Getting our own place vs boarding - with specifics

[mvp]

Buy the place to keep your horses at home.

IMO, boarding has been quietly getting worse for a long time. It seems to me that in the last 5 or so years, the complaints about it (from both sides of the biz) are getting worse and less fixable. There is no money in that business and when that’s true, everyone who is in it hates it.

I would not have advised anyone in any situation to try to bring their horses home 10 years ago. But that would be my general advice today as I don’t see the boarding industry (in general) ever getting better.

[ProfessionalAmateur]

If you can swing it, buy the property and keep your horses at home. The reality is, good boarding is tough to find, and isn’t going to get more plentiful. It doesn’t have to be a dream farm to give both you and your horses the experience and care you want. It IS harder, from a riding standpoint, if you don’t have the facilities - but the tradeoff is 100% worth it. Set your “away” routine up so a willing but non-horsey person can manage, and have a local horse friend on call they can reach out to in a pinch.

It’s a leap, but it is so much fun to set up your new place exactly how you want. And your horses will thrive. You’ll never want to go back to boarding!

[fivestrideline]

Y’all are the best enablers. I do know that DIY is never actually cheaper for one or two horses. With a retiree/trail horse, shopping for an 8-17 YO packer to have fun with, and a desire for a nice baby horse, I think I’m well on my way to benign hoarder status

Boarding is getting so so tough. I can afford something “nice” but have yet to find that magical combination of good facility, 24/7 or close to it turnout, barn hours that work for me, and availability of good pros (or being allowed to haul out). I’ll gladly pay out the nose, but it’s nearly non-existent. So… house shopping. Which is its own brand of hell, I’m finding!

[rulex]

@fivestrideline

I do know that DIY is never actually cheaper for one or two horses

Yup, the math actually doesn’t make sense at all. I’m also actively looking for property simply because finding decent board has become impossible.

I figure roughly speaking I’m probably going to spend the equivalent of 30-40 years worth of board for 1 horse to get a horse property above what I would need to spend for a house in town. This doesn’t even include consumable expenses like hay, shavings, repairs and labour.

Now if I get another 2-3 horses, then that’s 10 years worth of board for it to be worthwhile. Horse math!

[Bluey]

@rulex

Yup, the math actually doesn’t make sense at all. I’m also actively looking for property simply because finding decent board has become impossible.

I figure roughly speaking I’m probably going to spend the equivalent of 30-40 years worth of board for 1 horse to get a horse property above what I would need to spend for a house in town. This doesn’t even include consumable expenses like hay, shavings, repairs and labour.

Now if I get another 2-3 horses, then that’s 10 years worth of board for it to be worthwhile. Horse math!

Not really worth if you only need and can use one horse.

[fivestrideline]

@rulex

Now if I get another 2-3 horses, then that’s 10 years worth of board for it to be worthwhile. Horse math!

Horse math, indeed! My favorite type of math

[endlessclimb]

That’s why it’s horse math.

If anything about messing about with a 1400# animal was logical, no one would do it.

We’re all nuts.

[clanter]

@rulex

I figure roughly speaking I’m probably going to spend the equivalent of 30-40 years worth of board for 1 horse to get a horse property above what I would need to spend for a house in town.

the offset is the increased value of the land, we are on under three aces in the very middle of the city, center lot of fifteen of acreage, five behind us, five in front and two on either side so we are in a just under forty acre track that has attracted a lot of reinvestment interest…and we hold the key section. The land is valued by the square foot not acre.

There are several things that make this workable for having horses and livestock, there is a feed store close by plus nearly any feed store will deliver here since we are about four miles from the regional Purina horse feed mill (only horse products are produced there)

Another positive was we owned the mineral rights. It was discovered there is at lest three pockets of natural gas and one pool of oil under the horses’ pasture

[Jarpur]

IME, this depends heavily on what facilities you will require, and where you are located.

For example, in my climate, an indoor (or even covered) arena is not a necessity, and my arena only needed to be dressage-sized with sand footing. My horses are on the small size, so 12 x 12 stalls are plenty big. The weather here allows me to have a matted outdoor wash area, rather than an indoor wash stall, and so forth.

I did calculate possible payback on our facilities before taking the plunge, which was nowhere near 30 or 40 years – more like ten, partially because of where we chose to spend money, or not, and partially because I had multiple horses to move home. However, I quickly came to realize just how much I was saving in fuel plus wear and tear on my vehicle (because we found a convenient location, I discovered that I was driving 11,000 miles/year less!!) which I hadn’t considered when making initial calculations.

When combined with the fact that boarding costs meanwhile were steadily rising, these two factors cut years off the time it took to break even on our horse-related improvements. I only have two horses nowadays, but I’m still glad that I have them at home; it remains a very financially sound choice for me, considering current boarding costs in this area, and the distance at which those barns are located.

[rulex]

Agree it depends on location. But the math that worked for you x years ago isn’t applicable today. The price of everything skyrocketed during Covid. The other day someone was incredulous at how much I spent on my trailer when their custom ordered 2H Hawk only cost them 15k. Good luck getting a brand new custom trailer at that price today.

I will concede that I didn’t take into account the inevitable increase in board prices over time, but I was just trying to illustrate that on a financial basis alone it’s considerably more expensive to buy a horse property than board.

The going rate for putting in an outdoor in my area is 25-30k for the base and sand alone. That’s assuming you’re starting with a relatively flat and clear area. Doesn’t include fencing which is probably another 10-15k. I can pay board for 3-4 years just for the price of putting in an arena.

[Jarpur]

I agree that things are much more expensive today – I was aghasted at how much a friend paid for a few hundred feet of fence last year!

[fivestrideline]

Let’s do some fun math, if only for discussion. This doesn’t take into account a lot of variables between barns like extra fees or facility benefits.

Boarding one horse
Monthly: $1330-$1530

• Regular board in my area: $650-$850
• Gas to ride 5-6x/week: $420 (training rides cost similar, since I live far from most good barns and can’t always ride that often)
• Lessons (required): $260

Yearly: $16,000-$18,400

This obviously doesn’t take into account the trips to the farrier/feed store/trailer payment etc etc that I would do regardless.

Right now a house in an acceptable part of town, closer to work, is going for the same price as flat clear acreage (3-7ac) with a small but acceptable house on it. For horse ready, you’re looking at about $200,000-$300,000 more.

So, a 10-20 year return on investment makes sense, considering I assume the renovation and purchase of equipment to get started on a farm is going to cancel out the “board” of the necessary companion/additional horse for a year or two. The more horses (within reason), the quicker that number equals out. Considering the climate here means you can ride almost year round in a well drained grassy area, the necessary “improvements” to a place are relatively minor.

[fivestrideline]

Obviously I don’t have good solid numbers for maintaining a horse property to compare, but I do already buy hay and grain, haul out for appointments, and own truck/trailer and enough gear to start a lesson barn.

The value of the type of care I can offer my horses myself, plus the value of seeing them out my window, is high (I used to live in the barn apartment at several places, 1000% the best part was drinking coffee and watching horses graze through the morning fog). However, daily yard work and purchasing tractors and scheduling appointments/farm sitters are detractors.

Pros and cons to everything.

[Texarkana]

I think I speak for most of us farm owners on COTH when I say knowing your horses are guaranteed good care is the trade off for the astronomical amount of money you hemorrhage into a farm.

[rulex]

@fivestrideline

For horse ready, you’re looking at about $200,000-$300,000 more.

I figure in my area a horse ready property (if you can be lucky enough to find one) is min 400,000k more than a decent house in a nice part of town.

Like anything, you are paying for the freedom to do what you want.

Horse trailer math is the same thing. Between a tow vehicle and trailer you could instead pay for a lot of hauling. But then you are at the mercy of someone else’s schedule.

[FromTheGalaxy]

100% this. I hadn’t realized how much of a control freak I had become since moving my horses home in 2019 until I had to temporarily board my broodmare at a foaling facility. I mostly trust that they are taking proper care of her, but I dropped her off with printed feeding instructions, pre-made meals, and everything labeled. When I showed up one day and saw she had her cribbing collar on when she wasn’t supposed to, I had to take a few mins to make sure my text to the manager was polite and not rude and assuming lol. I really don’t trust anyone else to take care of my horses the way I would anymore.

[lenapesadie]

Our purchase price was very comparable to a home in town. We have a small acreage and the house is smaller than what we would have bought in town. Our house was completely renovated prior to our purchase so we’ve had zero costs in house stuff so far.

I think I’m at roughly $30k in horse improvements so far. Barn, fencing and footing for the dry lot and “loafing” areas. The footing is new as of last week! I anticipate spending another 10k or so over the next 5 or so years to get to “complete”. That future budget includes more footing so I’ll have an “arena”. Which isn’t strictly necessary as I mentioned before but would be nice to have.

Our property has already increased in value beyond what I’ve invested in horse improvements. While houses in neighborhoods have also increased in value, my horse math says I’m still ahead regarding what we’ve spent in this place versus what it’s worth.

I bought a very old but reliable tractor and a plethora of implements (mix of new and used). Total cost around 7k. I think I could resell (if I had to) and get the majority of my money back. I can hire out work that needs a bigger tractor w FEL / grappler cheaper than I can rent the equipment. Mr LS has traded mechanic work with neighbors for skidsteer and excavator work.

We paid like $600 for the gas powered golf cart with utility bed. Resurrected and maintained with minimal parts cost ($100 tops) and Mr. LS blessed mechanic skills I may buy a side by side this year with a dump bed (used and abused, not new).

Obviously if a person needs or wants to spend more money on arena, barn, equipment etc those expenses can add up very fast and totally change the maths but for us horse keeping at home has been financially reasonable and added joy to our lives.

[eponacelt]

@FromTheGalaxy

I hadn’t realized how much of a control freak I had become since moving my horses home in 2019 until I had to temporarily board my broodmare at a foaling facility.

I just got home from 5 weeks in Wellington with my horse. It was amazing. My trainer’s facility and care is amazing. For Florida, the turnout was super. And I was still vaguely unhappy with not being the one to care for my horse every day. I didn’t realize how used to knowing every little detail I’d become over the past 13 years of horse ownership.

And to the person who did math on board, I just did my own. Stall board at an average facility in my area would be $700/mo. For 2 horses, that’s $16,800 per year. If you just subtract out the cost of hay, grain and bedding I spend on annually, I’m still at about $10K per year for board on 2 horses. So, over the past 13 years, I’ve “saved” $130K. Now I know a lot of time and effort and other money has gone into the farm, but we have a lot of equity here now, and I think that’s worth it.

[FromTheGalaxy]

Not to mention, at least in my area, I can buy much better quality hay and grain than what is fed at most boarding facilities and still save money. I was having to purchase my own grain and some hay when I boarded because the amounts and quality fed were not up to my standards.

[Tarlo_Farm]

In case no one else mentioned it, you will likely have difficulties with only two horses if you want to take one away. So that means a third horse or a goat, or maybe a cow.