Cob Jockey

For the first time in years, our little barn is full again. All thanks to this guy.

 

He's a 12.2hh Icelandic, which really rounds out our Breeds of the World thing we have going on. We now have an Icey, two Welsh Cobs, a Paint, a Paint/Morgan Cross, an Arabian and a Thoroughbred. Quite an eclectic mix for a boarding barn, and I love it.

 

So far, he's been a joy to have around. He eats almost nothing, is sensible in group turnout, and he makes me "Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" every time I see him. 

The addition of his owner also means that each of us are only taking 2-3 feeding/turnout shifts per week. Since I've done as much as 7 and averaged 4 over the years, this feels like heaven. I feed this morning, then I feed on Wednesday this week, and I don't feed again until the following Monday. What?

Introductions were done over the top strand electric fence, and Leah's Pyro was the only one that got shocked, surprise surprise.

 

I put him on the other side of Disco from Connor, and I wasn't sure how that was going to go. Disco's a chill guy, but a gelding he's never met before sharing a wall (solid at the bottom but bars all the way across at the top) with him could have been asking a lot.

But not only did they share a wall the first night, they gave themselves a whole ass window and had each others heads hanging into their stalls, and they were both fine.

I had tried to pre-empt this with twine the first night before I could run out to get more pipe clamps, but Disco was one step ahead of me

More than fine, actually, as I often find them hanging out next to each other even after I fixed their pipes to where Disco can't knock them out anymore (his favorite activity since he was a baby). So, I guess that was good practice for my stallion being in show stabling someday.

With that, we are well and truly full, not the pretend full I always say that we are so that I get some breathing room on screening applicants (a trick I learned from my previous trainer that I have to say is genius, especially when you're running a co-op, which not every owner or horse will be a good fit for). Seven horses, five people.

New guy grazing with his friend? Pyro

 

It seems hard to believe, but we are coming up on the co-op's third anniversary.

"You know," my barn owner said on the second anniversary, "I didn't say this at the time, but I had some real doubts about whether this arrangement would work or not. To my surprise, it really has worked out well for everyone."

 

He wasn't the only one with doubts. For a panicked month that year after my trainer announced she was getting out of the business, I wracked my brain for a solution - we had a facility, we had a non-horsey BO, we had a group of ladies who had only ever full boarded, we had no trainer, and we didn't have enough economy of scale (or money) to hire help at only 7 stalls.

Eventually I fought through the lizard brain panic and created a chore-sharing model that has worked incredibly well, and one that I think more barns around the country could adopt rather than paying criminally low wages to staff or closing entirely. 

In three years, we have had no missed shifts and no drama, both of which I am quite proud of. And it's in large part due to how well that model has worked that I finally gained the confidence to buy the place, so in that respect, the co-op has been life-changing for me. 

I could never run a 20 acre/7 stall/2 ring facility by myself, but with this group of women around me and with no one person being overloaded by chores, it feels sustainable in a way even full boarding never did, with its constant dance to find and keep good help.

So I want to (finally) share the details of how our co-op works in the hopes that maybe it will help some other desperate, lizard-brain-panicked googler someday. I am going to write this out in as much detail as possible, so it will look like a lot, but keep in mind that in effect it makes for about 10 minutes of chores for each person each day, and 30 minutes of chores per person 3-4 times per week.

Note: this post is so long, you may need to click "Read More" below to see the full post.

After a long winter of having three horses and just two of us in the co-op, Leah and I were certainly ready for some extra sets of hands. But that didn't mean we just wanted anyone off the street to join the co-op. This boarding model isn't for everyone, and we have to really know and trust those we entrust with our horses.

So I was delighted when within the span of two weeks, we suddenly found ourselves with five horses and four humans, which is a sweet spot for us. And not only that, they were humans we know and trust: Deb, and my college friend, Tricia.

She, uh, LOVES orange, lol.

Tricia and I have known each other for almost 20 years at this point, and last year she relocated back to the Midwest, specifically choosing to live close enough to my barn to join the co-op. But she temporarily left her 17 year old OTTB where he was on the other side of the country, working off his board by dutifully giving H/J lessons and great trips at shows to a bunch of barn rats.

He is kind of awesome.

 

He was arriving via a trailer too long to fit up my barn's winding, hilly driveway, so we had to meet him after his multi-day cross-country trip and hope he would walk onto my 1H in Walmart's parking lot. As I told his owner, I had Plan A, B, C, and D, with Plan D being her riding him the mile home down the shoulder of the state highway.

(Side note: COULD NOT be more impressed with CTS Equine Transport. The custom-built air-ride rig was immaculate, the owner/driver was a smart guy who absolutely loves his job, and he went well out of his way for the sake of the horse's welfare, even when he didn't need to. Will definitely give them a call when Disco comes home.)

But - bless a good OTTB - I needn't have worried, as he just walked right off one trailer and onto another without even stopping to sniff it. And his introduction to everyone else at my barn went just as smoothly. We are so blessed that the two newest guys at the barn might just be the best behaved out of everyone on the property, lol.

Magnum's first time seeing grass in 6 years! Our whole herd is acclimating slowly in 15 minute increments this month.

I couldn't be happier to have both horse and owner in the barn. He's sweet, easy to handle, and gets along with everyone without asserting himself. And Tricia has jumped right in on chores and picking up extra work when one of us was sick.

And with that, we are basically "full", with five stalls filled with horses, one stall being used for hay (and oh my goodness I am so loathe to put hay back up in the loft again, so I want to keep it that way!) and one stall that will be Disco's when he comes home late this year or early next year. "Full" barn, and full heart.

As of this month, we're celebrating one year as a co-op.

A recent Sunday morning on the farm

At our June monthly co-op meeting, I mentioned the anniversary and that I was still sometimes amazed at how smoothly it had gone. The barn owner laughed and said, "I'm amazed too, I didn't know if this was going to work out at first, but it really has!"

It's not just amazing that it worked at all: it's amazing that it worked so well. This has been the smoothest year of boarding I've ever had. Certainly the most work as well, but never so much work that it felt like I couldn't get away. 

 

My mom doing stalls on Christmas morning

In that year, not a single shift has been missed. Service complaints have been minimal, and when they happen they're something benign like someone left Shoo Fly Leggings on a horse inside when they should've been off. We've seamlessly dealt with 10 day vacations, multiple unexpected week-long absences due to family emergencies, extreme weather, holidays and business trips, and never missed a beat.

Waiting for the hay guy on my day off this week

 

Even drama has been at nearly zero. We had one moment where something could've gotten petty, but instead of letting it happen, I set a firm precedent that we are not going to use me (the co-op manager) to hide behind rather than directly sharing valid complaints and thoughts with the group. Direct and honest communication is what makes this co-op work, and I'm going to preserve it fiercely.

This isn't something we HAVE to do, but sometimes the BOs can't keep up with the landscaping and I take it upon myself to help out

 

The top picture to the bottom picture took me an hour!

I think for me the biggest lesson here is that with the right group of people and the right motivations, this might be the most sustainable boarding model of all, at least in this economy. I've seen so many full care facilities close around here recently for various reasons. I've seen so much drama boarding over the years. I've seen so many entitled boarders ask for truly ridiculous demands. 

And we have almost none of that, because we all have skin in the game of keeping the facility open and running smoothly. If one boarder asks for a change that will impact all of us, we discuss it and agree to it, or if there's disagreement we figure out a compromise. It just works.

Neatly organized feed room from last fall

This post is long enough, but sometime soon I'm going to make a list of all the things that did and didn't work in the first year of our co-op, since I've had readers come to me for ideas. Am I an expert, no, but I did write our model and have a year of experience under my belt at this point, which I think is worth sharing.

 

After 9.5 years of full care boarding, I suddenly find myself managing a modified co-op. How did THAT happen? 

Our stall cleaner quit in mid-May, and finding someone new was challenging. My barn has incredible amenities, but the fact that it's only 7 stalls means the economies of scale in terms of paying someone are just not there. So we went co-op, with the BO's encouragement and blessing. 

Hydrangeas are killing it this year #lazygardener

 

I know these situations can end badly, but I've boarded with my fellow boarders for several years now. We all approach horse ownership the same way, we're all very detail-oriented, we're all engineers (lol), we all live less than 10 minutes from the barn, and we all want the same thing out of the co-op: to have a high standard of care without any of us feeling like we're so tied down we can't get away.

 

In case anyone else finds themselves in this situation, here's the high-level overview of our rules:

• Each boarder is responsible for doing their own stall(s) every day
  
• If you can't or don't want to do your own stall, you pay someone else $5 per stall to do it
• As a condition of boarding, each boarder picks up 3 to 4 AM or PM feeding and turnout/bring in shifts per week
  
• BO will continue to provide hay, grain and do anything that involves the tractor 

There's more - we have a full one-pager laying out roles and responsibilities - but that's the gist of it. This model allows for us to either do our own stalls, or pool the money we're saving on the reduced co-op board to find someone to do stalls for us. We can also decide to do that on an individual basis, if say I'm okay doing Connor's (insanely easy, omg) stall forever but my barnmate isn't.

I know $5 seems like a tiny amount, but we all travel quite a bit for work and fun, and having a monetary exchange will make it feel less like an imposition/favor when we have to ask a fellow boarder to cover for us. It's almost more of a psychological necessity than a financial one. No one likes feeling beholden to others.

 

Barn upgrades: I hung a new saddle pad rack for us

So far it's working out pretty well. We're holding monthly meetings to discuss what is/isn't working, upcoming schedules, etc, and we're all erring on the side of over-communicating. At our first monthly meeting, I encouraged everyone to not hold back, if something is bothering them they have to say it rather than let anything simmer, and so far they've actually done that respectfully, even when it was a little uncomfortable, which is great. It gives me the confidence that we'll be able to continue to modify this in the future, if it's not working in some way.

So who knows if this works long term or not, but so far, so good!

Last night I was having a great Dressage ride when I was rudely interrupted by one of the barn's resident raccoons trying to climb down the arena wall.

Since the rest of these GIFs will be ridiculous, proof that we actually did get some legitimate work done before this happened

 

Connor is the biggest chicken in the world, and with little success I've tried to embolden him by asking him to chase wildlife that scared him in the past - hawks, foxes, cats (but uh, obviously not the skunks. Live and let live.) So I cantered him straight at the thing hoping that would intimidate it, buuuuuut Connor wasn't really interested in that, haha.

 

In case you missed it in the GIF

 

So I got off and threw my whip at it.

Poor, long-suffering sidekick

And continued to throw my whip at it the whole way across the arena, hissing and yelling the entire time.

As always, Connor was skeptical but trusted me. Just look at that face.

"Well okay I guess, if you say so"

I got back on to cool him out, but there was no recovering from that level of excitement, which thankfully happened about 30 minutes into my ride so it didn't matter too much. So I untacked Connor, and while I did, Meatloaf treed the raccoon in the corner the entire time.

Good dog. Never moved a muscle for 15 whole minutes.

The BOs have a trapper coming today, so hopefully we can continue our Dressage schools uninterrupted. Although if I'm being honest, I don't mind the diversion. The more weird shit I do with my horse, the better citizen he becomes - or at least that's what I tell myself.

I promise I won't make every post about COVID-19, no one wants to (or should) hear about this 24/7.  But I am uniquely suited for thinking through disaster preparations down to the most minute, most remotely possible detail, as well as staying calm and pragmatic in high-stress situations thanks to my career in high tech, so I'm going to continue to share things I think are important.

Me handling stressful situations at work by kicking ass and then drinking afterward, like a true high tech employee, lol.  My boss sent this to our team chat recently.

Two days ago, Ontario Equestrian announced that they had sought legal advice and determined that boarding facilities were included in the definition of "indoor recreational facilities" that legally had to close their doors to everyone but employees.  To ensure compliance, the boarding barns insurance companies won't cover them for liability insurance if they continue to allow non-employees on the premises.  Again, this is just in Ontario right now, to be clear.

Finding truck parking at this time of day downtown is usually impossible :(

That lit a fire under me to actually take most (though not all) of my GP trainer's recommendations seriously.  Those Ontario owners had almost no warning before being cut out of their horse's lives entirely for an indefinite amount of time, and I don't want to be caught flat footed if the same happens here.  So I:

- Wrote up a list of all the things I do for Connor that our staff doesn't generally do, including blanketing rules, muzzle maintenance and protocols, what's in his supplements, whether I authorize colic surgery, who Connor's emergency contacts are (me and his breeder) and some general health and maintenance stuff

I know Blogger makes pictures slightly blurry in RSS feeds so you may need to click through to my actual site to see this clearly if you're interested

- Replenished my Thrush treatment (I use Tomorrow) and scratches treatment (max strength Desitin, triple antibiotic ointment and hydrocortisone) since it's going to RAIN EVERY DAY FOREVER

- Put a full bottle of fly spray on his stall door even though it's not fly season here yet, because it will be 30 days from now


- Put his backup muzzle straps and breakaway halter crown in an easily accessible location, along with electrical tape

- Made up 30 days of supplements in Ziploc baggies, in addition to the week's worth in my usual tubs I already have done


- Brought his backup sheet out to the barn

I'm gravitating toward old, familiar comfort food music right now

One other thing I'm doing right now is changing what I'm willing to deal with under saddle: you do NOT want to be in the hospital right now, not with resources as low as they are for the patients that need them most already.  Now is not the time to take risks on horseback, y'all.   Keep that in mind the next time your horse is feeling frisky on a chilly day.

So I guess, bottom line, boarders, we can't predict ANYTHING right now, not even that we will be allowed to see our horses tomorrow.  Don't freak out, but don't be caught unprepared either.  For me, preparation is soothing, and it's greatly contributing to lowering my stress levels right now, hopefully you feel the same!

Now that this is finally public knowledge, I can share: my trainer is moving her program to my new barn!

All photos in this post by my mom

My move happened first, but she got the idea shortly thereafter.  She's always wanted to be in this area, and my new BO's have always wanted to see their gorgeous basically private facility used to its fullest potential.  It seems to be a match made in heaven.


With that will come changes.  New arena footing, additional stalls being built, my board (sadly) going right back up to where it was.  My wallet really enjoyed my three month reprieve though, ha.

WOO new footing

You may have noticed I haven't written about lessons much this summer.  I haven't had a ton of them, what with all the work she's been doing getting ready to move facilities and houses (not easy, as it turns out).  I genuinely feel like the break has been good for both of us, which is a story for another post.

Happy pony in his cushy digs

So there you go.  Now my pony and my trainer will be eight minutes from my house. Or as my husband says, "You are the luckiest person I know, you know that?"