Paying for show preparation? Do/would you- how much?

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Horses24-7

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Hi

Doing some research- do you would you pay for your horse to be bathed/plaited/trimmed pulled etc etc and how much would you be willing to pay?

I'm talking hot horse shower/heat lamps for drying/ immaculately presented. Could be from basic bath and dry to full show prep with tack cleaning etc.

Also would you have your horse collected/dropped off for this service- or do most people who require this keep them on yards where this can be done on site?

Any thoughts greatly recieved!
 
I have in the past plaited horses up for people for showing and dressage but that was some time ago and cannot remember what I charged. That would be at local yards and I travelled to them. Similarly in the past I have paid someone to pull a horse's mane as they very good at it and could do it much better than I could. All of that was probably 15 years ago plus and these days I just manage with my own poor attempts!

I cannot see that people would want to drop horses off as realistically you would be looking at people who are struggling for time or possibly not very good at trimming and plaiting. I think though that most people probably do have someone on their yard that they could pay, be it a fellow livery or a yard where services are offered.

If you could get a core of people who needed the service regularly then it might work but I think it would be a reasonably limited market.
 
I did last year when we took Ponio to the RDS.
Girl did everything from Mane Pulling to bathing, bandaging legs, cleaned tack, plaited & ensured pony immaculately turned out on the day.
Took the stress out of it for me & will hopefully be using her again this year BUT only for high level show as otherwise too expensive.

For the forthcoming show season for the general county shows etc the Yard IM at offer the service as an add on.

It is quite a limited market BUT if your rates are good & you develop a good reputation word of mouth is the best way to get new clients.
 
I think you could sell it to the right market but would caution against picking up and dropping off. First, I would never advise taking that risk, to either horse or box owner, and second, the insurance implications if anything did go wrong make me break out in a cold sweat! :)
 
Yes I would think there is a market for it. When I was off out eventing I probably looked like a scruff bag on an unbathed, badly plaited horse. I found the day before the event was stressful enough when having to pack everything up in 4x4, walk the course, and exercise my horse, and then probably go to work in the evening

If there was someone to have bathed plaited etc, if reasonable price, I would have used the service.
 
I wouldn't pay for it, but there is a market for clipping and trimming.

Though I seem to do it for my friends for free!

Not convinced there is a market for dropping off at your premises to be bathed etc. What about a mobile hot shower, I expect most people would want you to travel to them.
 
I think you would have to be mobile. If you bought one of those mobile shower things and some portable heat lamps then it might be of interest. You need to bear in mind your market will be people lacking time, skills or facilities. Might be worth offering to clean tack too.
 
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