What is a 'Reasonable' amount of time...

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Rosehip

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.... to complete yard duties?
In this instance there are 8 horses on the yard, so; how long would you say was a 'reasonable' amount of time to complete the following :-

Breakfast x8 - Including one 'special' breakfast which has to be prepared
Rug change x7
Turnout x7 - fields approx 500/700yards from stables
Inside horse into spare stable
Muck out 8 boxes + new bedding
Waters x8
Feeds for PM x8
Haynets x16 (day and night nets)
Inside horse back to own stable, feet pick and rug change if ness
Spare stable swept out
Both yards swept

Im asking as there is a little tension between me and my boss at the moment...would be interesting to know what you guys thought.

Thanks x
 
It very much depends on variables like, bedding used, full muck out/deep litter/how many horses you can lead at once/how big the yards are etc but as a ballpark I would say 4 hours ish? Interested to see what others think.
 
2-3 hours depending on how messy stables are, and whether the horses play nicely or not.

It takes me (in the winter) 30-40 mins to feed 4, change rugs on 2-4 (depending on weather), clean 2 stables (straw) and put out hay in the field for the day time. It owuld also depend on how you are with the horses I think, if you are workmanlike, then quicker, but if you are like me and like talking to them and giving them a pat etc - then probs a bit longer!

But I am guessing if you are working with horses, you are likely more efficient than me! :)
 
Thats a mornings work....if that
15 mins to make up and dish out feeds
1/2 hour to change rugs and turn out
20 mins per stable if doing a full muckout (use hose and fill waters as you go)
15 mins to make up evening feeds
1/2 hour to do haynets (but why day nets if you are turning out?)
10 mins to sweep per yard.
4 hours tops. And thats probably allowing for a tea break too!
If you were starting at 8am, you would be done by 12pm
 
Used to work on a yard but many years ago, but now out of touch with length of time for doing so many horses-so don't bite my head off, this is a guess but about 3 hours?
 
erm i'd say 2-2 1/2 hours, the yard i used to work on we had 40 horses to do between two of us and we had to be finished by one, and that was feed(all were made up in the morning), rugs changed, turn out, full muck out on straw few on shavings add clean straw etc haynets for night which was 2 per horse and clean out all water drinkers then tidying the yard and we started at half eight to do 20 each roughly
 
Of course with horses there's always potential for unknown variables adding on extra time!! Don't leave us hanging though, how long does it take you, is YO being unreasonable wanting you to do it in an hour-if so that's crazy!!!?
 
At the moment I get to the yard at 7.30 so that I can have the horses fed and rugged (oh, most are booted too which adds time) for 8am which is the time I get paid from. I then put out the 7 that go out, on averrage this takes me 5 mins per horse depending on how good they are!!
Then I full muck the beds - they are a cushion bed/bedmax mix - and take about a barrow out of each unless they have had a party!
The nets are individually weighed into am and pm nets and the am nets are put in, the waterr buckets scrubbed and refilled and then the feed buckets scrubbed and teas made. Then I sweep the yards - we have a strip behind a U shaped yard, hard to explain - and tidy up the hay barn.
Generally I do this by 11, which is the time I get paid till...however if there are problems (the liveries asking for help, my boss coming to talk etc) It can take me an extra half hour, on top of the half hour early I came in.

I could have screamed and ripped my boss a new orriface this morning when she quibbled over 10 mins...Im not going to argue that I was on the yard at 7.30 not 7.40 as she reckoned - she doesnt bl**dy pay me anyway so what does it matter!
Just feel very un-appreciated at the moment!
 
quick Q- for the people saying it is a mornings work or 4 hours, how many grooms do you think pro yards have where you have 20+ horses in and have to work them all as well?
 
Generally there is a sort of % of less time per horses you do such as if you have 21+ horse's it takes you 30% less time than if you had just 1-10 horses. So it works out at less staff for more horses as you get into a routine.
I'd say all of this would take roughly 3-4 hours too including other factors. At college we roughly have to skip out 2-3 dirty horses, sweep bed, do extra job (muck heap etc), wash out metal feed bowls which use the whole slid in and put the pin through (very annoying!!), sweep our section and prepare bedding all in about an hour. Sometimes you have to also do some nets if not done. We've got up to about 50 minutes now doing all of this and you may end up helping others. But it depends on how quick you are/thorough as well doesn't seem reasonable for you to go up early and finish late. I'd suggest going at normal time and whatever isn't done tell your boss you'll have to be paid for, if not there are always other people looking for yard staff.
 
Why were they quibbling with you for what time you got there for when you don't officially start work till 8-sounds like they need a face punch!! Also is there no way you can negotiate extra pay in winter for the half hour extra you have to do?
 
amymay said:
So essentially, you're doing half an hour unpaid work a day??
Click to expand...

At the moment essentially yes...during the winter when there are more rugs to take off/put on and all the other variables winter throws at you, it can be an hour or more....
She moans at me if Im 'slow', and often says things like "I cant take on any more of the work and still keep a groom" - well sack me then and save me the trouble of telling you were to stick it!

I had some bedding off her the other day - paid for it today...she couldnt remember how much the cushion bed was, I said that last time I had some it was £4.40, so she returned with "no, Im sure it was £4.43" .....3 flaming pence.... jesus!!

She was quibbling about the 10 mins as I went into the tack room to wash my hands and asked if she wanted anything more doing (10.25am as I had had help to muck out so gone and taken waters over the fields) and she asked what time I got there - I said 7.30 as always, She said she was sure I wasnt that early, and that she knows that sometimes I get to the yard at 7.30 but sit in the car and have a fag before going round to feed - I never do this!!! Im just getting sick of being treated like this, even though she's not 'technically' treating me badly!!!

BayJosie - do you want my Job? My boss would love you!!

x
 
Well I do my own horses 4 off, feed, rug up, turn out, and muck out, and they are on shavings, takes me nearly 3 hours and I'm knackered afterwards.
When I bring them in afternoon, 1 1/2 hours, to feed up quick shimmy over with brush and rug up again and extra half hour to pick up droppings from paddocks. hopeing to gain extra time, now I've taken their winter rugs off, only Angel left but she's in her Boett rug + mask:cool::cool:
 
Oh the joys of being a groom. :( :( :( :(
I have every sympathy with you. I have been there many times. You do them a favour like starting early and doing unpaid work and they expect it all the time. I would look for another job. I left my last job after 5 1/2 years of being treated like SH** when the treatment was bordering on abuse!!!!! I'm to soft and will do anything for the horses inclu working on my day off and when i was ritten off sick with a broken hip and on crutches (un paid i might add) and everyone i work for seems to know this and take the pi**. But as long as there are people like us out there they will never change. (Although last i heard my last boss still didn't have a new groom a year after i left :p)
 
Cheers Laura..to be honest I really am thinking about leaving - Im the longest serving groom this person has ever had apparantly at 2 years (....this shows lack of ambition of course!) The horses are over rugged, over fed, fat as butter and have vile manners. I used to work with Shires and although I was lambasted if I wassnt doing things right, it was the best time ever! The horses were cared for as horses should be (IMO) had fantastic manners, and I wass treated like an equal to a man who has won every major Shire title there is...yet this woman I work for has trained a couple of nags to Grands Prix, worked for Ferdi Elsberg as a youngster and is now under the impression that she knows EVERYTHING and that no one else has ever worked as hard or done as much as she has.
Imagine you buy a lorry - she will have looked at it and then bought the newer model... grrrr!
Sorry to be ranting, Im just fed up!!!!
 
oh one of those are they. No wonder you are fed up. Yes i've worked for a few of those in the past. They think they are so much better than you as you are just a groom :mad: Even though they have to run to you for advise every minuet. I was a working pupil at a yard once and one of the liverys came back from a hack and there was something wrong with it. I told the owner it was tying up and not to make her walk. The yard manager came over (she was an AI) grabed the horse out my hand said it was colic and she needed to be walked. Luckly the owner listened to the lowley WP as i was right. This is deff a job you do for the love of the horses. LOL we could prob swap storys all night.
 
To be honest I am shocked at the times people are quoting! I can't see how anyone can work that hard (8 horses in 2 hours!!!), day in day out and not be totally knackered. It takes me 1.5 hours to do 3.5 horses (0.5 is a mini), and I don't change rugs, I don't put on boots and I have pellets in a litter bedding system. I pay my groom 3 hours to muck out 1 and ride one!

Your boss sounds like an utterly ungrateful woman! Find another job and quit!
 
We definately could!! Her new 'thing' is her £10k colt - nice enough but they think he's going to be the next Tolalis - not a chance - he moves like a dream now, but hes the sort thats going to get stuffy once ridden - especially like she does!
I 'only have a fell and a shp' so I know sweet fa.... hate it when Im regarded as lower than her!!
Had mentioned to a novice livery that his stress head neddy may benefit from a pro biotic as he was very runny...Boss pooh poohd this until a few weeks later she has a 'brainwave' and said he needed a pro biotic - his poo is now great and isnt SHE wonderful for having thought of it!!!!
I just want to be appreciated in a job, not asking much is it??
 
Booboos said:
To be honest I am shocked at the times people are quoting! I can't see how anyone can work that hard (8 horses in 2 hours!!!), day in day out and not be totally knackered. It takes me 1.5 hours to do 3.5 horses (0.5 is a mini), and I don't change rugs, I don't put on boots and I have pellets in a litter bedding system. I pay my groom 3 hours to muck out 1 and ride one!

Your boss sounds like an utterly ungrateful woman! Find another job and quit!
Click to expand...

Booboos I love you! Can I be your groom!!!! lol! xx
 
Rosehip said:
Booboos I love you! Can I be your groom!!!! lol! xx
Click to expand...

Ohhh me two BooBoos have you room for a small one. I'm not much trouble honest. :p


Appreciated :confused: whats that? :p
Do you smile and agree about the colt? Bet the sellers saw her coming.
The ones with ideas above there station are the worst. I hate it to when they look down at you because you don't have a posh horse. I always think "well pay me lots more and i'll buy a posh horse" One person i worked for let me ride there horse once and someone else saw and said i rode it better than my boss and i was never aloud to ride any of the horses again :( unless they where naughty then i was aloud to ride them but only if noone else was around.
 
Very sorry for your dilemnah Rosehip. I know just how unreasonable ' horsey' employers can be. They expect everybody to have a broom up their @rse while seeing to a ridulous amount of horses and then get puffed out themselves if they have to change a couple of rugs. One ex employer of mine used to walk around with ' The Boss' on the back of her tea shirt and her children's used to say ' The Boss's little angels'! Needless to say she has a real problem keeping staff.

My current job can get a bit like yours at times, but as I am a wise old bird now, I don't let it get to me and I just do what I can in the time alloted. Most of the time if I'm left alone to get on with things I'm quite happy.

Chin up. Try not to let things get you down and just speak up! You are not a robot and shouldn't be treated like one but if you are really not happy then move on to pastures new. Good luck x
 
I do that (8 horses) in 2 - 3 hours each and everyday, however, in winter it is a minutes walk to the field, and those that dont go in the field go on the walker whilst being mucked out, I also have automatic waterer's in all but 2 stables, and only one yard to sweep. Again the muckheap is less than a minutes walk, and only one yard to sweep which is an indoor barn, and outside to the muckheap which takes 15 minutes at most, so it all depends on how far you have to turn out, how far to the muckheap etc and none of ours go out with boots on.

I did have someone help me out through the worst of the winter, it took them 2 hours to do 3 horses so gave up with them, it was quicker to do it myself so can understand how frustrating it can be as an employer when staff dont get on and do (although they were the height of laziness).

Maybe try and sit down with your boss and ask her to work alongside you in the mornings to see if there is anyway you can speed up and get done in the time they allow, that way it will allow them to see how hard and fast you work. and just how unreasonable they are being.

I hope it works out for you, and if you start early you are entitled to be paid for every hour you are paid, there is such a thing as minimum wages these days, and you are entitled to it the minute you step into work till when you leave. There are a lot of good empoyers out there maybe start looking round for someone that appreciates how hard you work.
 
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