I just read through the Money or Nothing thread in the hunter jumper forum and now I’m curious. Are other barns i.e. western, eventing also requiring full care training and participation in a show program etc. to board there?
I think you will find barns of all types for all disciplines.
I know it is not uncommon at serious breed show barns to require a training package to be there.
I also know a bunch of hunter barns that do not require full care training.
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the only horse we boarded was in full training, that was in the 1990s. The barn only had their stock and those in training, no outside boarders only
Currently the trainer we are close to does not have any boarding without training, his primary discipline is Western however is also successful in other disciplines including Dressage
Saddlebred barns, from what I understand, are even more restrictive in terms of allowing people to tack up horses independently and ride on their own as part of the program. I also know dressage barns that require training rides; it’s not so much that even a “dead broke” aging First Level horse would require a training ride, but that the barns can be selective enough that they can focus on horses aspiring to a higher level and will bring in more income for the barn by requiring training.
Eventing barns “have” to be less restrictive (at least in my experience) about not permitting outside trainers because it’s a three-phase discipline and, especially as riders move up, it’s going to be rare to have a trainer who is equally strong in all three. I do know some eventing barns with multiple trainers that have someone who focuses more on the dressage and another trainer who focuses more on the jumping. But because to event a rider needs some independence riding independently, there’s got to be less micromanagement to ensure some degree of safety.
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Increasingly so in recent years. Since 2020 in my area probably 20% give or take of boarding barns that were previously multi discipline or did not require a program have started mandating at full training program or at least a minimum number of lessons per week.
The hunter jumper barns definitely have the highest proportion in the area but I can think of a good handful of other disciplines locally with mandatory programs.
Same here, and I actually understand why tbh. Professional barns, as opposed to backyard or private barns or barns that are for pleasure/weekend warrior riders, really sell themselves on how they look at all times. A potential client pulling and seeing shiny slick or clipped/blanketed horses with fresh trims and shoes, good or even great muscle tone, pulled manes, is going to think the program is of higher quality than a barn with some horses looking like that and some horses with shaggy coats and manes, maybe needing a trim, no muscle tone. Leaving owners to pick and choose what they do with their horse means the BO/BM/trainer has to be okay with some horses looking a little…less than show-ready, whereas horses that are kept in programs will be groomed more regularly, stay shod, get little things like a pulling comb run down the mane here and there. If they want a client to drop $1-2k per month in just boarding and chances are coming to the barn for a specific trainer as well, that new client coming in has to see marvelously kept horses and think how awesome their horse will look.
It’s advertising and control, plus a money-maker since we know boarding doesn’t pay the bills a show barn racks up.
ETA: my horses look like absolutely trash right now because I keep them at home and I don’t have the time for all the blanketing etc if I kept them clipped year round, plus I have no lights so don’t ride for several months so why clip… So they get grodie, and yes it bothers the hell out of me and I want to hide them from the public. If I came into a barn and saw my horses, I’d be a little 
at dropping big bucks for a boarding facility.
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The place I’m at is a western show barn that competes on the AQHA and Paint breed show circuit. (Some of the horses, like mine, also do the English events at those shows). Only the show horses in a training and lesson program are kept in the barn.
Horses not in the show or training program are boarded in individual outside paddocks with run-in shelters. There is also pasture board for retired horses. Non-show boarders have full access to all the amenities, and they can ride in the arenas at any time, as long as they don’t do something wild that will disturb a lesson or training session.
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In my area (IME), there are two types of barns: show/ training barns or boarding barns. The training/ show barns require some sort of service package (lessons, training rides, a combo) and are very much full service with all the extras (and $$$$). The boarding barns don’t require any services, are typically more bare minimum of feeding/cleaning/turnout no blanketing, grooming, bandaging etc. The boarding barns often don’t have as nice of facilities/ amenities and may not have a designated trainer on site. There are less and less straight boarding barns as many have sold to development or shut down/ become private facilities.
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I do self care board now ant a neighbors house and trailer in for lessons with my trainer now. Prior to this, I went through several different barns / trainers trying to find the perfect fit, and only one required full board / training. The others the BO and trainer were kept separate.
ETA - now that I think about it, I can think of 3 eventing barns in this area that require a training package of some sort (not necessarily full training) to board there.
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Yes. In my circle it’s been that way for decades. Board + required lesson packages. Some of them also require you use their show/clinic/schooling transportation too, as well as use their vets, farriers, dentist, etc.
These are serious competition barns, though.
At one of these barns I kept a horse at, I seriously offended one of the trainers when I said “no, I’ll trailer myself” after seeing the some ~$300 quote for ride sharing at a show. 
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The eventing barn where I board added a required training package last year. It’s still pretty minimal - 4 lessons or training ride a month.
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My trainer only offers full board (albeit for a disturbingly reasonable price—I moved to her barn at the beginning of January and my board hasn’t increased despite the fact that she handles all vet and farrier scheduling, blanket changes, etc., which wasn’t the case at my last barn) and requires that you be in some sort of training, even if it’s only a couple of lessons a month. People can use other vets and farriers but I have zero desire to because I have the same people working with my 6yo OTTB as she has working on her upper-level horses and they’ve done an excellent job so far in my limited sample.
Her stance on it is essentially that she doesn’t make money off of board, she makes it off of training and lessons, and she wants a barn full of people with personal goals (even if they don’t ever leave the farm), so she has no interest in boarders who just want to trail ride (not that she has anything against trail riders, but that’s not the kind of program she runs). We were talking about it the other week and her comment was “I don’t expect any of you to have the same goals for yourself that I do. I just want you to have goals of your own.”
Her client base is strictly adult amateurs at this point with the occasional one-off lesson with younger riders, because running her program this way means she only keeps people in it who are serious about their horses and willing to look after them properly (and, as she’s put it, she paid her dues for 10+ years teaching up-down lessons, and she’s still paying her dues since she’s the one cleaning the stalls most of the time, so she reserves her right to be selective with her clients).
Her waitlist is a mile long (seriously, it took me two years to be able to move to her barn because she never has open stalls), so I wouldn’t say her business is suffering in any way because everything she’s charging is entirely reasonable for what she offers.
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Yes. It is not uncommon here in Houston. The amount of training varies. Sometime it is just one lesson or training ride a week.
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My barn requires some level of training with board. I only lease, so I don’t know what the exact requirements are, but most people lesson at least 1x/wk and most of them also get training rides.
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We merged/closed the duplicate threads on this topic in different forums into one here in Off Course, which covers all disciplines.
Thanks!
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It can often be difficult to make money or break even on just boarding. Requiring a training package brings in extra income.
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Where I live (New England), it seems like it’s becoming more and more common for some kind of training to be required for boarding, but sometimes it’s as little as one lesson a week. This seems to be almost always the case when the barn owner is also the trainer. And as others have mentioned, financially that seems to make sense.
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My (dressage) trainer works out of a farm that is a full training facility. Training is 5x per week though they do not do that work all in the ring. Some out in open area on the property for change perspective, more open/stretching gaits, bit of a hack, etc. They also mix in long lining to the ring work.
My other horse is at a pure boarding facility- no training required.
