Honest feedback wanted - would you pay for

would you like this service and what is a reasonable price?

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Arcadia

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someone to come and poo pick your field, either regularly or occassionally. With a paddock cleaner/manure hoover towed by a small quad or similar.I would like to start this up as a service as I know how precious time is when you own a horse, especially during winter when the hours of daylight are short and you would rather be riding! However I really cant say I know how much to charge as I would need to cover transport and fuel costs but still want to give an affordable service.I'm also experienced with horses so could check on them in the field each time I visit as a standard part of my service.

So would you like a service like this?
and how much would you pay (per horse/field etc)?
and how often?

Also,would your horse be spooked by it?

Thanks for your input! :)
 
Not sure how financially viable it would be, YO used to charge £5 per acre per time, but that was on site, you would have to factor in travel too, and I certainly wouldn't pay more than five pounds to have someone poo pick a field, my 2 acre paddock only takes me about half an hr a week. So probably not a viable money spinner
 
thanks for the honest advice :) I was planning to get a few horse owners at the same yard/livery to pitch in so I could make it cheaper for everyone but worth my while as I wouldnt be doing extra travelling.
 
Prefer mine to be done by hand.
I have a mix of soils - sand, 'normal' and clay.
The sandy paddocks can be quite robust in winter/wet, tho also fragile when hard grazed & ground is dry.
I'd hate to book someone to come in on a Weds for example & then find that they got stuck in a paddock that is half clay as it had rained overnight (happened to mate next dor).

So, sorry, not an option for me to want a machine in tho I expect some would who have big concerns :)
 
I think is sounds like a good idea, I would love someone to come and do it in my fields.

Yes, my horse would spook massively and then be a complete pain in the backside if you were trying to do it with her in the field. She wouldn't leave you alone! Not to mention her companion pony trying to escape as soon as you opened the gate! Would have to be done when they were not around.
 
In all honesty no i wouldn't - used to be at a yard where they did this and to be honest it took so much time fiddling about its actually quicker to do it by hand plus as bad as it sounds one of my horses was eating a weird berry that he had found in the hedge i'd never seen and i only spotted it as i was poo picking and i dont think it would have been picked up by someone else with a machine - turned out to be harmless but still.
 
I voted no - not interested ... actually enjoy poo-picking, especially on a nice warm day .... helps all the stresses from work evaporate
 
I prefer poo picking done manually, however, when on a 13 acre field previously where no one poo picked, I would have used a service like yours.

However, it would depend on everyone agreeing to pay which was probably unlikely. No idea about cost, but if done manually, the price has been £1/ per horse/per day. This would have potentially totalled £70 a week for the herd.

However, we did use to pay a farmer to put out 2/3 round bales of hay a week with his tractor. With travelling from 5 miles away, the cost was £24 per week.

Horses wouldn't have bothered about a quad, they were used to tractors delivering hay in the field and harrowing.
 
There is a guy at my yard who poo picks by hand charging £5 per horse per week. He just does it for a bit of cash and it's a big yard so think he's kept quite busy, but I can't imagine actually making a living from it.
 
Our yard manager pays £25 for 2-3 hours poo picking, to clear the fields daily by hand. I think she would pay the same to whoever does it, however they do it, as long as they were reliable. Don't think the horses would mind the quad. She would not tolerate the fields being damaged by a quad in wet weather though.
 
I said no as I chain harrow mine rather than poo pick. I also wouldn't want someone out in my fields with my horses if I wasn't there, in case there was an accident. And if I was there, I might as well do it myself!

Now, someone with a tractor who could top the fields for me... :)
 
Unfortunately I am not sure this would work:
- you would need to charge quite a bit to cover fuel, depreciation costs on the machinery and your time
- you would be really limited by the weather
- I imagine you would also need some kind of public liability insurance which would further add to the costs.
 
Yes we already pay someone to poo pick, we pay £2.50 p/w per horse, yard has 25 horses. Ours are done manually.
 
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There has been some recent veterinary research done on poo picking with a motor powered hoover.

It has been suggested that the risk of Atypical Myopathy increases when a machine is used.
 
So would you like a service like this? I voted No, due to ponies being in a small paddock so it takes 10 minutes to manually poo-pick. IF however, they were in a large field, then yes I would.
and how much would you pay (per horse/field etc)? I'd prefer by field rather than horse. I wouldn't pay more than £10 per hour.
and how often? Once a week

Also,would your horse be spooked by it?They may be a little concerned at first, but it wouldn't take them long to be nosy and follow it
 
I have two large hairy beasts and take a large barrow off the field a day. Whilst I don't mind doing it, I would like to have more time to ride etc and would pay £5 for someone to come up, poo pick, give them a made up feed and spray their necks and bellies (rest is covered by body suit) of my horses in the mornings - about 20 - 30 mins work or 15 mins if you are fast.
 
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