Service Idea - Need Help with Pricing, Etc.

Hello, everyone!

I'm working to set up a business that involves house-call vet care. I am not a vet, but I'm hoping to go to your location and take care of injured or sick horses according to your vet's specifications. I'm hoping that ya'll would be willing to answer a few questions for me.

1. Would you use this type of service? If you normally would not, are there circumstances that would encourage you to use it?
2. What sort of price range would you be willing to spend on this service? Would you prefer a per-animal basis, hourly, or some other form?
3. What is your general location? This is to verify which areas would be better for this service and which sort of communities I should be advertising more towards.
4. What is your primary discipline? Again, this is verification of my demographic.

Please feel free to answer any or all of these questions and I definitely welcome any other comments or suggestions. Thank you!

1. Would you use this type of service? If you normally would not, are there circumstances that would encourage you to use it?
No I more than likely wouldn't because you aren't schooled in veterinary care so I wouldn't know if I could trust you. I think the only circumstance I would consider it is if my horse were going to die and my vet had no way of getting there before it was too late. I would be leery, how do I know you know what you are doing? Can I trust you not to kill my animal? I'd want some sort of "Worry-Free-Guarantee" that if you killed my horse by mal-practice I'd be able to do something about it.

2. What sort of price range would you be willing to spend on this service? Would you prefer a per-animal basis, hourly, or some other form?
Per animal basis. I'm not sure about the cost.

3. What is your general location? This is to verify which areas would be better for this service and which sort of communities I should be advertising more towards.
Michigan, of the USA.

4. What is your primary discipline? Again, this is verification of my demographic.
Bareback. (Western)

Thank you for your response, Abby! The purpose of this service is not to provide primary vet care; my goal is to come to each location and follow the vet instructions. I would be in direct contact with your vet as well as you to be certain that each direction was followed precisely.

I am an Equine Business major; though I do not have actual vet training, I have worked at a clinic in the past as well as a few barns and stables.

Again, thank you for responding, Abby; every response is helpful as I try to develop this business.

1) Yes, I would if I:
A) Owned a large barn operation with too many horses to take care of all alone
B) Boarded at a facility where I was the primary caregiver (aka had to drive out and feed everyday - kinda like I do now!) and the horse required more care than I was able to give.
Otherwise, no.
However, I would want to see what kind of credentials you have... and of course I would want a waiver holding you responsable in case of any malpractise.

2) Either hourly or daily - if my horse is requiring constant care, as in you're there 24/7, then daily... at this point I wouldn't be looking to spend much (haha.. I'm not exactly rich) but if I owned a large facility, then somewhere in the $100/day range? Also depends on the amount of work you're doing etc.

3) I'm in Alberta, Canada.

4) Chances are you'd get best paid by the high-end showers - the ones that pay ungodly amounts for EVERYthing from horse massages to horse psychics. Chances are you would want to target the "horse dumb" people - the ones that throw money into anything that might increase their chances of winning.. haha.

Oh, and since I do think it might be a marketable business (it is a good idea, and I commend you for thinking of it) - I would keep it under wraps until you have the proper legal "patents" or "intellectual property trademarks" of sorts so nobody steals your idea before you can get it in place. ;)

Thank you for replying, and for the advice! Things are still in the planning stage right now, but I just need to get a feel for marketability and how much to charge people. If I'm not mistaken, it seems I'm more likely to get business from English riders rather than Western...? That's what I keep hearing, anyway. Well, thanks again!

Hmmmm...I'm not sure that it is a service that would be of use here. If a horse is really sick, the vet needs to be the one coming out and if not most horse owners in my area would easily follow vet direction.

I think it would be a good service for brand new horse owners who are very anxious about vet care.

As for pricing?? Hmmm...thats difficult to say as it is something that people could do themselves.

I would not use the service only because I'm really funny about trusting people with my horses.

I would think that someone that runs a barn would not have a need as they probably have a staff, however I bet there are people out there that keep horses at their house like me that may not have the time....

I don't think you would be really busy though because how often do horses need day to day care like that. I've had them for 20 years and last summer was my first life threatening injury, daily bandage changes and stall rest for 4 months then daily hand walking for 2 months.... I don't think I would have trusted anyone with her though after the initial $6k of medical bills.

I bet you wuold be better off doing stall cleaning and vacation care type stuff....

A Babysitting service! If I didn't board that is something I would for sure use! Someone to come and feed my horses, check them over every day. Only catch is, if they were to actually get hurt while I was gone, I would have the babysitter call a vet.

Now I would pay good bucks if I were able to find someone like that (again if I didn't board).