Barn Chore Checklist

[Snowflake]

I need help creating a barn chore checklist for the morning help. Basically, he is an elderly man boarding two horses on the farm who does morning chores for a discount on his board bill. I recently took over management of the barn and I’m having significant issues with his attention to details and doing basic husbandry things.

For example, one morning he brought all the horses in and left them in all day without tossing any of them hay. I lost my mind when I got in in the evening and saw that the hay in the feed stall was untouched from the day before.

He has forgotten to water the horses out in the pasture and I’ve come in to find pasture waters BONE DRY. Like, not one drop of water in them and dried out completely by the sun. Again, I blew my stack.

With the water thing he tried to claim he did fill them, but I know for a fact he didn’t. I wrap the hose in a very particular way on the reel to make it smoother to unwind. The hose was wrapped just this way - something he doesn’t do. And there is no way two horses would have drank that much water to the point that all the water was gone from the trough and dried in the sun. Just simply no possible way he watered them.

My mare is on morning supplements and she should be due now for a refill. Checked her supplement bucket and it’s more than half full. I dosed her stuff out into those clear plastic salad dressing take-out cups and she’s got more than two months left. Which means she’s not getting her supplements either.

I have a note on one gelding’s stall that his halter is not to be left on 24/7 because he gets rubs badly. The note is being ignored and the halter is constantly being left on.

I’ve confronted him with a stern “Shape up or you’re fired” talk and he constantly tries to turn it around on me saying “Oh, well I assumed you would have set up the stalls and had hay in there already.” or “I guess you just need to come out here mid day so they’re not going without until dinner.” Dude, WTF?! I work a full time job and don’t have the luxury of running to the barn to check to make sure you did your job. And seriously, it takes 20 seconds to run down the aisle, peek in the stalls and make sure everything is kosher before you leave. I don’t get his problem.

He’s boarded with the BO for 20+ years and has had a work discount arrangement for the whole of this time. I’ve expressed my concerns with the BO and she’s frustrated too because she knows he’s so lax about things. She knows he’s dependent on the work discount so she’s asked me to devise a checklist to have it laid out for him exactly what he needs to do. Because he’s been such a long term boarder, I want to be respectful of her relationship with him.

Basically, I feel like I’m probably going to be forgetting something so this is what I’ve got so far:

• Check all horses when you bring them in for wounds, sores and loose shoes.
• Feed all horses (hay and grain)
• Make sure Snowflake has her supplement
• Make sure all waters are full (inside and outside)
• If daytime temperatures are above 45 degrees, take off Knuckles' sheet.
• Make sure Knuckles' halter is off.
• If horses are turned out, make sure fence charger is on.
• Make sure hose is off and reeled in.

What else would you add to the list for your morning chore staff?

[Kwill]

You can try this, but I am pessimistic you will ever get decent work out of this guy. Can you hire someone else to do the really important things, and just let him do stuff for board that isn’t crucial? He could sweep the aisles or something else.

Just give him the discount and get someone else, and don’t make him do any more work … it’s probably worth it in the end not to have the worry or hassle of correcting his mistakes.

[Snowflake]

[QUOTE=Kwill;7783074]
You can try this, but I am pessimistic you will ever get decent work out of this guy. Can you hire someone else to do the really important things, and just let him do stuff for board that isn’t crucial? He could sweep the aisles or something else.

Just give him the discount and get someone else, and don’t make him do any more work … it’s probably worth it in the end not to have the worry or hassle of correcting his mistakes.[/QUOTE]

I have told the barn manager that if he doesn’t shape up, I will be taking the morning chores over. I would rather do them myself then have to worry about whether the horses have food or water during the day. Whether she raises his board is between them. My management duties have nothing to do with the finances.

The BO asked me to try this so I am but I want to make sure I’ve got everything covered. I go on auto pilot when I’m in the barn. I’ve got my routine down and I don’t think about it. It’s this that makes me think I may be overlooking some chores that should be on the list.

[Field_of_Dreams_Mini]

I think you can write lists to the end of days, and he still won’t change. After doing this all this time, he knows what to do. He just doesn’t [I]care.

[/I]

[Kwill]

Your list looks good – maybe check that all the horses are eating normally before you leave for the day.

[Wellspotted]

Was he this lax with the previous barn manager? Was there a barn manager before you, or just the BO?

[Snowflake]

[QUOTE=Wellspotted;7783121]
Was he this lax with the previous barn manager? Was there a barn manager before you, or just the BO?[/QUOTE]

Yes. The previous barn manager HATED him.

[Preposterous_Ponies]

Get rid of him. You are going to lose business. As a boarder, I would flip my lid if my horses were being cared for in this matter.

[BrookdaleBay]

Give him the discount, but give someone more competent the chores.

[Daisyesq]

Your list is good.

This man can’t be responsible for horse care anymore. He won’t improve. Give him the discount and a list of other chores to do (clean tack, scrub buckets, clean out the tack trunk, painting?).

[meupatdoes]

The checklist is

"Before you leave:

1. Does everyone have water in front of them?
2. Does everyone have hay in front of them?
3. Have you visually assessed every horse at least once today?"

The BO needs to tell him that if he doesn’t get his sh*t together, his discount is done. She is the one who needs to have that talk. He is obviously not going to listen to you, and either way it is her talk to have with him.

[Kwill]

You need to have a serious talk with the barn owner. As manager, you are responsible for the well being of these horses. He’s detrimental to this. She can give him his discount, and just let him be there, without hurting the animals that other people own. He’s not doing the work anyway, why pretend?

[Simkie]

I get why you’re trying the checklist, but I’d be dubious that it will change anything…which it sounds like you know

I would break it down further, and make them directions:

Feed horse 1 3 flakes grass hay
Feed horse 2 1 flake grass hay and 2 flakes alfalfa hay
Fill inside waterers
Fill outside waterers
Remove Knuckles’ halter

etc.

Laminate it, put it on a clipboard and attach a wipe off marker. Request that he actually check things off as he goes.

If he’s got some sort of cognitive issue going on having it all broken out and actionable may help. If he’s just lazy, well…nothing will help, but then you can at least see exactly how much he’s bullshitting you.

[Kwill]

Simkie has a point, a checklist he has to actually complete is a good strategy – but he needs to actually check it off as she suggested.

[partlycloudy]

you mentioned he is getting older…60’s, 70’s 80’s? Many seniors have memory problems (that’s why they call them senior moments). there’s no way a list is going to help (he’ll forget about the list!)

I have a client whose getting ‘up there’ I just have to go behind and make sure he’s done things…close gates,stall doors, taken polos off horse etc. etc.

as others have said could you change up his chores to be things that aren’t life or death if he doesn’t do them? Just so he can save face?

Getting old sucks

[UrbanHennery]

If you’re going to give him a checklist, it’s needs to be really really specific - ala Simkie’s example. And then ask him to check items off every day. That way, when he fails to meet expectations you have “concrete evidence” that he’s not performing all expected tasks.

For example:
My farm sitters (I’ve only got 2 at home) are usually college age horsey kids. I leave them an explicit morning checklist and evening checklist as well as other animal chores. I expect them to put a check each day/time they complete a chore so I know it was all done when I get home (or if we’re gone for more than a few days my trainer will come by and check the board/horses since she’s lives close and loffs my gelding).

My checklist for the morning looks like this during the fall (horses have stall / paddock access 24/7):

Feed:
Mini Mo: 3# hay
JD: 10# alfalfa
Jake (yellow dog): 1 overflowing scoop food
Hank (black dog): 1 slightly under filled scoop food

Do:
JD: Change from blanket to rain sheet
Check and fill Mo’s water tank
Check and fill JD’s water tank
Check and fill cat water
Check and fill dog water
Check and fill hen water

There’s a similar evening check list that includes checking cat and hen food and collecting eggs as well as cleaning stalls/paddocks and feeding grain.

During the summer when they’re out on pasture I add morning checklist items for opening gates and checking the fence charger. And then evening items for closing gates.

[Wellspotted]

[QUOTE=partlycloudy;7783245]
you mentioned he is getting older…60’s, 70’s 80’s? Many seniors have memory problems (that’s why they call them senior moments). there’s no way a list is going to help (he’ll forget about the list!)

I have a client whose getting ‘up there’ I just have to go behind and make sure he’s done things…close gates,stall doors, taken polos off horse etc. etc.

as others have said could you change up his chores to be things that aren’t life or death if he doesn’t do them? Just so he can save face?

Getting old sucks[/QUOTE]

Oh, please. I am in my 60s. I can remember barn chores, but at my age I know better than to try to work off board! Even my 60-something friends who are in better physical shape than I am would have a hard time completing the sort of barn chores OP lists (which are just ordinary barn chores, not asking the guy to lift square bales all by himself, thoroughly groom all the horses, etc.)

Being a man, this guy may not be able to admit (even to himself) that he just can’t do all the work physically these days. Heck, some women would have the same problem acknowledging this.

Just because someone is in their 60s, 70s, or even 80s, doesn’t necessarily mean their memory has gone. Some of my best friends are only in early middle age, and they have more trouble remembering chores than some of us older middle-aged folks have!

[french_fry]

I used to do some farm sitting and one of the families made a separate checklist for me to initial and write in the time completed for each task for each day they were gone. (Maybe it was you, UrbanHennery? )

It was great! It was so helpful for me to be able to walk out of there 100% sure I hadn’t inadvertently missed a small detail.

[partlycloudy]

Wellspotted, I didn’t mean that ALL seniors have memory problems…but lots do. I know my client can’t remember much, so I watch out for him. It happens. I’m 54 myself and have to make myself lists.

[Wellspotted]

[QUOTE=partlycloudy;7783270]
Wellspotted, I didn’t mean that ALL seniors have memory problems…but lots do. I know my client can’t remember much, so I watch out for him. It happens. I’m 54 myself and have to make myself lists.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I know, my cell phone is constantly beeping me to remind me of a program I really want to watch so I can be sure to remember to actually watch it!
(But OTOH I don’t forget to feed the ferals, or my own kitties, or check certain COTH threads I want to keep up with.)