# Stall cleaning, night feeding, maint.



## kenda (Oct 10, 2008)

So you are working 7 days a week?

Based on 7 days a week and averaging 5 hours per day, you are being paid $4.28 per hour, just over half of your state's minimum wage.

If I'm mistaken and you are working 5 days a week and being paid on Saturday, based on 5 hours a day, you are making $6.00 per hour, still well under your state's minimum wage.

Sounds like you are being taken advantage of. Are you getting anything else for your work? Board or a discount on board, lessons, riding hours?


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## churumbeque (Dec 20, 2009)

or are you just doing this on Saturdays? I was confused. 10.00 an hour would be the going rate for barn work


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## kenda (Oct 10, 2008)

I assumed the OP was not working just one day per week as that would mean that even at the 8 hour work length, he'd be making over $18 per hour, and if he was only taking 5 hours, he'd be making $30 per hour. However, the question is unclear, so I could be wrong on that.


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## Dreamcatcher Arabians (Nov 14, 2010)

I would not clean 34 stalls, in any state, for $150/week. Nevermind all the other stuff. Not without some serious quid pro quo.


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## horselovinguy (Oct 1, 2013)

If you just cleaned stalls, nothing else and were paid $1.00 per stall you would make $34 a day x 5 days = $170.00 per week minimum.
Now add in feeding of 100 horses, doing maintenance work and general clean-up...

You are working your butt off...
Do you have any "perks"...free board for your horse, health benefits for you paid in full, a vehicle to drive whenever and wherever you want all the time, housing?

If not...I would call this slave labor, period.
You, if nothing else is added for salary compensation are working for peanuts, well below minimum wage,...doing the work of at least 2 if not 3 people.

Your employers are taking unfair gross advantage of you. 
As long as you allow it, they certainly will not offer a higher salary nor to lighten your load...think the $$ savings in their pocket by you doing the work of 3 for a pittance of a salary.

I don't care where you live or work...the number of hours required to fulfill your job for the salary you make is ridiculous.

Your employers either need to get real with a salary to compensate your work load, severely lighten your work load or you need to go find a job in Wally World where you _not_ kill yourself and are treated as a human.
We have moved past the time of indentured servants and slavery...time for those employers to get in the current century and treat you fairly...
It is also time for you to stick up for yourself...you are your own advocate. If you don't speak up you will continue on the path you are on...

_jmo..._


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## EponaLynn (Jul 16, 2013)

Hard labor in rural AZ usually pays about $8.50 an hour - that's why I'm self employed :shock:.

if they are paying you for 5 hours per day, that's $42.50 per day so I hope you're not working more than 3 days.


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## Dreamcatcher Arabians (Nov 14, 2010)

When I have paid for help beyond just cleaning stalls, I have paid $8-9/hr. I also fed the barn help lunch, unlimited drinks (soda, tea, water) and made sure they took breaks. 

When I paid strictly for stall cleaning, I paid $ 0.50/stall EACH time the stall was cleaned, and I had them checking and cleaning on a 15-20 minute schedule at a show barn. They used manure forks and a tractor with a big scoop. 2 guys went into the stall, sifted the shavings and took out wet spot and solids, 1 guy drove the tractor up and down the aisle for the morning clean. After the big morning clean, they used a quad with a trailer and they'd go in and pick as needed. Each stall got looked at 3X/hr and usually picked twice. We had 15 guys who did nothing but keep the stalls immaculate and 5 others who did nothing but water and feed. There were construction projects to do too but they got paid separately if they helped with those, otherwise we had ranch hands who did repair work and put up new shelters, barns, fences and so on. And this was back in the 60's & 70's and I don't think a single person on the place brought home as little as $150/week.


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## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

If you took on this job as salary position - eg - Clean stalls, pastures and feed daily for $150 per week, find another job. If this is an hourly position, take them to the labor board and get properly compensated. By the way, doing the latter will probably get you fired, but for that rate of pay, you could spend the same amount of time picking up empties from the ditches and make more money.


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## RanchHand (Apr 22, 2014)

Stalls are cleaned 6 days a week and I feed nights 7 days a week. I'm the only one to clean the stalls with a wheel barrel and a landscaping rake and poop scoop. The owner believes that this is what the job is worth and that's it. Am I wrong for thinking that it's kinda a cap deal. Plus I'm paid under the table. My manager at the ranch takes care of me as best she can if and when she can. It's just that they honestly believe that the job of just cleaning alone of all those stalls 6 days a week is only valued at 150 a week and I'm trying to get a good amass of others saying otherwise. Especially this summer when temps in the day will reach over 110 and at night be around 90 or higher.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## horselovinguy (Oct 1, 2013)

Know what RanchHand.... let those that think you are only worth that amount clean their stalls for a week.

Take a vacation, while on vacation look for a new job.

Six days a week, the workload you speak of has got to be more than 48 hours of manual labor a week....even on straight pay...you are being compensated $3.13 a hour...
I really hope you are just kidding all of us...$25 a day no matter how many hours of work time you put in...

Even in cash... if paid on the books you would be making a whopping $225 a week at most... so for 48 hours straight pay... $4.69 a hour...
_
No matter what way you look at this you are being taken advantage of...making nearly 1/2 legal federal minimum wage per hour!_

Seriously, find a new job and leave this place. 
A minimum wage job will pay you legally what you now make in cash and no company is going to legally work you this hard for this $$...no one will work for it and you should NOT either!
In fact if you work legal and make $6.00 a hour over a 8 hour day job...you make $48 = near double your current pay...and you have social security which allows you to collect it when you retire at some point in your life, more importantly... if you were to get injured and not be able to work again...you could collect financial help...right now you have "0", zip and nada, nothing. Your gracious employer is reaping $$$$$ of savings and you are allowing it... 
Forget it and get out!!

Then enjoy the fact you won't be so exhausted anymore either.


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## Corporal (Jul 29, 2010)

You are overworked. I have considered in the future, paying for someone to care for my 3 horses while on vacation. Youngest DD finishes Law School and will be moving out. She has cared for my horses while I've been gone for a week-10 days. I didn't ask her to do YOUR job, but I've thought $50/day was fair for feeding and a minimum of spot cleaning. At that rate you would be making $300.00/week.
They can find someone else and you can find a real job.


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## RanchHand (Apr 22, 2014)

Well I'm quite serious about this pay and about how the owner of the ranch only thinks it's worth this much. The manager alone makes 1000+ a month and all she does is turnouts and morning feeds. I know this sucks but until I find something better atm it's all there is tbh. I love horses and I like the job and I like hard honest work. But sometimes they tell me stuff or complain it isn't gettin done fast enough or like if I'm exhausted from 4 days straight I'll slack the next 2 days and I'll end up taking grief over it. They promise on there advertisement that stalls will be cleaned 6 days a week and even when I took a vacation for 10 days I was getting complaints from boarders in text that the stalls weren't being cleaned and that the help that was doing it for mw wasn't raking out the stalls they were just spot cleaning here and there. So when I got back they were very happy to see me. Also I have alot of the boarders support and trust when it comes to there horses and most of them only allow me to feed and nobody else except the manager. I just don't know how to make the owner realise this isn't just some bull**** job and that it's actually something that requires a lot of work and effort as well as pride in making sure the stalls are fully raked out and properly clean and not half assed.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## horselovinguy (Oct 1, 2013)

Do you realize that you can take any job doing any kind of work at minimum wage and make near double what you do?
Do you realize if you dropped dead tomorrow things would still get done?
Do you realize it will take a bomb going off to shake-up your current employer to lighten your load and increase your pay?

Do you realize you came on this forum for advice and clarification and all of the multiple posters suggestions and words responding to your cry of "is this the right pay" you have made an excuse for, or so it seems to me.
You need to either make a decision to stop taking the treatment and salary and do something about your current job situation or put up with it, being abused and unappreciated...

There _*are*_ jobs out there, near everywhere at minimum wage.
Most today refuse to accept that price per hour and many don't have a good work ethic or know how to do a honest hard day of labor...
I think by your description you have all of those things well covered...
What you don't have is the confidence to go out and search for a better job. 

Do go search...put out feelers if you want to stay in the horse industry to places and see if they are hiring. It can either shake up where you do work that you are actively searching and they better not let their whipping boy get away or it will force your hand by being let go to hit the bricks and find a better place to hang your hat...
Either way I see it as a win-win for you.
Better pay, better work conditions and realistic work load....not much to think about in my mind. I would of already made some inquiries!!

BTW...
 Do you know you can flip burgers at McDonald's or Burger King and bring home way more than you do and you sure aren't killing yourself for it nor working those kind of hours for it...and they feed you too!! :shock:

Bottom line is unless anything hits the owner in the $$ pocket,_ they don't care! _
They are raking in the cash and taking advantage of you while doing it. 
No one but you can stop that...the first step is to tell them...less work, more pay. 
Stick up for you, advocate for you. Stop being their victim.
Start calling around to nearby farms and ask if they are hiring...tell them where you currently work. You think those in the area don't know how they treat and work their employees... that alone should open doors of opportunity for you...
When you change positions and you will...you're already sick of it to put it on a public forum...make sure you negotiate a realistic salary, work condition, vacation, time off...all the things a real job offers because what you do is a real job!! Make a salary you can live on...
I really hope you have the gumption to do better_ for you_...no one should be a whipping boy ..or taken such advantage of.

_jmo..

I won't make any more comment... I encouraged and said the truth and you know that...
No one can fix the problem but you...and till you are willing to stand up for you...
:-( just sad for you to allow others to treat you as such!
_


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## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

Seriously, look for another job. Anything, it will pay more. You are being paid slave wages and being worked like a dog and not appreciated. I love horses, but not that much!


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## stevenson (Sep 12, 2011)

look for a diff job. you sound like a hard worker. I paid more than that when I boarded to a kid who wanted to make extra money . 
ask to have the 'boarders' pay you directly for the stall cleaning. 
I would find a different job. let the manager deal with the night feeding. 
are you getting room and board also ? fed ? water or other beverages free of cost ? if not.. move on down the road..


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## Saddlebag (Jan 17, 2011)

I could never figure out why people who love horses are willing to be barn slaves. If you are being paid under the table, that means they can cheat you on wages and there's nothing you can do. You are playing into their hands and in their eyes you are a sucker. How does that feel?


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## Strawberry4Me (Sep 13, 2012)

When I was a barn manager, we paid someone to do stalls. We told them on day one that they should average 7 minutes per stall. In the main barn there was 16 stalls, and generally, that is all the stall boy/girl would be expected to clean. (We had working students that would clean the stalls in the other barn, and the run-ins.) So we paid them $10 per hour, but for only 2 hours. It shouldn't take them longer than that- and if it did, that was fine. They could take all day, but they were getting paid for the amount of time it SHOULD take, which is 2 hours. 

That being said- If it were my barn, I would pay you $10 a hour for 30 stalls, which shouldn't take you more than 7 minutes a stall- So you should be able to clean them in 4 hours (that is being generous.) At that rate, you would make $40 a day, and $240 a week. Just for stalls. That doesn't include night check. 

If you are responsible for doing night check, can I assume that you are living there? Usually the only people responsible for night check are people living on the property- are you working off part of your rent? 

if not, you are not being paid fairly.


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