Empty Stall Syndrome (ESS)

In my experience it has always been true that nature abhors an empty stall, so it is all the more remarkable that my four stall barn has stood empty for two years.  Well, empty of all but some bicycles and lawn tractors... it's hard to believe that I used to run a boarding/lesson operation.  This was in addition to having two small children AND working full time.  I look back at myself (as I was in those days) with a mix of admiration for my energy level and contempt for my poor judgement.  It was crazy to do all those things at once.   However, you know how it is when something is rolling along, it's hard to break out of patterns.

Not that I ever made much money, but back then the boarding/lesson operation did make a small profit to supplement my tiny salary from academic advising.  That is, if I calculated the worth of my time in the barn at about a dollar an hour!   This is the trap horsepeople fall into; it always amazes me when I see local barns trying to undercut each other on board rates.  Yet, by the time you buy feed and hay and shavings, there isn't much left to pay yourself for all the time you spend cleaning stalls or sitting up with a colicky horse while you wait for its owner to arrive...

At any rate here I am now, not trying to get back into the horse business, but slowly preparing to get  another horse.  My husband (bless his heart, as we say here in the South), has taken down my rickety old paddock fence and replaced it with a solid, three-board fence.  It still needs painting, but that was a huge step in the right direction.  We also still need to string the new electric polywire around the pastures, and then hook up the new charger.  Recalling a few adventures that ensued from electric fences that weren't strong enough, this time I bought a charger that is rated for everything up to Elk and Bison (I'm not kidding, this thing will knock you flat if you touch the wire).

I have to laugh when I reflect on how differently I am proceeding now.  Ten years ago, horses used to show up on my farm almost as regularly as stray kittens...and we would just adjust and move on.  It doesn't help that I have a real weakness for OTTB (off the track Thoroughbreds) and other project horses.  Once, I drove all the way up to Rhode Island to rescue a TB that had raced and then been used as a "pony" horse on the track... what the man didn't share with me was that the horse was anhydrous.  That means he couldn't sweat to cool off; this creates a real problem in southeastern NC!

I keep telling myself that this time, I will be rational.  This time I will choose some superbroke, pleasant little Quarter Horse.  This time I will not give in when someone I know calls with me an equine hard luck story.  Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go write this one hundred times:  I will not give in to empty stall syndrome, I will not give in to empty stall syndrome...



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