Well, well, well, look who decided to write a blog past after an almost three year hiatus. Hi! It’s me! I’m the problem!

Anyway, life updates are for another post, this post is strictly for my horse girlies who still get information by reading (horse girlies is a non-age discriminatory term. I don’t care if you’re 80. You’re a horse girly).

I moved cities last February (Exciting! Stressful!) and moving my boy with me wasn’t even a question in my mind. But this was the first time I’d ever had to actually find a boarding barn. When I first bought Gangster I lived 2 miles from the boarding facility my good friend’s family owned. There wasn’t a single thought that went into where I’d board. When I moved to Portland, I toured 5 different barns, selected one, and then toured 2 more barns and moved him to a different barn after three months at the first spot. Thus, I have thoughts. And advice.

Unlike the recipe bloggers who tell you their whole life story before getting to the ingredient list, no more preamble, here’s my list of advice on what to consider when looking for a new boarding barn:

1. Make a wish list of your top desires. Is it proximity to where you live or work? Is it turn-out options or arena size and footing quality? (I see you barrel racers and reiners!). Perhaps you have a pasture ornament and all you need is pasture-board and knowing your senior citizen is well cared for. Whatever you’re looking for, write it out and think about it ahead of time. Then when you start touring places you have a list to look at to consider how many wish list items each barn checks off. I gave up on the barn commute being 30 minutes or less in favor of a spot that had everything else I wanted.
2. Gather names of facilities that seem to have what you’re looking for. I recommend Facebook searches, checking out Facebook boarding groups for your area, recommendations from your area feed store as well as good ol’ Google. If you call a place and find out they’re full, ask about a waitlist. If the waitlist is on the longer side (both good signs) ask them who they’d recommend. Word of mouth recommendations from full barns with wait lists are legit. This is exactly how I found my dreamy boarding barn.
3. Call ahead! Talk to the owners or managers before taking a trip out. Ask about items on your wish list. If the barn doesn’t have something that’s a non-negotiable for you (for me it was stall runs, turn out, and an arena) there’s no point in wasting your gas. Additionally, the conversation will clue you in, at least partly, to who will be taking care of your horse and their communication style. I looked at one facility in which I never met the property owner. The grounds manager, while kind and friendly, really couldn’t say much about a sense of community between boarders,  and didn’t really even talk to me during my tour. I walked around that barn at 11am on a Saturday morning. It was a ghost town. No thank you. I have enough ghosts haunting me in dating. Even if you love quiet rides, having a community at the barn is pretty important. I put a line through that barn.
4. Creep on social media for the scuttlebutt. Gawd I really find social media gross these days, but dang if those Facebook boarding groups aren’t perfect places to get the tea. And I don’t mean out-and-out shit talking, I mean subtle clues that tell you what you need to know. One facility I was thinking of touring had been purchased by non-horse people, and while they were cleaning up the property, they weren’t knowledgeable about horse care. I know I’m preaching to the choir here but horses are weirdly fragile creatures who find endlessly creative ways to injure themselves. I had no interest in playing the odds of non-horsefolk caring for my animal. Didn’t even tour that spot. Look for what people don’t say as well. Subtle cues that their experience hasn’t been great, and then hit them up privately to ask their opinion. Yelp also has barn reviews (Only recently discovered this! Type in “Horse Boarding” to speed up the search and skip over dog/cat boarding etc). If you know a farrier or two in the area, ask their opinions as well.
5. Tour!
   • Look at the hay! Does it look like cow hay? Can they tell you what it is and where they got it and if they get it consistently? What’s their plan if your horse is a hard keeper and their hay isn’t enough?
   • Look at stalls! Are they clean? How much shavings do they put down –important if there’s no run and your horse is standing around all day. What do the water buckets look like? Clean? Full? Good signs!
   • Look at horses without blankets! Why am I saying this? Because it’s a lesson I learned myself. Had I been paying attention, I might have noticed that the horses at one facility looked lean. Leaner than I keep my horse. Also, stalls without even a stem of hay left over is a bad sign they’re tight with the forage. Not a good fit if your sweetheart is a hard keeper or big ol’ eater.
   • Look at general condition of property! (Sick of exclamation points yet??) and check out the arena. Ask how frequently they work their arena. One property I toured told me their tractor had been broken for 3 months…thus, the arena hadn’t been worked in at least that long. In a facility of 40 horses this was a shock. But their boarders were primarily trail riders. My reining horse needs are different. I also recommend asking what events they put on and how they’ve handled previous boarder issues. You want a spot that feels like you fit in, that if there’s an issue it can be discussed, that you are joining a community, not just purchasing a 12×12 ft square of property every month. The point is for the facility to be a place of respite and fun. If it feels like Alcatraz instead of Churchill downs, keep looking. Dramatic, I know. Most of us can’t afford the swankiest facilities out there. But when it’s cold and rainy and January depression has set in, you want to make sure the barn is worth the drive.

Best of luck in your search for a barn. Don’t forget, you’re not a tree, if you end up somewhere you don’t like, you can move! Which is exactly what I had to do after 3 months at a spot that just didn’t feel right. I know it costs a little bit of money and effort, but truly, this takes up such a significant part of our lives, where we board is just as important as who we take lessons from and almost as important as the horse himself (or herself for you mare lovers).

And if you’re curious and in the Portland area…I board at Tamarind Ranch. Please don’t stalk me 😉