Farm owners, boarders and barn managers

[GoodTimes]

I used to work as a groom then a BM. First at a breeding facility, than at an A barn. Lots of experience handling babies, stallions, rehab and quarantine horses.

I would trust my trainer and his partner more than myself with an especially naughty horse. They’re stronger than I am, have good horse sense, and don’t let their emotions get in the way. Plus horses are their full time job. Horses haven’t been my career for almost 10 years now.
Most of the regular staff though? No I wouldn’t trust them, not enough experience with excitable horses. One of the staff I don’t want handling my horses at all really, her first reaction to everything is to “shank shank shank and back up”. Way to rough for no reason. Luckily one of mine lives out 24/7 and only gets handled by me, the other is polite and only needs to be led about 30’ from her stall to the gate.

[skipollo]

@anon68314200

Are you happy with how your staff handles the horses ?
Could the Staff benefit from better ground handling skills?
Are you personally confident with your ability to hand walk a stall rest or rehab case ?

1. Yes, my horse is generally very easy to be around but can have episodes of anxiety where he goes over threshold. He doesn’t kick/bite/strike out, when he’s having an episode he mostly brews in anxiety, wants to power walk or jig in place, and then tries to yank away from you when you take him into the field and go to remove the halter. He never tries to get away from you when you still have the halter on him. This rarely happens, but it does happen. Because he can have moments like this, if I’m not the only turning him out, only the experienced staff will turn him out. They have some older kids (middle school/high school?) that help with barn chores (with supervision), and they can bring him in no problem but they don’t turn him out.

2. They do a very nice job with my horse and I have no complaints about how he’s handled. He’s pretty sensitive, and everyone is very kind with him.

3. Yes I’ve done it multiple times. There are only a few staff I would say could handle him while he’s on stall rest and rehabbing, but I always handle that 100% myself. That is his one major bugaboo, if he’s on stall rest, he’s a dragon. Still no biting/kicking/striking out/breaking away, but he gets very hot/anxious and has gone up a few times while hand walking. I would feel horrible if he accidentally hurt or scared someone else, so I handle all of that myself.

I wouldn’t deal with anyone else’s horses during rehab/stall rest. Can I? Sure. I spent a long time working at a breeding barn, and my own horse has his moments. Will I? No. It’s not worth the risk of getting hurt as it’s not my profession to handle other people’s horses.

[Alterration]

@anon68314200

Are you happy with how your staff handles the horses ?
Could the Staff benefit from better ground handling skills?
Are you personally confident with your ability to hand walk a stall rest or rehab case ?

I’m assuming you’re asking because you’re looking for a market.

1. Yes, I only hire people who can handle horses well.
2. Well everyone can of course, but this is not something I would pay for - in part because I do not take horses who are ill-mannered and in part because I only hire people with experience.
3. Yes, however I do not provide it as part of my services - too risky.

[anon68314200]

GoodTimes, can Send you a PM ? I’d like to chat more about your answer.

[RedHorses]

@trubandloki Looks like you were right. The OP apparently feels someone handling their horse (on stall rest?) is too rough/quick to discipline/ free with the shank…

[luvmyhackney]

She did call it.

If someone was yank, yank, yank, it might work better to teach them a different way to handle the situation. You don’t know what you don’t know unless someone tells or teaches you.

But sometimes a horse on rehab, needs the deeper line in the sand and stronger consequences for crossing it. Fully horse dependent.

[LilDunFilly]

@Texarkana

It’s a bizarre question because what barn owner running a business is going to openly say, “as a matter of fact, my staff is incapable of handling horses and so am I!”

I have been at some barns where this was the case. These were pretty bare-bones in terms of care, with all the horses being stalled and the barns provided X amount of hay 2x daily. Barn 1, boarders provided bedding and did not like the muckers deep cleaning every day, so the muckers usually just picked the manure only. Barn 2, barn provided shavings but skimped on stall cleaning (the bottom layer of shavings were actually composting in a few stalls). The BOs just rented the place out, so these were the only real staff. I would not trust any of these people to handle my horse.

Also been at barns that aren’t paying people enough so the barn doesn’t retain staff. The staff winds up inexperienced and/or incompetent but those are the only people willing to work there.

[RedHorses]

Agreed 100%

[eightpondfarm]

i have a large farm full of animals, including 17 horses and two mules. I feel quite confident handling every single one of them. I don’t use muscle i use quiet reason. And treats. And i have various enclosures that make it easy for me to isolate the ones i want to work with from out of the herd at just about any time. They run free over a couple hundred acres, and come in when hollered for. Same with the sheep. Same with the cows. If i couldn’t do that, i wouldn’t have them. Rehab…actually it happens seldom enough that i feel very lucky. Currently have a mare with an abscess. She is being treated but also has freedom to move around. She needs to move somewhat to get to the water trough and also to the pecan tree underneath which i feed her alfalfa. Had a torn tendon guy, he had freedom also. I rewrapped him every day but let him move (or not move) as he chose. Splint break, same thing. Most of horses with ailments have choice of movement. I think only one or two times vet has asked me to restrict movement. When i do, fine. Whoever it is gets good food, a companion nearby and me, the nursemaid. I’ve never had explosion issues with anyone here.

[candyappy]

@Texarkana

It’s a bizarre question because what barn owner running a business is going to openly say, “as a matter of fact, my staff is incapable of handling horses and so am I!”

Just from the info on threads here, I think there are many on staff at boarding barns who probably shouldn’t be. I worked at one where we had 2 workers that were not comfortable walking horses to turnout ( if they were fresh) and it resulted in behavior issues down the road…

I imagine there are BO’s who also lack the skills at actually handling horses in various situations. Select trainers can fall into that group as well.

[anon68314200]

Good summary. There are plenty of “horse enthusiast” but not highly skilled, barn owners and same for staff. Also, plenty of reliance on short cut (ie nose chain, twitch, etc) over the potentially very time consuming constructional, training of horses.

Plentiful criticism (if not crucifixrion) of short cut craftsmanship… But very little appetite to change those arrangements.

[Scribbler]

@anon68314200

Good summary. There are plenty of “horse enthusiast” but not highly skilled, barn owners and same for staff. Also, plenty of reliance on short cut (ie nose chain, twitch, etc) over the potentially very time consuming constructional, training of horses.

Plentiful criticism (if not crucifixrion) of short cut craftsmanship… But very little appetite to change those arrangements.

This is at your barn or a general comment?

If general it doesn’t reflect my slice of Horseworld.

I see racetrack people who are highly skilled and also use chains.

I see self board owners and boarding barns where there are less skilled people but quieter horses in rope halters.