A friend that used to board her horse where I board my two moved her horse to a much cheaper boarding stable that was closer to her home. 

It got me thinking, "Why am I spending this much money on my horses, when obviously I could be saving money by moving them elsewhere and maybe not have to drive 45 minutes to see them."

Something happened recently that made me realize it's not just about money, but the care the horses receive. 

An example -- during the recent wildfires just north of Houston, our barn had to be evacuated. The barn owner, along with some other boarders that have trailers, all got together and shuttled the horses out to a place that the BO had found that was made available to him. During this time, he kept in contact with us and let us know what was happening, where the horses would be going.  It was a scary time and I don't have a trailer, or anything to tow one with, so this was a huge weight of my mind.

The pasture at the temporary place had some grass (not much admittedly, because of the drought), a pond and trees. Several round bales had been put out for the horses.  My amazing barn owner, knowing that Annapolis doesn't have enough teeth to chew and swallow hay, went the extra mile to to over there twice a day for a week to bring Star and Annpolis in to a small pen area (which including schlepping across a 25 acre pasture to catch them) and feeding them separate from the rest of the horses. He also found a way to mix his OneAC in water and use a deworming syringe to squirt it into Annapolis' mouth to help him through the 103 degree days we were having.

I  later heard that during that same time, the barn owner where my friend had moved her horse had evacuated his own horses and left his boarders to fend for themselves!

 Brody is awesome, in so many ways.  When another friend could no longer afford to keep her horse (which she originally brought from him) he bought the horse back from her.

 He's fun, he loves horses, he treats all our horses as if they were his own.

I owe him a lot more than home made cookies 

Jayne - You are blessed everyday that you have the BO looking out for your horses like that. Lets hope that he is the rule and not the exception when it comes to dealing with horses that are under someone care. I know I have always heard you singing their praises on the way they take care of your precious horses.

As for your friend, its a shame that the BO just left all the boarders to fend for themselves like that when they needed him the most.Tough lesson to learn for your friend. Lets hope others take notice to this and make sure they know exactly what to expect from a BO in times of emerency's and evacuations.

 Evacuations aren't even something I had considered before, but it's definitely something to add to the list of questions when looking for boarding stables - "who is responsible for what in the case of emergency?" 

 Before Hurricane Ike came through he braided tags into their manes with the barn name and phone number, in case they got out of the pasture.

I think Brody is one in a million when it comes to barn owners     I'll be asking for suggestions for suitable Christmas gifts later in the year!

BTW,  I have to add, the barn my friend is at now was not in the mandatory evacuation zone. But he got his horses out anyway and left his boarders to decide if they wanted to move or not (and to arrange the means to do so if they didn't have their own trailer).  As it happened, the fire never got anywhere near them and they were never in jeopardy.

But Brody started getting all ours out before the evacuation order was made mandatory, which gave him some breathing space. He admitted to being worried that Star would let him catch her, but she saw all the other horses being loaded and she let him catch her with no problem and jumped right in to the big stock trailer a local rancher had loaned them.

Ditto coming home, she wasn't a problem, as long as she was with Annapolis.