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Finding good help is tough for horse farm owners and I'd say more so than for a lot of other businesses, at least in our area.
Workers who are dependable, efficient and also know horses are hard to come by. Sometimes it's necessary to hire people
with little horse and farm experience -- and the results can be humorous or hazardous.
We had one farm hand who watered all the feed tubs in stalls instead of the water buckets. He obviously needed more careful
direction, but who woulda thought?? It would have taken all day to bail the water out of 43 tubs, so Barn King drilled a
hole in the bottom of each tub so they'd drain.
Then there was the farm hand who couldn't tell a Draft horse from an Icelandic pony and was always putting horses into
the wrong stalls.
Feeding mistakes can be especially serious. For one, they can lead to colic. They can also cause trouble for riders.
We had a temporary farm hand years ago who was feeding huge amounts of sweet feed to my Quarter Horse that's supposed to
get no grain. I investigated and discovered the mistake after the horse went into a bucking frenzy and launched me.
Nothing can replace careful supervision and training, but after experiencing some of these mishaps, we've developed some
simple tools and techniques over the years that can help novice workers do their job correctly.
GETTING HORSES TO THE CORRECT STALLS
To make sure that new farm workers
get horses into the correct stalls, Barn King came up with a clever idea. He went to our farm supply store and bought two
sets of numbered ear tags, which are normally used to tag cow ears. He nailed a number on each stall, then attached a matching
number on each horse's breakaway halter using a plastic security tie.
If you have more than one pasture,
assign each a number, then have stall cards that indicate which pasture each horse goes to. See the sample stall card below.
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| Cattle tag on the stall matches tag on the horse's halter. |
AVOID FEEDING MISTAKES
Feeding mistakes can be avoided first by taking
the time to explain to new workers that more grain isn't always better when it comes to horses. Use stall cards to identify
each horse by name as well the amount and type of feed the horse gets. We also have a feed cart and each section is carefully
labeled with the type of feed.
Stall cards can also be used to indicate how much hay each horse gets if your
hay source is steady; if you have different batches of hay with flakes that vary often in size and weight, you'll have
to update your stall cards often or be sure to take the time to explain to farm hands what constitutes two flakes, three flakes
and so-on with each new batch.
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Stall card holders can be purchased but if you have a lot of horses, it can get expensive. One of our farm hands made
holders for us out of inexpensive wood and plexiglass, purchased at Home Depot. We type pertinent information onto index
cards to insert into the holders; this includes the horse's name, owner's name, veterinarian's name and number, type and amount
of feed and pasture number.
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A friend and boarder used to run a stable that had a lot of kids feeding horses, which can be really risky since it increases
the chances that feeding mistakes will occur. She had individual plastic containers with lids labeled with each horse's name
and took the time to fill each one with the proper feed and supplements before feeding; all the kids had to do was deliver
the feed to the correct horse. This works well if you don't have a large number of horses.
(continue reading at top of next column...)
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On occasion I feed when our farm hands are off, and several of the boarders help. I use feed tags to avoid mistakes. I have
a list on the computer of what each horse gets; I print it, then cut it into feed tags for each horse. Each contains the
name of the horse, the feed and amount to give and a note about any supplement or medication to be administered. I put each
horse's feed and any supplements or medications required into a bucket, then put the tag on top of the feed. Helpers only
need to carry the bucket with the feed to the correct stall and match the name on their feed tag to the stall card.
HANDY AISLE CHARTS
Because we have so many horses here, there's
seldom a day that goes by when one or several need to be kept in or brought in from the pasture for the farrier, veterinarian
or owners.
We keep an aisle chart on the computer; we can add directions for the day on top, then run it off
and post it on a clipboard at the front of the barn for our barn manager.
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| An aisle chart makes it easy to leave clear instructions. |
MANAGING HORSE SUPPLEMENTS
Administering supplements can be
a real pain if they are provided by boarders in the large tub containers many of them come in; it's too difficult to carry
around multiple containers at feeding time and it's easy to get supplements mixed up since many of the containers are
similar in appearance.
Instead, we encourage owners who want their horses to have supplements to use the SmartPak
system, which provides daily doses in individual cups; SmartPak even provides a plastic drawer to store each horse's supplements
in.
If boarders don't use SmartPak, we ask boarders to bag their supplement into individual, zip-up baggies
marked with their horse's name.
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| SmarkPaks make giving supplements easy. |
ORAL MEDICATIONS
If a horse is temporarily on oral medication such
as small pills or powder that's to be administered in feed, we ask boarders not only to bag the medication in individual
doses, but to mark each bag with the day and time it's supposed to be administered.
For instance:
Leonardo
Monday, Sept. 6, with PM feed only.
Or it might be:
Daisy
Monday,
September 6, AM and PM feeding.
When there are a lot of horses to feed and many supplements or medications
to be given, this procedure helps whomever is feeding keep the medicine straight.
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