04/18/2026
It was brought to my attention recently regarding a post made on the Fort Bragg Equestrian page from a former boarder.
I have thought long and hard about how to address the allegations made without divulging very personal information the boarder shared with me over her time at the farm. Since she has chosen to block anyone in opposition of her post, we are posting a public statement here. I could mention all we did for her and Tigger while they were here. However she is aware of all of it.
Tigger arrived October 2024 in a condition no one, including his owner, was expecting. He had been stalled 24/7 due to vision concerns. We all agreed (boarder, her father and myself) that we needed a vet to come out to do a soundness exam, general health exam, and to create a safe nutrition plan. Over time, we realized that Tigger was a very hard horse to keep condition on. We requested numerous times that she contact her vet to see what else could be done or was his condition just symptomatic of Cushing’s.
October 2025, the boarder came into the barn noticeably upset. She let me know that her father had communicated to her that his financial situation had changed and he could no longer pay for Tigger’s expenses and that moving forward she would be solely responsible for his bills. When the boarder told me this, part of what distressed me the most was that his response to her not knowing how to move forward was “euthanize him”. Her heart horse. The horse she had had forever. When she ultimately had to make that decision, none of us knew what to say. Sorry just didn’t seem to be the word. So we gave her space and when we did see her, we chose not to intrude upon her time, other than greeting her. Asking her “hey how are you doing” felt wrong. The day she told me, we spoke of what we could do to help her; this included reducing their board from stall board to field board, offering them the option to work off a portion of their board, researching his medication to find a lower cost, and any other options to give her time to find a workable solution.
In early March 2026 she let me know that they (she and her husband) had made the difficult decision to euthanize Tigger. Due to her husband’s changing military career path and that they knew they couldn’t provide Tigger with the care he needed. While we thoroughly supported their decision, knowing that humane euthanasia was a much kinder outcome versus trying to rehome him, we wished that there was a feasible way to offer further assistance to them.
There seems to be quite a bit of concern regarding his feed and condition:
When Tigger came in November of 2024, he was very emaciated. We worked with the vet and came up with a feeding plan. Until her father stopped paying the bills (November 30, 2025, he was on 6-7lbs of senior feed, 1.5-2 lbs of Amplify, his Prascend, Equiox, 9 Smart paks, 20 trazadone AM/PM. The vet had asked for him to have lunch. She was not able to provide lunch for him. He was a very hard horse to feed. Some days he happily ate, some days it took him over an hour. When Tigger came to the barn her dad provided additional hay to help transition him to the barn hay and once he had transitioned he chose not to purchase more.
Starting Dec 1, 2025, she asked to go to barn grain which was not an issue. She asked to have him weaned off Amplify due to the cost, stopped his Smart Paks and decreased his supplements to his meds, one smart pak and one other supplement. He received his supplements up to the morning he was euthanized. Regarding her situation with the cups, we threw out the empty containers after we gave him the meds that were in them. We had saved them up until April 1, 2026, when we assumed she had made enough until the end.
During the extreme cold spell, we experienced in January and February we had added extra forage in the form of beet pulp and alfalfa cubes to all the horses to offset the increased calorie output. This cost was assumed by the barn owner and was short term.
As spring approached and the grass began growing Tigger began not finishing his feed. As we have done previously, we decreased his amount of feed (he would not finish it later we had found out) so as not to waste it. As we did before when he did not eat, if he finished his feed we offered additional grain. This was a practice his owner was aware of.
Due to her stress over knowing he had to be euthanized we opted to not compound her stress due to nothing be able to be done. Additionally, there is no clause in the boarding contract that stipulates an owner has to be notified for feed changes.
The day of his euthanasia, I reached out to the boarder early in the afternoon to confirm the time of both the vet and the crematory service were coming and making sure she knew where to tell them to go. I also reassured her that only myself and our PM shift employee would be at the barn. At no time did she let me know that her friends were coming to the barn, which is barn policy to notify me of guests. This policy ensures that I can either confirm a waiver has been signed or make sure one will be signed. We fully understand that she needed the love and support and friends at such an emotional moment. That doesn’t negate that the unfortunate decision was made to not let me know. We also had received a call that there were four people were In the field with our horses and Tigger. This directly violates my policy that no guests are permitted in the pastures whether occupied or not. A policy that the boarder was fully aware of.
When I arrived at the farm it was after Tigger had been euthanized. I spoke with the vet in the barn. The vet let us know she was very upset which we all knew she would be. He and I spoke about additional farm business and then he left. During this time I observed their guests. I did not know them and was left in the untenable situation of having to ask if they had signed a waiver. While her friends are adamant about signing a waiver, that still doesn’t give them the right to be on the property without notice, nor does it give them the right to enter any place they wanted to.
While the post is pointed at me, the accusations on my staff who care deeply about all the horses is distressing.
One point we would like to clarify is she is absolutely right that we miscalculated the prorated amount. With that realization we refunded the $50.
At the end of the day, this was not just about policies, procedures, or disagreements—this was about a horse that was deeply loved and a situation that was incredibly difficult for everyone involved.
