Mini rant - trying to care for horses with a full time job

[beau159]

@Rackonteur

Because they are service providers. They are in the service business, and so they have to be accommodating to their customers. I agree with you that they can have the same desire as people in other industries for 9-5 M-F jobs. But the service industry doesn’t work that way, and service providers can’t either.

I disagree.

I’m taking a horse to my vet tomorrow. I booked this appointment 7 weeks ago, and this was her first opening. She’s good. She’s worth it. And she works Monday-Friday normal business hours. Yes, she will take an emergency call (injury, colic, etc) but for normal scheduled visits, you get on the schedule.

My farrier is the same. I have 4 horses. Two have front shoes and I book them every 5 weeks. My other two are barefoot and I book them every 6 to 7 weeks. I always schedule my next appointment when I leave, and he works Monday-Friday normal business hours. And clients haul to HIM. He does not go to you. And he’s actually not even taking any new clients anymore. He has a full schedule. He will, from time to time, help out with a bent/pulled shoe “after hours” but most of the time, I come over during normal service hours to have that fixed too.

Service providers absolutely can choose to have to have a M-F 9-5 and can be very successful with it.

Honestly both my vet and my farrier are the BEST in the region so I cater to them … not the other way around. Because I want to go to them, because they are worth it. I get that not everyone has that philosophy and as has been discussed on the thread, not everyone has the job flexibility. But good folks recognize good care and they’ll make it happen if they want it bad enough.

[kaya842]

I recently started boarding again after having 2 horses at home for 5 years (the boarding coincides with a move). I boarded pre covid and had my horses at home throughout covid. I have worked remotely since 2020.

There is NO way I could have made it work without working from home. Having only 2 made it nearly impossible to get service provider out, even with me making whatever day and time they wanted work. We had them on a small acreage, which felt like more work than more acreage, and the property wasn’t the most efficiently laid out. I love, LOVED having them at home 99% of the time (record breaking cold winters aside).

I’ve decided I cannot, will not, have horses at home again until/ unless: I have a decent sized herd, likely 5+, as that seems to be the sweet spot for getting service providers out; I find a very efficient set up; it is located in a horsey area (which we currently are in a moderately horsey area but I think Ocala, Aiken, etc have more service providers and such); I win the lotto and can pay someone to do it all. It was incredibly challenging to get anything other than farm work or basic chores done, time wise, and still do other things that we wanted to do. Again, I attribute a lot to the way our property is set up and the challenges that come with 4 true seasons.

[TheDBYC]

@Old_Mac_Donald

I used to farm-sit for my horse friends (for free) when I was a student. I could have made a fortune charging even a nominal free considering what I now pay for dog/cat/horse holiday care. I would definitely have done horse-holding as a side hustle.

My senior year of high school I became close friends with the other hard core “horse girl” in my class. They were fairly well-off and lived in a small enclave that was built around an equestrian concept (very exotic at the time). Their two horses lived on their property and they even had a small arena (almost unthinkable for the early 1990s). They also had a very sweet-but-high-maintenance dog, a couple cats, and a guinea pig.

They asked me if I could mind the crew while they went to a wedding one weekend. Everything went well I horse and pet sit for them over several other weekends. Eventually, they asked if I would be willing to take care of the crew while they went to England for two weeks on the trip of lifetime. I was thrilled. They paid me what would be decent money even by today’s standards and this was 30 years ago.

One of my mom’s coworkers asked why I didn’t babysit since I was a teenaged girl. My mom replied that I got paid much better to babysit horses and they were less trouble. Mom joked that the friendship had ushered in a new era of freedom for the Smiths. They’d never taken a long vacation or really any vacation before because of the horses.