I am looking for an estimate as to what people are paying in the northeast and what is expected of the barn manager. Any help would be appreciated !
how NE are we talking? New England?
my experience on COTH, I have only seen a handful of times people admit what they pay their barn workers. There have been quite a few threads of this nature with very few BOs admitting what they pay. Barns here (NE) want to pay 8-10$ an hour (l-o-l) for 30+ hour gigs. Some of the better ones pay above minimum wage and those barns are few and far in between.
On average in the NE, BM wage seems to be $11-17/hr. In my experience, having worked in many barn capacities in the NE (including as a BM), it never or rarely includes:
paid holidays
sick days
health benefits/insurance (never)
retirement/pension (never)
no overtime
usually only ONE day a week off
Almost all the gals I grew up with in the barn have been barn managers for a few barns local to me, so I do have word-of-mouth here as well as my own personal experience as a BM.
Duties usually include 60-80 hr weeks with little to no overtime pay (I’ve never seen overtime offered, in any barn job I worked, but it may be out there) – usually it is under the table (so you need to either file as an IC/1099). Duties tend to be all manual labor aspects of barn management, so barn chores like stall mucking, turnout, handling horses for farrier/vets, managing workers, etc. Some BM capacities have the BM tacking/grooming for the trainer and cooling out/hacking horses after training rides. IME this job is barely above minimum wage, with most of my friends having made within the realm of $20k-25k a year. When you do the math on how much you’re working vs how much you’re getting paid, be prepared for sticker shock and burnout – most BMs are working 60+hr weeks day in/day out… for 25k a year…
Some barns have offset this piteous compensation by offering a stall for a horse. Many don’t. Some offer training ride packages where you get a handful of lessons a week. IMHO the only way being a BM is worth it to someone who doesn’t have parents with deep pockets is if you can find the rare barn that will help YOU grow as a rider and groom you into an assistant trainer type gig. Unless you just enjoy being a BM. Many barns do NOT want to do this (mix BM capabilities with training capabilities). Otherwise, you are working yourself into the ground with very little reward.
Some of the more high end barns with bigger clientele, BM has been an office job only (with occasional manual labor required) - this type of BM is paid much better IME, usually some type of finance/accountant salary (40k/yr) and duties include managing all aspects of paperwork, payroll, employees, invoices, etc. This type of job is obviously much more rewarding, though I rarely see them ride as well.
I got really lucky my last BM gig, in which I worked for a very wonderful boss and was paid fairly (she also let me keep my horse at her facility free of charge, I paid for his food) - but I was working 65-80+hrs a week, had no time to ride(which is my SOLE interest), and it really wasn’t helping me in any way other than providing food on the table: if you want to make a career RIDING, being a BM short term is a good way to go, but in my experience barn managers rarely have enough time or energy to ride when the day is over - especially since their days are usually 6:30AM-7:30PM… with 10PM night check. So just be careful you don’t get sucked into that, because a lot of riders do.
Honestly, I might have stayed as a BM because I really enjoyed the work IF I got overtime. If I had been paid overtime, I would have made nearly triple what I made the year I was a BM. Tough pill to swallow, thinking back.
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I was an Co-barn manager at a Hunter barn in Maine. $400/week, plus housing on the property, with a pay increase depending on how well we worked. I worked 6 days a week, starting 7:30 til atleast 4:30. Normally an AM feed or night check each day- rotated with the other BM and BO.
I think we got a week of vacation after 6 months, but due to some health issues, I had to leave the position
Chipping in, though I don’t have much to add to the two previous responses. At the barn I currently work at, we pay any part time employees $10 an hour. We also start all FT employees, regardless of experience, at $10 an hour but it’s salary so… not really $10 an hour. Your pay MAY go up after you’ve been here for a year or two but it may not. I now get free housing including basic utilities but that’s only because an apartment opened up after an employee who had been here for 15+ years left and I was the next in line. One week of paid vacation that you have to take all at once, i.e. you cannot use your paid vacation for sick days or a couple “long weekends” of 2-3 days off in a row. This is the same if you’ve worked here 1 year or 25 years. No health insurance or retirement plan. Not allowed to keep personal horse on the property. Work 6 days a week, usually around 50-60 hours per week. I’ve been here for years, started PT and then became FT, make over $35,000 but under $40,000. I consider this a good barn job due to rarely working more than 60 hours a week and the pay.
I was a BM at a H/J barn in NY. I was a salaried employee, made under $30,000 for sure, got one free lesson a week, no free board for a horse (though it was discounted), had zero benefits as far as paid days off, holidays off, health insurance, retirement plans, etc. Housing was including but I had to pay utilities and have a roommate. Always worked 6 days a week, sometimes even doing some small work on my day off. Never worked less than 65 hours a week. Got 1 weeks paid vacation after you’d had been there for a year which you were not allowed to take during the spring, summer or early fall due to horse shows, summer camp, etc.
I’ve also never seen a barn job that offered overtime. I have heard about ONE BM job that offered health (just health, no dental) insurance. Never anything with retirement. It’s a tough industry.
A couple years ago, the head groom at the dressage barn I used to ride at made $65k/year. He worked 10+ hours/day, 6 days/week, 3 weeks vacation. This was in the midwest at a training & boarding barn of 15-20 horses in full training. No insurance, housing or horse benefits.
The answer is mostly badly.
I was offered one position in NE, smaller dressage barn, 50k plus three stalls and housing. Managing barn–not cleaning–managing lessons program and teaching some.
i honestly think this is what all bm jobs should be at a decent facility. It shouldn’t be a thankless backbreaking soul and body crushing job that pays a dollar. If you can’t afford to fairly and legally compensate barn help, don’t have a barn or do the work yourself.
we actually had three threads started recently by the same woman who owns a barn in Connecticut who wanted us to confirm she was overpaying her bm/trainer whom she most definitely is under compensating. It makes me want to stab my own eyes out.
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I was the barn manager, stall cleaner, assists trainer for a barn in the Midwest. I made $325 a week, plus housing for my entire family, board and lessons. I never put in less than 40 hours, some weeks it was over 70. The trainer would go west durning the winter, leaving me alone for 4 months…4 months with out a day off. It was long and it was hard but I’d do it over again in a heartbeat
Obviously a job for the young to use as a stepping stone. It’s the lack of health insurance that’s so worrisome for a n often dangerous and physical job. Really worth it for those folks with the horse gene, though. I think that grooms for FEI riders might do better
No I don’t think barn manager is a stepping stone job. Nor should it be for a kid to learn the ropes
a good bm is absolutely integral to a real grown up successful barn
Fei grooming is crazy crazy hit or miss. you get some grooms with the same riders for decades and then some riders who can’t keep a groom to save their lives. Some it’s personality, some it’s finances. Again, it’s really an integral job at the top level of sport, but some people just don’t get that.
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IM very few BM jobs are stepping stones… You sacrifice your body and time to take care of horses - and you rarely, if ever, have time to ride. I haven’t seen it personally advance any of my friend’s (or my) career besides giving us a boatload of horse-care experience.
A WS job, however, is a stepping stone - usually it’s a “work to ride” program where a working student works under a BNT and their BM in exchange for daily lessons. That is usually worth it. Good way to put your foot in the door, show you’re a capable worker and rider with good work ethic/horsemanship, and BNTs will help you advance your career.
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This. Maybe it’s a NE thing but all my friends who were BMs rarely had time to ride their own horses, let alone take any lessons or promote themselves as riders/trainers via showing. Maybe those management centric BMs get to but my friends were doing books, doing stalls, repairing fences, getting horses ready for trainer and were lucky if they got one day a week really OFF. You can’t train and campaign yourself or your students with that schedule.
They were also salaried, working obscene hours and were often expected to be at the barn on their “off” day, some just to drag the ring or mix grain but others were expected to be there all the time since housing was provided and the BO was advertising 24/7 live on the property management.
Seriously, I had one friend whose BO expected her to always be on property and got upset if my friend spent her day off somewhere else, like the beach. I mean, yeah, it’s one thing to expect your BM to pitch in on her off day during an emergency but if you fully expect them to be on property all day, every day, week after week, it’s not an off day, that’s just unpaid labor.
Most of those friends have moved on to other careers now that they’ve gotten older. They’re also happier now and get to actually ride their horses and take vacations. It’s not a career choice many can stick with.
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I was barn manager at an upper-level dressage barn in the midwest for several years. My compensation was very typical in that it was completely under the table and likely illegal; very little actual cash changed hands.
I was more of a half-barn-manager/half-live-in-working-student. I worked a certain number of hours per week to cover my housing (a 3BR apt.) and board for 1 horse; anything over that went towards lessons I took with the trainer.
My position at the stable wasn’t “full-time” in that I obviously had to have a full-time day job to make actual cash. I did all morning chores at the barn, then came back after my day job to do evening chores, any remaining odd jobs, feeding, nightcheck, etc. I generally put in around 35 hours/week at the stable (more if we went to or hosted a show/clinic/etc.), and often about 15-20 of those hours were put in on Saturday and Sunday alone.
At that time in my life (I was in my 20s, no kids) it worked pretty well: I had a difficult horse, I needed the training, and I got to immerse myself in riding every day for years and I took as many lessons as I could. Practically, however, I often had to forego lessons due to too many chores to do, or due to just plain exhaustion. I also got sick, VERY sick, VERY often, during those years of working 80+ hours per week. Thank goodness I kept my “real” job that covered all those injuries and illnesses, because god knows the barn wouldn’t have provided me with health insurance.
