Getting our own place vs boarding - with specifics

[rulex]

@TheJenners

I wonder if the posters who say they have horses at home but still ride 5x a week also work FT and if so, if they are remote?

Yes FT remote worker. In the winter when daylight hours are short I start early so I finish at 3. I pick my paddocks on my lunch break so that after work I can get a ride in before it gets too dark. If I have a weeknight lesson I end up riding home when it’s getting dark, but it’s a short walk along a quiet road and I’ve got all the reflective high viz gear.

I also have a very efficient set up. Horses are turned out full time with a shelter and auto water. I don’t use my stalls.

I will say I don’t miss having a barn commute one bit and that was a real time sink. I used to leave straight after work and not get home until 8:30-9pm. Now I can get a ride in and have chores done and night feed prepped by around 5pm and feel like I still have my whole evening.

[B-burg_Dressage]

AM Chores:
Dump feed in stalls. Old man gets a pill with his but thankfully just gobbles it up–no crushing or soaking required.
I open the door and the horses go into their respective stalls. Change the blanket on the youngster as needed. Old man is naked unless it’s below 10F.
Feed the cats.
Pick any poop in the run-in shed or on the rocked part of my lot.
Grab a couple flakes of hay and walk to open pasture gate. Toss hay.
Let the horses back out and I’m done for the morning. 15-20 minutes.

PM Chores:
Dump feed in stalls supplements included, but still no soaking.
Let the horses in. Sometimes I have to go out and call them, but they’re usually close knowing I’m out there to feed them. No halters or leading in required. Change blanket if needed while eating.
Rarely any poop to pick since they’ve been in the pasture. Muck bucket emptied into larger wheelbarrow that I only take out to dump when it’s full (maybe a weekend task).
Feed cats.
Put hay in a few places in the lot. Close the gate.
Usually go check the mail since the youngster is still eating.
Let them out for the night. 15-20 minutes.

I have a large tank for water, so I dump/scrub that when it gets low about 1-2x a week. It fills while I do the other parts of chores.
I rake up the hay area as I finish a bale every other day, but takes less than a minute each time since I stay on top of it.
I tend to sweep my grooming area when I actually groom the horses since it’s usually just hoof pickings.

Neither horse eats a lot of feed. Everything is set up close so I’m not walking all over my property to catch horses. I wash my feed buckets maybe once a year, but they don’t get dirty (maybe because I don’t have to soak feed?). I also don’t generally use hay nets.

I think having two easy horses helps. I think my setup helps. I hate when I have to stall because of ice. Dealing with filling water buckets in stalls. And picking stalls. And having enough poop from that to have to dump every day. That all definitely adds up really quickly.

[B-burg_Dressage]

I used to be remote 3 days/week. Was a lot easier to fit things in. Was also a LOT easier before I had a kid. Still manage to play with my riding horse plenty.

Wake up at 5:30 or 6:00 (depending on whether I want to fit in a strength workout before work). Feed horses/get ready/get my kid ready. Leave the house by 7:00. Work 8:00-4:00. Some days I will run after work and pick up my kid after. Other days I’ll rush home to play with my horse before dark (obviously this is all easier in the summer). Always get 2 days on the weekend. And can easily get 2 more days during the week. It gets dark here around 5:30 in the dead of winter and I have a half hour commute.

Will concede a very flexible schedule and the ability to sometimes work remote. Farrier came at 11 yesterday and I worked remote. No one at work has ever questioned “I have an appointment”. Maybe that’s a vet appointment, maybe it’s a doctor appointment.

[FromTheGalaxy]

I live in the midwest, work full time with a 30 min commute each way, and have pretty much given up being able to ride during the week in winter. Daylight hours are super constricting, and even though I usually work 8-4, by the time I get home and finish chores (typically 30-45 mins in the evenings) I have lost daylight. I don’t have an indoor or lights on my outdoor, and honestly during the winter the outdoor is usually either too wet or frozen to ride in anyway. I could haul out and I used to haul to a local indoor ring to ride more often, but my current riding horse does not do well with frequent travel. And honestly, I don’t mind giving them a break for a couple months when the weather tends to be nasty and I don’t feel much like riding anyway!

[EventingMaff]

I’m part-way through this experience – having bought the property (and moved in), but not brought the horse(s) home yet or even really started the prepping process in earnest yet.

A few things that deviate in our situation versus yours:

• I am quite social and barn community is a big source for me (especially since I now WFH 3-4 days a week, so less colleague in-person time). So I’m not rushing to lose that social contact
• We have small children so lots of competing demand for my time / energy, right now boarding works really well for me
• Real estate around here (New England) is insanity, but in my specific area the price point for what we wanted with semi-complete equestrian set up wasn’t actually much different from houses without
• I have plenty of experience working in barns but not barn maintenance (or even overseeing maintenance), so I have doubts on my capabilities
• I have no interest in maintaining an arena, so our ‘bring horses home’ vision is contingent on them being happy hackers and me being willing & ready to step away from sport / performance riding

That being said, boarding prices around here are getting scary high with no real sign of slowing down. I genuinely don’t understand how most people are doing it. 6 years ago when I bought my mare prices were still such that I figured with our salaries we could afford the care level I wanted…that’s becoming less true as even quite basic boarding options tip over $1500 monthly.

We’ll likely spend the next 5ish years slowly prepping the property for horses, but we’re not rushing. Working FT, having small kids, learning our way into caring for a larger property (even without horses!) are all reasons we’re taking our time.

However, when we were purchasing a home it was a priority for me that it gave us the optionality to bring horses home EVENTUALLY because I look at the way the market is headed around here and it’s increasingly shifting to 1) more expensive 2) highly program-centric 3) consolidating to larger barns with greater emphasis on staff convenience over horse lifestyle (turnout times, sizes, etc). It felt to me like an inflection point is in my future of either I find a new hobby or find a way to bring it home. I hope I’m wrong, but buying the property let me hedge my bets

[Limitless]

I’m also in New England, and I’m glad I made the decision to have a property where I can have horses at home (well, maybe not so much in January!). My concern is that there are numerous boarding barns in my area are owned by folks who will be aging out shortly. And no one able to either purchase the property ($$$$$$), or quite frankly, from what I’ve seen and heard, have the wherewithal and business background to successfully run a horse business. I see a lot of young people moving their lesson/training business yearly from one leased property to another. It’s been hard to find a place to board one horse for a few months in the winter lately, and fair enough, if I’m not a client. I’ve been able to luck into a nice place for a couple years, but I can’t count on that for the future, and I’m seriously considering building my own indoor arena to enjoy. I know we won’t get the money back in property value, but we don’t have kids and I can’t take it with me!

[luvmyhackney]

@TheJenners

I wonder if the posters who say they have horses at home but still ride 5x a week also work FT and if so, if they are remote?

I work remote and still can’t make it work riding 5 days a week. I can do 4 days max due to kids activities.

I think I need a slower/easier job to make it work as I’m busy from 7:30 when I log on till 4 when I log off to run kids around till 6. I take a normal hour for lunch, but I actually eat.

I don’t have lights so unless it’s summer I’m not riding after work and riding in a 1 hour window rushes me. So before work is really it for me.

[clanter]

@Limitless

and I’m seriously considering building my own indoor arena to enjoy. I know we won’t get the money back in property value, but we don’t have kids and I can’t take it with me!

if it made tall enough that a future use could be RV/bus storage its value could easily be greater than as a riding arena

[NancyM]

A Coverall (now called “Spanmaster”) can be sold and moved to another location for a new owner if you sell the property to someone who has no value or use for an arena. Metal framed building, tarp cover. More expensive now than when we got ours, but still far cheaper than building a stick frame. Light comes through the tarp, no need for lighting for daytime riding.

[Alterration]

@NancyM

A Coverall (now called “Spanmaster”) can be sold and moved to another location for a new owner if you sell the property to someone who has no value or use for an arena. Metal framed building, tarp cover. More expensive now than when we got ours, but still far cheaper than building a stick frame. Light comes through the tarp, no need for lighting for daytime riding.

Does that make it count as a temporary building then? Does that have an impact on getting permits?

[PaddockWood]

Are you horses out on pasture 24/7? That would be a huge time savings right there. I don’t have that. I have PPID, high insulin, PSSM2. All the fun diagnoses. So huge dry lot and muzzling out on grass. My last acquisition came in w FEC of 2100 so picked my fields since his arrival in early 2022. Never stopped doing it - my two are on 4 acres.

So I have to clean my dry lot - raking after wind and hay blowing etc. Hay clean up where they pull it and it lays. I also stuff hay nets and that takes time.

I soak beet pulp shred and feed wet and just feeding takes 5 minutes at least - each meal.

And you said less than $500/mo for two horses and that’s all in - all expenses. Just the other day - board certified dental practice - $735 - two floats and did have two molar extractions.

[Libby2563]

@awaywego

@Libby2563 am I reading that correctly that are you shipping in for lessons 3 days/week? I am feeling very pleased with myself when I can pull off 1 day/week How far do you go - and do you go after work?

Ack no, sorry! I see how you read it that way but it’s only twice a week. Tues dressage lesson on one horse and Thur jump lesson on the other. Ride both Wed at home, so the middle of my week is busiest. Dressage is 15 min away and 45 min long, plus 10-15 min walk warm-up. Jumping is 20 min away and 30 min long with 15-20 min warm-up. Those days I try to work earlier so I can get to lessons at 4/4:30 if possible. It’s almost the shortest day of the year and this Tues it was only just getting dark when I got home, so driveway-to-driveway dressage lessons only take about 1.5 hours if I don’t hack out afterwards. I would hate to do it with longer drives though.

Also, I do suck it up and do flatwork in the dark. It’s rarely completely dark in the early evening, and I have good night vision. I’m just finishing a ride now and this is my view:

I put the wrong gloves on and can’t feel my fingers, but the arena isn’t frozen, so here we are. Today turned into a two-ride Friday because I only rode one yesterday (work plus quality time with hubby) and might only be able to ride one tomorrow (work again).

[NancyM]

I don’t know about permits. I do not remember getting one for our arena. But we are kinda remote. We got a permit for building the house. You will have to look into it. Contact a company near you who deals with Spanmaster, and they will know these things.

[endlessclimb]

It is not considered temporary for the purposes of permits anywhere around here.

I mean, technically a barn can be taken down and moved. It has to do with how it’s anchored to the ground, and those coverall structures most certainly have anchors. Big ones.

[Bluey]

Several metal large agricultural barns here, one 150’ x 300’, have been unscrewed and frame unbolted and moved to another place.
It didn’t take them long to move them, but is not very common.

Decades ago when the original Coverall came out, they asked us to be representatives for our area.
They were practically the same costs as metal barns, when you figure all, site, footings, labor and materials and insurance was questionable.
They were considered portable, not permanent structures.

After talking to a civil engineer, we decided against it because of our high constant winds, that would wear the cover sooner than the 25 year guarantee.
The few that have been tried in our region are not up any more.

[endlessclimb]

The footing anchors will make them permanent around here. To be temporary, it would have to be on skids.

[awaywego]

@Libby2563

only twice a week.

I’m impressed! Especially at this time of year! I really think I will try someone closer to me because the hour each way shipping is a real killer.

[B-burg_Dressage]

My vet/dental for the year was just shy of $2000. Luckily no major issues/injuries this year.
$400 for spring vaccinations/coggins/fecals
$1000 for fall vaccinations/dental
$600 for dewormer/meds/misc.

Final approx. numbers this year (assuming no emergency in the next two days) are:
$2000 vet/dental
$2000 feed/shavings (this includes hay/fertilizer/farm sitting/sold hay/shavings/alf pellets)
$925 farrier
$0 supplements (I buy in bulk and happened to not have any hit this year. Unusual but next bucket is on its way in January)
$315 misc. equipment
$855 lessons/shows (old horse and baby horse = no showing currently)

Picking dry lot and pasture would add a tremendous amount of time. I just pick the run-in and the gravel part of my lot as needed.

[PaddockWood]

Me too. If I can have a year without major dental problems my numbers are similar to yours. Except 2025 does have me starting a track system w a surfaced “track” and fencing that I’m budgeting so far at $25k. Beans and rice. Beans and rice.

Oh I could travel the world if it weren’t for my horses but cannot imagine a day without them.

[Miss_Motivation]

This is a great thread- fun to revisit it after a year or two’s time.

Having experienced almost every combination of housekeeping there is, conversations like this are really important to help people get a better-than-ground-level view of what considerations made a difference in their planning for housekeeping.

My suggestion would be to really, really do your homework, and to set up a spreadsheet based on all the factors you can think of, and all the ones that come to light in threads like these. Divide the research into tangible (costs for everything including time value of commuting and/or cleaning stalls!) and intangible (your lifestyle, your SO, your health your proclivity to ride by yourself or your preference to ride with barn buddies, etc etc) factors and see where you come out.

I do want to make a comment about costs in California, since that’s where I live. Yes, it’s fairly high cost of living here but don’t forget to give value to generally great weather, and- significantly- quite low property taxes for the most part. These are examples of my ‘extending thinking’ that are great to at least try to capture on a spreadsheet, because you really can’t compare apples to apples when it comes to horses… you compare apples to kumquats and then do a lot of massaging the data after you get done with all the obvious fruit!

Another factor to consider is the peripherals- that is, what lifestyle changes you can foresee in the next year/five years/10 years/20 years depending on your current age. For example, if you’re working now but looking at retirement within, say, 5-10 years chances are quite good that your horselife is going to change a lot with your change in work commitments .For some that might mean wanting to be at your own place to raise a foal or do more trail riding, but for others that might mean continuing to board with lots of travel an important aspect of your retirement years.

I’m pretty happy having given up my 60 horse barn in SoCal (and selling that property for a lot, which was my original masterplan when I bought it almost 20 years ago) and now living in a funky/cool little horse community with a bunch of retired-ish horsegals like me to hang around with and ride with. I keep my one horse next door in the community equestrian center which gives me the best of both worlds but this is an unusual place and I looked for a very long time to find it.

I would not have been interested in living here ten years ago, but I sold my businesses and retired, and really don’t care about showing much any more (we have little shows right here) so this suits me now. By formulating a 5/10/20 year plan about ten years ago, I am right on track for what I guessed I would want/need at this point. Yes, I still have the spreadsheets!

It’s wonderful to have your horses at home. It’s also wonderful to NOT have your horses at home!