Why accommodation is needed close by on equine farms.

At Aruva, we’ve had the pleasure of providing top quality accommodation units for a number of different equine farms and horse studs over the years. 

So we thought we’d highlight some reasons why it’s important for equine farms to have accommodation onsite for various staff such as stable hands, grooms and trainers.

When horse studs provide onsite accommodation for their staff, it means that there’s always someone available to tend to the horses, especially around foaling time.

On top of that, the accommodation needs to be top quality to attract the right calibre of staff who are trained and fully experienced within the industry to take care of your most valuable assets.

Horses need 24/7 supervision.

As a stud owner, you’d be fully aware that horses, especially thoroughbreds, need supervision around the clock. After all each one of your horses is a highly valuable investment that you want to protect at all costs. But horses are unpredictable and unlike any material-type investments that you might have. This means that they need extra special care around the clock to ensure their safety and well-being.

As you would know, horses are flight animals by nature, and it doesn’t take all that much to spook them. This means that if they do decide to take flight, they might cause themselves serious injury, or any injury for that matter. When this happens, it means expensive vet bills and around the clock monitoring to keep the animal safe and calm during recovery.

This can be difficult if your stable hands are staying in accommodation in town which might be a fair distance from your stud. Not only will your staff have to get to the stud quickly in the event of an emergency but if they’re needed in the middle of the night, there’s the danger of them not arriving safely.

It would be more prudent to have your stable hands staying right on the farm so that action can be taken quickly whenever needed. For example, if there’s a storm brewing with lots of thunder and lightning, it’s probably a good idea for your stable hands to check on the horses several times during the night.

The need for constant supervision of the horses becomes even more crucial during foaling season because it can come down to a matter of minutes as to whether a foal is safely delivered or not. This is another time when it would be so much more advisable to have your staff onsite 24/7 to check on the pregnant mares and monitor their condition around the clock.

After all, that foal that’s about to be born could potentially be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars when it grows up so you certainly wouldn’t want to jeopardise its emergence into the world.

A case study put out by the NSW Department of Primary Industries in 2013 titled ‘Upper Hunter Region Equine Profile’ states that around “60% of employees are accommodated on site”.

Research shows that not all equine farms have onsite accommodation.

To see whether this was the case, we did a little research into job vacancies on the racingjobs.com.au website. What we found was that not many of properties in NSW actually offered onsite accommodation for the staff they were looking to employ.

We did find one position vacant for a stable hand that offered above award wages and other benefits as well as onsite accommodation for a reduced rate of $63 per week including electricity and water. 

If you’re going to pay qualified and experienced staff a good salary, you want to ensure that they’re onsite when needed, and not struggling to find suitable accommodation that might be hundreds of kilometres away.

Another report produced by the Macedon Ranges Shire Council titled ‘Guidelines: Assessing Equine Business Application 2014’ has this paragraph:

“Secondary housing accommodation may well be required on horse properties – particularly those where breeding and foaling down are undertaken. These are commonly standalone buildings situated close to the stabling facilities. They provide accommodation for stable hands, grooms and other property employees. Often they are incorporated into the design of the indoor arena, stable blocks or other shedding”

Clearly, this confirms what we’ve already mentioned and states how important it is for equine farms and horse studs to provide onsite accommodation for their staff.

But hey, there’s another benefit!

Having quality onsite accommodation attracts the best candidates.

While having onsite accommodation for your staff is beneficial to the health and care of the horses which are your most valuable asset, it does have another benefit, especially when you’re looking for additional staff.

If you want to attract the highest quality of applicants, then making sure you can include onsite accommodation as part of the employment package is going to make your vacancy much more attractive than a job at another horse stud that doesn’t provide this.

This means that you’ll get the choice of the best applicants and retain them for much longer. This is exceptionally valuable to an equine organisation in the long run!

So now that you understand the advantages of having onsite accommodation on your equine farm or horse stud, why not give us a call to discuss the options available.