Saturday, January 4, 2014

Five Reasons I Love Boarding with Other People

I am only human (go figure) and occasionally get frustrated in the fashion others approach situations.

But I wanted to be positive today, so here we go.

Five Reasons I Love Boarding with Other People

1.  Collective wisdom.  Have that nagging feeling about a subtle lameness?  Instant people to help watch, check, or even video so I can see.  Want to know if those breeches really do look weird, since my husband would only admit that under oath of certain death.

2.  Motivation.  I find it much more palatable to be out riding at the barn at an unholy hour in the morning to beat the summer heat or even to go out to the barn when it's incredibly unpleasant if I am meeting up and riding with someone else.

3.  Ability to have group lessons.  I enjoy being able to visualize how others process information and how it affects his or her horse.  Plus the whole group lessons are cheaper thing.  ;)

4.  Helpful eyes.  More people in and out to notice if my horse is laying down or acting abnormal.  Horse have a remarkable way of getting into trouble and short of putting a camera on them 24/7, more eyes is quite helpful.

5.  Social outlet.  Talking horses at work isn't exactly a popular topic and anytime I mention horses to my husband I think he sees the bank account dwindling, so I try and enjoy using the barn folks as my social horsey outlet.  Let's share horsey news, grieve over sad horse related things, and so forth.  Granted, the internet has been a fantastic medium for this as well, but local news is also important and interesting.

So there you go.  Do you board?  Enjoy aspects of having other people around?  Or do you have horses at home and enjoy solitude?

8 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Of course. I find anytime there's a large number of people with free time, there seems to be drama. No shortage of it in the workplace either, it seems.

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  2. I am boarding right now, for the next 2 weeks anyways. And have at various places for the last 5 years. I'm going to say it: I'm OCD. About my house and my horse. I want a clean house, done may way. And I want my horse taken care of my way, I am happy to do it myself! I really have to shut my mouth when I am boarding, and remind myself that while it isn't how I would do it, it's fine (most of the time, have had a couple major issues).

    All that said however, I do enjoy the social aspect of "going to the barn" but I am so used to riding alone. All the barns I have boarded at, I either was the only one (family friend didn't ride much), or I don't ride at the "popular" times becuase I go early afternoon while my kids nap (my husband works from home). I am perfectly fine riding alone, and a lot of times, I prefer it. I can get what needs to be done, done easier. I understand people get inerested on how I train, but sometimes I don't want to explain the how's and why's. And I get tempted to ride other horses, because I love to figure them out, but it's not something I need to do right now. Both from a "not getting paid for it" standpoint, and I really don't need to get hurt, I've got kids to take care of!

    So I have decided I would rather just have him at home and just deal with the no arena thing. This way I can step right outside and swtich his blanket, or toss him a snack, or know exactly what he is doing. We are setting up a pen and bringing Goose, and a horse I am buying to keep him company, home on the 19th or so. I am SO EXCITED! The pen won't be much for now, because we have a LOT of work to do on this house and property. But it will work until spring or so when we can get outside figured out more.

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    1. Have fun keeping him at home!

      I would love to have horse property, however, I feel that I would never get riding done, since there is always so much to do in the house, outside, and so forth.

      The peace of mind would be nice though, but I have faith my superstar barn manager.

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  3. I've always done rough board so I get to take care of my own horse, but still deal with barn drama. At my current place we're in a co-op which I've done before but the girls I've boarded with and I are NEVER on the same page which gets pretty annoying. For the first time with this new crew, I'm at ease with my horse and who's taking care of him when I'm not there. We all work together and I have to say... It's amazing.

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    1. It's amazing isn't it?

      I ended up leaving one barn which switched to a co-op type setting as I was in graduate school at the time and didn't have a good schedule for that, but even boarding at "full care" which in my case, is having horses rough boarded, but still being hayed/grained/etc, an individual still has to trust management to do the right thing and keep a close eye on the herd.

      But how great to find a place where everyone is all on the same page with horse care and standards.

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  4. Social outlet is huge to me. I spend so much time at the barn, I'd like to do it with people I enjoy being around!

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  5. All my friends are horse-related. Pretty sure if I didn't board, I'd widely be considered a hermit!

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Please leave a comment if you like. I love hearing from readers and would like to know that I am not always talking to myself. ;)