Questions: Injured horse in a training barn

[retrofit]

I’m looking for perspective on how injured horses are handled in a training barn. (Meaning, a boarding barn where there is a resident trainer & a certain amount of lessons and/or training rides are required each month.)

1. Are you required to move the injured horse to another facility?
2. If not - are you required to continue to pay lesson/training fees?
3. Would your trainer want to be involved in your horse’s vet care & rehab, or do they prefer that the owner handle it until the horse is ready to be back in a program?
4. Anything else that makes this situation different from “just” a boarding barn?

If it helps, please consider a short-term layup (8 weeks of rest, then 6-8 weeks of rehab). Barn is not full - i.e. other clients are not being turned away.

I’m new to a “training” environment and I’m trying to set my expectations based on industry standard (if there is one).

Thanks!

[evenstar]

Well, those all sound like questions that should perhaps have been asked when you first moved into the training barn - but I wouldn’t have thought to ask them, myself, so I guess we should both think about that going forward.

As to whether you should go ahead and move…I think that depends on a number of things you haven’t said in your post: How much care does your horse need while in rehab and does the training barn fees cover all the care that may be required even it you are not having lessons or getting training rides; at the alternative boarding barn, is any of the care covered, or do you need to do it all yourself (possible hand walking multiple times a day, bandaging, etc); and can you on your own (if that’s necessary) do everything you need to do to bring your horse into soundness so he can perform the way you’d like for him to do.

I’m not one for the training barn environment and I’m very much DYI when it comes to my horses and their care, but I think it’s good for anyone to really think about what they can actually do when it comes to what can be some fairly intense time commitments, even it only for a relatively short term.

Hope your horse recovers well no matter what you choose.

[fordtraktor]

I would expect to pay the same, and keep horse there, since this is a relatively short term injury/rehab and it will take the “training” time and effort to hand walk it and do its bandages/hosing or whatever. I think that is normal/SOP around every training barn I have been in or worked at.

[mvp]

The cleanest/best way I have seen this done is that the barn takes over the medical care and rehab for a price. So horse comes out of training, but is medicated or bandaged or handwalked or whatever according to the fee schedule already in place for that.

Look, every HO should know that the boarding part of the equation is just a break-even proposition, so there must be some extra services purchased from the training part of the business if the horse is to stay. To handle cases like this where the horse didn’t need much, the training contract required that HOs purchase at least $XXX/month in services. This could be put toward training or rehabbing (or clipping or whatever else).

Bet yer butt I spent my $XXX on handwalking. That job can get old, so if I have to pay for services, I’ll hand off the one I don’t like. When my horse was ready for a longer period of turnout, I gave them 30 days’ notice and took him to another place. It was all really smooth.

[SendenHorse]

It depends on your barn, no I never had to move. If every horse had to move out every time something happens then the BO would hardly have any horses to ride

I paid dearly for layup services, more than training if that matters.

I prefer to not move an injured horse, and I always plan/schedule/attened all the vet visits and get the Rx, supplies, etc

[Peggy]

When I’ve had a horse get injured or sick while in a full training program (some combination of trainer rides and lessons 4-6 times a week, but not in full grooming) I have continued to pay the training fee. In exchange they will do all the rehab–wrapping, icing, medicating, hand-walking. When I had a horse that had to be started back under saddle I was in a program that would do all of the weekly “services” as rides without an additional fee.

IMHO, rehab, especially during the icing/walking/wrapping phase, is more labor-intensive than training.

Trainer may require 30 days notice to leave.

IF you do some/much of the rehab stuff yourself and you are pleasant and competent and there are horses available you may be able to get some rides (not necessarily lessons) while your horse is laid up. YMMV on that.

[joiedevie99]

In my experience, you continue to pay the lesson/training fee, and keep the horse there during short rehabs. The training fees cover all extra care that the barn is doing - hand walks every few hours, bandaging, cold hosing 3x/day, ultrasound, laser, etc.

For long rehabs 6+ months off, it may make more sense to move the horse.

[retrofit]

Thanks everyone. Just to clarify, this isn’t a veiled complaint about fees, just a question about how things are handled elsewhere. I feel like I’ve gotten good answers to that question. Thanks again.

[cleozowner]

Or, you could do what one well-known training barn did and continue to ride my lame horse for a month. That way you still get your money.

[Palm_Beach]

It’s kind of like joining a country club where you have to spend $XXX a month at the crappy restaurant, or they bill it for you anyway. And alcohol doesn’t count. A training barn sounds like a better deal IMHO.

OP, also ask about what happens if YOU get sick or injured and can’t lesson.

[bambam]

It really depends. I have been at 2 barns that required a certain number of lessons or training rides a month for boarders. Neither one enforced that while horse was injured and rehabbing nor made me move. I, however, did the rehab or paid a per task fee for stuff they did if it was more than a nominal task.
These were not “training programs” where the trainer dictated horse’s training, feed or care regimen, but rather barns with lesson requirements where the trainer was consulted on care, training stuff but did not decide it. I think it is a bit of a discipline difference- the barns I have been at were eventing barns where the norm is for owners to be pretty hands on in the decisionmaking and horse management at least IME

[Equisis]

Depends on the barn. IME with required lessons/training, it can vary quite a bit based on what sort of training is being given (full training vs once-a-week lesson requirement) and is evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Training fees might be replaced by fees for care/rehab, although if the trainer and BO/BM are different people, this may not fly. In many cases, the client with the injured horse will be offered another horse to take lessons on while their horse was out, and this frequently fulfilled their training requirement. In cases where the owner had multiple horses in training at the farm, the lessons/training can be used on the other horses, or if they regularly exceeded the lessons/training requirement, the fees might be forgiven for a month or two.

[Foxglove]

Since our trainer has a long waiting list, after a week of unsoundess, he suggested I take our horse home for rehab/treatment rather than continue to pay for board/training. He could have charged for another month since the horse was five days into a month when he came up lame, but he refunded everything for that month --including the 5 days he cared for the horse. I know many people don’t have a facility at home to bring a horse to rehab, but I did so it worked for me. Otherwise, I guess I would expect to pay training/board --or leave for another barn.