The Rumor Mill

An acquaintance of mine recently came by to see the farm and say Hi. We had a nice chat, and I showed her around the place. At one point she asked if I wanted to know what people were saying about the farm.

I was curious. I would love to hear what people are saying. All I know is what people tell me to my face, and I can extrapolate what those that have been here might say based on that and some of the concerns that were expressed during the winter. As far as I know everyone who has been here since March has been very happy with the service that I provide.

So, of course, some of these prior concerns were running through my head: The walk to the indoor is too far from the barn and got icy over the winter (which was addressed and solved). The horses can stick their heads out of their stalls and bother those tacking up (nobody here now cares about that, so it is now a non-issue). There were power tools in one corner of the barn (which were removed as soon as the bathroom construction was finished). The fences weren't super hot (which has also been addressed and no one has ever gone through them).

You can imagine my surprise when she said that people were concerned about "the quality of care", specifically that I "let horses run around". To my knowledge "quality of care" hasn't been an issue with anyone that has boarded here. At least, they haven't made it known to me, and "running around" is something that none of the horses here really do. If they do run, it happens when I am not here, because I have rarely witnessed it. The few times that I have, I either figure out why and remedy the situation or I just bring them in.

I explained this to my friend and she was satisfied, but I was still confused. How did this rumor get started? I have posted a couple of pictures of various horses running. I mean, they are horses and they do run sometimes. Some running I consider OK. Occasionally if someone is turned out in the big field they will run a little just because it is so much space and they are having fun. Fun running is different than stressed running. If they are stress running I might give it a couple minutes to see if they settle and then bring them in if they don't, but that is rare and has only happened a handful of times.

Anyway, I am not sure I will ever know where the rumor started, but I am glad that my friend told me about it and was nice enough to come talk to me herself instead of just blindly believing what other people said. People that probably never have been here. There's really not much I can do except continue on with the care that I feel is appropriate and that my current boarders seem to very much appreciate.