Is this reasonable?

[Sirita_88]

Okay, so I have been working full time at a veterinary clinic, 7-6 most weekdays and sometimes weekends. Because of this and the shorter days I have had no time to really enjoy my horses. My mom has had to start cleaning stalls and such again, and it's not fair since none of them are hers. With some huge family problems I can't get into, it's just been a very stressful situation.

So, we were thinking of taking on another boarder, one that we can give discounted board to for cleaning stalls on weekdays. Has anyone had any experience with doing a tradeoff like that? Also, how much to charge? Examples of full board in my area are $450 indoor arena w/no turn out, $250 no arena period mostly turnout with optional stall.

Idk how to go about this. We have a barn, do blanket changes, daily seperate turnouts (stalled at night during winter, day during summer), 88 X 120 outdoor sand arena, roundpen, and about 50-100 acres of trails with creeks and access to the lake.

So, what would be a reasonable rate to put someone at if they did exchange for cleaning stalls? I thought maybe free if they provide own food, hay, and shavings but we don't have the room to store seperate shavings and hay. So I think it would be best to provide the hay, feed, and shavings unless something special is required.

I have no idea what to charge, or if anyone would even be interested, what do you think?

[bunkie]

I guess I would try to figure out what it would cost you to hire someone to care for your horses first. How many horses do you have? Will the individual need to feed your horses also? How much time would be involved to do these chores? For $250.00 worth of boarding I doubt if you will find someone that has the time or ambition to do this on a daily basis, especially if there is still a fee included, (for hay and such).

[muttduck]

I've worked for a trade off in training... and I've also worked with someone who was trading her work for pasture board at that farm.

In the case of my trade off for training, the fee was $500 for 30 days. By working 1 day a week (from 8 am until 11-12) cleaning stalls, and helping prepare the multiple horses for their workouts, I got $125 discount, as well as being able to participate in the training of my mare on the day I was there. I actually gained more than just the financial discount, by being able to participate, because I was learning valuable training skills.

In the case of a coworker trading for boarding... she pasture boarded 4 horses and a mini, in exchange for doing the daily feeding/watering (morning and night) 5 days a week, as well as all turn outs / bring ins of the barn owner's horses... Total time of work to feed, hay, water, turn out/bring in was about 4 hours a day (2 in the morning, 2 in the evening). She provided her own hay and feed for her pasture horses.

(I was hired part time to do the actual stall cleaning, since it would be a fulltime job for one person to do both the cleaning and the feed/water/turn out.)



Editing to add, somewhere to look for someone to work out a barter:
- 4H groups, where a kid might not have the room to keep their own horse at home. Older kids or teens generally could do the stall cleaning after school, and parents are more willing to help their horse-crazy kids if the kids are working towards the upkeep of their horse.

[recklesshoundog]

I think offering a stall for just the cost of hay grain and bedding would be reasonable and would definately tempt me.

I would start the deal by having them work for you for a weekend to see if their work is up to your standards before I got them moved in. If they aren't pay them for their time and send them packing before you get them moved in and then are stuck with less than good work.

That is assuming it's a small barn with just a couple of hours of work. I once got a discount on board for cleaning and it wasn't worth it....cleaning 22 stalls, am feed and water, turning them all out in various paddocks it took me 5 hours (I'm a hustler!) and they deducted 35 dollars from my bill each day I worked. I did saturdays and a couple days during the week. Obviously I only did that for one month and then just paid the whole board!! I was too tired to do anything with my mare when I was done.

[qtrhorse1993]

i can only add that i would do it if i had money off of my board. and stalls dont need to be done only in the am..evenings work too. but i only pay 250 a month for full board with an indoor... but if i had a choice of 250 or 450..i would go with 250 and do stall at least 4x a week. i wouldnt make exceptions on hay and grain as the prices change way to fast, this way your not feeding beyond what work they are doing..we average 4 a bale of hay and around 10-12 for a bag of cheap feed. the horse will most likely eat about 80 a week depending on the horse.and the cost of the hay and feed.

[Reshea]

I'm not familiar with your particular horses but something that works for my BO: She has a horse crazy teen with a very understanding mom who comes in and cleans stalls on a part-time basis, when she cleans she can ride the BO's broke lesson horse and the BO will ususally throw in a mini lesson. It works well as the family doesn't have a ton of money and can only afford lessons 1 every week or two so the girl gets to practice and learns the value of work ethic. For the BO she gets the stalls done w/o another horse added to the barn.

[David]

It depends how many horses you have, how many the boarder has, who deals with horses on weekends, price of stall board in your area, price of farm labor in your area, etc, etc,etc.

My suggestion is this, Call some boarding stables (as close as you can get to your house) ask what they charge for full stall board. Then ask them "In general, how much do your stall muckers make per hour?" If you say it that way, the'll be more inclined to answer than if you just say, "How much do you pay your help?" I know a lot of the bigger places here pay by the stall, if the places up there do it will help you determine an appropriate price.

Then you can decide if it's worth it to give full board for one horse or three, or if you're better off getting a boarder ( or two) and hiring the neighbor kid to clean stalls and putting the extra money in your pocket.

Hope this helps
David

[theoldbear]

When we boarded in West Virginia, nearly 25 years ago, we had a super relationship with the stable owner. We cleaned stalls and fed and watered whenever she couldn't, which might be several times a week, and since I could get free during the day when the farrier and vet came, I'd handle all their barn calls. She worked as a vet tech out of town, so if there was an emergency at the barn during the day, I'd cover for her.

She used our horse(s) in her lesson program. She gave our son lessons.

We also turned horses out for her, and my wife and son rode horses to exercise them for her.

We'd kick in a twenty or a fifty once in a while for feed, hay or wormer, and we paid our own vet and farrier bills, but it was so casual and cooperative that I really couldn't tell you what set amount we might have agreed upon.

For three years, it worked great.

Then we moved to Florida, and I boarded here for a year, and that's another story for another time!

[kanoo32]

Charge?? Nope...IMO, I think you should offer free board in exchange for cleaning stalls and caring for you horses during the week.....I board a horse here I provide everything, even vaccinate him deworm him and trim his feet and she feeds for me 1 day a week and does 2 sets of turnouts that day, brings them in and hoses them off and drops lunch......She also feeds for me IF I go out of town.....she does not clean any stalls, I have seperate help for that......

[Horselady44]

It depends on how many stalls need to be cleaned...would they also have to feed/water?
I agree with Kanoo...but if there are only 4-5 stalls that take about 5-10 mins each to clean then I would charge maybe 1/4 of what you do for regular boarders...but if there are more than that...I would def just let them board ONE horse for free

[Sirita_88]

I have a very small barn, right now it currently has 3 horses, 4 if my other boarder ever brings her horse home from the trainers (probably never going to happen). So it would be 4 with the boarder's horse. It's just cleaning stalls including watering the stalls in the pm.


I also thought about trying to get a 4-H member or something like that and doing a leasing/lessons for cleaning stalls, but idk, No offense to the general gradeschool horse-crazy person, but I haven't had very good experience with responsibility in that age group. The barn I have worked for for 5 years still has me watch the horses when she goes out of town because she just doesn't trust any of the teens she has tried after I left for college.

..hmm...

[WickedNag]

Think of it in terms of pay. Would you clean 3 or 4 stalls daily for $5.63 a stall? How long does it take to clean a stall? I have never used stalls so seriously do not know. When I did the math the $5.63 was based on four horses 5 days a week.

[recklesshoundog]

Originally Posted by WickedNag

Think of it in terms of pay. Would you clean 3 or 4 stalls daily for $5.63 a stall? How long does it take to clean a stall? I have never used stalls so seriously do not know. When I did the math the $5.63 was based on four horses 5 days a week.

It takes me about 15 minutes max to clean a stall....probably closer to less than 10 minutes. So 22.50 per hour on the low side. Most stall cleaners get around 10 bucks an hour.

[razorbackranch]

if you want it plain and simple, I would just trade her work for caring, feeding doing stalls etc in echange for full board on her horse....then you wouldn't have to worry about extra feed, hay in your tack/feed room, etc....I'd just have her come out every day.... it would just be simple and you wouldn't have to worry about it

[bubbleslove]

I would just do a straight exchange, board for labour, and I agree just to include feed unless it's on a special diet.
The a.m. feeding lady at our barn gets free board in exchange for dropping breakfast 7 days a week. There's a teenager at the barn who works for lesson money, so if I'm running late, not feeling well, etc, I can text her and she'll feed dinner ($5) or clean the stall ($5). She does a great job, so I have no problem paying her that amount.