NY Barn Managers: What's Next?

[roxdene]

Hi Everyone,

I run a horse boarding/training operation in NYS. I have about 25 horses, 20 of which are boarded by about 14 clients. I also run a lesson program and do shows. I have been closed to ALL clients since March 25th. All of the horses are fine and I constantly update my customers with pictures, texts, phone calls, etc.

My question is for NY barns in a similar situation: What are you planning next month? My customers have been wonderful and supportive, but they are itching to see their horses. While almost all big barns (20+ horses) in the area are closed, some are open on a limited basis, some are doing things they shouldn’t, like academy lessons. There are also a lot of backyard/co-op barns which remain open because the owners are primary care givers.

While the curve in NY is supposedly starting to flatten, I am hearing of more cases locally, including 2 barns where grooms got sick. I am worried about my staff, none of us can afford to get sick. But I am also worried about losing my clients as well. I am reaching out to other professionals to see what everyone thinks. I want to be safe and responsible, but I think I may be alone as other barns in the area roll the dice and take more risks.

[enjoytheride]

I would set a schedule that boarders have to sign up for and only allow a few at a time.

[monalisa]

My trainer’s barn is doing a very rigid and set schedule. No more than 10 people there at any given time including staff. We are not in NY though.

[Horsehusband]

What about having staff come in from 6 am until noon and letting boarders come in from noon until 7 at scheduled times so no more than 2 boarders are in the barn at once. Then a scheduled deep clean at 7 when all the clients leave so the staff comes in the next morning to a sanitized barn limiting their exposure (Can take on a extra $50 a month or something for boarders who do want to come to help pay for the cleaning). By doing this you keep your staff safe by coming into a freshly sanitized barn and give boarders access to their horses at their own risk. Don’t think random lessons for non-boarders should be in the cards at this point, but don’t see a problem doing lessons for boarders as long as it falls in their time slot.

Trying to be creative, as I’ve mentioned in some other posts financially I don’t know how barns or boarders(Having to pay for additional training rides) can swing the no access thing for more than a month or two.

[SonnysMom]

@Horsehusband

What about having staff come in from 6 am until noon and letting boarders come in from noon until 7 at scheduled times so no more than 2 boarders are in the barn at once. Then a scheduled deep clean at 7 when all the clients leave so the staff comes in the next morning to a sanitized barn limiting their exposure (Can take on a extra $50 a month or something for boarders who do want to come to help pay for the cleaning). By doing this you keep your staff safe by coming into a freshly sanitized barn and give boarders access to their horses at their own risk. Don’t think random lessons for non-boarders should be in the cards at this point, but don’t see a problem doing lessons for boarders as long as it falls in their time slot.

Trying to be creative, as I’ve mentioned in some other posts financially I don’t know how barns or boarders(Having to pay for additional training rides) can swing the no access thing for more than a month or two.

Some of the barns local to me are doing 1 hour or 1.5 hour time slots a couple of times per week for the boarders. Some boarders are riding some are not. Social distancing. However I am not sure how they are dealing with cleaning between boarders or what happens when a boarder decides to stay for 2 hours.

I don’t think Horsehusband’s schedule could quite work since when does the barn staff do PM chores without being exposed?

I have read about some barns that heavily restrict access to large parts of the facility. Maybe you can have the staff groom, tack and hand off horse in the ring to boarder- for an extra fee depending on your particular boarding model. Or hand off horse, tack, grooming box to boarder in a round pen or paddock. No using the bathroom, no coming inside the barn. Boarder goes straight from round pen to ring or if just grooming stays in round pen/paddock.

Or groom puts tack/grooming box and horse in grooming stall. Client tacks, rides, untacks and returns horse to grooming stall. Groom/staff returns grooming box/tack/horse to appropriate places. Leave all doors between parking lot and grooming stall, grooming stall and ring open so that the boarder is limited in what they need to touch. Provide handwashing station when they enter barn and require face mask while they groom and maybe fresh gloves.

I don’t think you can just open the barn to boarders without a lot of restrictions yet.

Don’t forget to clean things like light switches, stall latches, door handles, gate latches/chains, cross tie clips etc…

[MHM]

I would certainly check with my insurance company before I did anything. Depending on the wording of the policy, it might be a huge liability concern to let customers on the property during a state lockdown.

[roxdene]

I am thinking of doing what you guys suggest, using an outdoor stall where I would bring my customers horse and equipment to and they could enter the ring from the outside door, leaving the barn itself off limits. My insurance guy seemed to think I would be ok, liability-wise, but I am considering writing a special release holding me harmless if any client becomes sick at a later date.

Mass sanitizing is difficult, because there are so many common surfaces, hence me trying a system that keeps the customers out of the barn, and myself (not my staff) acting as the intermediary and taking the most risk. Another problem with sanitation is there are limited supplies to be found. I haven’t seen bleach, alcohol, hand sanitizer, lysol, wipes, etc on the shelves of the the stores in weeks, so I have to be careful with my stockpiles. Online ordering is hard as a lot of items are back ordered or wont ship for weeks. I have been using “pet pee” cleaner, which contains alcohol and peroxide, to supplement my supplies that I already have. I don’t know if there are supply issues like this in other states.

[Bristol_Bay]

I’m in California. My barn has had a total lockdown for going on four weeks. But it turns out we are the only one not allowing boarders in at all. Other barns have come up with schedules and policies so horse owners could keep riding or at least caring for the horses. Bu since my barn is considered a full-care facility, they felt justified in their stance.

So boarders started moving their horses. About 1/5 of the horses have been moved to barns where they can have access.

It came to a head this week with a big (virtual) meeting of board members and trainers and we were told to expect a plan for limited access soon.

I don’t know what boarding and training options your people have, but around here there are plenty of options. It’s a real dilemma and will put a real financial strain on the barn to lose so many boarders.

[PonyPenny]

@Bristol Bay

I’m in California. My barn has had a total lockdown for going on four weeks. But it turns out we are the only one not allowing boarders in at all. Other barns have struck schedules and policies to keep riding or at least caring for the horses. Since it’s considered a full-care facility, they felt justified in their stance.

So boarders started moving their horses. About 1/5 of the horses have been moved to barns where they can have access.

It came to a head this week with a big (virtual) meeting of board members and trainers and we were told to expect a plan for limited access soon.

I don’t know what boarding and training options your people have, but around here there are plenty of options. It’s a real dilemma.

I am in California too. My riding stable is inside a County Park. The County has closed the park to vehicles, but allows foot traffic, bicycles and horseback riders in as exercise outside is encouraged if you practice social distancing. Us boarders have a pass which allows us vehicle access. It is a small facility, so not many people are around. Riding is limited to owners and trainers only. The Park Rangers warned us that violations to the County Social Distancing orders, could curtail our activities, so we take them very seriously.

[trubandloki]

I thought the executive order in NY said specifically that boarders going to the barn to ride is considered not essential so not allowed.
Did I understand that incorrectly?

[hairystockings]

Here in Ohio what my barn did was open to leasers and boarders for 2 rides a week. We are using a google doc to sign up and you get one lesson and one free ride a week. We have sanitizing materials all over the place and we’ve been asked to use our own grooming supplies, which I actually keep in my car and take back and forth. I’ve also been taking my tall boots and helmet back and forth so the only public space I have to go in is the tack room and not the barn lodge. We cannot have more than 2 people at the barn to ride at once. We have 25 horses on the property and I think something like 15-20 are boarded or leased. Last week was the first week of this and it went well, only a couple people couldn’t understand what was and was not allowed and our trainer worked through it with them.

[Horsehusband]

@SonnysMom

Some of the barns local to me are doing 1 hour or 1.5 hour time slots a couple of times per week for the boarders. Some boarders are riding some are not. Social distancing. However I am not sure how they are dealing with cleaning between boarders or what happens when a boarder decides to stay for 2 hours.

I don’t think Horsehusband’s schedule could quite work since when does the barn staff do PM chores without being exposed?

I have read about some barns that heavily restrict access to large parts of the facility. Maybe you can have the staff groom, tack and hand off horse in the ring to boarder- for an extra fee depending on your particular boarding model. Or hand off horse, tack, grooming box to boarder in a round pen or paddock. No using the bathroom, no coming inside the barn. Boarder goes straight from round pen to ring or if just grooming stays in round pen/paddock.

Or groom puts tack/grooming box and horse in grooming stall. Client tacks, rides, untacks and returns horse to grooming stall. Groom/staff returns grooming box/tack/horse to appropriate places. Leave all doors between parking lot and grooming stall, grooming stall and ring open so that the boarder is limited in what they need to touch. Provide handwashing station when they enter barn and require face mask while they groom and maybe fresh gloves.

I don’t think you can just open the barn to boarders without a lot of restrictions yet.

Don’t forget to clean things like light switches, stall latches, door handles, gate latches/chains, cross tie clips etc…

Thought was that the barn owner/trainer would feed in the evening. Morning crew could prep everything, barn owner would just have to dump food and throw hay.

[NaturallyHappy]

It’s definitely a difficult situation to which I have no solution. The idea of someone tacking up and handing the horse off to the owner is appealing. Then the boarder doesn’t touch blankets, halters, etc. I have one boarder who works in health care and is quite cavalier about the whole thing. I’m not sure what to do about her in general.

[SonnysMom]

@Horsehusband

Thought was that the barn owner/trainer would feed in the evening. Morning crew could prep everything, barn owner would just have to dump food and throw hay.

It depends on how big the barn is. The barn my horse is at has 40+ horses that are still on daytime turn-out so need to be brought in as part of pm chores. Also this time of year one staff member does turn-out and stalls in the morning but needs to fill water troughs, put out field hay, does weed eating, mowing, ring drag for 3 rings, weeding gardens, mulching gardens, fixing fences, repairing jumps, seeding fields, clean up of branches and twigs from winter etc… all of this can’t be done with only a half days work.

Spring in our area tends to be the time to catch up on any damage from winter and to get the property in order so that the summer maintenance is easier. In our case the BO is also a trainer so she is riding training horses and I guess lesson horses to keep them fit so once she can teach again the horses are ready to work. Generally another staff member grooms/tacks horses hands to trainer and then cools out last horse.

Therefore 2 staff members need to be there for a majority of the day.

Having one of the boarders help with pm chores adds another risk factor as they are touching more things that the staff touches but would not touch as a boarder such as feed buckets, supplement buckets, field gates, leadlines on the other horses, blankets on the other horses. Plus the boarder is another source of bringing in the virus and now has walked all over the farm.

For a smaller barn it may work. But some smaller barns the BO is doing this on the side and still has a FT job that they are doing from home so they don’t have the time to do extra cleaning or extra chores.

For me I still would not be able to get out to the barn before 5pm M-F since I am working full time from home. Probably many boarders are in that position so there is a narrow window during the week that everyone can go to the barn which makes social distancing harder.

Plus what do you do about that person that has a 1.5 hour time slot but stays for 2 hours anyway? There will always be that one person that the rules don’t quite apply to them.

For some barns it may work but for many barns there are still a number of logistical problems.

Yes I want to go see my horse. It has been 4 weeks. I am sure I will be all loosey goosey in the saddle once I get back to riding. But this is a freaking hobby. A first world problem at its finest. Stay home and protect the staff/BO/trainer. Really it is a few months not the end of the world. Most horses won’t mind their extended vacation. Yes there are some that mentally need to work, yes there are some that physically need to stay in shape due to things like weak stifles or are being rehabbed due to an injury but the majority of them are fine just being a horse.

[Davignport]

I board at a small, quiet barn. We are allowed to come and see our horses on a very strict schedule with no more than 1 or 2 people there at as time and we stay far apart from each other. We spray our shoes before we go in the barn, and wipe down anything that we touch before we leave. No riding at all and any grooming is done outside far away from the barn. We are lucky that we are small enough and have enough room to do this and not be close to each other. We all appreciate the opportunity to see our horses and do not take advantage of the barn owner’s generosity.

[joiedevie99]

We’re closed, and will likely remain that way for another month.

[NaturallyHappy]

@SonnysMom

It depends on how big the barn is. The barn my horse is at has 40+ horses that are still on daytime turn-out so need to be brought in as part of pm chores. Also this time of year one staff member does turn-out and stalls in the morning but needs to fill water troughs, put out field hay, does weed eating, mowing, ring drag for 3 rings, weeding gardens, mulching gardens, fixing fences, repairing jumps, seeding fields, clean up of branches and twigs from winter etc… all of this can’t be done with only a half days work.

Spring in our area tends to be the time to catch up on any damage from winter and to get the property in order so that the summer maintenance is easier. In our case the BO is also a trainer so she is riding training horses and I guess lesson horses to keep them fit so once she can teach again the horses are ready to work. Generally another staff member grooms/tacks horses hands to trainer and then cools out last horse.

Therefore 2 staff members need to be there for a majority of the day.

Having one of the boarders help with pm chores adds another risk factor as they are touching more things that the staff touches but would not touch as a boarder such as feed buckets, supplement buckets, field gates, leadlines on the other horses, blankets on the other horses. Plus the boarder is another source of bringing in the virus and now has walked all over the farm.

For a smaller barn it may work. But some smaller barns the BO is doing this on the side and still has a FT job that they are doing from home so they don’t have the time to do extra cleaning or extra chores.

For me I still would not be able to get out to the barn before 5pm M-F since I am working full time from home. Probably many boarders are in that position so there is a narrow window during the week that everyone can go to the barn which makes social distancing harder.

Plus what do you do about that person that has a 1.5 hour time slot but stays for 2 hours anyway? There will always be that one person that the rules don’t quite apply to them.

For some barns it may work but for many barns there are still a number of logistical problems.

Yes I want to go see my horse. It has been 4 weeks. I am sure I will be all loosey goosey in the saddle once I get back to riding. But this is a freaking hobby. A first world problem at its finest. Stay home and protect the staff/BO/trainer. Really it is a few months not the end of the world. Most horses won’t mind their extended vacation. Yes there are some that mentally need to work, yes there are some that physically need to stay in shape due to things like weak stifles or are being rehabbed due to an injury but the majority of them are fine just being a horse.

. Sonny’s mom is right…what DO you do about the person to whom rules don’t apply???

[Horsehusband]

@SonnysMom

It depends on how big the barn is. The barn my horse is at has 40+ horses that are still on daytime turn-out so need to be brought in as part of pm chores. Also this time of year one staff member does turn-out and stalls in the morning but needs to fill water troughs, put out field hay, does weed eating, mowing, ring drag for 3 rings, weeding gardens, mulching gardens, fixing fences, repairing jumps, seeding fields, clean up of branches and twigs from winter etc… all of this can’t be done with only a half days work.

Spring in our area tends to be the time to catch up on any damage from winter and to get the property in order so that the summer maintenance is easier. In our case the BO is also a trainer so she is riding training horses and I guess lesson horses to keep them fit so once she can teach again the horses are ready to work. Generally another staff member grooms/tacks horses hands to trainer and then cools out last horse.

Therefore 2 staff members need to be there for a majority of the day.

Having one of the boarders help with pm chores adds another risk factor as they are touching more things that the staff touches but would not touch as a boarder such as feed buckets, supplement buckets, field gates, leadlines on the other horses, blankets on the other horses. Plus the boarder is another source of bringing in the virus and now has walked all over the farm.

For a smaller barn it may work. But some smaller barns the BO is doing this on the side and still has a FT job that they are doing from home so they don’t have the time to do extra cleaning or extra chores.

For me I still would not be able to get out to the barn before 5pm M-F since I am working full time from home. Probably many boarders are in that position so there is a narrow window during the week that everyone can go to the barn which makes social distancing harder.

Plus what do you do about that person that has a 1.5 hour time slot but stays for 2 hours anyway? There will always be that one person that the rules don’t quite apply to them.

For some barns it may work but for many barns there are still a number of logistical problems.

Yes I want to go see my horse. It has been 4 weeks. I am sure I will be all loosey goosey in the saddle once I get back to riding. But this is a freaking hobby. A first world problem at its finest. Stay home and protect the staff/BO/trainer. Really it is a few months not the end of the world. Most horses won’t mind their extended vacation. Yes there are some that mentally need to work, yes there are some that physically need to stay in shape due to things like weak stifles or are being rehabbed due to an injury but the majority of them are fine just being a horse.

My point is that decisions will have to be made by barn owners in the near future. My belief is it was totally fair for barns to shut down to boarders for 30 or even 60 days to help bend the curve, but now that we are talking 6 months or longer I don’t think its sustainable. It’s common place for barns in more urban area to only turn horses out for an hour or two a day, 6 days a week relying on rides for mental and physical well being. Financially many boarders will get to the point where they can no longer pay for extra training rides and barn owners/trainers will not be able to support their business on board alone (Need that lesson money). Most barns scrap by on shoestring budgets, so what is your suggestion as this moves to months even years and businesses start folding. Hard for the government to step in and provide loans when a lot of barns income is sheltered because its taken in cash and its common place in the industry for workers to be paid in cash creating no paper trail of actual expenses.

Not trying to start a debate, just trying to state that people will start having to make decisions.

[lenapesadie]

@Horsehusband

My point is that decisions will have to be made by barn owners in the near future. My belief is it was totally fair for barns to shut down to boarders for 30 or even 60 days to help bend the curve, but now that we are talking 6 months or longer I don’t think its sustainable. It’s common place for barns in more urban area to only turn horses out for an hour or two a day, 6 days a week relying on rides for mental and physical well being. Financially many boarders will get to the point where they can no longer pay for extra training rides and barn owners/trainers will not be able to support their business on board alone (Need that lesson money). Most barns scrap by on shoestring budgets, so what is your suggestion as this moves to months even years and businesses start folding. Hard for the government to step in and provide loans when a lot of barns income is sheltered because its taken in cash and its common place in the industry for workers to be paid in cash creating no paper trail of actual expenses.

Not trying to start a debate, just trying to state that people will start having to make decisions.

This.

In my area, barn responses are wildly varied. I know one barn that is closed to boarders. The rest are operating at different levels with restrictions ranging from none to all but closed.

From the beginning, the area under the flattened curve is much longer (wider). It will be impossible for many businesses to continue to stay closed without going out of business. Barns depending on lesson programs are especially vulnerable to both economic disaster and becoming a vector of contagion.

Already people are moving horses. To cheaper stables, to farms that are allowing boarders to come on property, to more expensive farms that offer higher levels of care. The situation is volatile and hard to predict.

[endlessclimb]

People allowing riding in an indoor - would it be good to have people wear their mask when riding? Because if you’re on a squirrely one it can be hard to get the sneeze to the elbow.