Going rate for yard work/poo picking

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LynH

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I have just bought a house with land for my horses and planning permission to build a yard. Until we get the yard built my horses are living out with a field shelter. I can manage day to day care but need help with weekly poo picking and the occasional day to feed, hay, change rugs etc.
A 17yr old I know has offered to do the poo picking and I wondered what the going rate is for this by the hour. I want to pay enough so she will want to keep coming.
I'm guessing for the other horse care I would need to pay a higher rate as it would be short notice and would take less time. I have had offers from a few willing helpers but haven't yet asked what they charge.
It's years since I earned money for jobs like these so have no idea what rate to offer.
 
We pay a teenager to do our horses on Sunday mornings. She comes up from the village (half mile walk) and feeds. hays, mucks out and waters, sweeps yard and tidies the muck heap. We now have two horses, used to be three. We pay her £10. She also gets to ride one of the horses at shows/rallies if she wants. When our last girl got to 18 we upped it to £15. They are usually there for about 90 minutes.

We used to have a freelance groom who covered when I am away on trips (am cabin crew) and she charged £12/hr. She had her own insurance and was an AI and good rider that I trusted. She often went over the hour anyway.

I'd rather pay a little more and keep a good groom.
 
For a teenager who is helping out maybe £8-10 an hour, if it takes less than an hour to complete then to make it worth their while coming I would pay them for the hour.

We are paying an mature insured prof horse sitter £15-16ph
 
Watch out for minimum wage. And if you employ somoene 16 or under they also need permission from the LEA to take that employment.

If you also offre rides etc you might find you get more interest - but you will need to make sure you have sufficient insurance!
 
T's mum said:
I'd pay by the barrowload rather than the hour - you'd get a more productive employee that way ;)
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Although then you might get a Pizza Hut salad cart situation..... with you claiming they could have fitted another big squashy plop on top and them saying no its definitely full now and they shouldnt have to construct scaffolding of celery to support the superstructure :-DDD
 
I was thinking of paying by the hour rather than barrowfuls as our grass is really long and I struggle to push more than a half full barrow.
Offering rides is a good idea as I'm struggling to exercise one and leave the other one out alone. I've been trying to find someone to ride one of mine out with me. It'll be so much easier once we've built an arena and a yard.
The horses are insured for other riders and I have public liability insurance. I'll also get livery insurance as my friend will be keeping a pony here so I'll check that I'm covered for a helper.
 
lachlanandmarcus said:
Although then you might get a Pizza Hut salad cart situation..... with you claiming they could have fitted another big squashy plop on top and them saying no its definitely full now and they shouldnt have to construct scaffolding of celery to support the superstructure :-DDD
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hahaha, good point, well made:D

p.s. thanks for the celery tip, will remember that next time i head for the salad bar :cool:
 
can you not poo pick daily ?? doesnt take long
I do mine every day 20 mins roughly to dee poo 4 acres and 10 mins to do the other 1 acre

£ 8 per hour?? sheesh im in the wrong job .
 
I pay someone £10 a week to poo pick my two who are out in the day, in at night. She charges £10 an hour and it would be less as it doesn't take an hour but not worth her while coming for less than that. :)
 
Yard work wont be much above min wage, if a 'proper' job

I used to do a yard of 10 (muck out/turn out/haynets) on sunday mornings when I was a teenager (17ish) and get around £25.

When I was 14+ I used to do Saturdays at a livery for £5/hr and free rides. Must say I preferred free rides at that age :D
 
I have 1 hour of help on 2 days a week. My friend mucks out 2 stables, does hay and water and replenishes outside haylage feeders and depoos perimeter track. I pay her £15 for the 2 hours. I expect it takes less time sometimes and she keeps her own horses around the corner - so convenient for us both. She is very reliable and I will be happy to carry on with a similar arrangement all year.
 
Not sure about going rate, but just to cover yourself, ask if the person doing it is insured (BHS Gold or the like). Could save you in the long run if anything happens.
 
I would say that if you were willing to allow them to ride, or needed help exercising then most people would be willing to do yard duties for free. I'd jump at the chance to help out on a yard doing all yard duties in exchange for exercising the horses :)
 
i can only assume that salaries must be MUCH higher in the south - i work for a reasonably well know race yard -between 5 & 5 .5 hrs - £35 quid & thats on a sun & is a split shift - so two round trips - & as far as i am aware thats pretty much the industry standard - i would love to earn 10 quid an hr for poo picking:)
 
Well, I was just doing a business plan based on buying an industrial paddock cleaner and advertising going round and doing people's poo picking for them on a weekly/fprtnightly basis, but judging from the comments above it would take forever to get the investment back, let alone make a wage. I ws thinking of charging around £9 pr hour based on doing the job once, timing it and then charging per acre/paddock the next time.
 
4x4 said:
Well, I was just doing a business plan based on buying an industrial paddock cleaner and advertising going round and doing people's poo picking for them on a weekly/fprtnightly basis, but judging from the comments above it would take forever to get the investment back, let alone make a wage. I ws thinking of charging around £9 pr hour based on doing the job once, timing it and then charging per acre/paddock the next time.
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I am in SE Scotland-a local bloke bought a quad, roller type poo picker plus trailer and set himself up last year. He did our 12 acres (6 horses) every month or so last year and it cost us (2 owners) £30 between us and took him maybe 60-90mins. he's in demand at local livery yards and when I don't have the time I don't begrudge the money at all, my time is worth more than that. I obviously don't know his business details etc although I know he produces a small amount of haylage per year.

when I worked as a freelance groom I charged £10/hour for poo picking 5 years ago. I don't know how anyone self employed can work for less-that includes tax, NI, sick and 'holiday' pay, insurance etc.
 
I pay a teenager £15 a week to come and poo pick. The horses are normally in at night but sometimes they've been left out. She comes up once a week, it probably takes her around 2 hours, but it's about 7 double sized barrows as the 2 do a barrow a day.
 
Not sure what I'd charge to poo pick but I sometimes help my friend with her horses. It requires muck out, feed and haying, sometimes bringing in. It's 3 stables but 1 horse, 1 pony and 1 Shetland and I get £20. There's some diesel money included in that though.
 
It took 4 hrs to poo pick a week and a half of poo from 2x 16.2+ horses living out 24/7. That was 11 barrows of poo and they were pretty full barrows. I would be in hospital now if I'd done it (I've got lung and heart problems) so £30 seemed reasonable and she is happy to do it every week for £20.
Thanks for all the posts. It was good to get an idea of what to pay and I'm guessing I should pay a bit more per hour for freelance yard work once we get the stables built.
 
My 16 yo daughter was paid £10/time to poo pick 4 this weekend. She was very happy with that. It took no more than an hour.

I would work out how long it takes you to do it, and then set that as the "optimum time". Just the hourly rate to work out then. Sometimes its better to do it as a fixed price, rather than pay per hour.
 
I'm a freelance groom/rider and charge £15 first hour an £10 per hour after that. Or in other words £10 per hour and a £5 call out fee.

After insurance, tax, NI and fuel it's not worth it otherwise.
 
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