I think it snows in TN. Far too cold. 
Sorry for the sidetrack. I couldn’t help myself
The heat here is dry heat in summer. The cold here in winter is dry cold. My TB horses live outdoors year round, because horses thrive in dry conditions, even in the cold. They go for a run together through the snow to warm up. No gut impactions, no navicular problems when horses are able to move 24/7. No stall mucking when horses live outdoors, no bedding expenses, no manure removal service fee. Just roll a round bale out on the snow for winter feeding, and check the heated auto waterer. Four distinct seasons, no hurricanes, no floods, some chance of forest fires but protected by fireguards and damp land and irritated fields. Enough of a breeze to keep the bugs down in summer. Really you guys… Think about it. Socialized health care in Canada too. I need a trail riding buddy, and you need to relocate (maybe). And they need to sell. Canadian dollar is currently LOW. Huge opportunity for you Americans.
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Hahaha I mean… I did the Wisconsin thing. That’s basically Canada, weather-wise. We moved south because I was so unhappy I cried more in one month than I have in the last 10 years. I threatened to leave and move in with my SO’s parents in Georgia 
. 100% weather related, partially because you get 4 seasons: Parking Lot Grit (aka “snow/ice”) season (can’t ride outside), Mud season (can’t ride outside), Bug season (can’t ride outside), and Autumn for two days (can ride outside! But it’s dark at 5pm).
As a person who thrives on sunlight and doesn’t tolerate the dark and cold well, my enjoyment of horses is tied to being as far south as possible - I’ll gladly ride early or late and sweat to death. That’s not to say someone else couldn’t handle it. Horse keeping gets exponentially more expensive the further north you go as well, if you have any plans to ride regularly or compete all year.
If I’m moving anywhere internationally, it’s europe and warm - more horsey and wayyyy better weather!
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You had my interest piqued until I looked up the listing and saw the price. Definitely not in my budget
For that price (ok maybe not exactly because of the exchange rate) there’s a stunning property in WA just NE of Seattle with TWO beautiful indoors and backs on to endless trails. I think it also had multiple dwellings but I’m fuzzy on the human accommodations. I tend to skim over that part when looking at listings (to my DH’s annoyance).
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Hey, they aren’t giving it away. But it has been priced much higher than this previously, laughabley high, this is their dropped price. It’s still overpriced for this area, for sure. But they are getting more desperate to sell it, and are going to have to take an offer to get it sold. Mr is 80 years old, and desperate to stop farming, with several health issues. Mrs is the one who is difficult to deal with, but does little of the farming work, and is younger, but also has health issues. If Mr dies, or has another stroke, things will get desperate in a hurry. No family to inherit. It will not sell for the current price. The Canadian dollar is just over 70% of the American dollar at the moment. Plus, the huge bonus of living in Canada!!! Very few mass shootings in Canada, especially in our little town.
I suspect the asking price may include farming equipment, tractors and haying equipment, AND possibly the herd of cows.
The real estate agent will pick you up at the Kamloops airport to take you to see the place… the snow is just coming off now. I suspect that the agency has a helicopter to do this. It would be fun!
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I saw that listing, that place is gorgeous.
Agree with everyone else, have your own farm!
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Dredging this up (I’m OP, so I think it’s allowed ).
I decided to crunch new numbers, since we have been partially settled here in NC for a few years. Our rental house is… special (owned by a faceless conglomerate, IYKYK) and we started thinking about purchasing again. I quite like where I’m boarding right now, it fits my needs, but a girl can dream!
Here is what I came up with:
- Hay, grain, shavings: $385/month/horse
- Labor ($15/hr, 1hr/horse/day): $450/month/horse
- Additional mortgage/taxes for farm vs house: $3800/month
This does not account for water/electric/maintenance, purchase of any farm equipment, arena, fencing, etc etc. Labor is both high (it doesn’t take an hour per horse where I’m at) and low (hard to get people to work for only a couple hours, and my time is worth more). I calculated that appropriate acreage in this area is approximately $400k more than a small home in town, and really it’s closer to $600k more. There aren’t many properties set up for horses (sub $1M, anyway), or even just… somewhat cleared.
It was quite a reality check! It would take more than five horses to make the numbers even out to board, and that’s without counting labor or the additional costs of running a farm. With both the SO and I working in-person full time, location becomes crucial which is very limiting.
I would see the SO more if the horses were home, and if I had an arena with even one security light I would ride more (BTDT), but the numbers hurt a bit . Not to mention all family is out of state, so I have… minimal help in a pinch.
The dream is shelved, for a bit, but not given up. I really don’t know how boarding barns that aren’t very bare bones or massive upscale training farms manage to stay afloat!
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I can commiserate / agree here. We had 2 horses at my parents house for the past almost 5 years. That farm was bought Oct 2019 pre-covid for under $300K (10 acres, barn with 4-5 stalls, another smaller workshop/ storage barn, some fencing, about half not cleared, no real flat area for riding though, on a lake and 5 min to the highway and a good shopping area, roughly 20 min to major metro). Same farm now is estimated at $500-600K (I think if listed it would be more though due to the land).
SO and I bought a non horsey home this year after spending ~ 13 months looking. We really really wanted a home with space for the horses. We are both remote so we looked at different states (admittedly horsey states, I didn’t want to be without good service providers) and in different areas and couldn’t find anything that wasn’t outrageous. It was a little mind blowing to realize buying a “regular” house and boarding would be cheaper at this time, in this market. If we had bought pre, or even early, covid it would be a different story IMO. It looks like the market is softening some in my area since we closed in May but lots of things are still up in the air until (if) new economic policies are made. I’m hoping rates drop enough to make a refi worth it. Our longer term plan is still to get land for the horses, but I worry that every year that goes by without buying land that it will only get exponentially more difficult. *
- While land and some farms exist in BFE, one of my considerations for any living space is that we be near an airport and level 1 trauma center. Horses are dangerous, farms are dangerous, and I seem to have some undiagnosed issue that effects HR so having high quality medical care without needing a Life Flight is important to me.
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Yeah, it still feels like “oh, you didn’t buy property with your lunch money in 2008? Guess you’ll rent forever!” 
The market is softening a bit - I’m still seeing houses listed at insane COVID prices, but they’re sitting. I imagine it’s hard to get sellers to realize their house isn’t worth that much anymore, and almost everyone who WAS going to buy at those prices already has!
Our issue is low inventory, mainly. With the added restriction of a commute and no desire to build the house from scratch. We don’t need fancy, but I don’t want to live in a manufactured home either. So, renting and boarding it is - for now!
I also realized that there is no point to having the horses home without an arena. The weather is getting more and more unpredictable everywhere, which makes keeping a horse fit without footing really tough. That adds easily $50k of build cost or narrows the pool even further! If I’m going to have to haul out to ride every time, I might as well board and save the gas.
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Some of us bought horse farms for our two or more horses for reasons other than money. There is the pleasure of having the creatures around full time and the bond established is really different than that which can be achieved in a boarding barn.
Then there is the worry and aggravation that can go with boarding. That is a topic much discussed on COTH forums.
I boarded at a couple of places where I really worried about the physical conditions I had no control over. This is one of them. You can bet your ass my own barn has wiring that is up to code
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Oh believe me, I know it is usually done for other reasons than money! If money was no object, they’d be home.
It is just wild how expensive it has gotten to keep horses in general, and small hobby farms specifically! It used to be cheaper to keep them at home (in some ways), but now it appears it will be astronomically more expensive - but perhaps necessary as boarding barns shut down. That, or I’ll have to get out of horses entirely.
It really just depends on your lifestyle and the compromises you can accept. That hasn’t changed - but the cost of property certainly has.
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Not only expensive, but frustrating as you can’t get help, or vets or farriers or feed or bedding or, or, resources when you are a few animals operation just are not easy to get, piecemeal as it may be.
Vets and farriers and feed stores lose time with single/few animal owners, need volume to be worth buying what most want, keeping inventory is very expensive, etc.
A small animal vet can see several patients an hour and get paid about the same he can charge for seeing one or two horses in that time, much less travel to get where those horses are, compared with people bringing their small pets to the clinic.
We had one horse vet start a small vet clinic in the front and it took over, hired other vets to tend to that, a thriving business, the horse clients took so much more time and were maxed at what he could charge.
So, horses at home are wonderful for the soul, but that they also can be kind of hard to manage has to be considered.
At least at home you don’t have to second guess if they are taken care of best possible way, you know how you are managing.
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Absolutely agree. I struggle with maintenance because of not being handy or growing up learning how to use tools but am slowly learning. Also, the previous owner let a lot of things deteriorate for years, so there’s lots of “backlog” to deal with, although the barn is in good condition, albeit with an idiotically, dangerously low overhang outside the runs 
.
But, for the reasons 2Dogs mentioned (I had to look up BSC on Urban Dictionary–so true), no way would I ever go back to boarding. And, the quality of care is much better. And, the fact that I can keep 3 horses for what boarding would cost for one goes a long way to defray the increased RE taxes. The house is small so taxes on 10 acres actually aren’t that much higher than for a standard house in a suburb.
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Not to mention, honestly, even with having the farm at home with an arena, I ride way less. Especially now, because hey it’s finally dry enough to mow or do some other outside task. I ride less but I don’t regret it AT ALL. Because ew people.
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We had four kids that we wanted them to have the opportunity to have a horse, we found land inside the city where it once was a common place for the residents to have horses.
My friends thought we were nuts to spend all that money on the horses (we had nine horses at one time, still have seven), but our kids did well with their horses often sharing with their friends. It was a normal day to find our kids with some of their friends riding, doing ground work or just brushing the horses.
Our youngest “kid” is now 39, she lives nearby and is out at the barn now working with her two horses, The weanling is now a two year old who wants to do everything his adopted sister Lexie does he is well over 15h headed to 16h, she sort of puts up with him but shows him she is boss.
Oldest daughter also lives nearby has her daughters’ seven goats here, her girls have trained their goats to do lot tricks even took four of the goats to Hollywood for a TV show to show off their tricks
We have no problem with vets, farrier or feed/hay as all are nearby or will deliver since we are just a few miles from the regional Purina feed mill.
The value of this land is now valued by the square foot which makes me very wealthy on paper. By an unexpected turn of events we basically got this place for free as the drilling rights for oil and natural gas exceeded what we paid for the place, plus there are the production royalty checks
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I have a farm and still board out one. It is hard for me to get people to come out to the farm for lessons, training ride, etc. Farrier and Vet are a little bit easier - they are just excited I have a heated and cooled bathroom and hot water.
For what I’m paying for board and training, I could have another 3-4 horses at home, depending on how easy keepers they are. But I love the access to trainers. I work from home and it’s nice to get away for a couple of hours from the projects to somewhere the only goal is to ride.
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I’m not sure it was ever cheaper to keep horses at home when you factor in the cost of infrastructure.
But the current financial climate certainly isn’t helping anything.
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My dream was always to have my own place. I bought it in 2017. I have a lovely small farm, with a higher end barn (4 stalls), arena, hay storage, pasture and lovely runs off the stalls. I do not have an indoor arena and you really need one where I live. For hay/shavings/grain/electric/help (5 mornings a week), maintenance–without considering mortgage and insurance–it cost me about $800 per horse per month. I am now boarding out this winter and giving my body a rest. I don’t think I’ll go back. Keeping them at home is a lot of work and I had so much anxiety from not being able to do it all while I worked a full time job. It costs more to board out, but probably even if I figure in the mortgage and insurance…
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I ran the numbers my senior year of high school, and at that time it WAS cheaper to keep 3 horses at home and haul out to lessons and shows instead of board them in a mid level show barn. Not a top of the line “goes to WEF every year” barn, but a local A type place. At that time, it was practical to not have an arena because the weather cooperated except for a couple months in the winter when the holidays made it hard to ride anyway.
Property value has skyrocketed since then. The minimum number of horses to make it “practical” has gone up. Also, it’s becoming almost required to have a covered down here in the SE if you want to run a program - and a graded, properly footed ring at home if you want a horse to be fit to show. It alternates between extreme drought and flood here these days.
This is also a factor. Location becomes crucial then too - if you’re close to the office it’s easier to squeeze in (the retiree is right now, they usually swing by on the way out or back as first or last appointment of the day). Same for hay and feed delivery, if you’re next to a big operation or just down the street they’re more willing. Finding someone to hold or getting off work to do it is another issue, but that’s not new 
.
However, I’m not a great boarder at least for a “program”. I know just a bit too much, ask too many questions, and demand a certain level of care for my horses - I’ll provide it, or pay extra, and I always ask these questions before moving in, but man the number of times where clearly I’m on a different page as to “12 hours of turnout” or “unlimited hay”… I also do glue-on shoes myself. Which is a point of contention in some places (imo, a bit dumb. I could just hang a shingle and call myself a farrier with the same amount of training as I have now…).
Anyway, I’m so lucky with the place I’m at right now. It has some major compromises, but my BO and I align in the important ways and my horses are happy. I’d ride more if they were home (remember I’ve run barns before, while also working or going to college), and I’d probably see the SO more. But, I just don’t see it as practical right now.
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Yeah, I’m seeing this is probably true!
