Boarding ad help

offthegrid, in my world climate has a lot to do with it. In the dead of winter, 4 horses will consume a round bale in less than a week and when I was feeding 125 cows, I think if I would have had to feed square bales, I'd still be trying to catch up chores from 1995.

The whole bale spike setup isn't as complicated as you'd think. I've stood them on end, wrapped chains around them and towed to feeders and my father created a great little unit. He scrounged up a bar (probably an old pry bar because it had one pointed end), he welded a length of chain to the dull end and added an manmade circle on the other. He'd simply use a sledge to point the old pry bar through the core of the bale, draw his chain from the dull end drop the loop over the pointed end, attach the resulting V to the hitch on his truck and drive to his feeders. The bale rolls like a dream and he lifts up his bale ring and rolls it over and drops it over his bale.

That's funny. Around here round bales are for cattle. Square ones are for horses. They don't sell it by the ton. Some people call them small square bales but nobody actually has large square bales.

Our trainer, for example, says that large round bales are dangerous. Horses waste a lot and they tend to dig into the center to get the good stuff. When they do that they can get poked in the eye by the hay.

We bale our hay only in small square bales. Our two APHA boys eat about 1/3 bale twice daily. Next winter I think we'll cut them down a bit. They're going into the spring plenty fat.

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Moms don't look at things like normal people.
-----DD

Yup, they possibly could poke an eye but I guess they could also stumble in a hole and break a leg while playing in the pasture too.

I live in Georgia and $175 per month for self care is reasonable given the state of the facilities.

However, this is important having run a boarding barn business of my own for years here (now closed due to lack of good barn help!)..

Do you have an arena? If not, likely won't get many upper end clients. I won't pay board even in a self care situation if there is no arena. I need the arena to practice in and most people who will pay upper end board are going to want an arena for the same reason.

Beautiful grounds, but alas, no pictures of horses..are there no horses there?

Trainers - are they allowed or not? Do you have contact with trainers? Farriers, Vets? I won't board at a facility that has no vet and farrier on call at all times. (yes, I will be boarding Ms. Tyranna next month).

Is there a wash rack? Hot/cold running water? List EVERY detail of what is included. Are owners on the premises? Who checks on the horses when the horse owner is not present? Do you carry "care, custody and control" insurance? Are there lockable tack lockers? What about feed storage? If you have "self care" folks are gonna want to be able to bring feed, supplements, salt blocks, hay, etc. - do you have a large storage area? Do you have a way to isolate each person's feed? (provide bins for individual feed storage?). Otherwise, folks may steal feed _ yep it happens and also supplements, brushes, lead ropes, halters, etc.

Nice barn, I'd fix the chewed boards and state in your ad "no cribbers" if you do not allow the little termites -otherwise, it is your responsibility to keep replacing the chewed up boards!).

What about shavings? Is that included or do the people need to provide their own? Are there manure forks available? I would have "barn tools" available at no charge, such as forks, shovels, etc.

Self care doesn't always mean a boarder has to provide every.single.thing a horse needs.

Are there nearby shows/events? If so, list them - i.e. close to XX eventing center, dressage center, H/J center, etc.

Just some ideas..I am barn shopping right now in Huntsville, Al but I do not want self care, I want full board. All I want to do is show up, groom and tack up and ride and take lessons. I've done the self care thing for 30 plus years, and since I have to move, I want someone else to have that opportunity. All I want to do is ride and groom and go home.

Sounds awful I know, but..with all the horses I've cared for over the years..I sometimes barely have time to ride at all..so it will be nice to just show up, groom my mare, tack her up and go ride without the feeding, mucking, fence repair, etc. lol.

I'm going to "live large" for a while and actually spend one year doing nothing but riding and grooming. We'll see how that works out. BTW - board so far has run between 300 and 900 per month. Yikes..

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