[QUOTE=mvp;7769233]
A friend of mine who is a guru of slowly studying and then manifesting great businesses has encouraged me to look into doing equine retirement. And my own beloved gelding now in Total First World Hospice Care is teaching me about this, too.
So I’m looking for a clue from you retirement farm owners about your business plans.
How many acres needed?
We allow two acres per horse
Knowing how much it costs to build and fence, did you look for a place that as somewhat developed?
No, we wanted to be able to lay out and build everything as we wanted it. We bought bare land that didn’t even have a perimeter fence. Unless the fence had been four board wood in great shape we would have had to go to the time and expense to tear it out.
What kind of higher-end horse community did you need (and how close) in order to have your place full/financially viable?
We have horses retired with us from 15 states and two Canadian provinces. However we still needed to be in a very “horsey” area to have access to the quality of vet care and farrier care we we wanted.
Does the business honestly pay its way-- at least the difference between the cost of living on that farm vs. a mortgage on a place you’d live in town?
That really depends on a lot of things, but yes it can.
Or is this business for someone with some family money/land or who would subsidize the horse hobby that was taking care of oldsters?
That always helps in any business, not just horses, but it isn’t a requirement. My husband and I both worked off farm jobs for several years in order to “float” the retirement farm. We don’t now but I did it for several years.
Any differences between running a retiree place and a place with foal pastures? I ask this last one because my own colt grew up on a farm that did both. I’m a big believer in horses growing up with others, but foal pastures can be hard to find. Perhaps there’s a market need for that?
I have no valid input as we’ve never boarded anything other than retirees
Add whatever else you’d like. I do recall reading here about pricing things out and having a plan for collecting board from absentee HOs.
Many thanks![/QUOTE]
We vet our clients carefully and are not afraid to say no to someone, in fact we say it more often than we say yes. We don’t allow anyone to get behind on board. Our board is due on the 1st and if for some reason we don’t have payment by the 10th you are hearing from us. Given the heavy interviewing we do as we vet prospective clients this is rarely a problem.
IME most horses become special needs at some point. Some are well up in age before this happens but it generally happens at some point. Don’t get caught up in the fantasy of looking at the pretty ponies grazing. It is a lot of hard work to provide proper care to the retirees here. We feed lots of hay cube mashes, feed a lot of prascend pills, do a lot of body clipping, etc. Some horses need minimal blanketing and others need really aggressive blanketing. I work 8 or 9 hours on a light day and typically about 10-12 hours on a normal day. I spent 8 days away from the farm and work total out of the last 365. Weekends, what are they?!
Some of our residents do a lot better in the summer, especially the ones with arthritis. Others do better in the winter. Several of the Cushings horses have issues with regulating body temperature. Some run overly hot so do better in winter, some overly cold and summer is easier for them. So I don’t think you can pick any climate and call it perfect for horses. They are all individuals.
You absolutely cannot cut corners on feed. You need good feed and good hay. My husband is a large animal nutritionist so he comes in really handy for designing individual nutrition programs. :yes:
Horse care and facility maintenance is not the whole job. Customer care will take as much time as horse care, and even more time when their horse is a new arrival. So when you think about time and labor you need to think about more than just horse/facility care. Not to mention the bookkeeping and such.
It is a very rewarding job. We have gotten to know some really amazing horses and people over the years. It makes the never ending work days and lack of time off worth it, but you need to really LOVE it. We often hear from people who are frantically searching for a place to move their horse because the people who owned the current place thought it would be fun to board retirees and have a few companions for their horse. But then they decided after awhile that it is actually a lot of work and tell their handful of boarders they have to be gone in X days. We hear some variation of this story a LOT when people contact us about boarding. It is very rewarding but it is work.
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