Advice sought from Freelance Grooms pls

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Bertthefrog

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I am currently a registered instructor - have had to give up a great job due to my youngest starting school and no childcare in the area. No luck with part-time office or lecturing jobs so have picked up a couple hrs of mucking out each morning and am thinking of going down the freelance grooming route.

So.... what I really want is to pick the brains of any freelance grooms out there....

I have been in the business for 20+ yrs ( and am still mobile and nearly sane....) have worked on all sorts of yards, am a BHSII/BHSSM (never got round to finishing my I).
Do you think it's feasible to work as a freelance groom during school hours and what sort of jobs would you think are most popular?

I was thinking of offering the following services (I don't have my own yard sadly - although expect to win the lottery every week!).

General yard work/ exercising.
Schooling, teaching, backing.
Clipping and turn out.
Holiday cover.

Anything else?

I would use my teaching rates for schooling and then have a general rate for all the other services.

Does this sound feasible?

Would really appreciate any advice - please pm if you'd prefer!

Many thanks!
 
I have done some freelance grooming in the past as well as my house sitting, from my experience it doesnt pay you spend all your time driving from one place to another for an hour or so. The most popular thing people want you to do is bring their horses in which might only take 1/2 hr, so its not worth going, as when I did it I charged £6.50 per hr, so to go some where for 1/2hr to bring in £3.25 isnt worth going IMO,and people didnt want to pay for the full hour, I also used to clip alot of horses but found people only want you to do bad ones, which is fine, but they werent prepared to pay for sedation, just though cos you clip for a living its ok for you to get kicked.
But give it a go and see how you get on, you are qualified to teach, Iam not, so you will proberbley get more in the way of that kind of work.
At least with my house sitting once I have got there Iam there, for the week/fortnight dont have to be here there and everywhere.
 
I used to pay a good BHSAI to ride my horses and muck out when I was away with work (two or three days a week). I paid her £10/hr. It was worth it to know someone who could handle two fit eventers properly was doing them...

My husband fed, watered and hayed them in the morning, then she came when she could fit it in, so that would suit school hours.

Sometimes I think about it myself (am an AI). Quite a few people have said they would be interested in "mobile livery", ie jobs done on their own private yards...
 
That's the sort of thing I was thinking of - I'm currently helping a local livery yard owner for an hr or so every morning - and that works out £10/hr. I'd be happy to exercise etc for that rate.

I suppose the best way is to test the waters and stick an advert in the local paper. I teach for a local riding club, and have some good friends that run yards and teach so word of mouth may help.

Good time of year to start up I thought as lack of daylight hours makes life very tough for the full time workers.

Thank you!
 
i have done freelance for years. yes you can make it viable. but please make sure you are adequetly insured for freelance teaching, exercising, clipping, holiday relief. you need full public liability, 3 c liability and teaching liability. charge accordingly. i never billed out less than an hour! or charge travelling plus time. the £/per hour does depend on the area though. where are you based?
 
East Yorkshire - insurance is something I have thought about - teaching and schooling I am covered for - but was thinking of adding the grooms part onto my BHS insurance - do you think that would be sufficient?
 
I'd try an ad at the livery yard for teaching and exercising. An ad in the RC newsletter would be good too, and local tack shops. As you say, word of mouth is usually best. I'd have snapped your services up when I was looking!
 
Yes! I used to have two regular clients one 5 mornings for 3 hours and one 5 afternoons for 2 1/2 hours. Both were within 2 miles of home. I found them through a board at a local competition centre and the second was a recommendation from the first (PC DC). I would say definately contact the Pony Club and local hunt. In the afternoon I bought in, groomed etc 4 hunters and in the morning rode, mucked out and turned out a pony and the mothers hunter. I used to get £8 ph in the morning and then £7 per hour in the afternoon. I have no qualifications just experience so I expect you could charge much more!
 
That would be perfect - thank you all so much for taking the time to post - the information has made me much more confident about the prospect of being able to earn some money!

Must admit - I'm really enjoying working directly with the horses again - so much more fun than teaching others how to do it!
:)
 
At my old DIY yard we had a lady who was the'Full Livery' person.

she would do your horse completley for £6.50 per horse per day - she charged for the individual things too like turnout / mucking out / feeding etc. she would turn my horse out for me in the morning and charged like a pound, and i would go up after work and do the rest

it suited her because her daughters horse was at the yard, so she would drop kids off at school - spend day at yard, pick kids up and come back up to finish the evening duties.

you could try and 'base' yourself at a local DIY yard like that if the YO and liveries were keen. and charge extra for excerising / clipping / teaching.
 
Advertise to teach on site for people - been all along these lines at one time or other and the best income was from teaching. I'd travel around and earm reasonably good money teaching people on their own property.
 
I think you can certainly make it viable if you do something like Ben's_Mum did. I used to do something very similar and teach in between and it worked out quite well (and kept me fit ;-)).

Shame you are not in West Berks as I would snap up your services myself now! I am looking for a freelance groom at the moment to do a couple of hours a couple of days a week and holiday cover (well I say holiday, but more like 'working away from home' cover!), but had no joy yet! So, there are definately people like me out there who need some help like you're offering and would be able to be flexible around school hours - in fact that is what I am hoping for really - a Mum with kid's at school as it would be perfect!

So, good luck to you - and I think that because you must already have some good contacts you wouldn't have a problem finding work. Where I used to live I found a couple of excellent freelance grooms just through word of mouth - and all the work I used to do was word of mouth as well!
 
Jenni_ said:
At my old DIY yard we had a lady who was the'Full Livery' person.

she would do your horse completley for £6.50 per horse per day - she charged for the individual things too like turnout / mucking out / feeding etc. she would turn my horse out for me in the morning and charged like a pound, and i would go up after work and do the rest

it suited her because her daughters horse was at the yard, so she would drop kids off at school - spend day at yard, pick kids up and come back up to finish the evening duties.

you could try and 'base' yourself at a local DIY yard like that if the YO and liveries were keen. and charge extra for excerising / clipping / teaching.
Click to expand...

Agree with this as it's what I do! Works well with my own horses too! I have 2 that are on full permanent livery and another 3-4 on an ad hoc basis plus other people who I poo pick, feed, turnout etc as requested. In addition I have 2 long standing people with their horses at home that I do 3-5 days per week, plus holiday cover etc.

I've found work over the years through my farrier. Also I tap into other farriers who come to our diy yard and pick their brains too! They are a great basis for networking! Good luck!!
 
Will definately try the farriers - that's a great idea - thank you.

And thank you too Naggy - it's reassuring to hear that the limitations of the school day will not cause problems.

I've had such positive comments that I feel much more confident about the prospect of freelancing.

Will check out the BHS grooms insurance and then it's time to jump....

:eek::D

Fingers crossed!
 
There area couple of mums I've used who do freelance horse and dog cover - they're brilliant, do things exactly as you ask (not how they think it should be done!)

they charge per visit - so when they came to muck out 5, it was very good value!

They have school age kids, so can fit the jobs in between and around the children - works very well :)
 
Those of us with biggish yards and full time staff still find times when we need an extra pair of hands. I have one Mum who does 3 days a week 9-3 (I'd be just as happy if it was 9.30 - 2.30 or similar.) She's not a great rider but she can do the routine jobs and free up a permanent member of staff for other jobs - and we can do the longer slow exercise periods for the hunters on the days she's here.

I'd also happily employ someone competent on a part time basis - say a half-day x 2-3 times a week - for exercising, clipping (and all my horses ARE good to clip - we make sure of that!), mane pulling, tack cleaning - you name it! There are never ENOUGH hours in the day to do EVERYTHING - but I can't justify an extra full-time staff member just to give us a little breathing space.

Farriers are definitely a useful source of work - hell - mine is my staff agency! I just let him know what I want - and he generally finds someone!
 
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