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| I wonder why you want to do self-care? Just curious. If your barn will be full with full-care boarders, then it seems more beneficial for you to do full care. Barns around here are full with a waiting list even if they only offer full care. As a full care boarder, my perspective of being in a barn with self-care boarders is that I would rather not. What I found was: the barn would smell and/or have flies in the day because the self-care boarders may clean their stalls at night instead of morning. Some owners would have "emergencies" or work late and not clean their stalls for more than a day. Some horses would not get turned out if the owners were responsible for this task. Some horses would not get fed in a timely manner and would be frantic in their stalls listening to the other horses get fed (someone already suggested not including this in your self care option). I know there are many responsible owners who take impeccable care of their horses and want to save money by doing self-care. Yet there are many very poor horse owners who do self-care because they don't want to spend money on their horses. At least if an owner is negligent, in full care boarding the horse is cared for. |
Another reason is that I'm always at the barn. I sometimes go first thing in the morning before school, 3:00-5:00 after school, and again 9:00-10:00 during the winter. I trust that my hay and grain is of the quality and quantity I want her to have. There have been times the barn owner has forgotten to feed my horse. Thankfully, I noticed and gave her some when I came to the barn. Another reason is that the water is always dumped, scrubbed clean, and refilled straight from the spout. The barn owner fills the buckets with pre-set out buckets of water from a day or two before. The barn is a conjoined arena, so the dust is always being stirred up and getting in the water buckets set out.
Another reason is most full-care barns around here aren't cleaned well. No offense to the owners, but they have fourty-some horses, and the boarders are lucky the stalls get cleaned to a reasonable quality. I don't want my horse getting thrush, thank you very much.
The last reason is... it's cheaper. Full care board around here can go over $550/month. Why should I pay that much if I'm still going to go down and do everything myself anyway?
I prefer to know that my horse is taken care of. I know she also appreciates me coming and seeing her every day for at least a few hours. A horse can't be trained unless you put the time and effort into it. With a rescue or fresh horse, just being around them is training.
