05/17/2026
What is happening to the good horsemen?
Are you noticing this trend? The trainers that care, the managers that are on point, the grooms that pay attention… they are slowly disappearing. Pretty soon we won’t have many left. The quality people are getting harder and harder to find, and it’s time we explain why.
As someone who makes a living taking care of other people’s animals, be it through boarding, training, sales, lessons or barn sitting, I’ve seen some pretty wild things. But the wildest thing is that many of these issues are actually common.
The first one is haggling prices.
Part one: boarding
I know people (and I am one) who set reasonable prices; I don’t need to be rich, but my bills need paid and it needs to be worth my time. So when I tell you my price, and it’s lower than other people in the area, and you ask for a discount, I think back to the amount of time I have spent accumulating knowledge in this particular area of expertise. How much I have invested in myself, both in good lessons and lessons learned the hard way so you don’t have to.
When it comes to boarding, it’s what is able to cover the hay and grain to feed everyone BUT ALSO the expenses that no one cares about; such as replacing brushes and hoof picks that no one buys for themselves or puts away, buying extra fly spray since fluffly Ran out and he just needs a quick sq**rt, they’ll buy more next time they’re out… 3 months later… the shampoo and conditioner in the wash rack no one replaces but ican’t live without. The hoses that your horses dance all over and puncture and then I hear about it a day later when you’re surprised the hose is leaking after having 1200lbs and a nail balancing on it for 20 minutes while doing the cha cha slide. The extra flake of hay no one asked permission to grab because fluffy can’t not eat 24-7 or he’ll die, Even while tacking up. The broken muck rake because it didn’t get put back. The bleach to pour down the drain because everyone is too lazy to clean up the cross ties so it runs into the drain and backs up. Fencing repairs because your horse cribs (even though you swear he doesn’t) and took up kick boxing the horse in the neighboring field, water trough replacements because your horse thinks he’s trying out for the summer Olympics in high dive, lead rope replacements, and finance charges because shavings hay and grain orders go out on the 1st and you (and 3 others) couldn’t pay until the 4th, so I had to use my credit card.
Then you have the people who want everything done on their terms, on their schedule, to hell with everyone else. If the horses weren’t fed at exactly 730 am and 530 pm, the world is ending. The horses must be in their stalls at exactly the time their car rolls in the driveway, or they lose their s**t. And don’t forget, if the arena isn’t freshly drug every hour on the hour, while maintaining the rest of the farm. These are usually the same ladies that then want to get a discount rate for helping with feeding shifts and show up late with a Dunkin’s latte on the one morning you do hire them to help and actually DID need the horses in at exactly 730 am to be loaded for the show by 8. If they even show up. And don’t forget the dingbat that told me “I’m not boarding at your place to pay your mortgage”. Ok, well, if I don’t get paid to do the work so you don’t have to, and to have the land that you don’t have, then my mortgage doesn’t get paid and guess what? You don’t have a farm to board at or someone to care for that horse. Shocker, I know, It’s almost like basic economics.
This doesn’t even begin to cover the amount of time we spend staring a horse that is laying down to make sure it’s just tired and not sick, the late nights we spent walking your horse to make sure his belly ache goes away because your out of town. The late night texts that never stop and really could wait but if we don’t answer them, it’s now a phone call. The constant “it’ll only take a minute” asks, like standing wraps in the stalls, slinkies and mane and tail wraps, asking us to oil and pick hooves every time they come in, or hose the horse off, so they are clean when you get there to save you 10 minutes of brushing, because you yourself are too busy and think we are made up of endless time, and that we only serve one person, despite there being 10+ horses at the farm and we haven’t ridden our own in days.
I’m not saying every place is like this. But this is the trend. I have worked for, Managed, and ridden at several barns in my 33 years of horses, and it’s a non-stop pattern. Maximum effort for minimum pay. We don’t get vacations. We don’t take time off. We try to accommodate. And then, people want to haggle while asking for more.
No wonder it’s getting harder and harder to find good help. I wouldn’t go to a job if I didn’t get paid, and neither would you. So why should the boarding barns do work they aren’t getting paid for? Especially when it’s not valued?
Part two is coming up: lessons, training, and cancellations.
Bops in his ridiculous fly gear that he so kindly ripped off a few seconds later.
