Short ride and boarding questions

I tried out the HDR for a few minutes today.  It is really wide--possibly a little too wide.  That's not a problem I usually have with Chev + English saddles.  I have a really nice Cavallo riser pad that I stuck under there, and that did seem to help a little bit.  It's not like it's resting anywhere, and there don't seem to be any pressure points.  No roughed up hair and we didn't work hard enough to get any sweat pattern.  So the jury is still out on the fit.  I did notice some major "rolling" though...which brings me to:

My gosh, my horse is getting SO FAT.  Even my longest girth, which I think is a 52", maybe even a 54", just barely fits.  With just a thin baby pad I was able to get it up two holes on each side.  Not really enough to feel all that secure about it.  The billets on the HDR aren't ridiculously short or anything.  With the riser pad it literally took me 10 minutes (between my freezing fingers and the cold stiff billets) to get the girth on ANY hole.  I ended up managing the last hole on both sides.  A whopping one hole.  So I think that probably explains a little of the rolly-polly-ness.

Yeeeesh.  And here I was worried that she was going to lose weight over the harsh Wyo winter.

If I were to guess, I'd say she's easily gained 100 pounds.  On hay only.  Yikes.

She also got a trim and a reset today.  The shoer was having a lot of trouble with her left front foot, which is usually the easy one.  The backs she keeps trimmed down naturally, so there wasn't much to do there.  I've been wanting to go barefoot with her but the last time I tried it she was so miserable that I put her front shoes back on a week later.  That was almost 4 months ago, and the angle on her left-front (aka "pancake") foot is finally starting to look normal again.  So--4 months to repair the damage done in 1 week. 

Yeeeeeeeesh.

There is talk of moving her to my farrier's place.  There are pros and cons to the move.

I don't like to badmouth anyone, especially here on ye ol' internet, where people can't defend themselves, but I definitely have some problems with the standards of care at my current boarding barn.  There are some things that just downright scare me.  The owner has told me she'd "can" some horses if she could (which horrifies me, being the owner of a previously slaughterbound horse), frequently tells me this-or-that horse is stupid, or this-or-that owner is stupid, and that she thinks the vet is a waste of money in just about all cases.  She has told me that she doesn't notice anything unless a horse is lame.  Our personalities just generally don't get along.  I don't feel welcome out there at all.  I feel like the second I leave they're talking about me behind my back too--and I hate that!  I really do try to get along with everyone.  That's why I was such a superstar in the customer service world.  Also, out there I don't have control over how much my horse is fed (although on that front she seems to be doing more than fine).  And I have been known to get in trouble for scrubbing out my horse's pooped in water bucket.  Sigh.

Before moving out to Wyoming, which is horse country for sure, but only good for horses if you have your own land, because it's darned near impossible to find boarding facilities here, I had my horses at a partial care barn in the Emerald Valley in Oregon.  It was really a good situation for me.  The barn fed AM & PM--I provided all hay, set up the amount of hay to be fed, and made little baggies of supplements and grain which they dumped for me--and they provided the shavings.  I did all the stall cleaning, feed set up, etc.  I really liked having a say in all aspects of my horse's care.  I also really liked the barn owner and her husband.  Nevermind that her daughter could outride me at age 6.  They were all great.  I miss boarding there.

So--I could move out to the farrier's place, with his two mares.  He does have a small (outdoor) arena and I would be able to be in control of hay, supplements, feed grain if I wanted, etc.  I also really like the guy and I feel like it would be a good situation.  I also know he would appreciate the extra help since I am sort of fanatical about keeping things horse-related clean and orderly.  But--then I give up the large arenas and Chev gets moved away from all the horse buddies she has now.

If you don't mind leaving a short (or long!) comment, where do you board your horses?  What's the care like?  Or are you one of those people who make me green with envy--do you have your OWN facility?

Why do I always feel like the problems I worry about the most in my life are horse-related?  (This one's rhetorical--you don't have to answer it unless you feel the same way!)

But, I guess that's what happens when you care about them.

p.s. Chev's knee looks less swollen today, and didn't cause her any lameness issues during our short ride.  I'm pretty sure at this point she banged it on something.  The actual joint doesn't seem affected at all, but we'll still take things slow for now.