BTB: Make-believe barn manager: "He's too thin" |  |
| Make-believe barn manager: "He's too thin" Posted: 29 Mar 2010 02:05 PM PDT  "He's too thin" is a common boarder refrain. In the last make believe barn manager post, I talked about putting hay amounts in the boarding contract, but that doesn't make it an immutable law. Horses are individuals and some will want/need more hay: hard keeping horses, ulcer-prone horses, horses with stall vices are a few examples. Boarders also have their own ideas (I should say we have our own ideas) about how much hay is enough.All you can eat? Boarders have expressed the opinion that their board should pay for whatever amount of hay their horse needs. Boarding is not like an all-you-can-eat restaurant. Just go to a Country Buffet restaurant and look at the quality of the food. The horse equivalent would be to feed cow hay. That nice, green, timothy mix would be like filet mignon or crab, which you seldom see on the buffet warming trays. Help yourself to some potatos though. Good barns do try to make adjustments for a particular horse's needs. There is hardly any profit margin on horse boarding, though, and the barn starts to LOSE money pretty quickly when expensive resources like hay are consumed at a faster rate. Businesses often use tiered pricing to reflect level of service/use of resources. Some barns in our area are starting to do this. What happens when "He's too thin!" When boarders perceive their horse needs more hay, they aren't likely to suffer in silence. They'll either a) talk to the barn manager or b) self-serve. I think the latter occurs when the protocol/expectations are unclear (e.g., no explicit rules or fee structure), or when the barn manager is unapproachable or absent. Many barn managers seem hesitant to offer more hay for an extra fee -- I don't know why. Perhaps it's just a hassle. Tiered pricing: Are you a gold card holder? I may be a PITA boarder (well, let's say "high maintenance"), but I don't ask for something special unless I'm prepared to pay for it. Some barns don't even permit extra hay, even when boarders are willing to pay -- which I think is crazy. When available, the costs for extra hay can vary a great deal. Charging by the flake was a policy at one barn where I boarded years ago. The cost was so high ($1 per flake) it was not even to make a profit -- it was as a deterrent. Most other barns charged a rate that was basically cost recovery -- little or no profit from extra hay fees. Over the years I've run across these fee structures...
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