Any Experience Leasing Stalls as a Trainer? + Thoughts on Co-Op Boarding?

[TheHorseman1]

Hey everyone, I’d love to pick your brains on two ideas and hear from those with experience!

1. Leasing stalls to run a training business – Have any of you ever rented a block of stalls to run your own program? What worked (or didn’t)? Were there any unexpected challenges, like facility rules, client limitations, or dealing with the barn owner? Was it a good setup for growth, or did it come with too many strings attached?
2. Co-Op Boarding – The idea: barn provides hay, shavings, and feeds twice a day, but boarders handle turnout, mucking, and other chores on a shared schedule. Have you seen this actually work long-term, or does it tend to fall apart into chaos and drama?

Also, if you know of barns that successfully run either of these models, I’d love to hear about them! Curious about what people have seen work (or fail spectacularly ). Spill the good, bad, and ugly!

Thanks in advance!

[Displaced_Yankee]

I am in a sort of de-facto co-op situation (and have been for the last 11 years). We have 3-4 horse owners, 5-6 horses and 1 horse owner lives on site.

The biggest thing: it is a sweet deal and all of us know it. It is not a for-profit business. It is designed to have everyone committed. And we are.

Few other items:

• everyone is on the same page regarding minimum care (some do more…but in a pinch all horses are safe and comfortable)
• the facility is set up for ease of chores. Barring a medical issue or weather event, horses are out 24/7 and can be fed in 20 min, with no person needing to enter a field or paddock.
• Everyone has their own back up human (husband/parent/daughter) who at a minimum can go throw everyone 2-3 flakes of hay and check water. Generally someone else can fill in, but if needed the bare minimum can be done
• First rule: all hands on deck for bad weather (snow or hurricane)
• General idea of “Well if I go fix Dobbins fly mask now, someone will fix my horses fly mask when he needs it”
• Communication. Vacation and other plans get run by the group in advance. We are a small group and close. So we understand kids, school and family emergencies. I had to drop everything to fly out of state for a family emergency with a “it’s a one way ticket I don’t know when I will be home…” and the first response was “what do you need?”

[CHT]

There is a Co-Op barn nearish to me that works well, but I think the ONLY reason it works well is because it is a barn for the military families, so they have a certain accountability that I think would be harder to achieve with random people. With your idea, at least the horses would be fed regularly, but I think you will find that different people have different ideas on what “clean” is, or how much bedding the horses should get, and then you have the risk of horses with different training levels and owners with different experience having to handle those horses - risk of injury to horses and humans.

Leasing stalls doesn’t really seem to be a thing where I am, other than at the racetrack. Trainers just seem to work out of other people’s facilities, and possibly get a discount on board in exchange for being the ones who bring the clients in and manage them.

[Knubbsy]

It was more a true co-op than what you describe (I would call that more of partial board). But I was part of a co-op for a little while with my trainer, her husband, and two other boarders. Everyone had several shifts a week with the feed+muck shifts “worth” more than the feed alone shifts, and we were charged the difference if we didn’t cover enough shifts. I think the only reason it worked long term was because my trainer’s husband was also the farm manager of the larger facility, so in weather emergencies, he was already on site. In the end we moved to a separate facility with a traditional board structure so my trainer could consolidate her business.

[Obsidian_Fire]

Co-op boarding works well IF the people involved are all on the same page and IF there is ONE person in charge overall. When I did it, it was with a group of 3 other friends and we all boarded at her house/barn. She was very much in charge, we all respected that. We all worked well together and helped out with whatever needed doing. It was a rather ideal situation. Another time in this situation it did not work so well; the BO owned the facility but was hands off, us boarders took care of the barn. Unfortunately as one boarder would try to implement what the BO asked, another boarder would completely ignore, or worse yet, the BO would purposely stir up drama by encouraging that person to do something different without checking with boarder A who is following BO’s rules. Convoluted, I know, but some people get their kicks by stirring the pot.

The other situation… that’s a big fat “it depends”. #1 - are there other people there who are not part of your program, such as ordinary boarders. #2 - how big is the facility to accommodate the needs of training/lesson clientele AND pleasure riders? #3 - how ‘cray-cray’ is the BO? Are they hands on or just leasing a building they happen to own? They can make or break you, trust me on that. Honestly the only time I’ve seen everyone feel “comfortable” with this is when the facility is big enough that nobody steps on anyone else’s toes, or the trainer is the only one there - and clearly in charge.

[islgrl]

I run a co-op by default. Our barn has been a co-op for many many years and now whoever is the longest term boarder is the “manager”. But I use that term loosely. We have 7 horses. Each boarder does two feed shifts and a lunch (its magical when we’re full so the 7 days of the week works out without floater shifts…). Each boarder pays the barn owner for a dry stall, which is collected by me and then I pay him. Each boarder buys their own feed and bedding. We split the cost of hay on the presumption that everyone feeds roughly the same amount. There is no nitpicking over a horse that gets slightly more or less. If it was a dramatic difference we’d have to figure it out. Everyone is responsible for picking their paddock daily (shared paddocks share picking duties). We have a petty cash pay in monthly that covers the cost of small purchases. The cost of electricity is split. Large purchases are split. The barn cat is a shared expense for food/vet whatever. We are very picky about who moves in. As a result I think we have run on this model now for close to 20 years.

[luvmyhackney]

I’d love to do Co-Op but I’ve only been at one barn that it worked well. Too many cooks in the kitchen caused lots of drama.

Renting a block of stalls - just rent the entire barn if possible. The only time I’ve seen issues is with multiple trainers with different standards of care and clients.

[trubandloki]

@TheHorseman1

Hey everyone, I’d love to pick your brains on two ideas and hear from those with experience!

1. Leasing stalls to run a training business – Have any of you ever rented a block of stalls to run your own program? What worked (or didn’t)? Were there any unexpected challenges, like facility rules, client limitations, or dealing with the barn owner? Was it a good setup for growth, or did it come with too many strings attached?
2. Co-Op Boarding – The idea: barn provides hay, shavings, and feeds twice a day, but boarders handle turnout, mucking, and other chores on a shared schedule. Have you seen this actually work long-term, or does it tend to fall apart into chaos and drama?

Also, if you know of barns that successfully run either of these models, I’d love to hear about them! Curious about what people have seen work (or fail spectacularly ). Spill the good, bad, and ugly!

Thanks in advance!

Situation 1 - Renting a block of stalls working really depends on the clarity of the contract between the facility and the training program renting. All the details need to be figured out and in writing. No assuming who will do what can happen. This can work great if everyone is on the same page, or it can go horribly.
Situation 2 - Like the above answer, it really depends. I can not see how barn providing shavings and hay working unless there is a written amount provided in the agreement per horse. Otherwise you are going to have the person who picks carefully, trying to save bedding the best they can, really resenting the owner who shovels out the stall and uses a whole fresh bag every day.

[BeeHoney]

I have seen renting blocks of stalls work out very well for all involved. There are several different ways to do it. Issues that might come up: who owns/moves around the jumps, ring maintenance, facility maintenance, mixing up of equipment/belongings, timing of arena use, etc. There could be extra work wrangling clients to make sure that they are respectful of other clients of the barn not in the program and respectful to overall barn rules, and obviously negotiating to make sure your clients are treated appropriately as well. The best scenario is when the renting trainer is either doing all of their own training (without a lot of clients coming and going) or has clients on a pretty set schedule with a mix of training and lessons at predictable times. If you have a lot of clients coming and going very independently, that might be more difficult to mesh comfortably with other programs at the barn.

[findeight]

Not a trainer but have a couple of trainer friends who wet lease stalls but not from a co op situation, from a regular barn. It frees their time up and allows a semblance of regular hours as well as not having to hire a farm sitter or extra help at home when they go to shows or…gasp…actually take a vacation,

Obviously there are compromises and a well thought out contract but, for them, it works well.

Many do lease the dry stalls but that does require more time, more heavy chores, extra help and maybe your own tractor. One reason trainers burn out, even the good ones. It is alot.