Average fee for blanket changes

[ala359]

Hi all!

My horse will be transitioning to pasture board in August, which doesn’t include blanket changes. She lives out 24/7 and wears a fly sheet during the day. I found out this summer that she has PSSM2 so will be blanketed more heavily this year, we’re in Vermont though the temperature changes can be pretty drastic. I’m planning on offering the manager an extra sum to include blanket changes if necessary (per the BO who suggested this). I’ve always had it included so am not sure how much to offer her. What is the going rate for this??

[Knights_Mom]

Do they offer this service? If not you may have to pay enough to make it woth their while.

[trubandloki]

I agree with @Knights_Mom.

I think the answer also includes stuff like - how much more work is this for them? If your horse is 100% outside this will require them to either go get your horse (how far is the turn out from the barn?) and bring it in to do the blanket change or carry your blanket out to the horse and do the blanket change in the pasture.
If your pasture board includes bringing them in for meals and then turning them back out, then a blanket change while the horse is in is still work but not near as much work.

[ala359]

They do this service for full board but stopped for pasture boarders- I have been paying for full board/ a stall that I don’t use to get these services but they are looking to open stalls for a trainer and her students so I’ve agreed to give it up and go to pasture board.

My girl will be out in a small area close to the barn and will be fed twice a day either in her feed bag or a catch pen. I am there after work almost every night so I adjust blankets as necessary myself then, so it will mainly be just in the morning. I also will just layer turnouts to make it easy so she’ll likely just be removing a top layer.

[Highflyer1]

We charge $1 /day starting from when blankets go on for the first time and ending when they stop for the year. Sometimes they don’t need to be changed, sometimes they get changed am and pm.

[Knights_Mom]

Since you did them a favor by vacating the stall where blankets are managed offer $25/month for changes and make a deal. If horses don’t come in to eat put a plastic, wheeled garbage can with a cover and keep it in the lean to with the choice of sheets and blankets inside to make it as easy as possible for them.

If they want more, consider giving it.

[Gardenhorse]

It seems weird that the BO is expecting you to set the cost of the service. Have you asked her how much she thinks is reasonable?

[Equkelly]

I’ve heard 4 dollars per time so if your horse gets blanketed 7 days a week it’s 28/week. But that’s at barns that offer it as a service so it’s worthwhile when you’re doing 10 horses but idk that it would be for 1. For one horse it really just depends on how easy the horse is to catch, how close the pasture is, how close the blanket storage is.

[ala359]

Yeah, she really just wants to make the manager happy I think so wants to mak sure the $$ goes directly to her for the extra work😬 So I’ll check with her first to make sure it’s an acceptable offer!

[ala359]

That’s an awesome idea! Thanks!

[ala359]

Thank you all very much for your input!

[joiedevie99]

I pay $2.50 per change for my retired horse who is out on a medium size dry lot.

[CHT]

At my barn, I don’t charge to take a blanket off. For inside horses blanket changes are included, but for the rest, I charge $5.00 to change a blanket, and I charge $10 if the horse is naked and dirty and I have to groom before putting a blanket on. If the horse is wet and I need to dry it, they have to either pay for the horse to sit in a stall + the grooming/blanket fee, or pay for however much time it takes. I try to charge enough to encourage people to buy quality blankets that are better suited to variable weather, while not leaving horses to suffer because someone doesn’t have the $$.

[RedHorses]

Because this is a direct to BM deal don’t factor in the “favour” you did the BO by giving up the stall.

As blanket changes are not included for outside horses you will be asking the BM for a favour as a totally separate transaction. The BM will not only be blanketing your horse, but dealing with other boarders wanting blanket changes for their horses. I doubt they’ll all be reasonable about being told “no”.

Is it going to be an every day thing? Twice a day? How will you communicate if it’s not an every day thing? Will you leave it up to the BM’s judgement within your guidelines? What will happen when the day turns much warmer or colder than expected after the blanket change time?

There’s more than just blanket changes involved here.

[Longview]

In the past, I’ve charged $30-$50 per month rather than a per change fee. The lower price point is usually a situation where I’ve got a lot of horses together that don’t necessarily need daily changes (such as pasture borders that might wear the same blanket for many days in a row). The upper end of that is when I know I’ll be changing blankets daily or multiple times per day.

[mmeqcenter]

I’ve usually seen $50-100 per month.

[candyappy]

Why not just keep paying the same board (as stall included) unless it is way too much??

[SonnysMom]

Why would she want to do that? She no longer has access to the stall. Why should she pay for access to the stall and for blanket changing just to get blanket changing when it was the BO that pretty much asked her to go switch to pasture board? She shouldn’t have to pay the same amount for less amenities.

[Equkelly]

@candyappy

Why not just keep paying the same board (as stall included) unless it is way too much??

@SonnysMom

Why would she want to do that? She no longer has access to the stall. Why should she pay for access to the stall and for blanket changing just to get blanket changing when it was the BO that pretty much asked her to go switch to pasture board? She shouldn’t have to pay the same amount for less amenities.

I’m not saying that OP should or shouldn’t pay the same amount but blanketing a horse in a stall versus blanketing a horse in a pasture is totally different and I would not expect those to cost the same. Trucking out to the pasture in a foot of snow carrying a blanket/ liner/ towel to dry the horse off with is way way WAY more inconvenient than blanketing horses that are stalled. The whole reason we stall horses is for convenience for things like this. Also if the horse has PSSM2 it should be on pasture anyway…

[candyappy]

@SonnysMom

Why would she want to do that? She no longer has access to the stall. Why should she pay for access to the stall and for blanket changing just to get blanket changing when it was the BO that pretty much asked her to go switch to pasture board? She shouldn’t have to pay the same amount for less amenities.

Because it might be cheaper in the end than just paying for the blanket changes. Some people here pay a lot for that service it seems.