If you currently work at a barn, have in the past, or just know the following, I’m interested in hearing from you.
How long does it take for you (or the barn staff) to complete AM & PM chores (hours separated for each)?
How many people handle each shift?
How many horses are at your barn?
There are so many variables to this question. Currently I have 4 horses at home. They are in a dry lot overnight and on pasture during the day. Morning chores include turn out, throwing some hay and cleaning the dry lots. It takes about 20 minutes. Evenings is feeding grain and hay and bringing them in. It takes about 15 minutes. I empty, clean and refill the trough on the weekend and that adds another 15 or 20 minutes.
I used to work at a boarding barn. There were about 40 horses. Mornings were feeding hay, grain, filling water buckets and turnout troughs and then turning out the horses. It took about 2 hours with 3 of us. Evenings were feeding hay, grain, watering and bringing in. Again, with 3 of us it was about 2 hours.
Hm.
At one barn I worked at, I was sometimes sole charge. 50 head of horses, 3 barns, would take me about 2 hours to feed (everyone had to be called in to their stalls and released again). Stalls opened directly to the pastures and horses were restricted to herds of 5-6, so that really changed the workload.
Current barn I farm sit at is about 20-25 horses, only about 5 regularly use their stalls and have to be brought in or turned out depending on time of day and the rest eat over the fence. It takes me about 1.5 hours to feed and muck.
My barn has 18 stalled horses and morning consists of feeding (hay and grain) and turnout which takes about 40 minutes. Evening consists of feeding hay, filling waters, bringing in the 18, grain and topping off waters which takes about 2 hours.
My barn has thirteen horses, nine are stalled during the day (about to switch to nights), one on layup. Mornings consists of bringing in, feeding, checking troughs, picking the layup stall, turning pasture horses back out. Takes about 40 minutes. Evenings is bring pasture horses in, feed, check troughs, turn EVERYONE out (except the layup), picking stalls, filling haynets and water buckets. Takes about 2 hours.
Jennifer
Wow all the possible answers! But from my experiences:
Scenario 1 (now, my own farm) Florida:
20 minutes AM, 30 minutes if have to take sheets/blankets off
…AM includes bringing one horse inside to stall, feeding her in stall, feeding six horses outside in fields, filling waters
30 minutes PM, 40 minutes if have to put blankets on
…PM includes putting mare back outside, feeding all seven outside, filling waters, cleaning one stall, sweeping
AM by myself (1 person). PM usually my boyfriend helps (2 people).
Seven horses - six are pasture boarded, one stall boarded who is out at night and inside during the day and her stall gets cleaned after she goes out at night.
Scenario 2 (worked at in past) Ohio:
45 minutes AM
…AM summer included cleaning 14 stalls, bringing in 14 horses from outside to put back in stalls, feeding, sweeping, filling waters
…AM winter included feeding 14 horses, turning out, cleaning 14 stalls, throwing hay outside, sweeping, filling waters
(did not work evenings)
One person, 14 horses
Scenario 3 (worked at in past) Ohio:
1 hour AM
…included bringing in and turning out various sets of horses, cleaning stalls, feeding, throwing hay outside, raking dirt floor aisle, filling waters, changing blankets in winter as needed
Two or three people usually, 24 horses
(did not work evenings)
Scenario 4 (worked at in past) Ohio:
3+ hours AM
…included feeding 30 horses, turning out some, cleaning 26 stalls, sweeping, filling waters
Two people, 30 horses
This place was the absolute WORST set up ever, which is why it took so long. Had a teeny tiny spreader that you had to dump at LEAST three times each shift because it was too small for the number of horses, and it didn’t help that they did not turn out very much so you were cleaning horrendous stalls every day.
Our grooms work 7-4, and take care of everything for 5-7 horses each - including tacking up and untacking.
I agree that it really varies. I have found that the time it takes is very dependent on the farm set up and how difficult the stalls are to clean and how far you have to haul manure and shavings.
18-21 horses one person
Summer
45 minutes to 1.5 hours AM (bring in horses, take off flysheets, feed, sweep, check/clean auto-waters, fill some buckets, check water outside)
2-3 hours PM (same thing in reverse plus clean all stalls)
Also, someone had to drop afternoon hay and feed the horses that received 3 meals/day
Winter
2-5 hours AM (feed, blanket change, turnout if possible and if turnout wasn’t possible supervised time in indoor, clean stalls, sweeping, clean/check water, throw hay outside)
1-3 hours PM (bring in horses or clean stalls again, feed, blanket change, check water)
5 horses
Summer only (farm sitting)
15-20 minutes AM (feed, turnout)
about an hour PM (bring in horses, check fence, clean stalls, feed, blow out barn with leaf blower)
2-3 horses
Summer only (farm sitting)
Somehow usually takes the same amount of time as 5 horses. The extra time was probably because of the amount of time on the phone with the vet, dealing with the barn flooding and changing bandages at the barn I was thinking about. Usually when I take care of 2-3 horses it takes 15 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening, but this particular job taught me to give myself plenty of extra time.
7 horses complete PIA of a job, no rubber mats in stalls, deep mud near barn door, horses didn’t lead well
Winter only (farm sitting)
2 hours AM (feed, turnout, toss hay outside, clean stalls)
20 minutes midday tossing hay and feeding grain outside
45 minutes PM (bring in, feed, pick out feet)
How on earth is it possible to clean stalls AND do all the other stuff for that number of horses in 45 minutes? JUST stalls would be 3 mins a stall 
Because hay nets were filled the shift before for when in stalls, the horses were out usually 18 hours+, and the BO had the feed set up in a very organized manner.
Thinking on it again, though (twas 6 years or so ago), I remember now that I only had to clean 8 of the stalls, the other 6 were in another barn done by someone else, just fed and turned in/out 14 horses.
Like other folks mentioned, there are so many variables. How many horses are under one person’s care, and whether there’s one person on shift or more. Different people have a different definition of clean, which can also influence time. Some folks want a stall to be clean, some folks want it to look like it’s never been lived in by a horse. Some horses are absolute pigs, some horses are a dream to clean up after. In/outs vs stall and paddock, too, I’ve found are different. Whether hay is fed in nets or feeders or on the ground. How long turn out time is, whether the horses go out on a field. How far the manure pile or shavings are from the barn and paddocks. The time of the year, the weather in your area. Say it’s winter, it’s cold, the hoses have frozen. There’s another variable.
Longest, suckiest:
AM One person, 60+ horses. Eighteen to 23 stalled, the rest pasture boarded; some stalls were “hot sheeted,” meaning you turned a horse out, cleaned it, and another horse was put in. Took three hours to feed/turnout everyone and muck all the stalls, assuming no blanket changes and no one needing medical care. The farm truck or gator was essential; if it was broken then you can add another two hours just to lug feed down to the back pastures. The pastured horses were fed in pens, and then turned back out. I was bringing/out two or three horses each trip to save time. Each stall had a spigot with a flexible tube that ran into each bucket, so as long as it wasn’t dump-n-scrub day, that saved so much time.
Now? Twenty minutes, mucking and turning out, no one eats grain in the morning. Hanging a hay net and filling waters for evening.
Agreed, this will vary greatly depending on number of horses, management style, setup of the property, available tools, etc.
Last barn I worked in was 18 stalls. Each shift was pretty much - bring in, feed, return to paddocks, toss hay outside, fill outside and inside waters (dumping and scrubbing when necessary), pick stalls (easy on a normal day when they are just inside to eat or wait for lessons or farrier, much more time consuming to muck if the weather is bad and they’ve all been inside), sweep, set up feed for next shift. Occasionally give meds or change a dressing/wrap. Pastures are a short distance from the barn and there’s usually a gator available for mucking into and hauling stuff around.
This took from 2-3 hours, occasionally more if stalls are very dirty.
I think if you’re trying to set a reasonable time allowance, look at the number of horses and multiply by how long it should take to do all the tasks for a single one keeping in mind the setup available.
With 18 horses, if you give say 90 minutes, that’s only 5 minutes per horse. Can you go catch a horse, feed it, return it to the pasture, fill the water, muck the stall, put in clean shavings all in 5 minutes and do it well? I sure can’t. And that doesn’t even account for the chores that don’t apply to a single horse directly like sweeping and tossing hay and resetting feed.
There are too many variables to give a concrete example, but I’ll add one of my typical experiences.
23-stall barn. Half the horses came in at mid-day and went out after dinner. About 1/4 had full-day (or overnight, seasonally) turnout; the remaining 1/4 went out for about 4 hours each in private paddocks. I was the “relief” worker - I worked on Sunday mornings so that the regular worker could have a day off. Conveniently, all the stripping/rebedding (usually about 4-5 stalls per week) just “happened” to land on Sundays… :mad: To dump soiled bedding, I had to push a wheelbarrow up a ramp and empty it into a dumpster, so the exertion level was quite high. I had amazing definition in my arms, shoulders, and upper back when I worked there!
In right at four hours (7:30 am to just before noon) I could:
– Turn out full day/early morning horses (or bring in “full day” horses from overnight turnout in summer)
– Feed breakfast
– Clean all 23 stalls thoroughly (barn owner - former race horse trainer - said I was the best mucker he’d ever seen!)
– Rebed/add bedding as needed
– Dump and scrub all water buckets (2 per stall)
– Bring in the horses that stayed out from 6 pm until mid-day
– Prepare and feed “lunch” grain and hay
– Swap the first group of half-day turnout for the second
– Blow out the barn aisle
– Re-pick all stalls (just taking out obvious manure)
The barn I worked at several years ago, our mornings ( myself and another lady) consisted of feeding grain, turning out and then cleaning stalls ( 50 horses) then filling stall water buckets and throwing hay in the newly cleaned stalls. I also spread the manure when the spreader was full.
We both worked at the same pace and usually I was done by 11:30am so 4 hours every day. Sometimes it took longer if stalls were awful ( monday’s, sometimes wed morning) since the kids who cleaned Sundays did an awful job and on occasion the help on my other off day didn’t show…
So basically we averaged 4-5 hours a day.
The afternoon group just brought the horses in, fed grain and maybe re-topped the water before leaving.
There’s some pretty wide margins in the definition of “chores” here.
OP, consider what you’re asking and the variations involved: How many horses, how deeply bed, just mucking or mucking & rebedding, waters dumped/ scrubbed/ refilled or just refilled, outside troughs–same?, distance to paddocks, boots/ blanket changes required, lead horses single or double (very bad idea), etc. etc., etc.
Currently it takes me one solid hour to grain/ hay, and turn out & drop hay to 14 horses because of the distance to the paddocks. Add another 3 hours to muck each 12 x 14’ stall thoroughly, lime, re-bed & bank, dump/ scrub and refill all water and do light changes of blankets or boots. Meaning not everyone has a change that needs addressing. And the stalls are bed about 8" to 14" thick or more with 3 walls banked. We use an electric blower for the aisle to save time.
Beware the employee/ers that say this job can be done in an hour or therabouts. I predict a barn stinking of ammonia in 3 days.
This is one person alone, with grain pre-made and prepped. Hay is already dropped and waiting in hay stalls. Hay is also already by the paddocks.
So we have 7 bigs and 2 littles. Feeding AM about 15 minutes, just hang hay bags and turn out half the herd. Boarder comes along 2 hours later and hangs the out groups hay bags and puts them in for the day Evenings about 2 hours.turn out the others , Clean stalls , fill hay bags and everyone their own special dinners. Some get alfalfa and hay bags, some orchard, and hay bags some just hay bags ( Timothy) . Everyone gets some beet pulp, vitamins and their own type of RB or special blend. And meds. I have a cool cart that the grain feeders fit along the sides, it tows behind a 4 wheeler I am like a dealer at Las Vegas with the goods. Can get those done and hung faster then the hay bags… weekends and Mondays everyone goes out for 6 hours one group 6-12 other group from 12-6. See my post on co-op
Here’s my example of what I do working at the barn each day:
AM:
Start at 7:30
Clean 13 stalls
Fill 26 water buckets
Spread manure (usually twice, once per barn)
Bring 13 horses in
Feed & Hay horses
Blow Out Barn
Feed outdoor horses & animals (4 more horses, some pigs and some cows)
Fill outdoor water troughs for evening
Done by 10:30am
PM:
Start at 5:30
Feed 13 stalled horses
Turnout 13 horses
Feed outdoor horses & animals
Done by 6:30pm
3 hours AM
1 hour PM
It takes me on average 1.5-2 hours to feed.
We currently have 11 horses and 2 minis.
Duties:
Bring in 4-5 for feeding in stalls, turn out when done
Clean stalls. Add shavings as needed.
Refill water buckets. Dump and scrub as needed.
Refill hay/alfalfa for inside eaters
Hay outside horses as needed (if they don’t have round bales)
Muck out the mini’s pen
Fill all water troughs in pastures. Dump and scrub as needed.
Blankets/sheets on/off as needed
Mix feed for next feeding
As everyone says, it will vary on your set up and ease of HOW everything is set up.
For me:
I am anywhere from 45 minutes to 1.5 hours, depending on how bad stalls are. I also take care of my barn cats and 2 goats.
I always estimate 5 - 10 minutes a stall that includes dumping and bedding (so it can be on the shorter end). When I could drive the manure spreader through the barn it decreased my time 
When I pay for a farm sitter, I estimate 1.5 hours AM and PM since they don’t know the routine.
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