Since you are looking at having a boarding barn for roping and cutting you will need to factor in a whole different set of expenses. You need to factor time, space and cost required for maintaining a herd of cows for roping and cutting, maybe three herds depending on calf roping, team roping and cutting as each event requires a different type cow. Also, I assume these cows at some point will need to be rotated out and new ones brought in the expense of hauling cows to market and buying new ones, an extra expense. These cows will require feed, shelter and pasture not to mention some level of vet care. Youâll need to pass a good chunk of that expense to your boarders and trainer or there will be little profit for yourself. Youâll also need ranch help to move cows from their holding pens/pasture to the arena for use and for rounding them up in the arena to be reused.
Today there are many other ways to train a horse on cattle work with dummies and flags, so it takes less cattle.
Now if you stage competitions, then you need to get cattle from someone that provides those for competitions, as it takes way more than you may want or be able to keep around.
Donât forget team penning and sorting.
We provided the cattle for some cutting finals a couple of years and it took about 800 head for a week of competitions.
We had to pen and sort and ship and receive back cattle all day long.
That is way more involved than those that have not managed those shows think.
Cutting competitors today tell me that, just to go to weekend cuttings, with the cattle charges added to entry fees, it easily cost over $2000 for a short weekend showing in a couple classes.
Those costs escalating over the past years have cut attendance greatly, cuttings are scrambling for participants.
I wonder if you would spend some time these years before you decide what you want to do being part of those shows and rodeos and cuttings, talking to people there.
Offer to volunteer, see if you can find a niche providing a service to those industries that will be profitable?
well in real life if you have one employee you actually need at least half of another to provide coverage⊠but in OPâs suggested outline I suspect they would need three to provide seven day a week coverage for about twenty head as those horses eat and poop seven days a week and most people working for a pay check only want to work at lot less, then they get sick or take vacations or just do not show up after a night out.
But even if you were using one person during the week day and one for weekends you still need backup for either because when OP is on that luxurious vacation to the far away beach⊠text message arrives⊠no one came to work today.
Employees and small businesses often are like mixing oil and water
I am a trainer, have worked in barns for thirty years, and now have my own facility.
Have a contract with trainer, with all the details including exit strategy included. If you have the whole place leased to one trainer, and they decide to leave⊠you have one great big empty barn to fill, with no income until you find a replacement. So, make sure you have a 30 days notice clause, that the very least! Preferably 90 days! If you have an open board and board, you wonât lose your entire income unless you have royally screwed up, and there is a mass exodus because of your incompetence.
for a full time trainer, making a living in the facility but not performing management, 15% of income is a typical charge for the use of the facility. You could choose to throw in a discount on stalls for the trainers horses if you wanted to, maybe one free stall, and half price on up to two more. You can either charge separately for the board and let the trainer collect the training fees, or you collect all the fees and distribute to trainer. One way is less work for you, with a much more likely âcheat factorâÂ. I am not sure how you would have to manage the trainer having their fees run through you in terms of their employment status.
Really, probably the simplest way is to simply lease the entire facility to a trainer, collect one payment per month from the trainer, and let them do the active horse management. I have done this myself as the trainer.
One place leased me the whole block of stalls for a lump sum, the other place leased me one stall at a time for a monthly fee per stall: I added the horse care costs on top of that, and took care of the boarding costs and labour. My borders wrote two checks every month. One to the BO for the âDryâ stall, and one to me for boarding care, feed, shavings, and training/lessons.
The barn owners took care of the major improvements, repairs, and general facility maintenance: that was included in the charge for the dry stalls . I was responsible for improvements that I really only cared about, for instance I opted to have the indoor arena refooted every three years because I cannot abide crappy footing. It was not worth me arguing with them that old yucky was just fine, and everything else was working well enough that I just sucked it up and paid for it.
If you manage the place, You can either operate the barn as a TRAINING facility (some involvement in the training program is required to board there), or as an open boarding facility. Itâs much more cohesive to be a training facility, because you donât have open boarders in conflict with the training program.
I know a wonderful family that owns a really nice facility here in DFW. It has three barns, two arenas - and at any given time they usually have at least 2-3 trainers leasing stalls.
They have a full staff, separate from the trainers. The trainers pay full board to the facility, but Iâm not certain if they also pay a % of their income. I tend to doubt it, based on their prices - ha! Theyâve also recently started hosting local events (single day jumping âshowsâ, single night added money barrel races, etc) to make an income.
Itâs hard to make a living doing that. Horses in general are hard to make a living at, which is why fewer and fewer people do it. Board generally does not make massive amounts of money â it gets to be an economies of scale number, especially as feed prices rise. You need to work out your profit margins and include all the usual - mortgage, repair, maintenance, additions, etc.
If you feel compelled to give the trainer stalls at cost, thatâs a far better business plan that providing them for free. The barn Iâm speaking of charges monthly board of $600. I donât know what their cost is on that. I use their facility to A) foal out my broodmares as theyâre on site 24x7 with cameras and a mile from the vet clinic (versus my house/facility that is 40 minutes away) B) board my horses when I go on vacation (a house sitter is cheaper, but again - if Iâm out of the country, I want them close to the vet hospital0 and C) I have two fillies there with their in house colt breaker now. My gal charges me $850/horse/month, which is ridiculously inexpensive. Most people charge at least $1,200/horse/month. Regardless of the trainers rate - the barn makes the same $600 off of every stall.
The cattle part of your plan makes me worry. I donât use cattle and I donât pretend to know anything about them, but itâs overhead on living animals that like to spend their days planning expensive ways to die. :lol: I know on all Texas APHA show bills Iâve seen in the last five years, cattle are prepaid and reserved in advance for events. Makes me think itâs more difficult than just having them on site.
My personal dream is to own a retirement stable. I love old horses. I love caring for them with nothing expected in return. BUT I know that if I were to ever do that, Iâd need a secondary source of income because I couldnât expect to make even minimum wage after numbers were put down on a page. Be in the black? Probably. Make $20,000 a year for myself to live on? Absolutely not.
I do wish you luck because obviously, I want more great facilities in Texas. Itâs just really hard for people to take the emotion out of it and treat it like a business AND stay competitive with other horse lovers who own facilities and arenât skilled at business.
Side note - even little things add up, like an old barn owner I had who purchased a 4 quart feed scoop for the barn instead of a 2 quart feed scoop. All the horses were getting their 1 or 2 scoops per feeding, but she inadvertently spent 2x the money on feed and it was getting eaten twice as fast as it âshouldâ be, because she bought the wrong feed scoop at the store.
The OP is actually talking about Real Money in what they want to do, whether they buy a facility or build one from scratch. Which leads to a question: will they try and make it a âbusinessâ or will they make it âhobby.â Each is a very different thing and will have some very different consequences.
If the business route is chosen then there MUST be profit motive and profits earned over some period of time. The IRS has guidelines on that and for equine facilities they are somewhat more stiff as equine âbusinessesâ are frequently âtax frontsâ for hobby operations. Businessâ book income and deduct expenses and that determines gross profit which is then taxed to determine net profit.
A hobby requires no profit motive and expenses are deductible only to the extent of income earned. Income is taxed; losses beyond income earned are ignored. If the OP leases the facility to an operator (which appears to be what they might be contemplating) then they have a âbusinessâ but itâs a pretty simple one. If they just âhireâ the workers (either for cash or barter) that does not make it a business. They do have to comply with Federal and States laws regarding employee compensation.
Then there is insurance. A business must make noises like one that means appropriate liability, workers comp, unemployment comp, health insurance, etc. Not each item will be same in all circumstances but there must be an âXâ in the block to show it was considered no matter what the ultimate decision that might be made.
A hobby will also require liability insurance to protect the estate of the owner. Since there will be employees they will also have to provide such insurance as is required by law. This will usually mean, at a minimum, workers comp. and unemployment comp. Texas is a âlow tax/low service/low regulationâ state so these might not be too complex. But the Feds are âhighâ on all those things. The OP is going to need a CPA and lawyer to make sure they donât âstub their toeâ on some regulatory or tax issue.
And, of course, taxes. In Texas you NEVER say âI hate taxesâ 'cause someone might misunderstand your accent and you end up with your eye dotted!!! 
But they are a Big Deal. And business taxes can be significantly higher than taxes on hobby operations. In many places real estate and other fixed taxes are higher than on personal property of equal value. The business side may require collection of sales taxes and that means having a bond and meeting other requirements and keeping records so that State auditors can some and review them.
For a hobby the OP will pay at the personal level for pretty much everything. That will be cheaper and they will not need so much record keeping. To deduct to the level of income you will need to keep appropriate records but thatâs not so bad.
So the OP has to make a judgement on âhobbyâ or âbusinessâ and then act accordingly. The âbarterâ arrangement suggested is likely not viable for the reasons stated by others.
If this is a way to fund retirement itâs likely a very risky one for reasons other have already posted.
If this is just a way to enjoy retirement and spend money on things that they enjoy then God Bless 'Em and I wish them happiness and success in what they do!!!
G.
Member, State Bar of Texas (Retired)
I am retired and after boarding my horses (I now own 4) at a couple different boarding barns over the years I wanted to have more control over my own âdestinyâ. I was a widow without a SO at the time so had no interest in actually running a facility myself. But, I had had a long (~6 year) relationship with my dressage trainer and his wife (they are both trainers)and they were also looking to make a change from where they were based at that time. So I proposed that I would provide the capital to purchase property and construct a training facility, and that once it was complete I would lease it to them and they would operate it. They would pay me to lease the facility and I would pay them training board for 2 of my horses (they lease my other two horses). Fast forward to today and weâve been open for about a year and a half. It was an 18 month project â finding and purchasing the property, finding a contractor, building the stable, covered arena and utility building, putting in pastures and fencing â and it cost more than I had originally thought it would (no surprise there!!). And now weâve been open for 18 months and Iâm happy to say that weâre all pleased with the arrangement. From my perspective they have all the âheadachesâ of hiring barn help and running the place. From their perspective they are based in new state of the art facility they didnât have the capital to build. I certainly realize that nothing lasts forever and there may come a time when one or both of us is ready to move on ⊠but at the end of the day Iâve invested in a lovely facility in a growing area so I can most likely get a good portion of my $$ back out of it if it comes to that.
Another business model option you might want to consider.
I answered this over on Western and donât want to repeat it. But will add the boarding barns donât really pay your bills, they break even if you price properly. If you price properly, you can have problems staying full unless you do offer on site, full time training services.
Have you and your wife owned and/or kept horses before? Particularly in a boarding facility as opposed to on your own property?
How many horses will you have?
Iâve boarded at barns where owners were trying to do that and it didnât always worked out well.
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BOâs horses were ofter better treated, had more privileges, than boarderâs horses.
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BOâs had too many horses and started cutting corners for boarderâs horses to get some money back or prices went outrageously up for no apparent reasons (other than to pay the newly $$ horse bought by BO)
The barn Iâm at right now is very well run. BOâs have 2 horses and could manage to live with an empty barn.
They have a set of rules for everyone, including themselves.
Our horses and their horses have the same treatment.
They run a very fair business with clear cut rules: whatâs good for us riders is as good for them as well.
Ex. We are not allowed to lunge when there is a lesson going on.
They wonât lunge when there is a lesson.
Lessons must be marked down on a board.
They write down their lessons.
Not allowed to drive more than 5km/hr⊠well they donât drive faster.
(Youâre allowed of 1 warning, and if you donât abide, you are welcome to park on the street a mile away from the barn.) The thing is, they donât drive faster on their landâŠ
The barn is also very clean because everyone has to clean after themselves at all time. Their rules are clear.
You can walk barefoot there⊠It seems a little neurotic at first, but you get used to it pretty quickly; and when you see everyone, including them, doing it, itâs easy to follow.
As a Barn owner, yes itâs your place, your horses and all that, but people are still paying to be there. Ă« King of the hill Ă» attitude is not good for business.
Iâm not trying to get rich doing this. My vision is to have 16-20 stalls for full boarding not including my horses and the trainers horses. My wife has another business after teaching that she would be a part of as well to supplement this income in addition to her full teachers retirement so this wouldnât be our sole source of income. I am looking at retiring early and taking roughly 100k of my retirement coupled with the sale of our house to purchase our retirement home and couple it with horse boarding to make up what I lose in my retirement.
That doesnât sound good to me. Think twice about losing money in an investment that wonât earn you much, if nothing.
In addition I was looking at having roping and cutting practices weekly for those that donât have a place to practice and also having monthly play days charging for entry. We also were looking at having clinics for different western disciplines every so often, eventually hosting roping and barrel racing competitions periodically throughout the year.
It all sounds like fun BUT:
It is A LOT of organization.
It takes A LOT of time of your day.
It takes A LOT of space at your barn.
It involves A LOT of committed people.
It involves A LOT of prepping before and cleaning afterward.
It puts A LOT of extra work for your stable hand and yourself.
It can be A BIG annoyance for your boarders.
What you will want as Ă« activities Ă» might not be exactly what your boarder will want.
Iâve been to a barn where a lot of events were organized and itâs not that easy on the boarders.
They cannot ride at X time/day, mostly weekends.
They have to move their horses outside to let their stalls. (They didnât care at the beginning⊠but after a few raining days⊠meh. - BO then built permanent summer stalls in one the paddock to accommodate 20 horses)
The indoor arena become a summer barn with 30 stalls - so unusable for the whole summer. (New fresh footing is done every October)
The facility in itself is great, and can be fun to compete at home (less cost) but I wouldnât want to board there.
Like someone else mentioned; volunteer at event similar to what you want to organize and talk to people to see if itâs truly worth it. See how it works before planning so many dream like activities.
- the avg rate in my area is 400-500 for full board, 250-300 partial board and 200-225 pasture board. All of the facilities that I inquired about do not have on site trainers.
500$ - See how much it costs to take care of a horse the way YOU would like.
I know this would not be enough to cover all of the expenses in most barn around here; ones that I would comfortable boarding at. (and no, Iâm really not that snob.)
Itâs very important that your barn reflect the level of care you want to provide for your own horses; and this has a cost.
You wonât feel good, as a barn owner, if you have to nickel and dime for everything, or cut on care just to meet ends. It will take a toll on your sanity.
Good luck!
Iâm not trying to get rich doing this.
I guess there are some somewhere who have made lots of money just from boarding but usually the cash comes in when the place is sold to the developer by the square foot rather by the section
One note on keeping cattle around for practice roping and cutting competitions. Either you need a lot of cattle or you need to swap for new ones every few months. They may not be too bright but they will learn and can get stale and uncooperative when you practice with them repeatedly, Some just stand and look at you when you try to cut them from the herd or stand in the chute looking at you when the barrier breaks. Even with a prod, they donât sprint fast and straight knowing they are going to get roped for the 20th time. I once helped with finding fresh ( unused) cattle for APHA and AQHA competitions. PITA and cost like heck.
Another thing is barns located near more affluent areas can charge more to cover their higher costs but affluent areas often limit the head count of cattle per acre, even in Texas. Further out thereâs no regulation but also a very shallow pool of prospective boarders willing to support a barn offering training.
Hosting events is harder then you are imagining and requires things like sound systems, maybe lights and definitely insurance. Again cattle and their costs and issues plus you get strangers on your property.
Have you ever owned and managed cattle? Even a few feeders for a year or 2?
REFER TO POST #20 FOR THE ADDITIONAL INFORMATION BELOW
Sorry I didnât see this message for a bit⊠let me add more detail.
I have three full-time employees for 60 horses (2 mostly feed and clean and do some upkeep, one helps with basics and spends the rest of his time on arenas, facility repairs, landscaping, painting, plumbing, fixing whatever damage the horses have done to stalls, feeders, waterers and gates, new projects etc. with that many horses on a relatively small property it is 4-5 hours a day to keep our place looking good.)
Note that each employee works about 10 hours of overtime per pay period because we feed and clean 7 days a week.
Workerâs Comp is 28-32% over the last five years here- it gets small adjustments year to year. Itâs currently $1,619 per payroll which is 26 times a year: $42,095 per year. Workerâs Comp is not health insurance- it only covers me legally if one of my employees gets hurt on the job. (Premium can also included adjustments to your deposit if your payroll changesâŠours always does because state minimum wage keeps rising. My current deposit is about $15,000, money which sits with the insurer and I donât have access to.)
I pay the payroll company about $85 per payroll which is well worth it: they handle all the tax impounds, stand by me for annual workerâs comp audits, handle final checks, etc. Iâm just not that good at it and my employees always have their checks when expected via direct deposit.
Payroll company also does my quarterlies, W-2âs, annual reports, etc. Payroll service (I have a great one that is locally owned, not a megalith that doesnât offer much service) costs me about $2,200 a year all told.
In California, as an employer I am liable to understand/collect/remit IF APPLICABLE (per a payroll report and I am not an expert on this!) the following taxes:
CA
CASDI
FITW
MED
SS
CAETT
CASUI
FUTA
MED
SS-R
Some of these donât apply based on a variety of factors, some are payed from the employeeâs wage, some are paid by me, and some are split between employee and employer⊠but I am responsible to know the difference. Therefore the payroll service!
I also give my employees two weekâs paid vacation per year (and have to hire a temp for those total of 6 weeks because the horses still eat and poop!) and I give the employees appropriate bonuses of approximately 3-5% of their annual wages as an end of year bonus.
And note that California minimum wage has been increasing at more or less $1/hour each year. That increases my employeeâs direct wage by $2,600 a year and adds about $780/year to the Workerâs Comp bill per employee.
You can see that raising board by $25/stall annually doesnât begin to cover the minimum wage repercussions we are now experiencing. Boarding stable consultants will suggest you raise board by 5% or 10% a year, like some apartments do⊠that would be nice but I donât believe our market would bear it.
All of the above are expenses that I pay as a legal employer. I have no idea how many stables choose to pay their helpers cash under the table, but according to my insurance agent it is high. She does business insurance for dozens of stables and trainers in southern California and once told me that she thinks less than a third of horse businesses in California are run legally, and most of those are racing-related because they are very closely monitored by the state.
While stables have traditionally been staffed by immigrant labor, often with questionable paperwork, that flow of laborers has been significantly impacted by recent political changes. And that same laborer can work fast food, in the A/C and with a lot less effort than cleaning 20 or 30 stalls a day, for the same wage most stables offer. Itâs a tough environment nowadays to find reliable stable workers who have any horse sense, will show up, and are willing to work in 100 degree heat, rain, etc. Or that laborer can work seasonal construction, under the table, for $20 an hour or more as they develop building skills.
No matter how you run your horse business, whether you are âby the bookâ or âunder the tableâ or some combination thereof, it is a challenging business environment. It seems like weâve gotten used to thinking that board and training should cost that same âas it used toâ but we more easily accept annual increases in many of the other services we buy.
Iâm sure that the labor cost of horsekeeping is more manageable in a lot of other areas, and of course keeping a few horses at home when you can do the work yourself is quite doable. From my vantage point as a commercial stable owner in the expensive suburbs of Southern California- a BO who tries to offer training-stable amenities on a boarding-stable budget while trying to stay legal to protect my familyâs future- itâs a rising challenge.
Iâve owned and run a h/j training facility, Iâve switched models and leased out said facility, and have also been a boarder elsewhere.
In a nutshell, what worked the best (and when I say best, it means what will keep you relatively sane), is to lease out the whole facility to a trainer or trainers, and have a very explicit list of the major maintenance items you will cover as the landlord (fencing, landscaping, footing, farm equipment, etc.). Do not include staff, feed, hay or shavings â the trainers are responsible for all of this. If the trainer and clients break or damage automatic waterers or other permanent fixtures, they pay for repairs/replacements. Have these items in the lease agreement. Put in a 60-day notice clause; 90 days is better.
If you want to use stalls or the trainerâs time, they bill you for it. Donât do anything in-kind; as others have mentioned, this is very subjective in terms of quality.
Lastly, donât expect much more than breaking even on the mortgage/expenses of the property. You may still be out-of-pocket on your own horsesâ expenses, so this all comes down to how much youâll get personal enjoyment from having a training facility in your backyard and save on driving time if you had your horses boarded elsewhere. Realistically, plan for this being one of very few advantages.
Good luck with your research
the only way we made money was finding natural gas and oil under the pastures
Iâll be direct here. If you are looking to âhave a lifeâ after you retire, I strongly suggest against owning a horse facility. You would be better off to own a smaller, personal horse property with no boarders or employees.
I wonât go into all the details why the plan you describe is not a viable business model, but I think that one of your biggest issues is going to be labor. When people do their spreadsheets and crunch their numbers before starting a boarding business, they invariably underestimate labor cost and the hassle involved with having employees from hiring, firing, training, supervising, accounting, theft, damages, and covering for no-shows.
I strongly advise against providing a live-in situation, because many farm employees do not last long and may not be ideal tenants. Itâs a lot easier to fire someone if you do not also have to evict them at the same time.
