What is with people.....

A good freelance groom is £10 and hour round here.

Not aimed at anyone in particular but I think whilst people are willing to accept being paid peanuts for working with horses some employers will continue to expect to pay peanuts. And then complain when the groom doesnt work out. It really annoys me and i am not meaning the OP btw! Just generally!

I can understand why Skewbald was irritated by the comment about "it's working with horses...get real" Why should working with horses command a lesser salary than working in Tescos?

Why? Because the horse world has always exploited its workforce and got away with it.

As KVS said, if the conditions are good and/or the pay is good you will get and keep a good groom.

Pay peanuts and you get monkeys. Or pay peanuts and the good ones go elsewhere.
 
As I was a groom / riding instructor/ Equine veterinary nurse in what seems like a previous life i am afraid I need to agree with the skewbald on this one.
Get real.... grooms need to eat too :-)
 
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young ones lol

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What is that supposed to mean?
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Can I just add to this in the spirit of trying to help, NOT being rude - you say you want a groom, but then you are totally diminishing the role, and you say you 'just want someone to shovel poop' - so actually, you don't want a groom at all. And I would suggest that you are putting grooms' backs up. After all, no-one actually sees themselves as the plankton in someone else's food chain.

What you really want is perhaps a yard worker, or - I can't actually remember what his job title was, but a yard I once worked on employed a chap to do just that.

Maybe you're just advertising the wrong job?
 
I agree Yorkshire Post or maybe try one of the agri colleges like Bishop Burton (depending on where you are in Yorkshire). Or what about an employment agency or the job centre? It sounds like pure manual work if its just mucking out - doesn't need a groom or horsey knowledges surely? There are probably lots of immigrants that would be happy for the low paid work (I am not being racist - just realistic!).

Otherwise, taking into account tax, no-one that has horse knowledge wants to just come and muck out for a couple of pounds.
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As I was a groom / riding instructor/ Equine veterinary nurse in what seems like a previous life i am afraid I need to agree with the skewbald on this one.
Get real.... grooms need to eat too :-)

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I agree that grooms need to eat too. WE ARE PAYING ABOVE MINIMUM WAGE, which is there for a reason. Would you all have the same opinion if I was advertising for a job at Tesco??

Some jobs pay better than others, its life. I love my job but for what I do it doesnt pay well. Its my choice to stay there, I dont moan that I dont get paid enough, If I dont like it I will leave.

We will be paying someone, above minimum wage, to muck out and do haynets only. Anything else they do is their choice. They have no responsibility and can come and go as they want. They will not be getting paid £10 ph as IMO this is too much money for what they are doing.
 
Sorry, but I still think your attitude towards grooms is not the best... and great, you are paying above the minimum wage... but the minimum wage is the absolute minimum to pay. I am afraid if you are only offering a couple of hours work at best, then you will probably need to pay more , than say you would pay someone if they were working a full week....and by the way, I agree with Skewbald that you should perhaps be looking for a yard worker, rather than a groom... however, in my opinion.. if it is only max 2 hours a day (with only 5 boxes and some haynets ) then you will need to pay a decent amount to make it worth someones while to come out... would be a bit different if it was 4-5 hours a day every day, or full time.
 
Maybe we are advertising the wrong job, I agree with that.

People seem to be making assumptions. Yes we do want someone to shovel poop and the pay reflects this. They will be paid above minimum wage for a set number of hours, if they finish early they can go home and still get paid. They can ride if they want to and how much they do is up to them so long as the basics are done.
It is not my yard, I just keep my horses there.

I would love to work with horses but I have yet to find an employer that pays enough for me to live like I do now.

This is just my opinion but I just think people expect too much. It isnt a posh proffesional yard, it is a small yard with 5 horses.
 
gosh io think i need to complain we did are Yo horse for three moths and she has also been away 3 weekends friday to monday and we aint been payed a penny or even it offered off are livery. I think i should charge £6ph as doing three horses. and monsters at that.
I think grooms deseerve good pay...
 
People are realising that gone are the days that you can pay grooms peanuts, even though it still unfortunately happens. Offering average pay will attract younger people, wanting pocket money.
Hardworking, skilled, knowledgeable, reliable people with bills to pay will expect decent pay. Everyone has a high cost of living these days, people will want to earn enough to cover it, should not have to think 'get real its horses'.
 
Well also in Yorkshire I know a grooms position going that includes a very nice company car as well as good pay. And fab horses to ride and they will pay for lessons with a top trainer. That is the type of grooms job good grooms will go for.

As I said before. Contact an employment agency that supplies manual workers. You will probably get a nice Polish bloke that will work for next to nothing, and probably fix your plumbing while he is at it.
 
im looking for a good part time job to fit around my little boy but to be honest the money would not be worth me coming to you. maybe go for a old retired person who wants to keep fit and loves horses or youll struggle unless its someone who hasnt a clue
 
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I would love to work with horses but I have yet to find an employer that pays enough for me to live like I do now.

This is just my opinion but I just think people expect too much. It isnt a posh proffesional yard, it is a small yard with 5 horses.

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am I the only one having a slightly surreal moment, here?!
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I actually totally agree with the_skewbald and everything she has said. The groom that asked you for £10 per hour is quite right too, the thing with free lance grooms is, to go to a yard to do somthing that only takes 2-3 hours is not worth driving there for minimum wage, its got to be worth their while going. And I dont think £30 for a mornings work is bad at all, my mums decorator is £120 per day! (8-5). And with free lance grooms the phrase "you get what you pay for" is oh so true. I actually do house sitting for a living I charge £35 per day and that is inclusive of everything and Iam at the clients property 24/7 if i go any where its only to nip to the supermarket, I had a lady ring me a while back asking me to do a sit with cows, sheep, dogs,chickens, cats etc I quoted £35 per day, she very snottyley told me I was too expensive (never been told that before) she proceeded to tell me she could get it done for half the price, so I told to carry on! I later found out the person she got to do it was hardly there and place left in a tip and some of the animals not fed. So there you go prime example of you get what you pay for.
 
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Are we being unreasonable in what we are asking?

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Yes, you are being unreasonable in what you are asking (or you would have found a groom by now).
Let's analyse the job - you want someone to do 'a few hours a day', a few days a week - so if you are paying £6 per hour, and they work 2hrs, 4 days a week, they would earn £48. From this they would have to pay travel.
Assuming they live just 5 miles away, that's a 10 mile return journey at 35p a mile, so £3.50 x 4 = £14 taken off, not to mention their wasted time sitting in a car.
On top of that, you didn't like the unskilled girl handling your horses, but didn't want to pay the two experienced candidates for their skills either - saying 'Yeah right, get real, its horses.'
And the fact you think grooming is comparable to working at Tescos shows that you have never done the job...grooming is physically tiring, far riskier, and requires the employee to be out in all weathers. I may be wrong, but I would suspect that your YO wasn't planning to provide equipment (hats, boots) or wet weather gear either.
My final point is to ask how much you are paid per hour - I'll bet it's more than the groom's job offers...
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I would love to work with horses but I have yet to find an employer that pays enough for me to live like I do now.


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Ha ha ha!
You are my new favourite poster! Class!
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If it was at a yard i was keeping my horse at, then i'd do it as favours. I dont see as anyone would see it as worth it really.
I
think the attitude of "its horses", to me, really stinks. I work in retail, and people look down on me for it. Because they think its not a "worthy job". I'd like to think for my age i get paid pretty well, i work hard and do my best.

And in general (not specifically at OP) i find it amazing that people who pay out for their horse, competing expenses and various tack and equipment, dont seem to appreciate that the people they employ have things to pay for too. Thankfully from what i've just read, this seems to be changing.

Good grooms are worth their money surely. After all they are looking after something very important to its owner!
 
I'm with the_skewbald on this if you want decent people you have to pay decent money.

It is the same with any job. The only reason I don't work with horses is because many people feel that they should pay less than other professions. That is wrong.
 
First point - YO wants, he is the one thats paying, not me. I just happen to agree with him.

The unskilled girl - no I didnt like her handling my horse, there were other reasons behind it. Her having no common sense is one of them and I will not go into the other on here.

I have been a groom and worked bloody hard, got paid peanuts and loved it. I then went to work at asda, got paid more and also worked bloody hard. Now I get paid twice as much doing a job that I love so that I can have two horses on full livery which I would not be able to do if I was still a groom. Yes it is more than the grooms job but for what I do I would expect it to be.

OK I will admit that groom probably isnt the right word
 
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I would love to work with horses but I have yet to find an employer that pays enough for me to live like I do now.


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Ha ha ha!
You are my new favourite poster! Class!
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Why is that so funny?
 
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