Questioning a board price increase - yes, I understand inflation

[pn]

RIGHT ON!! I already work 12-14 hour days 6 days a week. I guess I am supposed to work the 7 Th elsewhere to defray the cost for this boarder?

[pn]

THIS!! You hit the nail on the head… this is what infuriates everyone here who is working so hard to make boarding affordable and she suggests the barn owner is accountable to her over a 50$ increase! And to get a second job so she can afford to keep her horse there…

[meupatdoes]

Your opinion that I am disagreeing with is that in any area of the country boarding should be profitable at $800-$1000 per month.

It’s wildly presumptuous of you, and not worth anyone’s time to respond to. You are making up numbers in your head and you think WE should have to prove something to you? Not how it works. You supplied your fake numbers, YOU support them.

[meupatdoes]

Also, the West is going to run out of water.

Good luck getting hay.

[clanter]

@OverandOnward

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,

might want to read up on commodities, China has been buying nearly all the grains …China owns most of what was then surplus food stocks

Then there is this little issue with the US banks having $5T in excess deposits

[fordtraktor]

I was talking with my long term hay supplier yesterday, as I bought all the remaining 2021 stock he had left and he was delivering.

He reminded me that the last time there was a serious disruption like this and corn prices shot through the roof, a lot of hay suppliers plowed under their fields and planted corn there. So…yet another restriction on supply coming up.

I told him to do what he needs to do for hay prices this year and don’t feel bad about it, I’ve already prepped my boarders for a price increase. I know he will feel bad about it, anyway but I don’t want to make it worse. So far we are looking at a fuel surcharge, in hopes prices will go back down.

[findeight]

I just dont get the relevance of comparing farming large tracts of land in rural areas where visitors are rare to boarding barns on compact acreage near urban areas where residents have discretionary income and are often on the property requiring parking, bathrooms, tackrooms, crossfencing and increased liability insurance. At a minimum. Arenas, fancier barns lights and such are an added burden.

The scary thing about encroaching residential and commercial development is the land value where the barn sits increases dramatically. The property tax rate increases but its when the assessor resets the value of that property for tax purposes that taxes people out. Typically, that happens every 3-5 years, usually recent comps factor in and can be a real shocker. Might be great to see what the comps in your subdivision are but when you get that reassessed property tax bill, not so much.

As much as a BO might take that offer they can’t refuse, they also know they will not be able to afford to pay the future property tax based on that new valuation. That has been a root cause of most barns I know closing, land value increased too much. Whether they owned the land or leased it, they had to go.

[quietann]

There are states that allow “agricultural” land to be taxed at a much lower rate.

However, in Massachusetts at least, horse boarding isn’t considered agricultural. The BO must have another activity that does count. Like breeding, growing hay etc. I know one BO who is short on turnout space, but can’t expand what they have because they need to keep a certain amount of land in hay.

[findeight]

The definition of “agricultural land” can change under pressure from developers-who contribute heavily to political campaigns.

Not all urban barns are are land designated as agricultural either, closer in properties particularly may just be zoned low density, not agricultural. Trainers leasing stalls are particularly vulnerable to actual property owner actively advocating for zoning change and development to boost value then selling out. Happened to me several times, had no idea what was going on until we got 30 days…neither did trainers who had leases on the facility which were terminated.

[beowulf]

@McGurk

As a final note; this year and next are going to cause big shakeups in horse ownership and the horse industry, except for the very, very high end. Anyone who depends on a paycheck or has to keep to a budget is going to have to make some hard choices in the next 18 months. Hay and grain are going to go way up because of the cost of fertilizer and the cost of fuel. Labor cost is up, lumber cost is freakin’ outrageous. A lot of barns that run on skinny margins (that is, most of them) will have to close or dramatically change pricing, and a lot of hobby owners are going to be forced out.

Agreed. This is something people need to set up contingency plans for. Less hay is being grown, and it is more expensive than ever to grow, bale, and transport it.

I dread the day our hay source tells us he is retiring. When that happens it will likely close the door on us, too.

[hey101]

You make some excellent points that I hadn’t even thought about. When I lived in PA in the early 2000’s my property taxes went up by 50% in only 4 years!

I’ve been in CA since 2007 and at my current property since 2013. One of the few things CA does right is property taxes.

Your initial property purchase is assessed at 1.25% and can only go up by 2%/year.

My property is currently worth 3x what I paid for it in 2013 but that taxes are still really low.

If I had to factor major property tax hikes into an already-stressed business model, that would definitely be the proverbial straw

[clanter]

@beowulf

Less hay is being grown, and it is more expensive than ever to grow, bale, and transport it.

may be… the commercial growers have the equipment for very large scale production…a bale hay is not touched by a human until the end of the line… for us that is as it unloaded from the delivery truck

[findeight]

Commercial growers also export a shocking amount of hay and grain overseas.

[McGurk]

For us, in our part of the world, it’s not about the cost of labor. It’s the cost of fertilizer, herbicide, seed, diesel and equipment maintenance. Fertilizer and diesel being the big ones.

[Bebe_Falcon1]

Another barn near us shut down, 200+ horses are being displaced. That’s about five (?) in the past 24 mos.

I’m afraid I see boarding becoming unaffordable for the average horse (and horse owner). High end barns not so much (given the potential increase in cost relative to board rates from a percentage perspective), and same with anywhere catering to low-maintenance equines that get fat on air and just require less everything. And I mean “unaffordable” because the cost of supplies and labour are increasing at such a rapid rate and it’s just out of our (general) hands at this point.

(This post is of no use to anyone, of course, unless they board at said high end facility or own aforementioned low-maintenance equine )

[beowulf]

There are no ‘commercial growers’ within a reasonable distance of where I live. You can buy hay from Tractor Supply at insane mark-up, or you can buy in bulk from exporters in NY, Canada, or KY.

None of that helps if you don’t have the place to store 800 bales of hay to make the commercial grower’s hauling trip worth it.

My ‘other’ side of the family are in the cattle business and we bale our own hay. It is good hay but not what I feed the horses (they get a 600lb timothy bale). Every year that I help with the baling, people stop and ask them if they will please sell some hay to them. There are very few farms around still growing and selling their hay to other people. Most grow for their own stock and many farmers here are borderline proprietary about where they buy or sell their hay because they know it’s a market about to bottleneck.

Last year was so awful we only got decent first cut. The second cut was incredibly late because it was drought-drought-drought and then near biblical records of rain – there was almost no second cut hay to be had. It was a bad year for hay in my area. Now fertilizer, diesel, and part prices are through the roof – anyone with a tractor better pray their tractor doesn’t break this year because it’s been almost impossible to replace parts because of the COVID-adjacent crash in the steel / metal industry.

That hay field’s value has gone up 54% in property value (and market value) alone since 2021 and all it has on it is a cow barn built in the early 1900s. They are getting calls and letters on a regular basis from developers looking to buy their land and split it into ~100s of housing lots. There is almost no undeveloped land in any adjacent towns for development and the pressure is turning to agriculture, barns, and open spaces where developers are making long-time barn/agriculture owners deals they cannot turn down.

Not a problem unique to my area although some days it’s really obvious we’re feeling the pinch that is the need for increasing housing in developing cities.

[Miss_Motivation]

Fascinating thread that is what I value in the COTH community.

As a BO, yes, it’s all true from my vantage point. I think we are seeing a generational change in farm ownership right now, along with post-COVID stuff, supply chain issues, international commodity challenges, drought/climate change, sudden demand for horses… this is just a perfect mega-storm of disruption.

I agree with several posters who foresee truly massive changes in commercial (more than a handful of boarders) horsekeeping as we’ve known it, especially in the urban/suburban sphere. Sometimes I try to hint at this to boarders but they are generally focused on the microeconomics of their horse, their cost to buy an extra bale of hay, and their income. They are (understandably!) not keen to know that the horse lifestyle they have taken for granted may be sailing off a cliff.

Horses/horse life/barn life has been so good to me, I get caught up in the emotion of it, like many other professionals in this sport. We want today’s kids to have the opportunities we did to have a horse, or at least ride one, to have a barn experience that became central to so many of us. But as a boarder told me at the beginning of COVID, “It’s not your responsibility to keep horses affordable for your boarders.” That was one of the most important things anyone has ever said to me. And I’ve finally absorbed it.

Regarding the generational change I mentioned, horse owners (and horses!) are aging out of the sport at the fastest rate I’ve seen. Baby Boomers fueled this great escalation of horse activity/horse sports for decades and now… we’re tired. Or we don’t want to get hurt. Or we have grandkids and new bills and aches and pains and thoughts of retirement and travel and sleeping in and not worrying about every horse in our barns, and what their owners are going to see promoted on Facebook next that they think we should be supplying for the entire barn.

Aging Boomers are creating massive social shifts across the spectrum of US life, and also for a huge number of equestrians. That affects stables as BO’s (like me) are ready to step off of the carousel and find a slower life with less responsibility… or actually greater responsibility to ourselves, and our families, in terms of marshaling our remaining time, energy, and money for our own families, rather than pouring it all into barns located on land that we always hoped would appreciate to the point where it would actually support us, by its sale. Our farms are the greatest asset most of us own, and it’s the inherent land value, not the business on that land, that represents our safe transition into another phase of life. We have all been land-banking.

So yes, developers buy larger tracts of land for housing and commercial projects, but if boarding stables were financial winners, then younger equestrians would be buying barns and they’d just change hands. This rarely happens because- when you put a modern-day mortgage, property taxes, and updated facilities on a piece of land that may have been a stable for a half-century or more… it rarely works. It is not financially viable, even if the enthusiastic new owner could somehow find a loan, labor, and the right farm to buy in a location close enough to attract the boarders it would take to try to float the boat.

I see three options for the future of most commercial boarding stables with aging owners now: sell for development, sell to a new operator who may love the lifestyle but probably can’t make the money work, or sell to a private owner with deep-enough pockets so that the farm doesn’t need to support itself. With this third category, the question becomes: why would they want to board horses? Maybe they’ll keep their own horses, or a handful of pleasant boarders because the horses are pretty, but in terms of a commercial stable, why would they disrupt their peaceful enjoyment of their farm property with a gang of 1,200 lb thuggish tenants who destroy things, eat, well, like horses, produce ten tons of manure a year, need magical surfaces to walk on, draw flies, and, most significantly, must be attended to by some of the most passionate/opinionated/demanding/strident caretaker/minions on the planet who want to spend their every waking hour at the barn, while complaining about how the gentleman farmer maintains his property?

Of course I’m exaggerating, but the overall landscape of the near future of horsekeeping in the US is not looking good for mid-market boarders. I wish this were different because I have been that mid-market equestrian all my life, and it has enriched my existence immeasurably. That model will change, I think, significantly and soon.

For those of you who board and question the integrity of your barn owners over a board increase amidst world-wide inflation and widely-acknowledged price hikes and supply chain disruptions, think we’re ‘making bank’ taking care of your horses, or are ‘in it for the money’ I think you’re going to be surprised when those barns close and there are fewer places to keep your horses… at any price.

For the rest of you BO’s who struggle to keep things nice, affordable, and possible… yes this is a labor of love. Thank you for keeping the dreams of horse girls of all ages afloat as long as you have.

[Horselover5]

@fatappy

If I challenge this, there is no question I will be asked to leave. So do I say anything? At this point, I am considering selling my horse just to be out of the industry.

They own that place so whatever policies they frame you’ll have to work according to that although they’re being partial to you but you can’t do anything in that. You should find another barn whose pricing policy suits you.

[McGurk]

@Miss_Motivation

… but in terms of a commercial stable, why would they disrupt their peaceful enjoyment of their farm property with a gang of 1,200 lb thuggish tenants who destroy things, eat, well, like horses, produce ten tons of manure a year, need magical surfaces to walk on, draw flies, and, most significantly, must be attended to by some of the most passionate/opinionated/demanding/strident caretaker/minions on the planet who want to spend their every waking hour at the barn, while complaining about how the gentleman farmer maintains his property?

@Miss_Motivation

Of course I’m exaggerating,

No, no you’re not. That is a wonderfully accurate description.

[B_and_B]

@Miss_Motivation

Aging Boomers are creating massive social shifts across the spectrum of US life, and also for a huge number of equestrians. That affects stables as BO’s (like me) are ready to step off of the carousel and find a slower life with less responsibility… or actually greater responsibility to ourselves, and our families, in terms of marshaling our remaining time, energy, and money for our own families, rather than pouring it all into barns located on land that we always hoped would appreciate to the point where it would actually support us, by its sale. Our farms are the greatest asset most of us own, and it’s the inherent land value, not the business on that land, that represents our safe transition into another phase of life. We have all been land-banking.

This is the heart of the problem. And not just the boarding barns, but the vast majority of agricultural operations are about to go off the generational cliff. Young farmers cannot afford the land and the old farmers’ retirement fund Is the land. They have to sell or work till they die. Land suitable for agriculture is rapidly ending up either developed or bought up by a corporation.