As a BO, I sure don’t want a five year contract with boarders! If they are unhappy I want them to go. If I am unhappy I want them to go. This is supposed to be fun!
Contracts are very useful. So is my VERY specific and long list of Barn Rules, because too many people have no common sense! I therefore inflict common sense and my 30 years’ experience on everyone through rules, to keep us and the horses safe and happy.
As a boarder for 50+ years, I don’t want a 5 year contract either. Even when required to renew the boarding contract at regular intervals, like annually, I want the flexibility to exit with 30 days written notice just like the BO above.
Far as calling it a “contract”? Thats what everybody calls it, even friends and fellow boarders who passed the bar. Sorry if I offended legal professionals on here with that choice of words.
Yes. I’m with you. Over the last few years I’ve moved several times and this last time, when our barn sold, was a doozy. A couple of my fellow boarders have ended up moving 4 different times in the span of 6 mos. In one instance the barn they moved to got sold (and they were not told it was going up for sale when they moved in).
The whole situation is making me sad.
The grocer/gas station attendant has the same control over pricing that a barn owner does. As an owner my input costs have skyrocketed. I have no control over the fact that grain is $5 more per bag than it was this time last year, or the fact that my shavings/manure removal costs $40 per month this year versus last year, or the fact that grass seed/herbicide/fertilizer is about 220% more this year versus last year. Or instead of spending $120 a month for diesel to run my tractor and gator it now costs $200. And lets not even talk about the price of hay. I guarantee there is no “healthy profit.” There is no profit. Period. Now owners are subsidizing the care of boarders horses.
I presumed month to month boarding was fairly typical. Are there a lot of people who enter into significantly longer fixed term boarding agreements?
Just my experience as a long-time boarder … Much earlier in my personal history as a boarder, 1 year contracts that went to month-to-month after the first year were typical. People tended to live as anchored in their city or town and boarded at the same barn for years (to the point where a boarder might forget that they have a contract!). Price was fixed for the first year, and after that increases were done by the BO simply announcing it. The boarder could accept the increase or give 30 days notice and go.
My experience - Now contracts are almost all month-to-month from the beginning. I think it is a matter of practicality. In the current times people aren’t fixed in one location and can end up with a job transfer or other relocation at any time. There is no holding them to a 1 year contract even if they are in the middle of it.
So - this is my experience - board contracts tend to just be month-to-month from the beginning. Board can increase at any time. Boarder and BO have the flexibility to give 30 days notice and part at any time.
The BO’s I’ve boarded with tend to assess cost vs board revenue once a year when they do their taxes. So board cost changes tend to happen at some point during the first three months of the year, as most are on a calendar tax year. No matter when one moved into a barn, the early-year board increase is to be expected. If I move in in December, there could be a board increase during the next 3 months when the BO does their annual finances. But the BO can increase board at any time, and as often as they wish during the year. (One BO increased their price mid-year when they renewed their insurance and the insurance went up significantly.)
For myself, for the most part I haven’t known BO’s to increase very much or more than once a year. The more business-like BO’s will definitely have at least a small bump every year (maybe $20 per month) to avoid having to give a big bump at some later point. The small increases don’t tend to lose boarders, but a large increase can cause a turnover of boarders. (However at the present time I don’t know of any boarders who are moving after the big price bumps that are going around now.)
So as someone who is generally interested in business, and who watches BO business practices from the sidelines, those are my observations on longer-term vs month-to-month board contracts. 
I already knew I was pretty lucky in my boarding situation but reading this thread makes me realize I’m also probably going to be trapped forever at my barn because it’s set up very perfectly to remain an affordable price, and I don’t know of any other barns in the area like this.
About half of the horses are on full pasture board with nice shelters and feed stalls, and the other half pay a small amount more to have access to a stall from their pasture that they can come in and out of at their leisure. so that minimizes bedding costs and stall cleaning and there’s no turning in and out, just opening and closing gates and doors. There are a couple of tenants who live on the property, one of which is the main barn employee so her rent is actually just her labor, and she just has to work a certain number of days per month in order for it to be covered. Both barn owners have full time jobs outside of the barn. They’re very strategic with field rotation so there’s a strict limit to the number of horses that can be on the property, and they buy hay in bulk once or twice a year from up north and store it in a huge nice hay shed, and sell some of that shipment as well since we’re in a bad area for hay.
It’s definitely not the fanciest but I do appreciate all the little things they do to keep costs down because it keeps board rates down for us!! I think as life with horses continues to get harder and more expensive, the barns that survive are either going to be the very high end ones catering to the super rich, or ones that are SUPER strategic with their business plan. Many people (in my experience) try to squeeze more and more horses into the farm to maximize profits when that’s actually the opposite of what they should be doing…. Like I used to ride at a barn that was so maxed out she was turning horses out in the riding arenas at night!!! and minimizing the amount of work involved in the daily chores as much as possible seems like a really smart way to get and keep employees.
Really wish the OP would come back and update us about her chat with the BO…….
My guess is that field board was long overdue for an increase, plus inflation. When was the last time board went up on you? Fence boards, feed, fertilizer, weed killer, diesel for the tractor, tractor repair parts, driveway repair, electricity, labor…. It’s all gone up. I raised my field board prices to match the rate of inflation (7% increase = $25)… all of the above expenses have gone up, plus my cost of living.
I once boarded at a barn with a year-long agreement. There was no penalty for leaving early, though, just the standard 30 days’ notice. I suppose, as OverandOnward says, the advantage to me was having the price set for the year. It was also the only barn that ever required a security deposit (it was a full-service barn, I was not renting dry stalls), and had hands-down the most thorough contract. Owners were definitely trying to appear to run a business, not just a barn.
I agree!
never even suggested five years for a boarding contract, was using that as point of reference about forecasting the future needs of a contractual obligation. Regarding the statement of a Boarding Contract that had a 30 day clause for changes makes Zero sense to me as that is nothing more than a month to month contract/agreement.
My boarding contracts when my operation was up and running were year to year with a clause of penalties for breaking the contract.
But my operation was profitable, it appears most are boarding at places that may disappear without notice.
If I was the OP, I wouldn’t have come back. Go back to the early posts. Some of them were helpful but some of them were pretty hostile and condescending, or at least that is how they read to me. I am not surprised at all she didn’t want to engage.
Oh, I don’t blame them for not coming back at all. They did not get the answers here that they were hoping for. I was simply saying that I wished they would come back and tell us how the conversation with the barn owner went.
The conversation started like this from the OP:
“…but I am fed up it with horse professionals just doing whatever they want and not having to be fact based in their decisions.”
The answers from various members of this board gave fact based reasons for the board increase. It seems the OP was not expecting the ratio to be so pronounced.
In general I agree with almost everyone here.
More generally, I’m boarding in what used to be “Horse Central” north of Boston. I don’t know how many barns in the area have closed, but it’s at least 4 in the past year. People are turning up at the hidden, expensive, private barn where I board, desperate for a stall. There are none, and there is a huge wait list. Board did not go up in January, the usual time, but it has to sometime soon.
I’d thought about bringing my mare home as she is retired. Eventually I decided not to, because of the price of setting things up, inconvenience, need to get the mare a companion of some sort, my bad hand making chores more difficult, etc. But now I’m reconsidering, because I know that if the barn ever closes, there’s nowhere else to go. I have plans for a very basic “emergency barn” setup that would cost a few thousand dollars if needed (we do not have any fencing in place and the town does not allow electric as a perimeter fence, so that’s a big cost up front.) And I’m lucky to have that option. It would be that or put her down.
We kind of got away from this part of the discussion already but I personally don’t really understand why people would feel “scammed” if their horse was recovering good, quality care and BO was turning enough of a profit to upgrade her vehicle or comfortably pay her home bills or whatever - you know, things the rest of us do with our working salaries all the time. How many BOs do we think are out there who see their own clients rolling up with new cars, new horses, new shiny things, while they are struggling to even make a few extra bucks to take home after pouring everything they have into the barn to keep your horses happy and healthy? Whilst same boarders are complaining, questioning every single dollar increase that BO proposes to help her keep up with costs these days.
Every bigger trainer I know says they don’t make money off boarding, whether they own their own barn or lease a place, and very little on training. They make money on commissions and shows.
Why are you paying for it out of your pocket?
Boarders know ( or should be made aware)that all these things needed to house, feed and keep their horses have gone up at an alarming rate. Why are you not increasing to keep up with the cost?
I don’t think that anyone expects the BO to absorb the cost to keep a boarders horse. Why is it acceptable to pass on increases in every other business and not on board?
You can always do a temporary increase and adjust it as ( hopefully) things go back to “somewhat” normal in the future. Do people/ boarders complain ? Of course they do but you shouldn’t have to bear the increases.
I’ve seen some incredibly cheap people in boarding situations.
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