What is Foundational Care?
Foundational Care is having a solid form of support for each animal that your organization is responsible for that cannot be used for any other purpose.
Chances are most of us are going to either have small parcels of land or rented land when we begin our sanctuaries or rescues. Actually this is not necessarily a good thing if you plan on providing life time care to any horse. These days, with all the modern advances food and health care, it is quite possible that even your sanctuary mustangs could live to be 40 or more years. Generally, that means that for each horse you intend to take in you must have a solid form of support designated to that animal, and to no other, for an average minimum of 20 years.
This way you will give the horse an opportunity to survive and thrive no matter what the economy is and no matter what your personal situation is. The best way to figure out what that amount of money should be is to look at the area in which you hope to establish your facility and see what the average cost of full board is for one horse in a 50 mile radius.
Now I realize that most mustangs aren’t going to be requiring full board. In fact most sanctuaries are going to want to put those horses into as natural a situation as possible with minimal contact from humans, minimum handling and the minimum natural care to keep them healthy, sound and thriving.
Some people will look at these numbers I’m about to give and say “that’s ridiculous. You only need to use pasture board figures for your estimates.” The truth is there are times in the lifetime of the horse when their might be some sort of catastrophe that will require full care in an isolated space. You need to be prepared.
When you make up your budget for management you want only real care figures. But before you get to that point you have to have Foundational Care figures.
Foundational Care figures are amounts that are set side and invested so that they earn interest or money for the horse toward its life time care. Here is how it works.
Full board x12 months plus $10,000 per horse will give you the annual figure you need to sustain one horse for its life time. Any month that you do not need to use money from the interest generated to care for the horse, that interest goes back into the fund for that horse as a hedge against inflation. Once your total goal for sustaining the horse is reached then the remaining overflow can go to help sustain another horse.
What do I mean by full board?
Foundational Care is having a solid form of support for each animal that your organization is responsible for that cannot be used for any other purpose.
Chances are most of us are going to either have small parcels of land or rented land when we begin our sanctuaries or rescues. Actually this is not necessarily a good thing if you plan on providing life time care to any horse. These days, with all the modern advances food and health care, it is quite possible that even your sanctuary mustangs could live to be 40 or more years. Generally, that means that for each horse you intend to take in you must have a solid form of support designated to that animal, and to no other, for an average minimum of 20 years.
This way you will give the horse an opportunity to survive and thrive no matter what the economy is and no matter what your personal situation is. The best way to figure out what that amount of money should be is to look at the area in which you hope to establish your facility and see what the average cost of full board is for one horse in a 50 mile radius.
Now I realize that most mustangs aren’t going to be requiring full board. In fact most sanctuaries are going to want to put those horses into as natural a situation as possible with minimal contact from humans, minimum handling and the minimum natural care to keep them healthy, sound and thriving.
Some people will look at these numbers I’m about to give and say “that’s ridiculous. You only need to use pasture board figures for your estimates.” The truth is there are times in the lifetime of the horse when their might be some sort of catastrophe that will require full care in an isolated space. You need to be prepared.
When you make up your budget for management you want only real care figures. But before you get to that point you have to have Foundational Care figures.
Foundational Care figures are amounts that are set side and invested so that they earn interest or money for the horse toward its life time care. Here is how it works.
Full board x12 months plus $10,000 per horse will give you the annual figure you need to sustain one horse for its life time. Any month that you do not need to use money from the interest generated to care for the horse, that interest goes back into the fund for that horse as a hedge against inflation. Once your total goal for sustaining the horse is reached then the remaining overflow can go to help sustain another horse.
What do I mean by full board?
Full board means the following:
Daily stall care and bedding
Pest control
Worming
Daily grooming
Turn out
Exercise
Feed
Supplements
Hay
Salaried groom for care and stall cleaning twice daily
Administration of medicine or wound care
Regular teeth floating
Regular hoof care
Administrations costs (record keeping)
When You are calling around to get estimates, find out what they charge extra for. You will need to add the extras in if they are on the list above but not covered by the full board figure.
Full board does not include any training or showing activities, tack, blankets, toys or special facilities/equipment needed to be created just for your animal’s needs or transportation.
So what is the $10,000 for? The $10k is for catastrophic injury, illness and/or other emergency, that might put the horse in a life threatening situation where in order restore it, long term nursing care and medical attention might be necessary. Or in case of a natural disaster a way to evacuate the horse and provide for its temporary stabling and care, or any other unforeseen thing that might happen out of your control.
I know some of you are freaking out at these figures, however, remember the goal here: No more Failed Sanctuaries and no more Failed Rescues.
Next Blog: Foundational Care Part 2: The Formula and how to use it to sustain a specific living horse
Daily stall care and bedding
Pest control
Worming
Daily grooming
Turn out
Exercise
Feed
Supplements
Hay
Salaried groom for care and stall cleaning twice daily
Administration of medicine or wound care
Regular teeth floating
Regular hoof care
Administrations costs (record keeping)
When You are calling around to get estimates, find out what they charge extra for. You will need to add the extras in if they are on the list above but not covered by the full board figure.
Full board does not include any training or showing activities, tack, blankets, toys or special facilities/equipment needed to be created just for your animal’s needs or transportation.
So what is the $10,000 for? The $10k is for catastrophic injury, illness and/or other emergency, that might put the horse in a life threatening situation where in order restore it, long term nursing care and medical attention might be necessary. Or in case of a natural disaster a way to evacuate the horse and provide for its temporary stabling and care, or any other unforeseen thing that might happen out of your control.
I know some of you are freaking out at these figures, however, remember the goal here: No more Failed Sanctuaries and no more Failed Rescues.
Next Blog: Foundational Care Part 2: The Formula and how to use it to sustain a specific living horse
No comments:
Post a Comment