I get that but what I am asking is-- why are there so many boarders on here who seem to think that boarding barns cannot be a profitable business? What besides income to debt makes it so?
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That is called farming and farmers face those issues as well.
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We farm for a living ( in addition my husband and sons work off farm) and have since 1995 so I am well aware of the cost of upkeep on machinery, buildings as well as cost of raising livestock ( raise Boer goats & beef cows) and the cost of fencing, and upkeep on 200 acres of hay & pastures.
We have a lot of outgoing expenses( why they have off farm jobs) and we do our own labor and all machinery repair , unless something needs special work.
What your barn costs to maintain and the equipment you choose to purchase for the services you offer ( like 2 air ride trailers) may be an expensive necessity for you but not for many barns offering boarding and that includes miles of expensive to replace/ repair wood fencing.
Many nice barns, that offer great care are pretty basic and have nowhere near the expense level that you do. That is why I object to the statement here that there is no profit in boarding.
It all depends on how much is outgoing and how much is incoming. Like any other business you either reconcile those to make it work or you go under.
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My personal opinion, is that the collective âweâ BOâs, have bought into the mentality for years and decades that we canât make money off boarding, and have allowed ourselves to get sucked into way under-charging while simultaneously bearing the frustration of all the things that go with operating a non-private barn.
Itâs somewhat of our own making, TBH.
I had my own personal come-to-Jesus a few years ago when I calculated exactly how quickly I was going to run out of money. I started changing things the very next day.
Itâs cheaper for me to have the place 100% empty except for my own horses than to have loss-leader boarders in here with all that entails.
As a reiteration my boardâonly costs ATM need to be about $1100/mo to account for all direct expenses and some overhead, and a paltry $100/mo profit. And thatâs leaving out a LOT of facility upkeep
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Not boarders. Former barn owners and barn managers.
Ask anyone who has actually owned or run a boarding barn and listen to what to what they tell you about the numbers.
My own experience is that I ran a boarding barn in order to support a lesson and training business, because itâs hard to have a lesson and training business if you donât also offer boarding. The boarding business did a little better than break even, and THAT was because the farm grew its own hay. All the money was in lessons, training, hauling, coaching at shows and commissions.
NO ONE and I mean NO ONE can pay the mortgage and real estate taxes on a property with the profit from boarding. (I worked at a very good well run barn where the property was paid for but the owner was struggling making the payments on the tractor and the arena.) You have to offer other services. Thatâs why a lot of boarding barn are private farms where people have opened some stalls to boarders to get the advantage of buying in bulk or having enough work to hire a part timer.
Why donât people just rent dry stalls and start boarding? Because itâs ridiculously cash intensive. Try pricing what it would cost you to lay in a monthâs worth of shavings, hay and feed. Add to that the cost to rent the dry stalls. You havenât bought a pitchfork or mucked a stall yet, just those expenses: Dry stall rent in my area is $250/month. Good quality hay is $10 - 12/bale, assume 20 bales/mo/horse, thatâs $200 - $240. Youâre at $400 - $450 a month and you havenât bedded a stall, fed grain or paid labor yet.
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no, itâs an entirely different situation. Boarding horses is a service industry. In order to provide quality service, that is still profitable, it would price your average horse owner out of being able to own, and board a horse, let alone have it in a training/lesson/showing program. Then the boarding barns would lose clients, as only the very wealthy could afford it.
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Do you have your clients coming on to your farm and using the facility? We are a service industry, not an ag industry. Do you not see that?
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Do you not see the contradiction in what you just said? If your husband and sons work off the farm, then you do not âfarm for a living.â If you âfarm for a living,â then why do your husband and sons work off farm? Could you pay all your bills and truly make a living if no one in the family worked off the farm?
It seems to me that we have several posters in this discussion who are hung up on the theoretical. Can you run a boarding facility like you do any other service business? Theoretically, I guess you can. Can you make a profit running a boarding facility? Theoretically, I guess you can.
I mean, itâs easy, right? You just add up your monthly operating expenses, capital expenses, overhead, toss in enough profit to make it worthwhile, divide by the number of horses and voila! thatâs how much you charge for board to run a profitable business.
But the reality is that there are a hundred different variables in the equation that complicate the situation and Iâd bet that there arenât more than a hand full, if that, of boarding-only facilities in this country that are operating in the black without having their operations subsidized in some way.
Have any current BOs/BMs posted here to say that they are making a profit with a boarding-only facility?
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With the smaller barns that I boarded at, the BO only âmade moneyâ in the sense that she covered some of her horse expense. Generally she wanted a farm for her own horses. So the property was bought first of all as a residence and housing for her own horses. That meant she was facing the cost of the place and maintenance no matter what. Since there was room for more horses, she took in some boarders and charged enough to pay direct costs with some profit to help pay some of her horsesâ costs.
While she gained the aggravation of dealing with boarders, 
she also had enough horses then to buy in bulk, and perhaps get better service from farriers and trainers.
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Yes, this is the kind of thing that I was talking about as a form of subsidy for your boarding business. If the BO assumes that these are costs that should come out of the âpersonal expenseâ pot of money rather than the âbusiness expenseâ pot of money, then it doesnât show up as an expense in the accounting for the business.
Another example would be someone like a former neighbor. They leased a portion of the farm to a guy who was in the hay business. He paid the lease fee in hay, so my neighbor got âfreeâ hay. Entering zero in the hay expense column in your business accounting really helps nudge you boarding business toward profitability.
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See your comment was exactly what I was trying to find out. Are BOâs afraid they will lose their boarders if they actually charge what is needed to provide the care they are giving?
My husband worked as an AG mechanic 20+ years ago and I remember him coming home and saying that horse people had to be the cheapest people on earth.
They would drive in to the dealer in their expensive truck and bring in their old tractor and complain about what it would cost to keep it running.
At the time I was a little offended but after this thread I think he is right? If the majority who board their horses are not willing to pay what it costs to have them , then the industry is in trouble.
They may not know how far in the hole the BO is every month if they are not told or if the BO continues to undercharge?
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Why should a boarder be told about the BOâs personal finances?
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I think you have a point on this. A lot of boarding operations are subsidized because the land prices, mortgages, and often other capital expenses arenât part of the budget sheet: "the BO would have horses anyway, or would be living there anyway so those costs donât countâ. Except, of course, they do. Especially as people age, as development pressure rises, as liability costs rise, as building costs riseâŠ
In fact, the boarding industry doesnât and probably can Not, exist without that subsidy. That is a cold truth. I think the horse industry as a whole is going to be very, very different in thirty years.
Not to get this thread booted to CE but, can I suggest getting rid of property taxes for open space or agricultural land and buildings might be a good idea as a first step�
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The tax benefits of running a business versus the full cost of a hobby. The first should be better than the second unless itâs a labor of love and a good trainer can be onsite with clientele.
Either way, itâs 24/7 and a lot of work.
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â⊠different from any other business âŠâ was never the issue. You have twisted what you said.
No one in this thread has said that the horse business should not be run like a business. They are running it as a business. They are saying that their business is undergoing rapid economic changes due to outside forces beyond their control. A lot of disruption is in the near future. No disrespect should be due to them for sharing this information.
THIS post is the issue that people are objecting to - actually, outraged would be fair ⊠(highlights mine)
By implication, accusing them of not running their business properly if they canât make money on board of $800-$1,000 per month, no matter where they are. Apparently you are not understanding that costs are different in different areas â as posters have shown by sharing their numbers in this thread.
Where did you come up with the math that $800-$1,000 per month can always turn a profit, everywhere? Show your math, as you asked others to do. Back up your insistence that costs are the same everywhere.
And posters did give you actual costs to demonstrate their individual situation.
And then if the numbers arenât turning a profit, what are you going to do to adjust your costs and make $800-$1,000 profitable? Cut back the hay and feed to the horses? Stop providing elements of basic care? Stop maintaining your farm?
Thatâs how close to the bone this is becoming for many BOâs. That is what they are saying.
If your boarders canât afford increased board, are you going to get a second job to support their horses? You suggested that earlier in this thread.
Or maybe you have to face the business decision of not staying open as a board barn. As so many in this thread, and in this country, are contemplating.
That is the point they are making. As a business, they have to make a business decision to raise rates, and that may cost them their customers as fewer and fewer people will be able to afford to own a horse. Thatâs why they are looking to a future that may require them to close their board business, for business reasons.
You keep doubling-down on this disrespect of BOâs who are explaining their struggles and their costs in this changing environment. BOâs who are budgeting - I donât understand why you donât think they are. Who are managing their business in a business-like way, and managing it well. But you disrespect them solely because their numbers are not your numbers.
What they are saying is that the changing costs are pricing horse owners out of being able to afford their horses.
And leaving BOâs with the business decision to close to boarders if horse owners in their area cannot afford the higher rates that their actual budget will require.
And thatâs the tsunami U.S. horse owners could be facing in the current rapidly changing economic situation. We donât know how many horse owners will be unable to afford to keep their horses as board costs go up. And the eventual impact on BOâs.
What is not business-like about the hard decisions they are discussing in this thread?
I do not understand why you think that $800-$1,000 board rate can be budgeted into yielding a profit anywhere in the country. Why you imply that costs are the same everywhere when that is not the case.
But especially, why you are so disrespectful of BOâs solely because their numbers are not your numbers.
People have provided numbers in this thread demonstrating that it is not possible in their area for a board barn to provide adequate services for a cost that is less than that amount.
If you were in a different location in the country, your cost profile would be different in many respects. Then you could revise your budget and see if there is a profit opportunity with a board rate of $800-$1,000. Maybe there is, but not in every case. When BOâs cut costs as far as they can without negatively affecting horse welfare, and a board rate that makes it worthwhile wonât keep boarders, then this economy is facing BOâs and horse owners with some hard decisions.
Hopefully the majority of posters in this thread are expressing their supportiveness of BOâs, not their negative judgments. And not blaming BOâs for things that are beyond their control. Or accusing them of not being business-like, not budgeting like a business, when that is exactly what they are doing. And coming to some sad business conclusions as a result.
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A bit over 13 years ago, I brought a new horse to the current barn. The barn owner had to raise the board a year later, about 6%. SINCE then, he has NOT raised it ONE penny. The board includes a stall, hay, grain, and shavings.
I have had three horses with this BO. The first developed cancer and had to be put to sleep in his mid-twenties, the second, also, developed cancer, and had to be put to sleep in his late teens. I then took a two-year break, which is/was the amount of time it took me to find the Kind Of Horse I Like. I have owned this third horse for slightly over 5 months.
The BO is living in his familyâs original home. His father built a modular house on the property nearby and, I think owns the approximately 60+ acres. I believe the entire property and both houses are paid off. Of the acreage, there are four small pastures, two of which are 3-4 acres, and two which are maybe 2 acres each. There are 4 cleared fields which arenât used for anything, just open and flatâmaybe 15 acres total. The rest of the acres are just woods with a couple of riding trails.
The BO has one SMALL corral (like an oversized round pen) to do some riding in. The pole barn stable is the nicest that I have boarded inâten 12â x 12â stalls, a concrete floor, indoor water pump, a stall-sized area (for hay bales, wheelbarrow, brooms and rakes), and a 12â x 8âish tack room. Grain is in another small shed outside and near the barn. The stalls are deeply bedded in shavings. The BO feeds round bales outside and has flakes in the stalls when the horses are in overnight. In winter, the BO will bring the horses in at night, and in better seasons, will only bring the horses in at night if it is raining AND there is lightning. (No lightning, horses stay out.)
The BO doesnât clean the pastures of manure. He rotates the horse pastures and MAY turn over the manure-filled pasture(s) with his equipment. There is a lot of hay waste, I suggested a large hay net, but he doesnât want to use one. (I forget the reason exactly why he was against it, but I would buy one FOR him if he wanted to try one now.)
The horses there are fat and sassy. The BO is VERY observant; he noticed my when my second horse was colicing, he and his wife helped walked my horse before the vet arrived, and stayed out in the barn with me after the vet left just before midnight (mid-January, temperature in mid-teens F. The vet had given me shots to give my horse every two hours (pain killer?). After I drove back to the barn to give the next shot after a brief nap at home, the BO told me to give him the rest of the shots, as he told me he wouldnât be able to sleep, so he would give the rest of the shots (until I arrived at 7:00 a.m. the next morning).
Because of some of the hassle, drama, late payment/non-payments, and the fact he is getting older (and says he FEELS it), he has not filled the empty stalls nor advertises. There are only FOUR horses, TWO of which he owns, in this beautiful barn. One former boarder, who lost her horse to colic/cancer (appeared to be colicing, took him to vet hospital two hours away, opened him up to find tumors all over inside) would probably be âallowed backâ if she got another, despite the slightly higher maintenance she is. (Treats her horses more like pet dogsâdidnât ride her last horse, but did some sort of ground work with him.)
I have written all of this to describe a really nice, backyard, trail-riding, barn. Itâs doesnât have âfacilitiesâ, but it is VERY clean, the BO is REALLY good to the horses, the horses are WELL-FED, and it is CHEAP. There is probably no mortgage, I donât know what the taxes are, but I know hay, shavings, grain HAVE to be costing him more. He has recently asked the other boarder, my cousin, and I to pay him in cash. Maybe heâs not paying âboardersâ insuranceâ anymore to cut costs or to make the business âdisappearâ. I donât know. Despite the fact, did I mention this, the board is CHEAP. However, my cousinâs finances are limited. Her husband is a self-appointed, correction, self-EMPLOYED graphic artist. They have taken in their sonâs friend into their home and is paying for his upkeep. They took in his dog, too, and my cousin and her husband are paying for the dogâs vet bills and needs (older dog with problems).
My cousin was seriously considering putting her horse down the pre-2020 winter because of the stress on her finances and his âold-horseâ problems. (Horse is mid-20âs.) I told her that if she decided to, I would support her decision. She didnât, the horse is still here, so MAYBE her sonâs friend/boarder kid is contributing some $ to the household.
Now, I could afford to pay TWICE what I am paying now and probably not miss it. Since retiring and not having to pay union dues, taxes, gas to drive to/from work, buy work clothes, etc., I am actually do QUITE well, financially. IF the BO told me first that he needed to raise the board 30%, I might tell him that I would pay the increase for both my horse and my cousinâs horse. (My cousin is VERY proud and probably wouldnât accept any help, if she knew about it. On the other hand, she is one of those who will ALWAYS help someone else, even if itâs not her responsibility. [Took in and kept her FILâs dog when he passedâhis kids didnât want the dog, MIL had already passed. Took in a good friendâs dog when she passed, although the friend had told my cousin to put her dog down when friend passed.)
After all this, itâs to say that I cannot possibly imagine that the BO is breaking even with the two boarders there. He and his wife have said that they like the âsocialâ aspect of it, seeing âfriends/boardersâ. With having horses, dogs, and a cat, and with his father next door needing more and more âattentionâ, the BO and his wife canât get away nor socialize easily. So, it might be why heâs giving us a $ break. Still, I think he is undercharging us; I just donât know by how much.
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Thank you for this post.
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If faced with this rationale by a client well I suspect any barn owner would be thinking Horse owner needs to get a second or third job to support their horseâŠor they need to sell the thing
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I find it so ironic that prices for horses spiked during the pandemic because suddenly the demand increased ⊠but now if rising costs make horses less affordable, we could seesaw back the other way with many people trying to sell their horses and fewer interested buyers. Leading to prices coming down.
Donât know if that will happen. Hope that everything stabilizes. But right at this minute the cost of horsekeeping is rising sharply and there are many uncertainties about future economics.
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Two unavoidable certainties that could increasingly affect the costs of horsekeeping for at least the next couple of years are: > the massive loss of agricultural production from the Ukraine, and > the many restrictions on buying agricultural products from Russia. Because they are two of the worldâs largest agricultural producers.
This will cause many major market shifts. Even if we donât source directly from U or R. Our sources will shift to fill in their gaps. The effects will waterfall through the markets.
There is no making up those losses of agricultural products. We canât do-over the growing season.
There will be some winners and many losers. Far more losers than winners, because there wonât be enough product for everyone who needs it.
Thatâs going to matter to horse owners everywhere. Sooner or later.
Good pasture will be a thing to have for another couple of years, at least, to cut down on the dependency on feed.
It could be that horse owners, especially the middle-ranks of owners, will be needing less barn and more pasture from their boarding options, to cut the costs of their horses. Itâs something to be thinking about, both as providers and as consumers.
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