April 2, 2020 update

Please read carefully before coming to barn.

Some guiding thoughts:

• viruses don’t like sunlight and fresh air
• viruses survive well on flat surfaces and plastic and stainless steel
• viruses can remain active on surfaces for days
• doorknobs are arguably the most commonly shared items on the planet

Please sanitize your hands immediately upon arrival at the farm.

Wear gloves when possible. Please bring your own hand sanitizer – we are stocking up as much as possible but cannot supply everyone. We will disinfect as much as possible each night and close the tack room and lounge doors. Sanitizer and paper towels are provided for the two grooming areas – please use them diligently!

Boarder bathroom:

Please sanitize your hands prior to entering the boarder bathroom. Sanitizer is in place outside the boarder bathroom.  The following items are in place (or soon will be) in the boarder bathroom:

1. automatic hands free soap dispenser
2. automatic water on/off spigot for sink
3. automatic paper towel dispenser

Use your own halter:

Please handle your horse with your own spare halter and shank, and take these items with you when you leave - keep them in your car. This will keep our staff safer.

Don’t Touch Guidelines:

Boarders should use hand sanitizer before (or wear gloves while) touching items on farm, specifically but not limited to:

1. Door handles
2. Light switches
3. Water spigots
4. Water sprayers
5. Brooms
6. Shovels
7. Pitchforks
8. Portable saddle racks
9. Latches and snaps to stall doors
10. Gate latches
11. Cross ties

Leave the “people door” entrance to the indoor open enough that the handle is not necessary to access the indoor.

The tack room door and lounge doors should be kept propped open so these handles don’t get touched.

Please groom and tack up your horse in the two open-air outside wash stalls. Sanitize the water spigots, light switches, cross tie snaps, saddle and bridle racks, and cleaning instruments after every ride so the area is safe for the next user.

Please do not touch anything on/in someone else’s trunk.

Please do not touch anyone else's saddles, bridles, etc. in the tack room.

No borrowing.

Protect Our Staff:

Please keep your distance from our staff and their work implements.

Keep in mind that if barn staff gets sick from outside boarders touching their tools and the water connections, it will be extremely hard to care for our beloved horses. Be mindful and aware of any items you touch while on the farm and be sure to clean and disinfect said items after touching.

The barn staff have designated specific stall maintenance tools for their own use. These tools will be kept in the loft. Please do not touch them! Use ONLY the brooms and shovels located at the open-air grooming stalls.

Please do not touch tractors, RTV, wheelbarrows, muck tubs, and any other tools needed by staff to work.

Staff is required to wear gloves while feeding. This is when they are the most vulnerable.

The main barn water is off limits to everyone except staff. Riders can use outside wash stalls.

All feed rooms are off limits to everyone except staff.  If you need hay for your horse, please text your request to a staff member.

Social distancing:

Please maintain a 6 foot distance from staff and also from each other. Sorry for the inconvenience, but if any of us living here gets sick and our barn is forced into total quarantine, everyone will miss out on seeing their darling horses. And that would be very sad!!

Christopher is particularly concerned about client contact with me because I am the highest risk person on the premises (69 years old, asthmatic, lifelong history of lung compromise, pneumonia, etc.), so, please

1. do not touch my stuff
2. stay out of my blue slant bins and tack closet
3. do not place items on top of my blue slant bins
4. do not borrow any of my stuff, even things that are lying on top of the bins

For lease clients:

1. tack for each of your horses has been placed in the tack room – bridle, breastplate, girth
2. please use your own basic saddle pad and keep in/on your trunk
3. if your lease horse requires a specialty pad, please keep that in/on your trunk as well
4. do not co-mingle equipment or borrow stuff
5. if you need something that isn’t there, contact Christopher 443-866-5375

FAMCAL visit scheduling:

We appreciate everyone cooperating with the famcal program.

1. Our intent in encouraging people to visit, albeit under rather stringent conditions, is so they can get some fresh air and spend some time with their horses. We know you all need this, especially with all the exercise and yoga facilities closed, however, this does involve risk to our staff, the residents here at the farm, and ourselves.
2. This entire lock-down situation is new for everyone, not just here at the farm but across our country and the world.  We want all of you to continue to enjoy SFC as your oasis of spiritual renewal and physical relaxation.
3. Riders can schedule from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. – i.e. leave barn at 7:00 p.m. (We have to have some time to clean after the last rider and our days are already ridiculously long.)
4. Regular clients who are students here and ship in (or hack in) can schedule overlapping time with our boarders. The proviso here is that they park at the far end of the indoor, enjoy their ride, and leave without touching or handling anything on the farm except the portapotty (using hand sanitizer prior to entering portapotty).  These ship in clients are requested to maintain a respectful distance from other people/riders here and to confine their visit to the parking area and riding rings.
5. Clients who are coming just to visit their horse at their horse’s field (not bringing horse up to groom in the grooming/wash stalls) are ok to schedule time slots that overlap clients who are riding. We ask that they go directly to their horse, carry brushes and what not with them if necessary, enjoy their visit, and observe the 6-foot social distancing mandate.
6. Most are already doing this, but please be sure to include on the calendar what you are doing – ride, visit, groom, trailer in, etc., so others can schedule accordingly. [not Rosemary and Spot, instead "Rosemary riding Spot" or "Rosemary grooming Spot" or "Rosemary visiting Spot in field"]
7. Please continue to schedule 1.5 hours for rides and .5 hour for grooming.
8. Schedule on the hour and half hour. Not, for example, “2:15”.
9. Clients who are coming to tack up and trailer out for a ride are ok to schedule time slots that overlap clients who are riding on the premises. Be mindful, though. For example, if rider #1 schedules a ride for 1 p.m. – 2:30 p.m., Rider #2 could attempt to schedule tack up for 1:30 p.m. so there is every chance rider #1 has left the grooming area before Rider #2 bring their horse in. Staggering times may not always work, but we can at least try. The grooming stalls are ample and permit 6-foot distancing in case of a time overlap, so if each person diligently wipes down her/his area, it should be safe.
10. If a true time conflict seems to appear, please contact each other and settle it gracefully. Everyone must try their best to cooperate and – when necessary – adjust to permit someone else to come ride. Some people’s schedules are extremely limited and inflexible. Some riders may need to sacrifice a bit of time with their horse so that another person can come in. We have some riders who haven’t ridden since the lock-down started because they haven’t been able to fit into the schedule.  ☹  Reach out to each other and find a compromise!
11. We are currently in reverse turn-out, so the horses are in their stalls during the day and out at night.  When you come to get your horse, please do NOT go in the stall more than absolutely necessary to get the horse out, and do not groom in there. This is really important. Stalls are impossible for us to sterilize or even wipe clean. Our staff has to go in there daily for extended periods of time and touch all the stall paraphenalia. Yikes! 
12. Reminder – do not enter feed rooms, the loft, the boarder lounge, or – except when collecting tack and grooming implements – the main barn. Again, these areas are impossible for us to sterilize. We really cannot risk our staff falling ill! 

When the isolation and confinement starts to get to you, remember -- we are SOOOOOOOOOOO much better off out here in the country than the people confined to high rise apartments in cities. So keep living, loving, and kissing your horse.

:m