So tomorrow, I'm moving Odin yet again. He's going to the really nice industrial barn here on the island that has a huge indoor ring and a massive outdoor one, turnout, barn stabling and shedrow options. He's been there before; he was boarded for training when he was four or five and hated it. He was stuck in one of the shedrows which are small even for Connemaras and he's 17.2hh. He was up to his fetlocks in mud and never got turned out. Understandably, he went sour.

This time, we're going to put him in the barn where he'll get full care and turnout with pasture buddies during the day. Hopefully, he'll be much happier there.

So, why are we moving him to a barn where he's been before and was miserable? Because my current barmate has two of her own horses, one of whom is a yearling colt, whom she plans to leave intact to breed to her mare and her mother's gelding, all of whom she is 'training'. I want out because her treatment of the animals is absolutely horrifying; if they do even the slightest thing wrong, she grabs a crop and whales on their faces. She's foregone using a halter and instead, makes a slipknow with the leadline and loops it over their neck so that if they move even a little, she can snatch it and tighten it, cutting off their airways.

I told her when we entered this agreement that she was NOT under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES to treat my boy like her horses, and she understood that if she did, it would come to blows. Apparently, I was wrong to expect that she would listen to that; he never used to have issues with his head - you could wave your arms in his face and he wouldn't care! - now, though, you even put out your hand for him to smell and he jerks back because he thinks he's going to be hit. I'm NOT going to stand for some bitch abusing my animal.

I've already made several reports to the BCSPCA about her treatment of the animals and I'm going to make another before I leave the barn. I hope they take her horses from her and never let her have any more. I feel to bad for them; I wish I could take them with me. D:

But I can't, and I'm doing what I can to keep my horse healthy and happy. Hopefully, everything will work out for the best.