I was interested in full-care boarding of my 10year old QH in the southern PA, northern Md area so I researched several barns online and made appointments to visit several. The very 1st place I visited was Hanover equestrian centre, owned by this lady Devi. Her website looked pretty professional and it says she has 30 years expierience in dressage and that she is also a biomedical engineer and has degrees in biology and physics. She also said she was a medical doctor. So needless to say it sounded as though she was an intelligent, educated over-achieving horse lover. Well I went to the barn and was supposed to meet with the barn manager but the lady devi met me instead.
She explained to me that she had just fired her former manager for non-payment and "animal cruelty". She went on to say that her former manager did not care for the horses properly and did not care for the facility. Some red flags went up because the facility was probaly the nicest I had seen. The red flags continued when she continually trashed all of her previous managers saying she has gone through several in recent times. I asked how many managers she had to fire. She told me the new manager would be the 3rd. That didn't sound to bad until later I discovered she hadn't been in the barn for more than 7 months!
I had already decided not to board at her barn when she told me "If you are concerned that no one will be here to care for your horse dont worry because My husband daughter and I live on the premises". I asked where and she told me "right here above the stalls" I am not kidding they live in the barn! Her husband was then coming home from work I guess. He opened his truck door and I could smell booze big time. He had obviously been drinking and driving in the middle of the day. He walked past us without even making Eye contact. Awkward!
I was very embarrassed for devi so I kind of acted like everything was cool. To say the least this was a weird visit for me. I told Devi I would think about boarding my horse and would call her. On my way out I went to pet the dog who was chained up out front but the dog smelled so bad and his hair was so matted it looked like it was miserable. When I was checking out the dog Devi came out of nowhere and said that it was her husbands responsibillity to care for the dog. She was obviously hiding something.
I simply wanted to warn future boarders at Hanover Equestrian Centre that they would be better off going elsewhere. I would like to invite anyone to visit this barn if you dont believe me. Trust me, Check-out that Devi ladies 'crazy eye's' and there house above the stalls. Also I forgot to mention that John's hopkins has no record of a Dr. Devi rathod-hardesty
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