and tied, why it's not OK to leave your horse loose in an enclosure where others are tied (another disaster waiting to happen that for some reason I keep catching people doing) etc would be a good idea.
I will check back and let you know how the conversation with the 'trainer' goes, it will be an interesting one!
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Member:
scooter
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Posted on Saturday, Sep 12, 2009 - 1:50 pm:
Shannon I can't tell you how many times something like that happened when I worked at the boarding barn. It's not something I like to see, but when you are boarding, so many different people and horse personalitys things do happen.
One day when I was doing turnout I was taking a new horse that had arrived out, she was a BIG horse with not many ground manners. Full ID broodmare with very good bloodlines, said to be worth around $25,000.00. As I was taking her out one of the boarders made a heck of a racket next to us...25,000.00 horse got loose and took off galloping down the road . I know there is no catching a run away horse, asked my helper if he thought I'd get in trouble when said expensive horse was missing It is funny NOW! The horse finally got sick of running around, I was able to get her caught and in her pen after about an hour! But that was one horrible feeling when it was happening.
I did tell the barn owners what happened, and they weren't upset at all. (we didn't tell the owner tho) I can't tell you how many times down there that horses got loose when owners were bringing in their horses from turnout. They usually didn't go to far, but getting them caught up again was nightmare. It got to the point that I usually went and got the horses in that anybody wanted or at least went along with the owner to make sure all gates were closed and a tricky horse didn't try to slip out when the gate was open. Making up some rules and maybe having a buddy system when fetching a horse in may help.
My horses got out once where I used to rent, because someone left a gate open....130AM phone call, Do you have 4 bay horses...YES...they are galloping through everyones yard. I about fainted, we couldn't find them anywhere when we got out there, it was such a horrible feeling. I tracked them with a flashlight....they had traveled miles!!! Long story, but sh$$ does happen even if we don't like it. All we can do is try to make it so it doesn't happen again....most people learn after the have had one escapee.
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