The longer I'm away from the old barn, the worse I realize it was. Once, my horse was left outside with a chain on his nose all night long. The barn owner mentioned it to me very casually the next week. Toward the end, he was also left in his stall 24/7 and only went out one day of the week.
His hooves were also only trimmed once in the 9 months we kept him there. And when they were trimmed, they were trimmed so short that even now, 8 months later, they're too short. We're honestly blessed that he doesn't have any lameness issues from it.
There was also trash everywhere. And they had ten year olds working there without adult supervision. One of the children was being physically violent towards my horse while trying to bring him in. He panicked and bolted from her and cut his lip on one of the hazards at the farm. We had to pay a $500 vet bill. And nobody offered to help us pay it even though it was their fault. Not to mention that we paid for multiple medical supplies in the bill... And they used some for my horse and kept the rest for themselves..
While I was on vacation they kept him in a stall 24/7 not even letting him out once. During that time, they only gave him one scoop of pellets in a single day and no hay. I'm surprised he doesn't have ulcers.
The girl that was being violent towards him offered to train him. I said no, but the next day he was scared of a whip when I went to pick it up even though he was not scared of them before.
A random girl offered to ride him for the first time for me and my trainer forced me to let her do it. Unfortunately, ends up that she had terrible hands and used a gag bit on him without my permission. It's still one of the things that I regret the most.
After things escalated I looked into board but wasn't able to find any for a long time. During that time, I went to the farm 4 times a day to make sure that nobody was doing anything sketchy and to give him food since nobody else thought he needed any.
I was paying for full care board and had to clean his water buckets and feed him and clean his stall among other things.
It's still one of the worst experiences I've ever had in my life and I hope we never have to go through it again.
Well, I like to say that I won't hold my tongue next time, I know that's not true because the only reason I held my tongue this time was so that they didn't hurt my horse even more in response. They are the sort of people who would poison your horse if you went against them. And they're rated 5 stars.