When you send a horse for training, what do you expect feeding-wise?

[TheJenners]

@beowulf

@Obsidian_Fire

Beowulf, you are preaching to the choir. I get it. Not my monkeys, not my circus, but the BO is a very dear friend so she leans on me to be the…voice of ‘no’, I think? LOL. She’s strapped for time since she works full time +, and honestly IMO she does not charge enough, which brings us back to not running a 24/7 buffet. The horses are well fed and the food is quality, don’t get me wrong there, it’s just not… ummm…COTH standards… LOL.

And yes the nightmare of labor when cleaning stalls like that. The stall cleaner is already overwhelmed, let’s not make it worse.

This in of itself is why I don’t own a boarding operation, either. I get both sides, truly.

Same. Been there. I’ve been the (internal dialogue) “be reasonable, don’t be a Karen” boarder and I’ve also been the “be reasonable, don’t murder them and hide the body in the manure pile” barn owner. It’s tough. It’s also why I don’t offer boarding even when I do have room. I have a friend bringing a horse over this afternoon for a couple days because she’s not drinking enough and eating enough in the cold, and I’m happy to help but at the same time.

[mmeqcenter]

@Obsidian_Fire

The problem has become that too many people come in and instantly say ‘Dobbin must have 24/7 forage and 10,000 supplements’, or other along those lines.

Is the BO not providing feed information before they decide to come to the barn??

@Obsidian_Fire

If you send your horse out for training, what’s “normal” in this circumstance? How do you handle those clients who want to be ‘special needs’?

Each BO and trainer are free to make their own choices on what they will and will not allow for customizations. There’s not really a “normal,” normal is what the BO offers or is willing to accommodate.

If your BO is not setting expectations before allowing new boarders, they’re setting themselves up for failure. If they’re not willing to take custom diets, they should tell prospective clients that. If they have a limit on how many supplements they’ll feed, they should tell prospective clients that. If the prospective client is not okay with the BO’s offerings, they can search for boarding/training elsewhere.

@Obsidian_Fire

She also will not cater to an all you can eat buffet (aka, expensive bedding).

This is a weird statement; it’s very easy to provide 24/7 free-choice hay without it becoming expensive bedding. But to each their own.

[mmeqcenter]

@halla

I wonder if 24/7 hay expectations are different based on how expensive or easily available hay is in a region.

One would think, but my personal experiences have not aligned.

When I boarded in Ohio, not a single barn anywhere offered free choice hay. Standard was two flakes AM and PM. At that time, 2005-2016, hay in Ohio was like $3/small grass bale, $5/small alfalfa bale (~50-60 lbs each).
When I moved to Florida in 2016, those same bales were going for ~$16/bale. Same bales as in, the exact same bales trucked down from Ohio; I dealt with two hay suppliers when I lived in Ohio that regularly shipped down to Florida. I had my own farm then, but when browsing boarding barns in the area to see what they offered, more offered free-choice hay than didn’t.

[trubandloki]

@mmeqcenter

@Obsidian_Fire

She also will not cater to an all you can eat buffet (aka, expensive bedding).

This is a weird statement; it’s very easy to provide 24/7 free-choice hay without it becoming expensive bedding. But to each their own.

I think with some owners what happens is they feel Dobbin should never be low on hay so they toss Dobbin more hay, when Dobbin already has hay, and then Dobbin manures and pees on the hay because there is so much and it becomes expensive bedding.

It is not a matter of not being able to have hay all the time, it is owners not understanding that Dobbin does not need to be knee deep in hay for that to be true.

[mmeqcenter]

good point

[Alterration]

How much I, as an owner, have control over my horse depends on the type of training I’m putting it into. 30 days with a colt starter? I’m likely going to provide my own feed and supplements. 6 months with a “fancy-pants” show trainer? I’m going to let them manage their own program.

Of course, I train my own horses nowadays but this was the case before I did.

As a barn owner, OMG the hay waste from boarders is ridiculous. I did provide 24/7 access to hay in slow feed hay nets and I had one boarder who would come sit with her horse in the pasture and take the hay OUT of the hay net (so she could eat more easily…and said horse was obese, she didn’t need to be doing that) and it would get wasted on the ground.

Made. Me. Nuts.

I closed my boarding facility temporarily for some personal reasons, but am considering keeping it closed, because the expectations are way out of line. Dog boarding commands $30/day and they take up way less space, and are way cheaper.