I read through this thread and was trying to puzzle through why there would be hot wire inside a shed…
Wood chewing makes sense.
And just to back up what you are saying… I know multiple wonderful barns near me who have been STRUGGLING to find and keep competent staff. People are offering decent pay… but it’s a brutal labor market out there right now.
Yeah - that’s my best guess too.
In any event, I think the cumulative impact of inflation from 2019 forward just really catches up to people, even those who are hedging vis a vis property value increases and lower-interest mortgages from purchasing pre-Covid.
As an example, if you were charging $800 in 2019, you’d need to raise board to $975 as of December 2023 to account for the loss in purchasing power.
Instead of boarding, I am creating a very small sales program for lower level dressage prospects under $15k that are more suitable for modern boarding environments for this reason. No pawing, no chewing, no cribbing, low anxiety, easily managed, ‘idiot-proof’ (or as close as you can be) in terms of handling, etc. Easy horses are easier to board for lots of reasons. We’ll see how it goes, the current conditions strike me as a serious problem for all horse lovers!
Sorry to hear @Djones, hope things are better now and agree with your numbers. I feed premium hay (and lots of it!) and have all the amenities you’d expect at a full-care nice facility with the absence of our new arena going in this year (I’m brand new). No way I could do it for less than $800.
What’s the range?
I try very hard to not contact the BOs after 6 or 7 pm, or before 7 am. Whatever it is, it can wait. Of course I’ll respond if they text me off-hours.
I think that’s a fantastic practice. I always struggled with that too when boarding b/c I very often didn’t see my horses until after ‘working’ hours. And I work a lot. Plus, for all the reasons mentioned upthread, barn staffing standards began to fall so I would have more to communicate that I just didn’t have to before. So I’d text more than I liked but tried to limit it to basics and always indicate a ‘like’ only or no response was needed.
I think what I know now is that when the basics are covered (water, food, shelter and (relative) safety), there’s probably nothing else I’d ask a BO to do for my horse in a regular boarding situation anymore that didn’t directly impact her health. As an example, I’m kind of mortified I ever worried about blanketing changes for my non-clipped mare and young horse in NC. Or whether someone forgot to feed their non-medical supplements that day.
She and my young horse have been blanketed two days all year? They’re fat, happy and its quite literally not a problem. I used to worry quite a bit about my older mare in her stall at night and check the weather constantly to make a blanket decision.Totally unnecessary. 
I’ve always had more success with modifying myself, leaving or modifying my horse’s management than the barn’s program over the years. Horses are just really hard on people and it’s so easy to lose sight of that when you’re not doing the work every day. I’m guilty of that for sure - it’s a tough position. If I were boarding now, I’d likely try to find/hire a private groom or call my vet and find someone who wanted a few extra hours a week to personally check on my horses if I were still traveling and working for long periods of time away from them.
This is anecdotal but I just saw an ad in our area where a farm is looking for daily help for 15 horses. Feeding, turning out (includes dressing them), putting hay in fields, cleaning and bedding stalls, scrubbing buckets, cleaning aisle, prepping feed for next feeding, etc. and described it as 3 hours work. Um, I know I’m getting older, but I don’t know anyone who can work at that speed (5 horses and 5 stalls per hour?). I think there are still disconnects in terms of expectations. Imagine doing all that work daily for the equivalent of $30 - $60. Net gas and taxes, maybe $20 - $50?
Three of us did care of 25 horses in eight hours.
I’ve seen that noted as an industry standard; 8 horses per person, per day.
@Angela_Freda - I will follow on this post to say I know of a situation in my area that involved a 14 stall barn, with 18-20 horses onsite (others are pasture boarded). They have a full time trainer on-site, and barn owner deals with ordering feed, hay and bedding deliveries, but wasn’t on-site all the time (they have a different business to run). They wanted someone 5 days a week to do all the duties katiedavis described, plus to help hold horses for vet and farrier when needed. Trainer was willing to give grain in the early AM so the full time barn worker could come in later - between 8-9am, but they would then be there all day (except lunch) and finish evening feed and chores around 5. BO would be back up whenever they were sick or needed a day off. They were offering pay equivalent to annual salary of 40-50k, plus free pasture board for two horses, plus time to ride and even go to shows/clinics if someone wanted to pursue their own riding, and some paid time off . The on-site trainer is quite good and has their own working students occasionally who help with grooming, tacking and chores.
They can’t seem to fill the position though. It’s not a bad deal though for someone younger who wants to have some time to pursue their own riding seriously.
Not a bad deal at all. I wonder if the physical labor just burns people out. I was always surprised that you’d see wheelbarrows with flat tires or poor working set-ups at a lot of these barns. If you had the right set-up (can muck the entire barn into a spreader, have auto-waterers and/or dump buckets into the spreader and do the barn at once maybe ok). Dressing horses takes a LOT of time as does stuffing hay nets.
What I am seeing in my area is stall cleaning being a separate job. There are crews that travel around to different barns to clean stalls for a set fee per stall. Mostly Latino immigrants, undoubtedly not all legally here. But it does seem to make retaining labor for everything else easier.
Yes - I’ve seen that too. I was trying to remember the cost I’ve seen - it’s pretty pricy but they do a nice job. I think it works if you have a full-time trainer or someone knowledgeable on-site responsible for eye-balling the horses, prepping feed, etc.
This is what the OP wrote to explain the hot wire being installed in that area. Of course, when I referenced this she told me I was lying. Wha? 
When I quoted her own words she…simply didn’t respond. 
So, in her own words, the BO says the wire was installed b/c her horse damaged their run-in. She says ‘not true UNTIL…’. So, in other words, true by her own reckoning.
Hay nets can be a real money saver in terms of less hay wasted. One of the barns where I board just got hay feeders for all the outside paddocks. They are attached to a panel or gate, with the part facing out open so a barn worker can just stuff the hay in without having to take the net down, open it, fill it, close it, and put it back up. When stalled, the horses that mostly get loose hay unless there’s a medical reason to have a net (e.g. small holes, soaking, etc.) These are Tough-One brand, 2 inch webbing so not a slow feeder, but I know HayChix makes something similar.
(Actually I know Haychix makes something similar because I ordered one for my pony, which arrived the day the barn owners put up the new feeders… They forgot to tell us this was happening! Pony may need a smaller net – she’s a very easy keeper – so I’m thinking of hanging onto the HayChix one.)
I agree 100% about poor work setups. I’ve seen BWs injured (worst was a broken arm IME, but I know of one who broke their back) by pushing not-too-functional wheelbarrows up icy ramps to dump dirty bedding into a dumpster.
You still need someone to do feeding, blanketing, turn-out, turn-in etc. Parceling out stall cleaning to a crew makes it easier to retain people to do everything else.
My two are 17H+, broad and easy-keepers so I prefer them on ration balancers and primarily forage. I have always found nets to be much easier when managing their hay while boarding. I just also stipulated that I would be happy to pay a surcharge but asked them to stuff my big nets completely full every day. Made it so much easier instead of managing to flakes when each worker had a different idea of a flake and bale size varied.
These have been my favorite nets (the four-flake version) so far - really tough and long-lasting but they are pricey. They hold half a 50 to 55 lb standard small bale.
Also bought some ‘fancy’ feeders I would not recommend for the dry lots. Cannot find them now - they look great, but are not super functional. My young horse knocks them around like a soccer ball and into other horses (whoops!) and my mare (who eats everything) thinks they’re too difficult to access. Your set-up sounds great.
Right - I think the economics work if you have a larger barn with a trainer/working student set-up or a private farm with an owner who lives and works on-site. But they don’t work for most straight boarding barns based on the prices I’ve seen from the crews. But again, I can count the ‘boarding only’ farms near me on one hand, and many of those are transitioning to retirement horses, particularly on private farms.
OH – are the fancy feeders the ones that look like soccer balls, with holes in them? My older mare has one of those and she likes it as long as the ground is dry. I have no idea what the younger one would do… probably snort at it until she figured out there’s hay in it.
Both are palomino Morgans, easy keepers, older is almost 26, 15 hands, retired. Younger is almost 9, 14 hands if she stretches, in training. (She is green for her age.) They aren’t boarded at the same barn. My goal is/was to move the younger one to the older one’s barn because it has great care and fabulous trails access – 5, 10 and 20 mile rides with minimal road riding or road crossings – but younger isn’t sure she wants to be a trail horse.
How adorable, I absolutely adore Morgans! These feeders are pretty large, they’re square with a grate on top and very fancy but he’s just a HUGE doofus and treats them like a soccer ball. He turned one over once and a little bit of hay fell out and now he thinks that’s how they’re supposed to be eaten. It’s kind of hilarious but defeats the point as he shoves them next to the electric fencing and then pouts.
Similar to this in terms of size but not this brand.
https://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=cc18b468-1a77-4ef2-8a99-1db772418937&itemguid=0de4a379-fdb8-4da0-aaf6-6ec550bc713c&sfb=1&grp=7000&grpc=7200&grpsc=7210&sp=e&utm_content=26537&ccd=IFH003&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAh8OtBhCQARIsAIkWb6_d7mYFQvjmSYtk67Gc6tE3ITKUEONJ_flcr_xl__S0oKRLhqWLQFsaAkrEEALw_wcB
I’m good, thank you. Running the numbers was sobering after having horses at home for the last 20+ years. I’m sure she’s charging close to 1k now, this was pre COVID. As well she should. Life is too short to barely make a dime off of boarding and having people in your “home.”
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