225BatonRouge.com

Posted on May 31 at 3:14 p.m.

Yes, I would like to comment on the BREC Park system as far as it concerns their horse facility, the FARR Park, located on the River Road south of LSU. Its a beautiful place with lots of land and other amenities. The folks who work there are the nicest, friendliest, most helpful people one could hope to find. They stay extremely busy attending to BREC's herd of horses, the boarders' horses, giving lessons, conducting horse shows, conducting the summer day camp programs, and much more; its a huge job. My hats (cowboy, of course) off to all of them! But my gracious what about the property! It really is a mess!

I have been a regular at FARR Park for 2 years, taking my grandchild there for weekly lessons. But in early May, I actually became a boarder when I bought a horse and started keeping him there. Somethings just aren't right. Many of the paddock gates are rusted out and extremely dangerous to both the horses and the people using them. A broken water line, sharp concrete pieces laying out, some grass gets cut while other areas are left overgrown, rusty equipment (including nails and boards) left out...these are only a few examples of what is just inappropriate conduct for a park. Meanwhile, a new roof is being put on the large indoor arena, and a skeleton crew is doing the job working 4 days a week, and the staff has been moved to huts without windows for the duration! (I recently had a new roof put on my house and 12 - 15 guys worked from 7:30 am to 7:30 pm until the job was done!)

The stalls are deplorably dirty! The employees need help getting things in order and keeping them that way. The whole place needs a fresh washing and painting, reparing and refurbishing. Too many cats, kittens, and coons...no standards for decent maintenance. And don't tell me this is typical of horse barns ...I know better! Its more about responsibility and pride of ownership. The staff is on overload! BREC needs to assume leadership responsiblity and see to it that this excellent facilty makes an abrupt 'about face'; committ to excellence before its too late!

On The war for our parks