06/03/2025
If you think mucking out is just like shoveling, think again. 🐴
Picking stalls and grooming horses is highly skilled labor. If you think mucking out is just shoveling p**p into a cart and grooming is just brushing off dust before a ride, then congratulations: you’re either brand new or have completely checked out.
In any half-decent barn, stall cleaners and grooms are your first line of defense. They’re the ones who notice when a horse stops finishing its grain. They’re the ones who spot a spotless stall because the horse has been quietly colicking for hours while you sleep. We expect them to know what a tucked-up flank means, to see when a horse’s eye looks dull, and to flag a digital pulse or a leg that looked fine yesterday but suddenly doesn’t.
This kind of attention doesn’t just fall from the sky. It’s not some skill anyone can pick up overnight. It’s learned through years of experience and thousands of repetitions. It takes deep knowledge to know what “normal” looks like for each horse and enough care to act immediately when something feels off. They are literally the eyes and ears of your whole operation. If you want horses that stay sound, happy, and healthy, you need people who actually notice. That only happens when you support them and pay them fairly.
But nope, instead, they get treated like disposable robots. Expected to sacrifice weekends, holidays, family time, and health without a peep of complaint. Expected to carry your emergencies, your crazy schedules, your business goals while barely scraping by. They are humans, not machines. They stop caring when you treat them like they don’t matter.
Barn owners, yes, margins are tight. Overhead is brutal. Most of you aren’t swimming in cash. But it’s not your staff’s problem if you can’t manage your cash flow. You decided to run a business. That means paying legal wages, providing workers’ comp, and offering basic benefits to the people who keep your horses safe every day.
If you’re still calling full-time employees “independent contractors” to dodge taxes and benefits, you’re breaking the law. The IRS doesn’t care that “that’s what everyone does.” In Florida, that can cost you tens of thousands per misclassified worker. Back taxes, interest, personal liability. If someone gets hurt and you don’t have workers’ comp, you’re personally on the hook. You could lose the business. Lose the farm.
Yes, this might mean raising board fees. Welcome to running a responsible barn. If you don’t want to pay fair wages and benefits, do the damn work yourself. Too busy? Your time is “too valuable”? Then pay someone qualified properly and stop expecting your staff to cover for your bad business decisions. What costs more than fair pay? A colic surgery that could have been prevented. A big client walking away because their horse’s care fell through the cracks. A groom quitting mid-season and turning your whole program upside down. A reputation tanked because you treat your staff like disposable labor.
Would you expect your horse to keep working if their neck was sore, their legs were swollen, or they hadn’t had a real day off in weeks? Of course not. You’d call the vet. You’d adjust their workload. You’d obsess over every little sign of discomfort. But when your groom is running on four hours of sleep, and getting screamed at because someone’s supplement tub ran low, the expectation is to shut up and keep working. We treat animals with more compassion and basic decency than the human beings who care for them.
You say you want people who care? Then build a workplace where they can keep caring. Pay them a living wage. Give them time off, and God forbid, a weekend here and there. Respect their skill and their role in your horse’s health.
