Horse people spend a lot of time looking for, talking about, watching, and obsessing over extraordinary horses. And let me tell you, as a professional, that obsession gets heightened. Nearly every professional is looking for “the next big thing” either for themselves, or to sell to a client, or if you really hit the sweet spot, both. The problem is you will spend the beginning of your career, or your whole career, never riding those superstar horses. And I am here to tell you, finding those horses should not be the goal.

Now, let’s get a little more specific about the housing itself. Your housing must include running water, electricity, and heat, and must be free of mold, pests, and insects. I should not have to specify that, yet here we are. I have seen the jobs ads with housing that does not meet at least one of those basic housing rights.

The equine industry is one of the few industries where employee housing is commonly included in a compensation package, yet I have never seen a meaningful discussion on housing. Ever. So let’s start with the central question: should employers offer on-site housing? I have a very definite answer to this: it depends. It depends on your property, it depends on your facility type, and most of all, it depends on what kind of employee you are looking to attract.

I have made it my mission to talk to anyone and everyone about their experience with employees, horse related or not. If someone runs a small tech business with 6 employees, I want to hear about it. If a restaurant was short staffed, I would ask them about it. If a retail store was losing employees I wanted to know why. Of course, my special favorite was talking to horse people.

In my previous article on the state of equine related labor, I wrote “Let’s come right out and say it, the equine industry is not known for great wages, actually quite the opposite. This is not the time to debate why and if that should be the case, suffice to say that it is”. Well, now is both the time and the place to talk about wages in the horse industry.

The equine industry may not know it, but the labor market has changed and left it far behind. Everywhere, barn owners, managers, trainers, and those who don’t get to make the hiring decisions, but none-the-less live out its consequences, know that good help is hard to find, and harder to keep. But is it?

I don’t dispute that there are many aspects of this industry that make it more challenging than others, for both employees and employers. You cannot simply close a barn for the holidays. Horses still need to be fed, mucked out, turned out, brought in, water buckets dumped, blankets changed, and that’s just the usual.

The equine industry is facing a labor shortage. But you probably already knew that. My next question to you is why? And, if you are a professional in this industry, what have you done about it? Those are the two most important questions we can ask, because without them we will be doing what everyone else is doing: complaining and carrying on with business as usual. We have to ask why the industry is short on employees, we have to ask why employees leave their jobs, and we have to ask why employees stay. Next we have to make changes. There are many changes to be made. Changes that go beyond every employer’s worst nightmare, the dreaded “You need to pay people more” discussion.