BOARDING YOUR HORSE

 The lifestyle, today, is not the same as it used to be a decade or two ago. People work under hectic schedules, waking and working hours are ever increasing, and normally resulting in stress related ailments. Slowly, each year, the beauty, the leisure and the healthy lifestyle in rural areas are also changing. Owning a horse, is not a problem, but caring, maintaining, feeding, housing – all these require time, money and effort.

What are your options?

 It is always better to own a horse; a living creature that needs personal care, love and affection form you. There grows a personal bondage between you and your horse, which gives both a symbiotic relationship beyond words. Of course, this means your spending a lot of time with him. Also, it means you have to arrange for everything form bedding, blankets in winter, feeding, grazing, bringing haystacks and other supplies, inoculating, arranging veterinary doctor’s visits, shoe changing etc.

The other option is to look for a good stable, which offers boarding facilities, though it is a costlier proposition.

1.    How to choose your Barn?

The best thing is to get first hand information from a professional owner of a stable, veterinary doctor, farrier etc. You get a professional update on the barn, its work culture, facilities available, quality of feeds, and other useful information. The farrier can give you information on how the hooves of the horses are cared and the vet on the overall health of the inmates.

2.    Short – listing:

Once you have received pertinent data and information on barns in your neighborhood, narrow down the prospective barns whose goals are compatible with your personal goals. Pay particular attention to the distance between your home and the barn. You should be able to reach the barn quickly and spend quite a good amount of your time with the horse.

3.    Visit the prospective barns personally:

This gives you an opportunity to meet the person in charge of the barn, size him up as well as the barn. This also provides you with a chance to assess the credibility and the capability of the barn in terms of your demands. By talking to the person in charge, mostly the owner, you not only create a rapport with him, but also receive information on the policies, terms and conditions, facilities available, feeding timings, records on maintaining the health of the horses etc, whether de-worming is done, emergency procedures and the fee structure. It will be in your interest to collect a copy of Contract of Boarding from the prospective barns for your comparison and final decision.

4.    Staff Strength:

Find out the horse-to-staff ratio. If it is somewhere between 6 to 7 horses to 1 staff, there won’t be any problem on service quality. The general horse related experience of staff, how good their attitude and behavior, how they relate their observations on the health and care of horses – all these are important.

5.    Cost of board comparison:

Compare the various services offered and the fee structure with the other prospective barns you have short-listed. Evaluate your horse’s needs. Barns offer 24/7/365 as full care i.e., 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year. Find out whether they charge additional charges for providing services such as checking them during night, caring for them when they are afflicted with ailments, caring for them when injured, feeding charges for additional nutritional supplements provided by you, holding them when the farrier attends to the needs of their hooves, turning them out, blanketing in winter months etc.

Your choosing a boarding for your horses is akin to your choosing a residence for your family. If you attend to details, there is no reason why your equine family will complain.