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Barn co-ops.

2K views 4 replies 4 participants last post by  TessaMay 
#1 ·
I am considering trying a barn co-op to help local people in my area with affordable horse board. I am going to take one girl in and use her as a test trial.

such as fixing fence, feeding, watering , checking on horses, helping build so on and so on.

I would like feed back on people who do co-ops and are apart of co-ops. Is have seen successful co-ops and i have seen some fail. So please tell me your experience, or friends experience, tips and tricks and lessons learned!
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#2 ·
I have done a co-op twice.

In the co-ops I've done, we've all pitched in on barn days (like one day out of the month to do things like fixing fence, spring cleaning, etc.) And we have a feeding schedule of who feeds on what day. Everyone was responsible for buying their own horses feed and hay, and cleaning their own horses stalls.

It works great if you find responsible people, but that's the hard part.
 
#4 ·
We do work for hours. Only 20 hours of work/month gets you free board. It works out well. People pitch in when they can, and others just pay full board and never help out.

There's always a mass texting/emailing spree when hay comes. Usually we get about 3-4 people that volunteer to put up hay, then we record our time spent doing so. It works out very well. One guy even mows, cuts brush, fixes fence, etc. for hours.
 
#5 ·
The barn I board at isn't really a co-op, but it is kind of similar and I have had shared responsibilities with other boarders at other barns before as well. The most important thing is finding good responsible people with attention to detail. That's also the hardest part :lol: I'd say the second most important thing is to be very clear about what each person's responsibility is.

Here's how it works at my barn:

There are two of us who do most of the care (in a 7 horse barn). I generally come over Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday in the evenings and Saturday in the mornings. The other girl does the same in the mornings, except she takes Sunday instead of Saturday. The BO's take care of everything on Wednesdays and when they aren't out of town, they take weekend evenings. On Weekends that they are away, I do both morning and evenings on Saturdays, the same for the other girl on Sundays and we choose a weekday to take off in exchange. On the rare times that they are gone during the week, they ask one of two other boarders to fill in for $ off their board.

AM chores consist of:
Feed breakfast
Fill waters
Pick stalls/paddocks
Gather grain dishes from the night before

PM chores consist of:
Turn horses out
Put dinner feed in stalls
Fill waters
Pick stalls/paddocks
Gather grain dishes from the morning

The BO's let the horses in later in the evening and that is the final check for the night. We also have a few weekly chores that we take care of: scrub water buckets, sweep the barn and pick up any manure that has been left on the gravel near the barn.
 
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