|
Review content:
I've been a horse owner, riding instructor and trainer for 15 years. I had a horse at Briarfield for 2 months. He was only there that long because it took me a month to find a stall for him somewhere else. If you have a backyard-type horse, this may be a fine place for you. I have a fairly low maintenance, sport horse. Having been a farm manager, I understand how difficult demanding boarders are, and therefore, I am generally easy to please. However, the staff at Briarfield does not have a clue. My horse had lost 3 shoes in the period of a week and no one even noticed. Their excuse was that they were out of town and someone else was taking care of the barn. I'm paying the same board, I expect who ever is replacing the normal staff can recognize THREE missing shoes. There were MANY other examples of their incompetence. (They do sheets and blankets in the summer and fall while it's ""show season"" but then in the winter, when the show season is over, they stop blanketing. Makes complete sense, right?) On the bright side, the owner, Dee, was delightful. She was very easy to get along with. Her daughter-in-law, who I understand is the farm manager, had absolutely no tact, was rude and misleading in her representation of the farm when I came to visit. And the outdoor ring they advertise is used as a paddock and is neither flat enough, nor big enough to justify calling it an outdoor riding ring. The pastures were huge, but they had no grass-- all weeds. It was a fairly cheap place, but even cheap places need to provide an acceptable level of care. This was not it.
Pros: Owner was pleasant
Cons: Bad facility, rude barn manager, incompetent staff
|