Sometimes I wonder if there are any normal barns in Florida. I have boarded and rode at a lot of places, and the owner always ends up being crazy in some way. At first we thought it was Americans, but then we boarded at this British ladies place and nope, no difference. The first stable was the craziest, so let me tell you the story...
This was the first barn I ever took lessons at properly. The lady seemed nice enough at first, except for her spoiled, snotty-nosed three year old boy who cussed and behaved horribly. I have never seen a kid like him. I get shivers when I remember that boy. Anyways, I rode there for about a year as a beginner, before we realized the owner was crazy. She smoked in the stable, right in front of the horses noses, her husband was an alcoholic and she made me (a beginner) ride untrained ponies. She basically kept hoarding "fancy" ponies, for me to ride at shows, but they were not rideable by me, and she didn't have any other students my age, so they were just pasture horses. There were a couple nice ponies and horses there that I liked, but no, they weren't "fancy" enough for shows. When we finally had the sense to move out of the stable, she wouldn't give us back our horse that we boarded there, nor any of our tack. We had to haul a sheriff there to deal with the situation. We got our horse and tack back, but she gave us the wrong saddle. A cheaper one and worse fitting than our old one. We never got the real saddle back.
This was the first barn I ever took lessons at properly. The lady seemed nice enough at first, except for her spoiled, snotty-nosed three year old boy who cussed and behaved horribly. I have never seen a kid like him. I get shivers when I remember that boy. Anyways, I rode there for about a year as a beginner, before we realized the owner was crazy. She smoked in the stable, right in front of the horses noses, her husband was an alcoholic and she made me (a beginner) ride untrained ponies. She basically kept hoarding "fancy" ponies, for me to ride at shows, but they were not rideable by me, and she didn't have any other students my age, so they were just pasture horses. There were a couple nice ponies and horses there that I liked, but no, they weren't "fancy" enough for shows. When we finally had the sense to move out of the stable, she wouldn't give us back our horse that we boarded there, nor any of our tack. We had to haul a sheriff there to deal with the situation. We got our horse and tack back, but she gave us the wrong saddle. A cheaper one and worse fitting than our old one. We never got the real saddle back.
The second stable we went to was a lot calmer, and the owner wasn't necessarily crazy, but she was full of herself. Boarders weren't allowed to ride their horses unless you payed for a lesson from her. She charged $75! I mean, I know some really advanced dressage riders who offer lessons for $65, in fact, I have a trainer who charges that much, but the owner of this stable is just an ordinary hunter jumper girl. The next stable owner was a little weird. She was nice and all, but she talked a lot about how she competed in high level dressage when she was younger, but she was afraid of riding, and she kept buying all these nice horses and was planning all these show careers for them, but she was too afraid to ride them, and asked her boarders to do it.
The last barn owner was British, so we thought it would be a change, yet we were wrong. My previous riding instructor, who was also my Au Pair, was training a horse there. She was a good rider, but she got an even more experienced rider to be her instructor. The new trainer then spread false information to the horses owner, saying that my instructor wasn't able to train the horse, and that she was afraid to canter, which is not true. My trainer has trained tons of horses before. Sorry this might have seemed like a rant, but I just had to get this out of my system. The stable I board at now though seems fine, and I quite like
