If you have a boarder whose horse has an injury necessitating the horse be kept in 24/7, do you charge extra for the additional cleanings and bedding? If so, how much?
IME it depends on the duration of the stall rest. A week or two? No charge. A month or more? I’ve seen an additional fee of $25-100.
Also depends on the barn type and what the standard schedule is. In Ohio, where no BO ever turns out anyway, I was never charged extra. If it’s a show barn where the horses barely get out 2 hours a day, I imagine there’d be no additional fee because there’s basically no additional labor nor material use as compared to normal. But if the typical schedule is out 12+ hours, then yeah, I’d expect an additional fee.
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In my experience, no extra charge unless this means switching from a paddock or pasture to stall.
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The extra bedding, the extra labor to clean the bedding, fill buckets etc., and the extra hay may or may not be offset with savings elsewhere (less labor for turnout for example) but probably not.
BO needs to decide what works for her situation and charge accordingly. If there is no policy in place, she’ll be setting a precedent that she should be prepared to offer to all boarders in the future. One way to think about it from the BO’s perspective is to determine if all the horses lived in 24/7 would it cost more to run the operation and if so, how much more and how much higher would board need to be to cover that extra cost.
Might be a good time for BO to update the boarding contract too.
This is my experience too.
If the horse is typically only out for a short amount of time then being on stall rest is not different enough to matter. If the horse is typically out quite a bit then the additional bedding, additional hay, additional labor needs to be covered.
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Economically, it might be a “wash.” The extra labor, bedding, etc. might be balanced by the extra handling that turnout requires. This would vary widely, however, with the 5Ws of the facility.
If turnout is common then keeping one horse WILL interfere with normal procedures and that will increase inconvenience and might also increase costs.
Concur with the idea that a short term would likely not likely increase fees but a longer term might.
Consider, also, that horses on stall rest are there for a reason and often need more than just a period of limited mobility.
G.
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If it’s for a few days I haven’t received a charge but I also helped picking the stall out. If it was for a week or longer my board went up. When it was long term stall rest my board went up $400 a month which I gladly paid for their extra work and care.
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the 5Ws of the facility.
Have never heard this term. What?
that is what I would expect
I can say as a private barn owner my costs are doubled if a horse is stalled 24hrs/day verses turn out 12 hrs/day
that does not count extra repairs as bored horse pays with things
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My boarders live outside with sheds so switching to stalled 24/7 is a huge inconvenience for me, and definitely has to be paid for. I’ve previously charged $100 per week extra. It seems like a lot (taking $750 board up to ~$1150) but I have to: empty the stall (which is used for extra hay and box storage), fully bed down, and muck multiple times per day. This is in contrast to horses living on sand and rubber matted sheds, mucked once daily.
I am not the most generous in that there is a big boarding barn literally across the street and I will actively encourage boarders to send their horse over there if they need a stall (and discount their board as appropriate). It doesn’t feel great to do but I quite frankly can’t accommodate stalled boarders, I have a 9-5 job and no interest in providing services even for extra money. I’m more likely to make it work if the owner is going to be helpful with extra mucking and things, but even still I gotta charge to make it happen.
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At the place I board they charge for turning the horses out each day for 6 hours, so its cheaper to keep them in 24/7. Stalls get cleaned 1x/day, bedding amount etc are all the same.
My horse is on stall rest now and I clean his stall in the PM, refill water, and add bedding (my own) if needed. I’d be pretty sad if on top of a broken horse AND all the vet bills AND the cost of having him stalled I got an extra penalty for not being able to turn him out when I do the extra work myself.
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I could be wrong, but I don’t think OP was asking about a self-care arrangement. If she is, that would change things.
I “think” we can deduce from OP’s post that having a horse boarded inside 24/7 adds some cost to her particular situation, hence her question. But it is useful to be reminded that in some regions, turnout costs more than 24/7 inside board. Good point @Xanthoria
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Thank you for the feedback.
I am revising my boarding contract as I’ve had a couple of things come up that are not specifically written into my contract. I think I should address these issues going forward by including them in the contract. I also had someone inquire about boarding who immediately disqualified herself with some of the comments she and her mom made. I said, “The farm grows it’s own hay so the quality and source are consistent” to which they responded, “So you are generous with the hay?” I asked them to clarify and the girl said her horse was a hard keeper and I could give him 4 bales a day. Uh, no. I still have to buy the hay from the farm owner. .
I am a believer in as much turn out as possible and it’s normal in this area. My horses are used to being out 12 - 16 hours a day. So a horse staying in is a huge inconvenience, not to mention a horse that is stalled that is used to being out more than in is going to trash a stall walking in circles. It’s rare that a stalled horse keeps his stall such that you can just go and pick the poop out a few extra times during the day. It’s generally ground in and requires full stripping at least every other day if not daily. It also significantly increases the horse’s hay consumption and hay is my biggest monthly expense, in winter. I have felt bad that someone with an injured horse is already getting hit with vet bills. But I’m not a charity either.
I was thinking $10/day to cover the extra labor, bedding and hay.
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I think your assessment for your situation is fair.
That argument from horse owners blows my mind. Why does the BO have to eat the extra hard costs and spend more of their time without reimbursement during an injury/illness just because you think you have enough to deal with with getting vet bills? I’ve had this “debate” with a friend before. I was astounded.
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In my case I said I’d be sad if I had to pay extra, considering I pay for extra bedding and do the additional cleaning myself versus expecting the barn to do anything different than they normally do. I.e. clean once per day. I didn’t say I expected the barn to pay extra if my horse gets sick.
And in fact no barn is required to do anything additional if a horse is still bound. Any boarding place can say well, you get one cleaning per day and X amount of bedding etc. Add more if you want it. Then you have to stand back and be OK with some horse owners who won’t go the extra mile, but that’s a choice to make.
Quoting because it bears repeating. If a boarding facility is built around a certain program such as 12-16 hours of turnout, a horse that disrupts that rhythm and needs a special program can add a lot of cost and inconvenience.
@Guilherme took the words right out of my mouth. Stall rest is often accompanied by or followed with extra care; such as hand walking, wrapping, wound care, etc.; which may require its own additional daily fee.
It sounds like OP provides all the hay, bedding and labor at her facility and stalls are cleaned/picked out more than once in a 24 hour period. So it sounds like OP runs a different program.
On a somewhat related topic, rehab facilities often offer a good alternative to a boarder who is in need of specialized care without breaking the bank.
One thing I don’t know if anyone has mentioned is that oftentimes a horse kept stalled when usually it is out requires not only himself in but also a buddy, so BO has to do all that extra for 2 horses.
I dont usually charge for short term but long term I probably would charge for the extra bedding and cleaning.
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Horses here are out 24/7, so a stalled horse is a major inconvenience. I’ve only done it once, for a horse recovering from colitis. I passed the actual cost of shavings along and didn’t charge for my labor as it was a life or death situation and the owner worked really hard to take up as much extra work as possible (he needed medication and feeding 4 times a day, and a late night barn check. The owner also feeds for me, so is in a special category.
If the owner couldn’t help, I would charge $10/hour for my time in addition to shavings. If it was more than a week I would help the owner find a full service barn where the horse could get the care it needed.
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In our contract stall rest is an additional $5/day
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