11/28/2023
It’s not just a hard year. It’s not just because hay prices are high this year. It’s not just because it’s difficult to find staff at the moment. It’s not just because we need a change in government. The horse industry is on a downwards spiral in terms of sustainability and it is unlikely going to be recoverable.
One of the biggest immediate contributors to this is the labour market. Nobody wants to muck stalls. Barn rats don’t exist anymore the kids who ride turn up in their $$$ riding outfits looking like Smartpak models with perfect hair and manicured nails. No, college kids don’t want to muck stalls either. Even if you do find someone willing to show up, they are unreliable. Or incompetent. Or they just don't care.
Owning and operating a boarding barn is one of the most labour intensive businesses out there and we don’t have the labour force anymore. Barn owners cannot sustain an unreliable labour force as long as other business owners can because we cannot simply close the doors on days when we don’t have staff. There are next to no daily tasks that ‘can wait until tomorrow.’ The reason for the type of labour market we are seeing now isn’t Covid and it isn’t the government. It is societal. It isn’t going to get better, it’s going to get worse. Nobody wants to do hard outside labour when they can earn more money exercising their fingers inside.
It's not even just the daily chores. It's the bigger jobs too. Horse barns constantly need repairs and construction and the construction industry isn't up for helping us with "small" jobs anymore. Even the notoriously "cheap" labour is no longer cheap. I just got a quote for $35,000 to build a 1000ft fence. I can't not build the fence. I also can't pay $35,000 to have the fence built. So we have to try and do it on house with our already unreliable and scant labour.
The second biggest threat to the equine industry as I see it is a result of the first. That is, agriculture as we know it is dying too. Farmers cannot get laborers either. Hay farmers in particular are up against it and if you look around at your local hay farmers, they are beginning to look like a dying breed. Nobody wants to be a hay farmer. High workload for low returns. A high production hay baler will cost between $500,000 and a million. Baling is stressful. Something always breaks. You are fighting the weather. And above all else, farmers can’t get the reliable help they need. Their kids are not interested in following suit, because they went to college and they can get a lower stress job which will earn them more money. Personally I don't know a hay farmer under the age of 60. This really worries me. Who is going to be baling around here in 10 years time? Soon enough, the big tech firms will be the “farmers” and large “farms” will be AI operated. Unlikely anyone is going to but much money and focus into baling hay for horses.
The third biggest threat is the actual horse industry. The shift in focus from horsemanship to competitionmanship. Kids are not taught to ride horses they are taught how to win competitions. Even ammys are buying and riding $100,000+ horses to take to a 2’6” hunter class or starter level eventing. It means that competing horses is no longer about riding skill. It’s about money. The rider with the most money to spend wins. This makes the sport not really a sport anymore. It is a Beauty pagent for the super rich. It is unattainable for most and is pricing most out.
Twenty years ago, owning and operating a riding school was viable. A lesson horse could earn you money. Today, it is not viable. A lesson horse costs more to keep than it can possibly earn. Riding schools are not viable businesses. This means only wealthy kids can ride because to be able to ride you have to own a horse and due to increasing costs of keeping horses only the rich can own them. It used to be the case that a low-income family kid could muck stalls at the local riding school to earn a weekly lesson. And if they worked hard at their riding skills, they could earn their way as an exercise rider because riding skills and horsemanship were valued. This is no longer possible. Only winning competitions is valued and low-income family kids can’t afford to enter competitions. There is no way to “skill” your way up the ladder now as I was able to do when I was that low-income family kid thirty years ago. For this reason, we as an industry are not becoming better riders. In fact, we are becoming worse riders. I see kids that have never ridden outside of an arena being thought of as good riders because they can point a $200,000 pony at a fence.
And lastly, as a result of the point above, we are ruining our horses. Horses are not allowed to be horses. They have to be show machines. They don’t get enough turnout, they don’t get enough hacking, they don’t get enough socialization. They are being kept in million dollar show barns with no expense spared and yet their basic needs are not being met. They are developing increasing physical and mental aliments because their needs as horses are not being met.
As depressing as all that sounds, the point of this is not to make you throw your hands up and throw in the towel. The point of this is to ask the question, is it too late? Or can we turn this around?
