Hi all- I am casually looking for a part boarder, and mentioned this to the BO. He told me that they charge part boarders $20 each time they ride to pay for the extra wear and tear on facilities. I am old, have boarded for many years at different barns but I have never heard of this. Is it a THING now? For context, we are in the middle of Ontario, horsey area but not a fancy barn by any means. It certainly means I would be unlikely to find a part boarder if they must pay the barn as well as me!
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Sounds like double dipping to me. The wear and tear wouldnât change if it were you or a part boarder riding the horse.
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Not a thing that Iâve ever heard of.
It sounds absolutely loopy. As long as the part-boarder maintains their liability insurance (OE membership) they are not putting any more strain on the facility than if you were able to ride your horse those extra few days per week.
I ride my horse 6-7 days/week. Other people ride their horses maybe a couple of times. Should those of us that ride more often pay a higher board fee? Should we have a time clock to punch for how many minutes we have lights on? That would be a fun task for the BO to keep track of each month for billing 
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Does your contract allow outsiders to ride your horse? Some facilities prohibit that. I permit it, but everyone needs to sign my liability waiver/rules, and I reserve the right to say no if it is someone inappropriate (either experience level-wise, age-wise, or behavior-wise).
I have an arena charge of $20 for haul ins, which I think is fairly typical, but that doesnât effect boarded horses.
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well actually my company did install a system that allowed a barn owner to bill individual accounts for use of arena lightsâŠthe user had to present their card or enter their ID to turn the lights onâŠand this was in the early 1990s
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Thatâs nice.
The stupid card for lights wouldnât fly up here in the land of 8 months of miserable darkness. Electricity is included in board. Rubbing our noses in that darkness would only piss us off more than Mother Nature already has.
Itâs about on the level of the (very wealthy and charging appropriately for the facility) boarding barn owner I knew back before the days of cell phones, who had the barn phones locked out for long distance calls. It was a weird area and everything was long distance. Need the vet after staff had gone home so there was no-one there to make the call for you from the locked office? Oh well. Both of those ideas, while possibly fiscally responsible, were terrible.
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I boarded once at a barn that wanted an arena fee for boarders to take lessons from the trainer that was working out of the barn. Now, I totally understand if an outside trainer is coming in, but this was the trainer who had an agreement with the barn.
It was kind of wild, and not disclosed up front. It caused much consternation in the barn and the trainer eventually got kicked out.
I would not expect to pay extra as a part boarder.
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I would chalk this up as the barn owner really not wanting to deal with extra people and charging accordingly to discourage it. I donât think the âwear and tearâ argument flies, but the barn owner doesnât really have to justify it to anyone â their barn, their rules.
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Thanks all- I am glad itâs not just me and that this is indeed unusual!
Thereâs nothing about part boarders in the contract. Any visitors to barn (riding or non) have to sign waivers, all boarders have liability insurance as does the barn. Interestingly, they donât charge anything to visiting coaches, as there is no in-house trainer. The BO specifically said they would charge part boarders for the extra wear and tear. Doesnât make sense to me but there you are, Iâm not going to argue. Horse is happy and cared for, facilities work well for us and thatâs whatâs important.
tho it would be nice to get a part boarder⊠
I have never heard the term âpart boarder.â Is that a common term in Canada?
Does it have the same meaning as half-leaser?
Logically, if someone who rides your horse 3x a week is a âpart boarder,â then I guess if you are riding your horse 3x per week, you also become a part-boarder. So do you now have to pay the âpart boarderâ fees too?
Also, does it make a difference if the âpart boarderâ pays money to you for a partial lease of the horse, and you pay the full board amount to the barn owner? Then the barn owner doesnât have to enter into a boarding contract with the new person.
It is a thing for some barns, and it is double dipping.
The boarding fee as is should already factor in costs associated with wear/tear and upkeep on the ring on a boarded horse. Whether the horse is leased out or not would not change the cost[s] associated with ring upkeep.
I am part of a local barn owner/managerâs group on FB and I saw a recent post very similar, about a trainer boarding at the barn who was offering training rides/instruction to other boarders. BO wanted to charge them a ring fee per session.
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I think this is just âbarns struggling to meet the billsâ. Our riding association tried to do that once. Wanted to levy an extra fee for trainers when they were holding lessons.
It didnât make sense to me. I was a member. My trainer was a member. When she gives me a lesson, Iâm the one riding with my membership, and sheâs not, so no âextraâ wear and tear. One of the reasons I was a member was to TAKE lessons. We had to scotch that one in a hurry.
Obviously, if a non-member wanted to take lessons, they paid a fee. And this was an association, not a barn.
Iâd fight back, but try to do so kindly, since Iâm sure itâs either that, or raising rates, if the reason is âhow to cover the billsâ as I mentioned above.
Well, hereâs a thought:
How often would Part Boarder ride?
Can you knock that amount - X x 20 - off what theyâd pay you?
I donât buy the âwear & tearâ excuse, but if youâre otherwise happy at the barnâŠ
BOâs Way or the Highway, right?
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I have a (former) client that moved to Ontario. She has been disappointed with the craziness and odd rules/charges she has had to deal with since moving to OntarioâŠand she has owned horses in a few provinces.
Your BO doesnât want extra people around the barn. They donât want people they didnât vet as boarders and donât have a contract with, coming around. Charging offsets some of that risk and annoyance. âwear and tearâ may refer to the fact that people they donât have a contract with, might be less careful with the barn/facilities.
Perhaps you can negotiate a monthly fee, and invite the BO to meet anyone before you sign them up for a lease.
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I totally agree this sounds like an âinconvenience feeâ to dissuade boarders from this practice.
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I agree thatâs itâs double-dipping, but I have heard of this practice several times over the years, in multiple states. So not a complete outlierâŠ
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Back when I was in school, the BO of the breeding farm I lived on had a few boarders. She had a hard time getting them to turn off the arena lights (expensive to run mercury vapor) when they were done riding at night, and finally put a timer in that turned them off at 9PM.
Even with a large prominently posted sign advising of this change, there was much howling after a boarder got caught in sudden darkness.
She also instituted a rule that the lights were off limits on weekends. If people wanted to ride then, they could come during the day. More howling.
There were other issues as well, but the howling was loudest when the boarders were informed that they were more of an aggravation than an asset, and were given notice (with the exception of one very lovely family.)
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Lease or part-lease.
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I also board in Ontario. I havenât heard that before although I have heard of visiting trainers being charged an arena fee. Maybe have a second conversation with your BO to make sure that you heard correctly and say that you hadnât noticed it in the boarding agreement.
Otherwise, their barn, their rules.
Oh, I am definitely not saying that barn owners shouldnât charge a reasonable rate for use of electricity and that barn owners should fit the bill for idiot, mannerless, inconsiderate boarders, just that it serves no-one fewer headaches to have a time clock for lights. It would create more work for the BO and absolutely would (as you describe) create dissent among boarders.
My barn had a bunch of new people move in a while back and some shit started to go south because they just didnât know what the usual protocols were - things that were basic, but either got missed in âorientationâ or forgotten by the new boarders in the midst of moving a bunch of horses and people to a new location. Signs went up. Problems solved.
BUT, itâs a legit boarding stable and not a fill a few empty stalls type place. And in our present market (we are hurting bad for boarding stables) nobody wants to get kicked out. Most people are respectful and considerate anyway and once they understand the rules, are fully compliant with reasonable requests for things like turning off lights and such.
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