How will COVID19 affect everything the barn? 

UPDATED May 13, 2020

We wanted to acknowledge that the Coronavirus outbreak is concerning, and we at the Painted Bar Stables are very aware of its spread and staying on top of updates daily from both national and local sources.

After much deliberation and coordination with various authorities and industry leaders, we are unrolling our re-opening plan.

According to NY State's Reopening Phases, we will have waves of our own reopening our barn program by program. See our full plan and policies.

NYS Phase 1 starts on May 15th in Schuyler County. With this phase Animal Support businesses and programs are allowed to reopen.

As a result the programs that will be reopening for our stables on May 15th at the Painted Bar Stables are:

  • Boarding
  • Leasing Memberships
  • Volunteers

These programs will be reopening to allow riding both in the arena and on trail. All people from these programs will have to book time in our barn one at a time in two-hour windows. You will be able to schedule through our website.

There will be some changes to the programs in terms of pricing and access to account for cleaning resources and time. We are prioritizing that people come for less but longer visits.

Unfortunately we will not be able to open the following programs at this time:

Lessons - We should be able to reopen our lesson program to private and single household lessons for teen and adult riders within NYS Phase 2 under the Professional Services category.

Trail Ride - Trail rides are deemed as recreational and will not be open to the public until NYS Phase 4.

NOTE: However we realize that some advanced riders who trail ride with us are not only coming for recreation but are looking for trail and trekking instruction, which we will be able to provide as a professional service in Phase 2 as instruction on trail.

Virus Plans at the Barn

Our plans and precautions to keep humans safe and to keep horses comfortable during the hullabaloo.

See our reopening plan here!

HORSE MAINTENANCE: 

While we have concerns about our riding programs closing, our main concern is losing supply chain access to grain and other essentials for our horses because of mass community hysteria. 

We have picked up another 300 square bales of hay and they are in our hay mow.

We also have 6 tons of grain in storage which should last us nearly 3 weeks long. 

I don’t foresee us being quarantined off from very local round bale supplier but perhaps we already have a two week stockpile of round bales that can be supplemented with our square bale supply. 
 

GENERAL SANITATION:

We are purchasing hand sanitizer to put on the front desk for everyone to use. 

We will have sanitation wipes available for clients to wipe down surfaces such as brushes, helmets, etc. before and after use.  

We have tack cleaning supplies and tack will be cleaned before and after every session.

STUDENTS: 

For now, all riding lessons have been suspended under Governor Cuomo's mandate.

As soon as we can reopen the programs we will let you know.

We are still accepting new students who would like to book lessons after this all passes by.

TRAIL RIDERS: 

Trail rides are also cancelled under the mandate.

As a result we are cancelling all trail rides week by week as this progresses. Everything further into the future we are keeping on our calendar in the case that we get permission to reopen.

We are still accepting trail ride requests for the summer and onward as well!

Are you worried about COVID19?

Please Support Us

We could use support during the forced closures!

We could use some help right about now! Riding programs are closed due to the COVID19 Pandemic and the barn and all of our horses are financially in trouble without them! 

Clarification on the Governor’s mandate:
Farms that produce food are deemed essential. 
NY has deemed equine farms non-essential. 

Animal care is allowed, so we can keep getting paid for board by clients who keep their horses with us and we can keep our staff working to come care for animals. So anyone who is responsible for care is still going to be caring for the horses!

However, let’s be honest, there’s very little profit in the income that comes from boarding for many riding facilities. It’s the riding programs that pay for everything. And ESPECIALLY at Painted Bar Stables where a majority of the horses are our own for you to ride! So it’s going to be a rough time. 

Rocky (Morgan Horse) at the end of his rope

Fundraisers

Right now we have started a number sponsorship programs and raffles to help us support our horses through this time of struggle for us.

Check out all of the ways you can support our horses on our Horse Sponsorship page.

Sponsor A Horse

CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL OF THE PEOPLE WHO SPONSORED HORSES FOR APRIL

Nevada Pintaloosa asking you to Sponsor a Horse

If you would like to sponsor a horse and credit your account or receive a gift certificate the BEST WAY is to send money to us via Venmo to avoid any fees. You can Venmo us at @paintedbarstables 

You can also purchase a sponsorship or gift card directly through our online marketplace.

If you want to donate money not for future use, please be sure to tell us it is a donation and not a request for a gift card!

Your support will help us:

  • Continue to purchase grain and necessities, which has to happen no matter what. 
  • Keep our staff paid, who we desperately want to keep supporting through this epidemic so they can keep food on the table at home. 
  • Help us pay our essential bills such as utilities and any payments that banks will not let us postpone

These gift certificate purchases act as a 0% loan to the business, paying us up front for services to be offered later. While they won’t help us recoup income they give us a financial bridge to when we can reopen our lesson and trail programs. 

To recoup the income later we truly hope people choose to use those credit to ride extra in the coming season. If at the end of the year people still ride at the same rate as before instead of adding make up rides we will see the loss in the annual budget.

Mockingbird asking you to Sponsor a Horse

COVID19 Refund Policy

As of May 12, 2020

We understand that people are having to change their plans because of the COVID19 situation. While we are planning to reopen as soon as the government mandate is lifted, we understand that people may have changing plans

As a result, we are making a couple of changes to our refund policy to accommodate the current climate.

For now, anyone who has a ride booked from now until May 29th can cancel with a full refund of their usually non-refundable deposit.

For those with ride in May 30th and beyond, we are currently offering the option of exchanging these deposits for gift card credit that can be used at a later date.

Every few weeks we will be reassessing the situation and potentially continuing to move the refund policy down the calendar accordingly to accommodate.

For those people that choose to turn your deposit into credit for future rides, we sincerely appreciate you. As a small business, operating in this financial climate is hard and every dollar that is kept on the farm is truly helping us to pay our staff and keep the horses fed, comfortable and fit for work and health.

Teens out of School

Horse Oriented Assigments

For teens and kids out of school, I also would like to help continue their education with some practical lessons. So welcome to Equine School 101: 
  • Reading assignments
  • Writing assignments
  • Geometry Projects such as building things
  • Understanding electric currents using electric fences! 
  • etc....

I have an entire repertoire of ideas that we can do to keep people thinking and learning while they are out of school.

As a reminder, the apprentice program is not camp or “daycare” so we have some limits and requirements. Anyone spending time in the barn is expected to be productive citizen within the barn. But we can be a safe space available to teens who want to be productive and do not burden staff. We have plenty of work to be done and projects we can assign to fill time. 
Teens who are already apprentices are welcome to spend some time at the barn ANY TIME. If teens who haven’t apprenticed with us before want to come, just check in with us ahead of time so that we can make sure we have the instruction support available to them.


 
Watkins Glen Chamber of Commerce Member USFS Outfitter Permit Holder Painted Bar Stables Girl Scouts Approved Riding Stable Markel Insurance
We accept cash, check and credit cards Gift Certificates are available.
4093 Lake Avenue (Rte. 79) Burdett, NY 14818 • 607.216.8141 • [email protected]