A lot of your points relate to very real challenges of winter horsekeeping, especially the challenges of keeping horses out on pasture during winter weather.
IME, people expect to pay less for pasture board vs. stall board. However, IMO (from having been a BO for many years) is that this is not a realistic expectation. Getting hay out to paddocks/fields in nasty weather can be a logistical nightmare. During rainy periods running a tractor over soft ground can cause a lot of damage. The alternative, taking adequate hay out by hand, can be grueling to impossible depending on the setup. Preventing waste of expensive hay during a bad hay year by using nets or other types of feeders is responsible management.
At a few of these barns I was actually paying the going rate for stall board in the area. I will happily pay extra for adequate care. I do agree that most people won’t pay more and that’s where it gets tricky
If you can’t provide adequate hay to a pasture horse don’t board pasture horses. They should not be out in sleet/snow/below freezing weather on a regular basis without hay. In NOVA no way would one flake of hay per horse be enough for any horse to remain healthy - this borders on animal cruelty and the amount of weight my horse lost in less than 2 weeks was proof. If round bales aren’t put out for a day or two that’s fine. If you’re going to use nets then TELL any potential boarder that is the case. This was made worse by the fact that they went from 6 horses to 12 sharing two round bales with nets on them, the bottom of the pecking order horses were screwed. She also let one bale run out frequently before refilling so for days it would be 12 horses fighting over one single round bale with a slow feed hay net. The paddock area for winter at this barn was a dry lot there was nothing else to eat.
Blanketing horses pasture kept horses is very inconvenient to say the least. You’ve got to carry blankets out to the herd through muddy/icy conditions, change blankets in a herd setting with horses milling around, lug the muddy blanket back to the barn, hang it to dry, and remember which horse out of 15 it belongs to. I think it is completely reasonable for a BO/BM to refuse to provide blanketing services for pasture boarded horses. The other option is to allow clients to handle the blanketing themselves, but this is also problematic. Many clients are not going to show up to pull that blanket when the temp skyrockets to 65 degrees after a week of cold temps, and then the BO is stuck dealing with it after all.
If your policy is to not allow blanketing then TELL your potential boarders. For me it’s a deal breaker and I never would have moved my horse there. That is not the norm in my area. Of all the barns I’ve boarded at, taken lessons at, worked over my entire life every single one has blanketed a number of horses depending on need. Some were blanketed by the barn, some by the owners. Never did I think it would be a policy that I’m not allowed to blanket my horse. I live 8 minutes from my barn, last year he was blanketed maybe 10-15 nights for the full year, I’m not a heavy blanketing person with a sheet, medium, heavy expecting multiple blanket changes on a daily basis. We went from 63 degrees to under 20 with snow in a 24 hour period, I wanted my horse to wear a blanket for one night to help deal with that temperature change.
Conditions like extremely hard ground and icy patches are a fact of life in areas with true winter weather. There’s no way a barn can obliterate those risks. If your horse is prone to have tender feet, he really needs to be stall boarded to get a break from the hard ground each day. If you are in an area where icy conditions occur, consider shoeing your horse with borium or tap in studs for added traction. In snowy areas where snow tends to be wet and packs in the horses feet, consider snow rims inside the shoes.
Of course ice and hard ground happens at every single barn every single year. My horse had never had any issues with tender or sore feet so I had no idea he might have an issue and he had shoes on. I’m not even remotely upset about him being sore and having issues but I’m furious that a horse that was completely unable to walk sitting back on his hind end essentially in a full blown founder stance didn’t elicit a phone call to me. He should have gotten vet care sooner and I am so thankful that he came out of it completely fine with no long term issues.
Overall my advice would be to consider switching to stall board for your horse (which it sounds like you are), adjusting his shoeing during the winter, and also, consider changing your horse’s diet during the winter. For example, if you are at a barn that is not feeding adequate hay, or you are unsatisfied with the hay quality in relation to your horse’s needs (a common issue for a hard keeper during a bad hay year) consider adding something like senior feed, beet pulp or hay pellets to his diet during winter months to ensure no weight loss.
His diet will definitely be changed this year, last year he did really well on senior. Unfortunately he can’t be on stall board. He’s got hock issues and needs to be out moving as much as possible. Stall care makes him really stiff and sore. I found the unicorn boarding situation where he can come in for really bad nasty weather but will be out the rest of the time.
And just to be real here, you say you know how hard it is to do winter barn work, but it is a practical fact of life that staffing a barn adequately during the winter is extremely difficult. Physically it is extremely difficult to spend 8 hours a day working outdoors 5-6 days per week during miserable winter conditions. It costs $$$$$ to hire, supervise, and maintain acceptable job satisfaction among barn workers during the winter months. Sometimes no matter how much you are paying it’s hard to find people who will show up and do the work.
Honestly I picked a different career because of this. I tested it out and I can’t do the physical work required in the cold weather day after day. I wish it were normal to charge more in winter to properly pay the workers when your workload basically doubles because of cold, ice snow etc.
You sound like a very caring owner, and I think you are correct in your decision to move to a place that will “pamper” your horse during the winter months because realistically, based on what you say, I think that’s what your horse will do best with.
