Yes, boarders have no idea what goes into it. I’m tempted sometimes to show them my spreadsheets so that they understand why I’m such a nut about their safety, the rules, and why they can’t “just” do whatever. The other day a gal actually broke the big back barn door which will cost hundreds to fix because of the way she had been dealing with her horses for a long time. Admittedly, it was on its way out, but that was another expense that wasn’t budgeted for awhile. Every day I get another “this broke” text message my soul dies a little and especially when it’s because someone did something they were not supposed to do or when their horse with it’s special needs costs 3x as much as the lower cost horses AND is the horse that’s preventing me from doing some upgrades because of said special needs and they are whining about something being broken or the fact that I haven’t done something else yet.
Anyway - sadly the state I’m in is hard to grow grasses & legumes in. When I moved here I was shocked by how difficult lettuce was to grow (which ought to have been a sign). It simply gets too hot for most grasses to thrive, despite the long growing season. Most farmers here have great first cutting hay, but by 2nd cutting the quality is already middling at best, third cutting…well it’s ok. Getting it shipped in from out of state is a possibility, but I have to build more hay storage first or buy a hay elevator, neither of which I have and again - it’s another huge front-loaded expense. If I’m already losing money on feed, that leaves less money for capital expenditures that I need to make.
This is why, in this area, it’s rare that anyone “just” boards, and the barns that do often take terrible care of the horses, have barbed wire, and don’t feed adequately. You have to be in a training program in almost every quality barn in the area. Mandatory. Not “hey you can take a lesson if you want to”. It’s also why this property was on the market for more than a year and was almost razed, like so many other barns, for development.
The workforce shortage, increased gasoline prices, and supply chain issues that 2022 is starting with are really not making me feel super about continuing the business. I work full time, plus have a second business AND I’m 50% of my own labor workforce to be able to afford to take a loss on their horses. Even talking about it makes me feel ill. But, I’m plugging away, continuing to analyze to determine what I can do better.
Ok, I didn’t realize I had such a vent in there…but I’m going to leave it 
I was just curious because that $611 number is much higher than I have encountered in similar situations. I didn’t know what “expenses” you were factoring in. There’s always the obvious like feed/hay, bedding, labor (especially paid labor), utilities, incidentals, etc. But those numbers can vary so wildly.