Ostler / Stable Hand

Travelers on the post-road stop here because of the stable as much as the taproom. You keep their horses: watered, fed, rubbed down, and ready at the hour they ask for.

The work

• Water, feed, and rub down the road-weary horses as they come in.
• Stable them for the night and have them tacked and ready at departure.
• Keep the yard, the tack, and the stalls in order.

Context

• Reports to the innkeeper.
• Two ostlers on the books; the yard is crossed after dark, every night.
• Pay is £12–18 New York currency per annum (~$30–45 in silver dollars), with board and a bed over the stable.
• In-person and nocturnal by nature: arrivals come in at whatever hour the road delivers them.

Recorded in the parish register of Sleepy Hollow, autumn of 1799.

• Easy hands with strange and road-weary horses.
• Willing to cross the yard after dark, nightly, without fail — this is most of the job.

Not a fit if crossing an unlit yard on this particular road is something you would need to think about twice.

A creaking roadside inn on the haunted post-road, pouring cider and small-beer since 1770.

Who we are

Staff of six: keeper, cook, two ostlers, a fiddler on frolic nights, and a yard boy. Trade is steady the year round — the legend of the Galloping Hessian is our best salesman, for nobody rides past after dusk without stopping for one more.

How we work

The fire is lit from first dark to last customer, the day-book is tallied nightly to the stiver, and the ghost stories are stock in trade rather than a distraction from it. Staff sleep in; nobody here is asked to walk home in the dark.

Who thrives here

People with a steady head at midnight, whatever the road outside sounds like, and no objection to crossing the yard after dusk — which is most of several jobs here.

Recorded in the parish register of Sleepy Hollow, autumn of 1799.