ComplaintsforBlue Diamond Equestrian Ranch

• Initial Complaint

  02/28/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Do NOT board your horses at Blue Diamond Equestrian Ranch in Rogersville, MO. They care more about the money than the horses’ safety and there is absolutely zero communication. We boarded our horse, ******, for a few months. Things were great at first and as you can see in the first pic, he had a large paddock with a shelter since that was what was promised to us. He was in the paddock with one other horse with absolutely no problems. A couple weeks ago another horse was added also with no issues. Yesterday, another horse was added to his paddock and we were not informed. Apparently he and the new horse were not getting along. Without telling us, they removed him from his paddock and put him in a tiny run in where he proceeded to get stuck for hours without food or water. There’s no telling how long he would’ve been there if we had not come to let him out. We were told that he would now have to be in there from 10am-dusk everyday so the new horse can be in his paddock during the day and then go to a stall that they pay for at night. We explained to them that we were uncomfortable with this and would rather take him to a family members land than have him in that tiny area, and they agreed that it would be best for us to take him, but they still want the next months board $$. There was absolutely no communication. They never once told me that there was a new horse in his paddock or that they weren’t getting along. We were never informed of him being moved until I found him like this and confronted them. There were also multiple other instances of poor communication on their part.

  Business response

  03/06/2023

  Hello,

  The unfortunate misrepresentation by ****** ******** was very skewed, inaccurate, one-sided and completely unreasonable. As well, she has proceeded to spread the inaccurate information and try to smear our facility through ******** posts.  A lot of those pages have banned her and hopefully, those who have seen her posts will have enough insight to understand there are two sides to every story.
  
  
  I'd be happy to talk to you about it as I was open to speaking with Mrs ******** but she was unwilling and unreasonable about the entire situation. Instead of coming directly to me or any of our staff she proceeded to send a text message with pictures at 5:12pm stating she came and found her horse ****** in a smaller run, and he had gotten himself stuck in a cattle corral area and was unable to get out. 

  At 5:17pm when I saw her message, I was in the middle of helping unload 34 large 900lbs hay bales that late afternoon, but I responded to her with in 5 minutes. I messaged her that another boarder ***** and her son ****** **** were the first to notice the dangerous behavior by ******'s horse ****** towards other horses in his same pasture, as well as himself by kicking the fence and getting stuck for a moment. Since her horse was instigating all the problems, by relentlessly chasing, kicking at and biting at the other horses in his pasture, and in order to avoid any injury to him or the other horses, we chose to move him over to the next turn out pasture (of which our boarding contract states that we reserve the right to move a horse that is being dangerous to people or other horses in order to preserve safety for all).  This turnout pasture is approx. 25' x 150' and has been used by two other horses in the past few months and those horses have never messed with or wandered into the cattle corral shoot area.  I explained that this event could have only happened just recently, as I personally checked on all the pasture horses that afternoon prior to receiving our large hay shipment.  I had seen her horse ****** quietly eating his hay and I topped off his large water bucket as well.  So he could not have gotten stuck in the cattle corral for long, he must have played with the latch, gotten it open and wandered in to eat the grass.  I explained to Mrs. ******** that we feed morning and evening, so he would have been noticed if he hadn't come up for the evening feeding.  It is our policy to handle all stalled horses daily and have eyes on the outdoor pasture horses daily. 

  At 5:19pm she responded stating she was not made aware he was moved and that she would be coming to pick her horse up to move him elsewhere.

  So, you can see literally, in 7 minutes she found her horse upon arrival, passed judgment as to mismanaged care of her horse, claimed lack of communication and messaged me she had her mind made up to take him. 

  Due to the fact that I was trying to finish helping the crew unloading the hay, my next response was at 5:59pm and 6:05pm, again explaining that ****** was moved to an adjoining turnout pasture because he was exhibiting dangerous behavior to the other horses in his pasture as well as kicking and getting his hoof stuck in the fence line for a moment. I further explained that my main concern was that none of the horses hurt each other.  Upon sending my 6:05pm message she pulled up with a truck and horse trailer.  She proceeded to go get her horse. When she returned to the trailer, I approached her to ask if she'd gotten my 2 recent messages.  She was visibly upset, and I wanted her to know I understood her concern but that I felt she would benefit from knowing the entire circumstances since she was reacting so rash vs. being reasonable and solutions oriented.  (from 1st arrival to bringing a trailer the total time elapsed was 53 min).

  It was apparent that nothing I said was going to convince her to calm down and have mature communication. Therefore, I advised her that according to her boarding contract she was to give 30 days' notice.  She had only done that on 2/18 (only 10days prior to the end of Feb.) saying that they were moving due to a new job. My purpose in reminding her of this was that she would still owe for March through a full 30 days from date of her earlier notice. 
  
  Anyways, she purports a few other exaggerations such as "lack of communication", and yet she never communicated anything to me or anyone ever at the ranch, so if there is a lack of communication, it was definitely on her end, because I always make sure to say Hi to her as I do everyone when I see them at the ranch. 

  I hope this helps clarify the situation and my reasonable efforts to address her concern within moments of being made aware of it. Let me know if you would like copies of all the text messages to validate what I declared above.

  Thank you 
  ********
  Equine Facility Director

  Customer response

  03/06/2023

  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  Her family and employees are harassing me. 
  
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ****** ********

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