Competition grooms horse:groom ratio?

[Worried1]

Realistically what horse:groom ratio would you expect to enable someone working to very high standards, to muck out, tack up/untack, groom/wash off daily, clean bridles, feeds, hay, skip out, pooh pick without becoming overworked and jaded.

Our lovely head girl is leaving to have a baby, we have worked together for 4 1/2 years and its fair to say we are now telepathic!

The yard is bigger than when we first started and so we have evolved to cope with double what we began with!

So what is a realistic number to work to? We do have weekend and part time staff but I'm thinking a base number which is acceptable long term.

Thanks

 

[CaleruxShearer]

When I was a WP on an event hard we had 21 in at our busiest and 3 of us full time (all day 6 days a week). Then we had a girl come and help muck out at the weekends. Could have done with 4 of us full time really as we had 4 hunters in during the hunting season which took up a lot of time. Could also have done with someone else to cover the head girl when she was away at 3 days etc.

 

[ihatework]

I used to do 6, of those I rode 2 a day and prepped the other 4 for the rider.
Doesn't sound much, but I I filled a day (7-5 + late night check, 1 hour lunch). Sociable and manageable hours.

Horses and yard were kept immaculate. Tack cleaned daily. Horsewalker swept. Horses hot ragged daily etc.

 

[millitiger]

When I worked as a groom we had 4-5 horses each (GP/International dressage yard and then at an Olympic eventing yard).
At the dressage yard I rode 3 horses/day and at the eventing yard I rode anywhere from 4-8 horses/day but the days I rode more, the other girls would cover 'my' horses in the yard.

Last yard I was at (eventing) the girls had about 8-10 horses each and the standards weren't as high (tack not cleaned as often, horses had a quick flick as opposed to proper groom etc).

 

[Worried1]

That's great thank you everyone, my thought is 6 horses to 1 groom to maintain high standards.

 

[tls]

One yard i worked on i was the only groom with 12 horses in, the boss rode 1 or 2 a day and i had to ride a many as I could. As you can imagine this was not at all ideal. I was knackered and weighed about 6 stone.

 

[MillionDollar]

I would say 6 to 1 groom

 

[emmab13]

Six is a lovely number. I was once left with 18 hunters from November til Feb and I was about 6 stone, miserable and it very nearly finished me off! Thank god for the horsewalker, got a routine so half went on the walker and did ride and lead with the other half, so was just about doable.

If you want things done nicely, tack cleaned, ears trimmed, tails pulled, riding them all as much as they need, rather than riding them just enough so they won't kill you tomorrow, 1 to 6 is perfectly fine.

 

[foxy1]

I used to do 4 full time but that included working them, and turning out to a very high standard for hunting, at least once a week, often twice.

 

[Cheiro1]

I would say 6 is a good realistic number

When I was an event groom I once had 10 to do by myself and even without working anything it had me run off my feet,just mucking out/feeding/tacking up/untacking/tack cleaning etc, it wasn't fun!

 

[Countrychic]

I have 6 in and can manage to keep everything neat and trimmed and ride 3 a day. I'm outside from 8 until 5

 

[foxy1]

It's the riding that takes the time, I can't see how anyone could look after and ride 6 a day. If you have owners coming to ride, that would free up alot of your time.

 

[4faults]

I had 8 and I did everything myself except ride them, I turned out, mucked out, changed rugs, groomed, tacked up, skipped out, untacked and washed off, occasionally lunged a few, trimmed, clipped, pulled, cleaned tack, put them to bed and everything in between. I worked 8-5 6 days a week and had a part time groom for my days off and days away at shows. I loved it and never found it too much.

 

[Worried1]

Mr W does most of the riding, our current HG doesn't ride but there is the opportunity to ride/hack/lunge and even compete for the right person.

If someone was to bring their own horse would that be included in the 6 or on top of?

 

[TarrSteps]

Mr W does most of the riding, our current HG doesn't ride but there is the opportunity to ride/hack/lunge and even compete for the right person.

If someone was to bring their own horse would that be included in the 6 or on top of?

When I had horses wherever I was working, they were always extra, although the industry standards are a bit different in North America (for instance, wp's are not paid and sometimes pay for the privilege) so it would depend a bit on your set up. Perhaps leave that a bit flexible and discuss it in personal terms with promising applicants?

For straight looking after, not riding, I've worked places with 8/10 horses per groom. That's a lot to do but possible if the place is well organised and easy to run (short walks to turn out etc). If I've ridden everything I've looked after, 4-6 is about the most you can do well.

One way to figure it out is to assign realistic times to jobs then work out what you would expect someone to do in a day. You sound very organised and obviously you've had a good person for awhile, but I do find some yards neglect to factor in, say, a five minute walk to a paddock, or that there may be significant extra work on days clients come (one place, it was not unusual to miss lunch because someone came to ride, or to have a fully tacked up horse dumped in the aisle at feeding time). Also, remember to allow time for someone to get up to speed and to understand that they may not work exactly like your comfortable old employee.

I'm sure I'm teaching you to suck eggs but we found it very helpful to have someone come in to help mucking (we have services you can hire for this in Canada but otherwise it was often someone non-horsey needing a few hours) if we were busy, rather than hiring more grooming staff. The grooms did have to handle the horses for the mucker but we could usually organise that "their" stalls were empty while horses were out, working, otherwise engaged. I personally like mucking but it did give us more options for hiring when it didn't make up the bulk of the grooms' job.

 

[Jenni_]

I've had 8 on busy times, and tried to ride 3 a day minimum. I found it 'doable' but not to as high a standard as I'd like. I found when I got my mucking out syncd knew where they messed etc it ran like clockwork. Mind you I'm one of those queer people who likes mucking out and race against myself.

But I would definitely day 1 to 6 would have been PERFECT, and would have enabled me to just do everything to that slighty higher standard I would have liked, and allowed me a little time for more of the maintainence jobs.

 

[Littlelegs]

I'd say 6. But does depend too how much comp prep & turnout is needed. If you never have to clip, pull, trim, prep equipment for overnight comps etc then I'd say more. And definitely so if they don't have to do much riding or exercising. One yard I had a summer job on doing 6 & riding 2 was a task cos layout awful, gravel up to stable doors, loads of trees overhanging gravel yard, fields a 20min round trip, box kept down the lane so time consuming to prep for comps. Another yard I had 10, of which 6 regularly competed, other 4 just tacked up for owners. Kept all clipped, pulled etc & rode at least 6 a day too. However yard layout made it easier than the 6 at the other place.

 

[BBP]

In Canada I had 10 but someone else did all the kicking out so saved a lot of time. Event/sj job in NZ I had 10 as well but they all lived out and the girl I worked for was great at helping me. At competitions I had 6 but no help, which was fine. My other job as a trekking guide in NZ I had 30 horses, they lived out but it was still a bit much!

 

[MiaBella]

I would say 6-8 is the norm for most competition yards, thats assuming the groom is mostly doing grooms job and only basic exercise (lunging/hand walking/hacking), this number you can keep them trimmed and clipped, tack cleaned etc and keep standards high. More than that and its a struggle. Summer you can do more as less rugs to change, less clipping to be done etc!

 

[Tanta]

I worked as a groom at a top private point to point/hunter yard quite a long time ago (1980ish) - and we had 3 horses each to do. There were very high standards of turnout, we generally rode 2 per day - but with a lot of roadwork so it took a long time - and also had to do plaiting up for hunting, finishing off afterwards etc. And all the horses were strapped daily (the head lad wasn't happy unless he could hear you doing it!). And of course at the time, we didnt have a horsewalker, and even things like rugs were much more basic (jute rugs, cant remember having thematex). So we still worked pretty hard - couldnt have done more than 3-4 with that routine....

 

[MillbrookSong]

I do 5 on a racing yard. Some yards do as little as 3 per person in the big yards

 

[mitchellk]

I got an office job about 4 years ago but when I was a groom I did 6 show jumpers on my own, all stable duties, feeding, lunging, fitness and kept tidy. On show days I had help from yard owner to bath/plait etc and she lived on site so did late night hay. That was totally manageable and I also did my show horse who was at the same yard. The only time it was tricky was when having to get a part timer in to help do yard when at a big show or abroad mostly because they didn't sweep thoroughly or keep the heap tidy

I miss it....... ho hum!

 

[Worried1]

Great feedback thanks everyone. We have a routine which really works and means we all have a life! Except Mr W who is sent out to skip out and hay at 10pm

The yard has evolved and is bigger than we possibly anticipated in the early days, I dislike change we have been extremely lucky with our staff and its just I'm having a wobble as we lost our WP to Oz and now our HG to motherhood! I can't blame either of them on both counts

 

[scheherazade]

Great feedback thanks everyone. We have a routine which really works and means we all have a life! Except Mr W who is sent out to skip out and hay at 10pm

The yard has evolved and is bigger than we possibly anticipated in the early days, I dislike change we have been extremely lucky with our staff and its just I'm having a wobble as we lost our WP to Oz and now our HG to motherhood! I can't blame either of them on both counts

Motherhood I can understand, but AUSTRALIA?!?!?!

 

[Jenni_]

Don't worry, sounds like a great job and I think you'll have the pick of the best if you're recruiting.

Sounds like the type of job I'd be holding out for if I ever returned to horses. So many horsey jobs you're just expected to do too much.

 

[wench]

Don't worry, sounds like a great job and I think you'll have the pick of the best if you're recruiting.

Sounds like the type of job I'd be holding out for if I ever returned to horses. So many horsey jobs you're just expected to do too much.

Agree with this - some places you appear to get treated like a slave. I have done a few days working at stables (for a nice boss, not a slave driver), and I would be able to muck out and bed down about 14 large stables on straw, with a reasonable distance to walk to the muck heap. Put hay in hay bars (time saving!). No water to do as all automatic drinkers.

 

[Ahrena]

We used to have 27 all in work between two of us. That was MURDER. We rode 3/4 each a day and had to tack up/untack/do off the rest.

6 is v. manageable though not sure how you would ride 6?

 

[hobgoblin]

6:1!!!! I could only do three properly lol!

 

[TarrSteps]

I doubt if you're doing 6 you're riding them all exclusively/everyday. I've had a dozen young horses in work a few times in my life but each only, say, 4x/week, easier ones ridden by wp's, a longe day etc.

It depends on how you're set up. If you have someone primarily riding then that will take quite a few g horses out of the equitation.

 

[TarrSteps]

When I ran operations like that I was emotionally attached to my whiteboard, my wipe off calendar and my desk diary!