Day 8 - About the Barn

Day 08- A little about the barn/stable you ride at

From Clover Ledge Farm

I ride at home! This has been a dream come true for me and it took some sacrifice to get here. If you want to know more about the farm than what I talk about in this post, please go to my farm blog at Firefly Ranch!

I chose the name Firefly because we're big fans of the show by the same name (It's where we got Kaylee's name, after all). And then our first summer here we were just swarmed by fireflies. The sky is lit up and sparkling all early summer. It's magical.

The property is on 5 acres in southeastern Michigan, minutes from Metamora Hunt Country.  The majority of the property is pasture with three different areas for rotation. There is a 3 stall barn, hay storage, a tack/feed room and a grooming stall. There is a small sand arena that was professionally put in by the previous owners and drains like a dream. Each stall has its own run off the barn, with an overhang, though I need to suss out why the overhang roof is leaking right now. Grrr.

The house is gigantic with a partially finished basement, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths with wonderful vaulted ceilings in the master bedroom, living and dining room. The first time we toured a house in this town, I knew that's where I wanted to be. The original house we saw sold before we were ready to make offers, but then we toured this house and I fell in love. It was still available when we were ready to buy.

Picture from when we went to look at it on a cold late winter/early spring day

Back of the house

The hill in the winter pasture

Stall

Hay Storage

When we went back to do an informal walk through with the owners so they could tell me about everything since they'd set up the horse stuff on this property. Early Summer.

Sand arena

Grooming stall though lately I use it for storage

Plus hitching post!

I've managed to keep the pastures nice, though the winter one could use some improvement. They're good enough that I don't bother feeding hay in the late spring, summer and early fall. It keeps feed costs nice and low. I feel a bit bad though because the property is not as nice as when we got it, but the previous owner literally ran her business out of this property and this was her job. I'm hoping to add more property maintenance in now that Hazel is older.

We do have a big hill (Big for this area of Michigan, lol) so Gwyn maintains a bit of fitness walking up and down it. I'll lunge on the hill for extra oomph and go up and down it while riding. I've set up a small cavaletti in the front pasture and hope to add more. It has the most maneuverability and decent enough footing to be a grass jump field. Otherwise, I'm limited by how the property is set up with the jumps I can have.

I really love this place. It's small and just the right size for us. The commute is a killer to where jobs are, but we had to make a tradeoff in commute time, affordability, and availability of horse property.

Jealousy

I just read someone's recap of a clinic they attended.

Now I really want to get back to taking regular riding lessons. That longing just reignited.  Now to find a place to lesson at.

4 more houses

The first one was the only good one. Favorite house remains favorite house, by far and away. The barn was even better than I had hoped and the outdoor riding ring is elevated so it drains nicely. In fact, despite there being standing water on other parts of the property, the ring looked dry. There are several pastures plus gravel runs out of each of the three stalls. Everything is fenced with electrobraid and it looks in good condition.

Discouraged with this house hunting thing already and we've barely started

Even though this deals with househunting, I'm posting it in the horsey blog because it's more relevant, I think.

Barn Decided and Shipping Scheduled!

Gwyn will be spending April working twice a week with a trainer at Shadows. That should keep her occupied and busy so she doesn't just get flabby. The shipper is tentatively scheduled for April 19th for pick up. I'm trying not to think about it. I used the same company that brought her from Florida to Washington because I had a good experience and I liked the price.

The barn she'll be going to is Hummingbird for sure. It feels like the right decision.

I scheduled Toby Ewing out for a vet visit on Thursday to get everything squared away for her travel. So he'll be at Shadow's tomorrow and once I have a more permanent date set they'll fill out the health certificate.

I'll have Gwyn with me before her birthday in May. YAY.

Now this stupid weather just needs to improve. I miss flowers and green prettiness. I'm going stir crazy with nothing to do.

Hummingbird Equestrian and Training for Gwyn

I had gone for a drive past Blue Ribbon on Monday because it was supposed to be up in the 50s. None of the horses were turned out. I had an immediate sinking feeling. On my drive back to the house I saw a sign for a boarding barn that I didn't remember before (despite it being on a fairly major road). I called and on Tuesday the owner returned my call and we set up a time for me to come out Wednesday morning.

It turns out, I remember the facility from December because it still had a For Sale sign! It looked nice and I bemoaned the fact that it was no longer on the market to Eric. It had already sold by then and they only got the sign at the end of January, so my confusion at not remembering the place totally makes sense now!!

Anyway, this was a GREAT facility. The owner was nice and down to earth. It's not huge, that big building is both stalls and an indoor arena. I'll describe more of the visit with each picture. 

The barn with two aisles of stalls. The indoor is past all the stalls. Some stalls have windows, some do not, but it's nice, light and airy inside.

The property sits on over 100 acres. All the way back to that tree line. It will be a hay field but you can ride on the edges. 

Wash rack. Too cold to wash anything but muddy blankets right now.

Grooming and tacking area. No cross ties, but very much a social/central spot to be.

Indoor. Nice sand footing and a square arena. Apparently it had been used for cutting horses previously. 

Tack room. This is overflowing and she'll likely convert a stall on the other side to more storage.

The unfilled side of the barn (lots of open stalls!) with wash rack. The stall next to the wash rack is going to be more tack. Also feed stuff and barn supplies.

The occupied side of the barn. See? Nice and airy. Big stalls too.

Paddocks. Horses are out all day (YESSSS). Pastures are rotated. Horses are in small groups of 2-6 depending on temperament. No mare/gelding strict splits.

Shelters in the paddocks.

From the road.

Biggest herd group. Happy, fat horses. They get hay out in the pastures and lots of hay morning and night. 

This has become my newest top contender. It sounds like the age group is older lady and the owner is there as her main job doing the work too. That always bodes well in my mind. I could definitely be happy there for a couple months while we house hunt and get our own property ready.


In other news, I contacted Beth back at Shadows to see if she could fit a couple training rides on Gwyn in a few times a week. So now Gwyn will be ridden by a trainer 2x a week until she moves. Hurray! Beth also said she'd be present for the pick up day when Gwyn gets loaded into the trailer to come to Michigan. Knowing someone is there who can read my horse and report back how it went makes me feel SO much better about this whole thing.

Now it's time to decide on a barn, set up shipping and schedule the vet to come out to get the health certificate and make sure Gwyn is caught up on everything so she can travel!

3 Barn Visits

On Saturday I visited 3 potential boarding barns near Algonac. The first barn we visited was spur of the moment, and only 15 minutes away.

Blue Ribbon Stables

Pretty big facility with a nice big indoor arena. Surprisingly, no one was there on Saturday except the daughter of the owner and her father who was dragging the indoor. There's lots of turnout, an outdoor arena and trails on property. It's 350/month, so definitely cheaper than what I pay now. The horses looked to be in good condition and nothing gave me the heebie jeebies. Currently it's at the top of my list.

Mac Erin Equestrian Center

Just about as big as Blue Ribbon but 35 minutes away. Smaller indoor, two outdoor arenas and a round pen. No trails. More expensive board. I liked it, but when I can get the same for cheaper and closer I put it lower on the list.

Across the Street from Mac Erin

A run down, tiny barn with future trails and a trainer. Indoor as well, no outdoor that I noticed unless it was in back. One side of the aisle has a very low roof on the stalls, Gwyn would need to be on the indoor side to have the height for safety. The trainer was showing off her never raced OTTB who was skinny and had no topline to speak of. It was awful. I thought she was telling me the mare was recently off the track. No. 10 years. She's had the horse 10 years. I played polite and made my way out. I was considering her barn for the training potential with Gwyn, but I don't want her working incorrectly with a trainer to lose top line. Oh I was so grossed out.  So that's off the list. I also sent a message to Jim and told him thank you for giving me a discerning eye.

Jim recommended a trainer, but I looked him up and that guy gets the same weird reviews that a trainer in Washington did, basically that they're kooky and to avoid them.


I was contacted by Pfeiffer Farms, which would be top of my budget at $550 but includes 2 training rides a month at a Hunter/Jumper barn that winters in Florida (LOL).  That would be nice, but maybe I'll just trailer in for lessons there rather than do training board.

I think I might aim for beginning of May arrival date for Gwyn, just to keep it consistent for when I tend to move her cross country. This gives me time to set up a vet appointment for a coggins and health certificate and schedule the shippers. Blue Ribbon is unlikely to not have space, in fact their full period is in the winter when locals move their horses to a place that has an indoor. By May most of them will have gone home. So I'll be losing some community aspect, but it's not a huge deal.

I just want to have my car (tomorrow or Thursday!) so I can start searching on my own and get out of the house.

Barn Search: Chartier Stables

This is an unfortunate post. While we were in Michigan I had been recommended a boarding stable that I was subsequently excited to check out. I'll just add in my hindsight thought process as I write this. It might be easier.

It was hard to get a hold of anyone in charge of the boarding situation. They had just added a new website and had an information form. I submitted a query there. Never heard a thing. I tried emailing the addresses listed on the website and my emails were bounced back. I tried calling. Never got called back. Finally, I messaged them on facebook because at least there was activity on their page.

This should have been my first big clue that maybe things were off. And honestly, I was annoyed that it took so much effort on my part to get a response, after all, wouldn't they want my business? (HA) We finally arranged a date on 12/26 in the morning to meet at the barn.

The 26th started off horribly. I was coming down with a cold, but with no medicine in the house where we were staying, I tried taking an Emergen-C to ease my symptoms a little. Turns out I am extremely sensitive to Vitamin B12, especially when it's 5000% of your daily value. I could. not. sleep. It was awful, I was crying I was so tired and exhausted.  As a result, I was in no condition to drive the next day so we all went.

When we arrived, no one was there. Flag 2. I tried calling but didn't get an answer. We decided to tour ourselves. We had been expected, so I didn't think like that would be out of turn.

The outdoor arena. A little soppy but not flooded.

We toured counterclockwise around the facility. From the aerial views I had seen on google maps I could identify most everything. What I thought was a super nice round pen had a horse turned out in it and was crazy muddy. There was a smaller round pen and mud everywhere.

The viewing room/party room that they rent out.

There had been a car in the driveway when we arrived and I thought it was the person we were meeting but I never saw them and by the time we made it around the property that car was gone. The indoor arena was nice enough and there was an indoor bathroom and kitchen in the lounge room.

Indoor arena.

Horses on pasture board. There was one run in shed that was 36 feet long (guesstimate) and lots of trees but nothing else

The farm sits on 300 acres and apparently the pasture boarded horses are out on that acreage. There was a ton of farm equipement in the field and the field itself looked muddy as well. I know mud sometimes can't be helped, but I thought they could probably do some better pasture management.

Apparently, they grow their own hay across the street and just feed the horses from that and will, in the winter, just loosely collect the hay and not bother baling it, and just dump it into the pasture for everyone to fight over. That explained the skinny horses I saw. There was no consideration for feeding all the horses, it was just a free for all.

Skinny pasture boarded horse, another flag.

Stalls with runs. They were gross and muddy (and on the north side so no sun in the winter)

Nicer stalls with runs that would get afternoon sun.

When the girl finally arrived to show me around (as we were bundling back up into the car) I learned some fun stuff.  The barn that I liked the most, and would have paid more for, was only available to the Chartier Family. They used to run a livery stable and have over 100 stalls. Now they keep the farm to stable the family horses and the boarders are an afterthought. I'm not assuming on this point, mind you, she outright told me that they only have the boarders to cover the taxes from the other businesses the family owns. They have their own barn so they can 'get away' from everyone and have a private space.

I think I was too exhausted to really grasp what was going on, at this point. I was just walking through the barn in a state of disbelief with this nagging feeling that I couldn't trust that Gwyn was being taken care of at this barn.

Nicer stall on the nicer run.

Chickens in a nice stall.

Price list. They nickel and dime you.

Strange stalls that weren't in use but could be 'day use' for pasture board clients.

Because they are in terrible condition.

The boarding barn stalls. Decorated for christmas.

None of these stalls were clean. None of them. The excuse was that it was the holidays and don't I understand? They only clean stalls 6 days a week and give their cleaner the 7th day off and the family turns up to do the 7th day. But...  then which day off was the cleaner on, and technically this wasn't the holiday anymore, so shouldn't they have coverage for their stall cleaners?

I was out at Shadows on Christmas Eve helping them clean stalls so that they could go home and celebrate with family. Shadow's staff is out there EVERY DAY regardless of holiday, to take care of our animals.

Stall out onto the awful runs. Nothing is cleaned at 10 in the morning.

Cinderblock large stall.

The barns available for the boarders were awful. They had low ceilings and were in a crazy state of disrepair. I thanked the girl who gave me the tour and left and told Eric that I was not going with them.

I had this sinking feeling the whole time I was on property. If Gwyn was there I'd be out there every day making sure she was getting fed and being taken care of. I guarantee I'd end up cleaning her stall too because I obviously don't trust that it's going to get done after seeing what I did. And then, what am I paying for? She'd be ankle deep in mud there, and she isn't now, in the PNW in the middle of winter, when mud reigns supreme.

I sent a text to my barn owners telling them how much I loved them, and visiting other facilities really made Shadow's shine.

As we drove around the area, doing more things, I finally realized why I was so uneasy. Chartier does not put their customer first. The customer is an afterthought. They don't matter. The newest building was for the family's use. There were no obvious improvements made to anything. It all looked run down. It was worse than Charlottewood (my first boarding experience), which is saying something.

Either way, I'm not bringing Gwyn there. I'd rather have her thousands of miles away under the care of people I trust.

Frustrating things that are out of my control

I took a look at a barn on Friday as a temporary place to keep Gwyn after we move to Michigan.

You know how sometimes you get a vibe, whether about a person or a place? This place had a vibe. It was not a good vibe. So that's a setback. But as we've been driving all over Michigan looking at the houses on our Zillow list, I've been noting potential boarding barns.

Worst case scenario, Gwyn stays with people I trust until I have a house and land to support a horse and I deal with a severe horse withdrawal (Eric has promised me a YMCA membership if this arises).

It would also be a big bummer for the Distance Derby because that's potentially months where I'm not putting in miles on horseback. I didn't intend to be competitive mileage wise, but I was hoping to at least make a good effort and be held accountable.

Everything is still so up in the air it's frustrating. I want to know how much our house sells for so I can really search for houses out here and potentially buy so I can get Gwyn out ASAP.

I did get a quote back from Bob Hubbard. The trip from WA to MI routes through California, which makes frustrating sense because the passes are awful this time of year on I-90. But it makes the price about 2500, more than when I moved her from Florida. Ugh.

The place I used 3.5 years ago has since gotten some negative reviews online and it makes me hesitant to use them again even though I had a good experience. What would you do? I might still get the quote.