I’ve been following these forums for a few years now (mostly interested in hunting) but I see so many references to “barn rules” and “trainer issues” etc, and I am so curious as to how the whole horse ownership thing works over there. (I am in New Zealand). It seems as though “trainers” or barn managers have quite a bit of say in how things are done with your horses. It is so different to here, and I’d love to be a bit more educated. =)
Each barn I boarded in had their own rules. 2 things that come to mind that were usually written in stone were 1) hay amount fed 2) turnout time. If children were allowed, there were more rules. Each barn had their own personality
depending on the BO and the boarders. Some BO’s are rigid about how they operate and you have very little input on how
your horse is handled. Other, more laid back BO’s were much more flexible. Have no info on trainer issues.
1 Like
Barn rules are pretty standard but vary somewhat from place to place. I would think that in full care barns the day to day management the BO or BM has much more say in how things are done with your horses (no personal experience- can’t afford those :)). My barn is essentially self care with the BO feeding and turnout or bringing in from pasture in the AM. We supply all grain and hay. She is pretty hands off unless someone is doing something that justifiably upsets other boarders (like people who don’t bring their horses in with some kind of restraint even if it’s only a neck rope and the horses get loose and take the barn tour-or dangerous-or unsupervised kids etc. etc.). Usually those people get the boot. She is really reasonable and is very helpful in her response to requests or questions about horse care. I love it here! A big plus- all of the pain in the a** boarders are gone now and we are pretty drama free!
1 Like
There are all kinds of barns. Some very strict with rules out the ying yang, ranging to very laid back (too laid back?). If you have your horse in training with a trainer, then yes, the trainer may be in charge. Or it may be more of a mutual agreement thing, depending on the ability/personality of the owner. Depends on the two parties. I find some people want to own a horse they can’t ride (or they are encouraged by a trainer to buy it as the trainer has designs on riding the horse) and they put it in training and the trainer benefits and the owner rides once in a while. Or they think they can ride this wonderful or not so wonderful horse and it’s just not a good match and they need help.
But I think the more common scenario is a barn where people have their horses and do their own thing. There may or may not be an involved BO or trainer there and they may have their own instructor come in. Or no instructors, just riding for fun. It’s all over the place.
1 Like
Land prices are so high and commute distances so long that probably most people who live and work in big North American cities or suburbs are going to have to keep their horses in full board and not visit every day.
At the upper end are training barns for a specific discipline where you put your horse in full board training and lessons for you, and the barn organizes trips to horse shows and of course charges you for horse care at the show venue.
I think this kind of control by the trainer is most common in hunter jumper barns because many riders aren’t going to school jumps alone.
Also in general people who want to compete tend to buy a little too much horse and need to be in a program. I also think these full training barns maybe build on the model for junior riders in a lesson and show program where every step is supervised. Think of it as you sent your horse away to boarding school but you get to visit on weekends under the eye of the headmaster.
These barns may even insist you buy your horse a uniform (blankets, Tack box, etc) in the barn colors or logo for showing away, and insist on a certain brand of halter and even saddle. And indeed horse.
You would only go to such a barn if you wanted to be part of the show team. Indeed such barns may only accept boarders who want to be in full training.
At a full service full board (but not training) barn the barn owner, manager, or trainer, whoever is in charge, designs the meal plans, the turnout schedule, arranges vet and farrier, etc. The horse owner probably can’t turn up on a weekday afternoon for the farrier. Various aspects could be negotiated with the manager but basically you are paying them to look after your horse because you can’t.
When it works well, it’s great, but you pay for it! When it doesn’t work so well or manager is cutting corners on costs and lying about that, it’s a disaster.
I am lucky to be in a self board facility close to my home in the suburbs and to not work a 9 to 5 office job so full board would drive me crazy!
When you get far enough out of the city that small private acreages are common, thete tend to be fewer boarding barns and more smaller backyard setups. Indeed in smaller towns it can be hard to find a full service training barn.
So rules are partly dependent on the level of service provided, partly on the whim of the manager, and partly on the barn culture as to how much needs to be explicit and how much can be assumed as regular horse sense. I can imagine all kinds of rules arising from one off accidents or freak accidents, also from peculiarities of the facility. Probably the bigger or more public the facility the more explicit rules.
Some barns run big lesson factory programs and if you are boarding there might be subject to a lot of rules designed to keep ten year olds safe and parents in their place.
9 Likes
What Scribbler said ^^^
I have seen/heard of full service show barns where clients were told to “go to this tack store and tell them you are with ABC stables and they will get you what you need” - everything from halters to blankets to saddles to rider clothing! These barns have a lot of rules to cover pretty much every aspect of your time with your horse.
On the other end of the spectrum is the self-care barn where you are basically renting space, but you make all the calls on care. Usually there are a few rules dealing with basic safety or use of common areas, but those can vary quite a bit.
Many of the barns around where I am (large, semi-urban area with limited land for ag) are multi-use facilities with multiple trainers and require you to be in training at some level if you own a horse. This helps assure a basic level of care and some accountability as the trainers are responsible for their own clients.
I board at one of the few barns that doesn’t require boarders to be in training. This gives me more freedom to make decisions on my horse’s care, feeding, shoeing etc.although I do work with a trainer, and can always ask her opinions, the final decisions are always mine. Other boarders have different approaches and so the type of care varies more than at the barns I have been at previously.
1 Like
liability insurance in the States also requires you to give them your Barn Rules. But yes in Hunter Jumper land there are a ton of “unwritten rules”
1 Like
I have been at basically two kinds of barns.
Type 1 (and I have been at more than 1 of this type) – the barn buildings and the land are owned by a person who may stable a couple of horses there but who does not own the “barn” (the business). That business is owned/managed by a barn manager who is usually also the trainer. She has her own horse/s there, and boards other people’s horses. She gives lessons, trains some of her students’ horses, and manages the daily operations – feeding, turnout, stall cleaning, ordering hay and feed and shavings, etc. She usually has at least one employee who cleans the stalls, feeds the horses, maintains the arenas, does turnout and blanketing and any general maintenance/repair work on the buildings and the land. Horses are in full board, either stall board or pasture board – with either type of board, the horses get hay and feed. The barn manager schedules the farrier/s and seasonal vaccinations and floating, in consultation with her boarders. She also hauls to vets and to shows for boarders who don’t have their own rigs. She is a presence on the property and is there usually 6 days a week officially (usually there the 7th as well to ride her own horse/s!).
Boarders pay one monthly rate which includes all horse care except farriery and vet care; boarders pay the farrier and vet directly even though the barn manager schedules the farrier as well as the vet.
Type 2 (I’ve been at 2 of this type) – the barn and property owner also manages the boarding barn. Supplies hay and shavings but not feed. Usually there most days for an hour or so to clean up around the barn, stock the rest room, check on supplies. Doesn’t do any lessons, doesn’t have a horse there anymore (doesn’t ride anymore), doesn’t do any training. Maintains the pastures including fencing but does no hands-on with the horses. Boarders are responsible for hay and feed and all horse care (since the barn owner isn’t around much she isn’t responsible for any emergencies). There is no trainer involved, and no lesson program unless the boarders have trainers come in. There is no supervision of anyone, kids, adults, or dogs. Boarders must work out their own vacation plans and horse care plans with each other. One of these 2 was one of the quietest, most peaceful barns I have ever been at! But since I don’t ride when alone on the property, that could be a problem except on most weekends. At this barn, each horse had a stall, but all horses lived out.
Will you please tell us about barns in New Zealand? Do y’all call them barns, or yards? 
1 Like
I don’t about New Zealand but here in Australia, we agist out horses at agistment properties. Private paddocks with shelters are quite common. Some places feed your horse with their feed once or twice a day and some feed your horse once or twice a day with feeds that you have pre-mixed. They might also rug or unrug your horse according to the weather but that generally means just the top rug. At some places they clean your paddock for you and at others, they do not. Where I am now are some private paddocks and some big mixed paddocks. My horse is in a private paddock with a shelter that has a shed attached. I keep his feed in the shed section. The owner will feed your horse with your feed for $2.50 each time when organised ahead of time.I do my own poop picking and put it on a pile near the gate to my paddock and it is collected on the weekend. At some places, you have the option of using a stable. Sometimes included in what you pay and sometimes extra. Riding instructors are generally people who visit where your horse is or you can go to their place. Where I am I have to pay an extra $10 per week to use the arena and/or round yard. Not at the moment doing that.
I do know of an upper level place where your horse is fed with their feed, stabled at night and out in a private paddock during the day. They have different levels of care. At the top level your personal groom will saddle and walk your horse before you come and ice boot and unsaddle your horse when you finish, they also wash your horse monthly, clean your gear every time you ride, wash your saddle blankets, bandages, etc, will exercise your horse for you to make sure he is fit and a riding lesson every week. They have an amazing indoor and a very nice outdoor arena. Went to audit a clinic here. Sadly with the cost ranging from $297.00 to $497.00, it is way out of my price bracket. Sigh…
2 Likes
Interesting reading about how things are done different places.
Around here it seems like most boarding is split into either rough board - a place in a pasture, where water and grazing and/or hay is provided, often with inadequate shelter for the number of horses - or stall board, where the horse is turned out with other horses during the day and comes in the stall at night, fed hay and grain (usually up to some specified quantity of what the barn’s standard feed, anything different can be fed but must be provided by the owner), normally twice a day, water is filled by staff, and stalls are cleaned once a day.
Since we have harsh winters in this part of the country, indoor arenas are very common, and either type of board gets you access to whatever arenas and trails are available.
Most of the places I’ve boarded near here did not have a single barn trainer, but rather the boarders brought in whatever travelling trainers and riding instructors they chose to work with.
There are still devoted training barns that a person can take their horse to, though they’re usually not a long-term boarding solution. Many people send their horses for a few months while paying a “dry stall” rate to hold their spot at their regular barn. And there are places one can go to be part of more of a total package program, with training, lessons, and a show team all wrapped into one, but they’re more common east of here, closer to Chicago and Milwaukee.
Land and hay are relatively inexpensive here, so it’s not uncommon for not-wealthy people to have a couple of fat horses but not take lessons or anything regularly.
2 Likes
Thank you for your explanation. This is, quite frankly, gob-smacking to me! I don’t think such boarding facilities exist here.
This is the sort of thing that I can’t quite get my head around. So, in some cases, do you have to be under the care of a “trainer” to board your horse? And are there places where you might keep your horse, but not have any say as to who your farrier etc is?
We really don’t have any sort of “barn” arrangements here. And certainly none where a trainer is involved in any way! I think the most “up market” way of keeping a horse here would be at someone else’s place, where they may or may not have stables or an arena (certainly not an undercover school!). Hardly any horses are ever stabled - most live outside 24/7. Many Pony Clubs have grazing land available at very reasonable rates ($25 - $30 per week?) but mostly it is all DIY wherever you go. We do not have “barns” simply because hardly any horses ever live in - paddocks all year round where it’s each man for himself. =) I find it hard to understand the concept of having someone else in charge of your horse. And being attached to a particular “trainer”. Over here everyone is responsible for organizing the farrier and/or vet etc for their own horse. Of course, you may well pay someone else to be there at the time if you can’t, but it’s up to the owner to sort this out. It seems like we are much more “hands on” when it comes to our own horses.
1 Like
Most people either keep their horse on their own land or pay for grazing - sometime with other horse owners, often just on their own.
There are a growing number of “barns” or properties with facilities which take on grazers, but I haven’t heard of any that are similar to the American system of being part of a programme. Very few people compete with a trainer (including and hunter shows) - and no one gets to hold a ring up while waiting for a trainer to come from another ring!!!
Lots of Pony Clubs and adult Riding Clubs provide the social aspects of riding, and more experienced people will mentor those with less experience, often free of charge. Groups of friends get together for riding and fun. Most areas have good access to open country to ride on - so everyone is used to riding outside, either on road riding or more often now, forestry, beaches, and farmland. Arenas are where you learn to walk and rise to the trot, after that you get out and learn real riding 
Children often ride unsupervised. Most people own their own horses and those kids especially will be out and about on their ponies with no adult in sight.
Most people produce their own horses. Horses which have been there, done that, are hard to come by. If you want to move up from 2’3" to 2’6", you train the horse you have to go around the bigger courses - you don’t buy or lease another horse.
Whole different world!!
3 Likes
Here too in Australia, horses live out and people produce their own horses. Even some racehorses live out.
Should I get my hands on enough money, I will be buying an eventing Thoroughbred that was produced by a teenage girl, has done a ton of Pony Club, made it to the upper levels there, hopefully EA (Equestrian Australia) too, who is most likely in their early teens and is being sold because it’s either being replaced with a younger horse or because the owner is studying. They are not expensive horses. Do horses like this exist in the USA?
1 Like
Your ways of doing things remind me of when I was a young horse owner. I hope it never changes for you . The change here has not benefited either horse or owner. IMO.
8 Likes
I actually love the description of horse care down under! To me it sounds like a combination of what you’d get in a more rural part of North America but with high standards of English sport riding. Like I imagine England in 1956 as glimpsed in my childhood books of pony stories. You could still find many places in North America with comparable standards of care and owner independence but those tend towards Western riding. Kids in small towns still keep their horses in paddocks and trail ride unsupervised but are almost always in the Western ranch tradition.
I think the high end full board barn in North America is a product in part of the huge urban centers. There is nothing like that down under, even Sydney is small by comparison. Yet in North America if you want a professional salary you may well have to live and work in a sprawling metro area and not be able to do 7 day a week horse care.
Also of course people want to be able to compete and win without being able to ride that often, so the solution is full training board.
2 Likes
Uh, that’s in Australian dollars? Not sure what the exchange rate is, but in Canada I’m not even aware of a barn with that much groom service. But a top end full board place that caters to a wealthy suburban market can easily charge $1000 or $1200 a month. I pay $200 for the stall and paddock at a non-profit riding club and feel very fortunate to be able to get the feed and bedding done so my total monthly bill is under $400.
That’s $400 a month.
Perhpas you are quoting a per week price which yes would be insanely expensive anywhere on the planet except maybe Japan.
Yes. Horses even live out and get produced by their owners in the USA too. My farm owner’s racehorse lived out and hauled to the track to race. Let’s please not forget that this is a huge country with an incredibly wide variety of horse keeping options and styles. Not every horse in US lives inside 22 hours out of the day and is in an expensive training program and is handed to its owner/rider and then handed back to the groom. Plenty of people here produce their own horses, even manage the horses on their own properties. Likewise, there is a wide variety of types of horses, at different levels, for all different price points. Sure, some live in a highly supervised program, but everything you all talk about being normal in Aus/NZ sound very similar to how I and many others grew up. And how many still operate over here.
But in the “full care/full training” programs that sound so alien, the barn owners/trainers learned that the real money is not in boarding, but in training. So if you limit boarders to only those that will be in a full training program (which obviously costs more), you stand to make a lot more money than if you only just board horses (practically no profit). So more and more we’re seeing that a training package is required to board at that facility, as it helps increase the profit margin on each horse taken in. Business. But there are still plenty of DIYers out there, they haven’t gone extinct.
2 Likes
Yes, I have learned from all the posts on COTH complaining when such arrangements don’t work out.
I think.that there may be even more hands off owners in some of the breed specific disciplines than in hunter jumper. I’m thinking if what I’ve heard about saddle seat, Arabian and Western pleasure. Owners might just turn up to show.
1 Like
