Fentress Fields Equestrian Center

This is my experience at Fentress with Holly, the barn owner/manager. I left after one month.-Horses are only fed about 8lb of hay, once per day in the evening. In the morning instead of being given hay, they are turned out to a grassless mud-slick "pasture" where they may eat from a bale of straw that is left in the mud, manure, and rain. During the month I was there, there was about a one week period when there was nothing in the fields for the horses to eat, except for the remnants of soiled old round bales, soaked in mud, urine, and manure.-There was a large patch of black mold in my horse's stall where her evening hay was being thrown. -At times the horses did not have more than a few inches of water in their trough outside, and when water was available outside, it had an oily chemical film on top.-Horses were left out all day on more than one occasion in 40 degree temperatures with down pouring rain and no shelter, and heavy blankets were left on when the outside temperature was over 65 degrees.-Field injuries were not reported to owners-The entire grounds around and in the barn, driveway, and nearby in the turnouts constantly had garbage strewn about. This ranged from cat food containers, to fast food wrappers, to soda bottles, to ripped up blankets, to broken toys and broken plastic containers, empty grain bags and so on. The trash cans were overflowing onto the ground. I personally cleaned a lot of this and took it to the dump while I was boarded there, only to have trash and refuse re-appear on the ground the very next day. Refrigerators were festering with mold and rot.-The aisleway leading to the bathroom and the "lounge" was full of broken kid's toys and bikes, and farm equipment. When I moved some things out of the way to take my daughter back to the bathroom I discovered years worth of trash and rot, including cat feces, broken glass, broken rusted implements, rotten food wrappers, diaper wrappers, dirty animal cages, dead rodents, ripped up horse blankets covered in cat urine, etc. I personally spent hours cleaning this entire mess by myself, as it was not only disgusting but a hazard to my kids.-The bathroom hadn't been cleaned in probably years. I personally bought cleaning supplies out of my own pocket and bleached and scrubbed out the layers of bathroom grime, mud, mold, and mildew. Unfortunately I didn't have the forethought to take detailed before photos of the aisle mess and bathroom as I didn't plan on posting a review, but other boarders can and will attest to the level of filth that was there before I cleaned.-The barn owner has a sweet but lonely, dirty, and fur-matted St. Bernard which lives enclosed in a stall at the barn, where it defecates and urinates, and hangs out full time except when the barn owner is cleaning stalls and lets it out. (See photo)-The area where my horse was turned out was constant state of about 8 inches of slick clay mud, large pools of water (often with bits of trash floating about), and treacherous pocked dried mud. Many of them did not have a dry area to stand at all, and horses were sliding around in the deep mud. Manure was never removed.During my time at Fentress, I didn't have much contact with the barn owner Holly and what contact I did have was cordial. I did not make a fuss or create an issue about the things that I cleaned. I offered to help. I did not have any drama with Holly or the other boarders. I did not complain once. After a few weeks there, I decided that it was too poorly managed and too much of a stress for me, and so I chose to move on. I sent Holly a polite text that I would be leaving about 4-5 days ahead of time as I'd found a situation that was a better fit, and thoroughly cleaned and stripped my stall before I left. I had no intention of exposing her business, I did not create a scene, I was not rude or negative. What happened next was appalling. I was informed that Holly took to Facebook to bash me for not giving 30 days notice (which I was not under contract to do). I sent her a text advising her that it's not good business practice to bash clients on social media. She then "DARED" me to "keep going", to which I responded that it wasn't worth it. Later I was informed by another local farm owner whom I had only met on one occasion that Holly went online and escalated her attack on me by disclosing my name and bashing me left and right to other horse business owners, in an attempt to give me a "bad reputation in the local horse community" as this other barn owner said, or as Holly herself said, "blacklist" me on various local group pages to other barn owners/trainers/etc. I have never been so appalled by a business owner's actions. This barn is dirty and poorly managed, and the barn owner is juvenile and vindictive, and doesn't seem to care about what the horses need. I recommend avoiding this barn at all costs.

I couldn't find these other reviews to be further from the truth. Holly is a fantastic farm owner and treats your horse like he/she is her own. I never ONCE had to worry about my horse during his year long tenure at her farm. My horse came from care as crappy as it gets and Holly was able to put weight back on my gelding, and in a safe environment. She would let me know if he got knicked in the field or threw a shoe, that sort of thing. When there was not enough grass in the field in the winter, she would supplement with hay. I know she also took special care of her senior horses as well. She took great care of the ring, too. Holly is super professional and definitely communicates and in a timely manner. Thank you for all you did for Double, Holly!