I’ve always boarded my horses. I’m finally in a position to buy a mini-farm, and I’m weighing the pros and cons. I’m concerned about the time commitment and unexpected costs of property management. If I continue to board I can enjoy the services and facilities of a boarding barn.
On the other hand, I would love to have access to my horses every day and improve my horsemanship.
For those of you who have a mini-farm, I would be most grateful if you would share the pros and cons as you see them.
Thanks in advance!
I just moved to a mini-farm about six weeks go. Love, love, love it! It’s wonderful having my horses at home. I can feed and manage them my way - not some barn owner’s way. I love looking out the window and seeing them graze - so peaceful.
The cons are, of course, money and time. Mini-farms aren’t cheap, at least around here, so the money outlay is considerable. There is also more physical labor and upkeep with a farm - fences, manure management, mowing and dragging pastures, etc. Also, if you travel you are going to need a good farm sitter. They are usually hard to find and expensive for someone you would trust.
I have to say, though, early morning feeding and stall cleaning is my very favorite part of the day. It’s a wonderful, peaceful way to start the morning.
I have done both - had horses at home and also boarded.
When I had my horses at home, I loved being in total control over their programs. I could decide exactly how they were fed, turned out, blanketed, and so on. I absolutely loved it, BUT - it was also very time consuming and a lot of work to keep things the way I liked them. I freely admit I am super OCD about horsekeeping and so I held myself to the standards I’d expect at a full service barn. I have a fairly demanding job so keeping them groomed, exercised and pampered the way I prefer was quite a lot of work.
Things I didn’t like:
Not having company at the barn/friends to ride with.
Not having an indoor (lost a lot of riding/training time to bad weather)
Very difficult to get away - farm sitters were hard to find and expensive
Things like getting my preferred service professionals got harder - top farriers, for example, might not want to keep an account with just one or two horses. Scheduling those visits and having to be there was sometimes v. hard to juggle with work responsibilities.
I think some of it depends on how you are comfortable with keeping your horses. We live on a small farm and have set our entire farm up to be extremely easy and chore efficient. As a result, our farm never feels like a burden, I am able to get away easily, and I still have friends to ride with.
My horses (I have three at home) live in a drylot paddock, not in stalls. I pick this daily, and it takes me no more than 20 minutes.
We feed the horses using whole bale slow feeder hay nets. There are three of them and they are refilled every two days.
We feed minimal supplements to balance the hay (hay was tested) as well as a flake of alfalfa per horse per day.
Since I have spare horses (one is a cousin’s, one is my husband’s) I always have a horse if a friend wants to ride. We mostly trail ride in winter, and only have an outdoor. The horses love the time off from the daily grind.
My parents live on site, and we also have great neighbors. This makes it really easy to leave for a weekend and trust that the horses will live.
What Lucassb said. Loved it ehhh the first year. Then after 9 years…ehhh…I have to do chores, feed horses, clean stalls, do dishes , buy grain/shavings, schedule all appointments, then when a water line freezes - it seems like the end of my world and it SEEMS like a bigger catastrophe then it really is because I am already tired, cold, cranky, and trying to plan dinner.
Also…when I had to put down my 23 year old…there was no avoiding the barn for a few days.
I moved onto my 10-acre (of which 4 acres is usable) farm September 19th. I love it. My horses, on my land, under my total control.
They’re out 24/7, so no stalls. Hay in front of them via a small net. Just installed an auto-waterer so I have no fear of frozen anything or an empty tub.
However, it is work. I am alone now, so it’s all on me. But it’s a passion and a calling. I love every minute of it. I self-care boarded for 13 years, so I knew what I was getting myself into.
You learn very quickly how to work smarter and more efficiently. I can just chuck hay over the fence into the netted feeder. That waterer is the bees knees… no dumping, no scrubbing, no frozen hoses etc.
I’m used to riding alone but since I have 2 horses, a friend can ride with me. Also have a trailer for visiting local parks.
It’s a lifestyle - not a “horse lifestyle”. I think you have to be prepared for that, or you will hate it.
And, having extra money makes a BIG different - that sounds like a joke but it’s not…I can’t imagine if I didn’t have enough money to have important things fixed ASAP…the tractor, the water lines, to be able to go to Tractor Supply and buy a new heated tank when it’s -25F.
If you think you can “just make it work” - it’s not the right choice because you will hate it WHEN (not if) things break or get screwed up.
I didn’t ride very much this year, but I’m ok with that…my non-horse life got busy. If you really want to RIDE…you really are better off boarding because you can devote your time to riding.
However, I love it. I only boarded once - after I had my farm, but bought a new, young mare in winter - and I really didn’t like it. I like that my horses are OUT all day, all night…blanketed if they need it (and not if they don’t), trained with the trainer of MY choice, etc. But I also like the garden, having room for my dogs, having space to plant trees… - as I said, it’s a full lifestyle, not just a horsey one.
[QUOTE=S1969;8435549]
It’s a lifestyle - not a “horse lifestyle”. I think you have to be prepared for that, or you will hate it.
And, having extra money makes a BIG different - that sounds like a joke but it’s not…I can’t imagine if I didn’t have enough money to have important things fixed ASAP…the tractor, the water lines, to be able to go to Tractor Supply and buy a new heated tank when it’s -25F.
If you think you can “just make it work” - it’s not the right choice because you will hate it WHEN (not if) things break or get screwed up.
I didn’t ride very much this year, but I’m ok with that…my non-horse life got busy. If you really want to RIDE…you really are better off boarding because you can devote your time to riding.
However, I love it. I only boarded once - after I had my farm, but bought a new, young mare in winter - and I really didn’t like it. I like that my horses are OUT all day, all night…blanketed if they need it (and not if they don’t), trained with the trainer of MY choice, etc. But I also like the garden, having room for my dogs, having space to plant trees… - as I said, it’s a full lifestyle, not just a horsey one.[/QUOTE]
I bolded the part about the money because it is a reality.
If you have the resources to do things the way you want them, get help/parts/etc when you need them and so on - it is a very different experience than if you are having to watch every penny.
DH and I are looking at farm(ettes) right now. The kind of place we’d like - around 10 ac with a nice barn, decent ring etc - is in the $1.2-$1.5m range. That’s a bunch of cash to basically be buying myself another full time job 
(And I’ll need to keep my day job to pay for it all, LOL.) We passed on a 5 ac property that had a great location, super ring and a nice house - but crummy pastures. It was just under $1m.
If I had money to burn, I’d buy the last place we looked at, which had a pretty serious barn, covered ring and great turnout. It was more house than I want, but hey… if money were no object, I’d just get a maid, right?!
While I’d very much enjoy having a farm again, I am realistic enough to know that I do.not.want.to.give.up.riding to do it, so I am being super picky about what we consider. I do have the luxury of having my horses at a really nice boarding situation very close to home so I am not under any real pressure to find something immediately, though. If the boarding situation were different, I’d perhaps be a lot more flexible.
I live in east TN, where it’s cheap. That probably does make a difference (200k for 7 acres with a nice house, I added fencing and a barn, and I lease adjacent acres for 3k a year, which is highway robbery in this neck of the woods, but worth it to me.)
I have never, ever regretted one moment of having mine home. I love horse care, love the time with them, don’t mind stall cleaning (but I have teens who can be made to do it if I really want a break). I ride most days. I am out with them 4-5 times many days, but I have it set up to where I could manage them in 15 minutes a day if I had to, and that includes my mare who foundered last year and is muzzled 12/ dry lotted 12. Before that, I could do it in 5 minutes.
I boarded for the first six months I had horses, 11 years ago. Great place, but I hated it. My horses are fully integrated into our family life; I don’t just ride as a hobby - it’s more than riding. They are like my dogs, completely part of my family. (Yes, I have human kids too.)
I’ve always boarded my horses. I’m finally in a position to buy a mini-farm, and I’m weighing the pros and cons. I’m concerned about the time commitment and unexpected costs of property management. If I continue to board I can enjoy the services and facilities of a boarding barn.
On the other hand, I would love to have access to my horses every day and improve my horsemanship.
For those of you who have a mini-farm, I would be most grateful if you would share the pros and cons as you see them.
Thanks in advance!
Pros:
- It's (usually) very, very nice to have the horse(s) in your backyard so you don't have to drive anywhere to see it/them.
- It's fun (usually) to do the horse chores.
- It's (usually) nice to have some acreage instead of being crowded in suburbia or the city.
- If you don't have good boarding options nearby, it's wonderful to thumb your nose at that problem because you have your own place!
Cons:
- Mortgage, property taxes, insurance, and utilities for a house, barn, and acreage frequently are higher than for a non-horse property. Yes, you're not paying board, but it's easy to underestimate these other expenses as you calculate the financial aspects. Ask me how I know! I should note that I live in an expensive area, so YMMV of course.
- Hay, bedding, and feed must be arranged, and paid for. Keep in mind that the fluctuating availability and cost volatility of each can be concerns. It's unlikely you will have enough acreage on a mini farm to get by with no hay. Depending on your management style, maybe bedding use could be minimal. Then you have to consider the tradeoff of saving effort by having any or all of it delivered, OR saving money by going to get it yourself. Getting it yourself assumes you have an appropriate vehicle to haul meaningful amounts of hay and/or bedding. At least feed isn't such a big deal to get yourself.
- You'll need a convenient place to store any hay, bedding, and feed that you require. Be sure to provide for rodent-proof feed storage.
- Manure must be managed (spread or hauled away). If you are incredibly lucky, maybe you can find gardeners that want to come get it, but I would caution you should have backup plans for that happy eventuality. If you are spreading the manure, you need sufficient land for it, and a way to do this (small manure spreader or something like that). If you are hauling it away, you need equipment to do this with, or you will pay for someone to come get it.
- Grass pastures must be maintained to some degree, and you'll either need something to mow with or pay someone else to do it. Especially on a mini farm such as you are looking at, pasture management is huge. Decide whether you will have a sacrifice lot, restrict turnout, etc. Figure out the pasture vs. hay ratio you can plan on.
- Fencing requires repair, maintenance, and sometimes replacement. Either you will be doing this yourself or you will be paying someone else to do it.
- Of course, for all of the above you will need at least a mower, possibly a small tractor. It will need maintenance and repairs. There again – if you can do these yourself, great – otherwise, it's money spent on equipment repairs.
- Depending on where you live, you may be coping with drought, mud, snow, ice, etc. – you will need a plan for managing the horses [I]and[/I] the property under any conditions that Mother Nature throws at you. You will also need a backup plan for horse care during power outages, [B]especially [/B]knowing how you will get sufficient water to your horse(s) if the property is on a well rather than public water.
- You will have to decide how many horses you will have. If you just have one, let's hope it is okay by itself. If you have two, best to hope the one that's left alone when you take the other one out for any reason won't freak out. So, you might need to add a 3rd equine as a companion (or other species possibly such as a goat). Remember even a low maintenance, easy keeper companion pony still requires your care, and vet and farrier attention. And every time you add an equine, it's more wear and tear on the property, plus that much more $$ and work for you.
- If you have an arena, it will need to be maintained regularly, by dragging and possibly watering. Also, over the long term, it may need more footing, regrading/leveling, etc.
- If you [I]don't[/I] have an arena, you will eithe be paying to install one, hauling out to use someone else's, or being content with riding around the property or on trails if you have access to those.
I do have fond memories of Horses At Home on my (since sold) small acreage. Maybe if I hadn’t been maintaining the place all by myself, and relying only on my own paycheck, I would have kept the place longer. But it turned out to cost more than I had expected, and involved more property maintenance than I enjoyed. The horse care was rewarding, yes, but the rest of it – not so much.
Glad I did it. Glad to be back to boarding. 
I have 5.5 acres and my horses live out full time. I harrow the fields occasionally and do basic maintenance, but my day to day commitment is throwing hay 3x per day. Easy peasy.
Cons:
It’s hard to go away
No social atmosphere
Labour intensive when it’s time to get hay in or do fencing projects etc
Startup cost – need shelter, property, hay storage, machinery etc. BUT many of those things hold value well (machinery etc)
Pros:
I pay $120/horse per month to feed them instead of $500 in board
Love having them at home
Love the projects
I don’t worry so much if I’m not riding or dedicating time to go “to” the barn, as I see them 3x a day for feeding and know they’re ok.
I’m sure there’s more.
I think a huge part of the question is what do you DO with your horses. If they are pets that you enjoy caring for, I think that keeping horses at home can work out very nicely. If you pleasure ride, and your farmette has access to trails and someone to ride with, also great.
If you want to ride more seriously, jumping, etc., it either becomes 1) extremely expensive to build and maintain arenas, footing, jumps etc. OR 2) extremely frustrating not to have adequate access to those things. Will you make progress with your horse’s training if you aren’t in a training environment where you will be motivated and enthused by others?
A second part of the question is considering your horse related social life. Do you enjoy seeing people out at the barn and having people to ride with? Will you miss having easy access to horse friends to make show or trail ride plans with? Will you be happy, or even comfortable, riding alone?
Lastly, what are your finances like? There are a few things to consider. It’s definitely much more pleasant to keep horses at home if you have a bit of a cushion to install new fence, waterlines, sheds, or other improvements or major repairs that come up. It’s much more pleasant if you have extra money to spend on farm sitters or periodic help around the barn. Also, can you take the financial risk of sinking a large amount of money into a farm type property? Farm type properties may be difficult to resell or may not appreciate in value as much as a traditional single family home. It’s a risk if you think you may change your mind about keeping horses at home or living in the country.
We started off with a small farmette of 5 acres, and when it was time to move closer to family, we chose to go larger, to 20 acres. Mr. PoPo and I love the experience of having horses at home so we wanted more land this time around.
I think you need a certain personality type to enjoy the experience of having your horses at home. It is not better or worse than one who enjoys boarding, it is just different.
IME (and this is speaking from both my experiences and having lots of friends who also have their horses at home), you need to be someone who likes hard work and who isn’t afraid of some manual labor.
You need to not mind being dirty, because you will be dirty a lot.
You need to be able to have the financial resources to have enough in a “farm fund” (or whatever you want to call it) so that if you need to do some fence repair or paint something or fix a pipe or call someone for help with an irrigation problem or buy a new tractor tire or seed your pasture or hire a farm sitter or neighborhood kid to help with chores or whatever million things might come up, you can do it without hardship.
You need to not mind having your schedule sort of revolve around your horses.
You need to be willing to do the chores when it is (raining, snowing, freezing cold, heat wave, wind storm) weather not to your liking.
You need to be okay with the fact that you can’t have the spontaneity to say, hey, let’s go to the city overnight tonight!
You need to be okay with losing the social aspect of seeing your barn friends every day.
You need to be okay with riding alone, trailering out to lessons, being home to hold your horses for the vet, calling in sick to work if your horse has an emergency.
I find that this lifestyle suits introverts quite well. :winkgrin:
While dkcbr’s reply has a lot of good points, don’t let it scare you off. Before I got my first property, I was scared that I’d screw it up big time and that I wouldn’t be able to do it. But it was always a dream of mine, and people with less experience than I had were able to do it just fine, so I’d probably be okay. And I am okay. And I love it.
Just remember - always close your gates!!! And think five steps ahead of your horses and what kind of trouble they could get into if x,y,z…
I enjoy having horses at home. I enjoy the other animals we’ve added too.
I miss being able to travel for a week or weekend easily.
I miss having an arena to ride in.
I miss my barn friends.
I like being able to ride on my lunch break instead of having to get up at o-dark-thirty to ride before work.
I like getting to ride out on my paths and the peaceful view. I like my community.
That said:
-
yes, you need extra money. Things cost. You won’t be saving money over boarding unless you were already boarding multiple horses. (If your horses are at home, they will be plural, most likely, even if they’re not plural for you now.
) -
Set up your property for easy care. That is, the ability to feed and water everyone without opening any gates or doing anything terribly special. Make sure you have the flexibility to come home late or leave early. You don’t want to be stuck at work on a hot summer evening worrying that the horses are out of water.
You want it to be set up so you can call a non-horsey neighbor in an emergency and that person would be able to feed and water in a pinch.
-
If riding is important to you, make sure you have a space set up for that.
-
if you plan to haul out, make sure your driveway allows you to pull in, unload, leave the rig parked, and turn right back out easily so that every trip doesn’t involve elaborate gate opening, backing and turning, and unhooking.
[QUOTE=Lucassb;8435589]
If you have the resources to do things the way you want them, get help/parts/etc when you need them and so on - it is a very different experience than if you are having to watch every penny…[/QUOTE]
This, this, a thousand times this.
[QUOTE=BeeHoney;8436069]I think a huge part of the question is what do you DO with your horses. If they are pets that you enjoy caring for, I think that keeping horses at home can work out very nicely. If you pleasure ride, and your farmette has access to trails and someone to ride with, also great.
If you want to ride more seriously, jumping, etc., it either becomes 1) extremely expensive to build and maintain arenas, footing, jumps etc. OR 2) extremely frustrating not to have adequate access to those things. Will you make progress with your horse’s training if you aren’t in a training environment where you will be motivated and enthused by others? [/QUOTE]
And this. Very much this.
For me, the pros and cons remain relatively constant over time, but I find that how I feel about them and how they impact my life varies based on what else is going on in my life. So sometimes the pros outweigh the cons and sometimes the cons beat out the pros.
For example, I was promoted this year. Yea me! But a huge negative is that it is now much more difficult for me to manage being home for the farrier and vet. And forget sneaking out for a couple of hours on a beautiful winter afternoon to go riding. And evening feeding is now always done in the dark in the winter. And my weekends are crammed with chores, playing catch up on everything I no longer have time for during the week (winter early darkness makes this much worse).
Right now, I would gladly load up the equines and move to a boarding stable with a lighted well-groomed arena and full care board. In a few years when I am (hopefully) retired, I’ll be singing a different tune, I’m sure.
Here are some other threads with similar topics , might have some good ideas here.
http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?472298-Downsizing-to-Mini-farm-Need-advice!&highlight=small+acreage
http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?413476-Have-my-farm-now-no-time-to-ride!!&highlight=small+acreage
[QUOTE=mesloane;8435364]
I would love to have access to my horses every day and improve my horsemanship. [/QUOTE] My experience is that my riding stalled (at best – it probably backslid) and I developed a lot of other skills – driving tractors, pounding t-posts, building things. I bought a non-horse property and had to build it all and I wildly underestimated how much work that would be. I like to think that it’s not so much that I’m an idiot as it is that it’s very hard to accurately estimate the time large projects will take. My contractors are only marginally better at it than I am, I’ve noticed. So, keep that in mind, too – if it’s built, it’s a bit more of a known entity, in terms of how much work it’ll be for you. If it’s not built, there’s an element of joker’s wild to the process that is pretty stressful.
Bottom line – I love it here.
Lots of great advice here. I started boarding in the 'burbs, moved on to a 5acre mini farm then a 40 acre farm. All are their own lifestyles for sure. Having financial flexibility is huge piece of mind. For me meant I having a full time professional job which made getting the vet/farrier/meet the guy to fix the well pump stressful, but manageable. I’m back in the 'burbs boarding but after a few year hiatus I’m ready for another farm, with a lot more knowledge and patience to find the right one. The introvert in me loved the farms. No better company than my horses and dogs who love me in dirty jeans!
Ditto what everybody else said. The three main cons to me about owning my mini farm:
Time commitment is large and neverending (even with one horse and two ponies on 24-7 turnout)
No one to ride with or talk to or to be around during potentially unsafe events
Zero ability to find a reliable farm sitter. My SO and I haven’t been out of town together in years.
Pros:
I can super micromanage my horses.
It’s very peaceful.
I am preparing to move in the next year and I truly cannot decide whether I really want to keep them at home again or board.
Ditto what everybody else said. The three main cons to me about owning my mini farm:
Time commitment is large and neverending (even with one horse and two ponies on 24-7 turnout)
No one to ride with or talk to or to be around during potentially unsafe events
Zero ability to find a reliable farm sitter. My SO and I haven’t been out of town together in years.
Pros:
I can super micromanage my horses.
It’s very peaceful.
I am preparing to move in the next year and I truly cannot decide whether I really want to keep them at home again or board.
