I am as well! That’s why I was wondering if the BO just had more field space than stalls and was looking to pick up an extra few hundred dollars a month, perhaps didn’t quite think things through about the additional costs even someone just on field board can generate. OP does provide her own hay though.
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Not exactly.
How much less than stall board should field board be?
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I feel this on every level. We do some boarding on our property, 4 outside horses and my 2. I had to increase board $50 last fall to cover the new hay price, which I divided between the 6 horses. Even at that, we cover the cost of feeding our two and a tank of gas each month. (before fuel shot through the roof) That’s if I only take out the cost of feed, hay, bedding and insurance. It doesn’t include property taxes, fuel, property maintenence/improvements, equipment or repairs, labor, vehicle costs/fees/maintenence and the list goes on.
And we give everyone a $50/month break every summer when we switch to letting the horses graze. But both husband and I work full time jobs, plus do all the work ourselves. I have to say, we’re looking at reducing the number of horses through attrition. And we have a reputation that means an announced free stall is snapped up in days.
The rate that everything has jumped is unreal.
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The fact the OP does presumably provide her own hay is a saving for the BO (and I assume her own feed, which is then fed once a day)? The fact she can’t groom or tack in the barn seems weird TBH. I’ve never heard of field boarders being prohibited from using crossties, even if they keep their own tack in their cars or whatever because it doesn’t fit in the tack room.
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I read it that the OP’s horse is on a nice enough pasture that it does not get hay, not that the OP provides their own hay. The original post in no way even implies the OP pays for that grain that the horse is given daily. They simply say that the horse is only grained once per day.
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There’s a barn near me I rode at for a short bit that doesn’t allow anyone to tack up in the barns, even in the winter. Presumably it’s because of a combination of 1) makes it easier for their staff to drive tractors and such through the barn to do stalls/feed whenever they need to without having to clear everyone out and 2) there are like 100 horses there and during peak hours it would be a nightmare if you were in the middle crosstie and needed to pass 10 horses before you could exit the barn.
I could imagine a barn that tried to limit that as much as they could by not allowing pasture boarders to use the aisles.
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Depending on your BO, you can ask why the field board went up more than the full board; however, if you are still happy with your boarding situation despite the increase and your horse is well taken care maybe just accept the increase as is.
I don’t blame you for being upset, it does seem unfair but on paper for your BO it might not look that way. If there are better options for boarding in your area you can always look at them to see if you will get a better arrangement for your money.
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That situation is understandable. I can understand in a large barn with many field and stall boarders not permitting the field boarders to use the barn. But the OP said there was 6 or 7 stall boarders and just herself alone as a field boarder. One person being excluded at a very small barn.
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I agree it’s not clear. I admit I come from an area where a horse solely subsisting on pasture without additional hay would be impossible, but the OP would have to clarify.
This is why I only offer self care only now with a minimum # and utilities apportioned by number of horses (I don’t want 14 individuals doing their own thing).
If people actually paid for their own expenses - feed, bedding, labor, being there 2x/day 7 days/wk, fixing all the things that break, not to mention the mortgage taxes etc- would figure out boarding is cheap at the price.
I didn’t make a dime boarding in fact lost a good bit. Now, I can keep my base rates for dry stalls the same (mortgage PITI is fixed) with a small number of people on my place whom are now friends, and we can all bitch together about how much a bale of hay now costs
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In almost every case I know of, it isn’t capriciousness, it’s a BO trying to accommodate boarders by not raising rates for years, at their own expense. Until they suddenly realize they are losing money – aka supporting other people’s horses – and they have to put out a big bump.
It is definitely better every year to sample the local board market, assess costs, and bump up the rate by a considered amount. Rather than wait years and then deliver a big jump in one go. But it seems that so many BO’s do try to keep rates down, even when for business reasons they should keep up with yearly incremental increases.
Please don’t feel that the BO is doing it capriciously. After years of a steady rate, that’s not fair to the BO. In my experience they are desperate by the time they finally have to give a big bump, precisely because they tried to take less for themselves and keep the boarders at the same rate in prior years.
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My increase was 23%. By an apologetic and desperate BO that has kept rates level for a long time, just a minor bump last year.
I get it. My BO can’t support my horse. BO actually said that it was increase board by that amount, or close the board barn.
She was bothered by it, maybe even emotional. She said almost in tears that if everyone moved out over the increase, she would close the barn and no longer take boarders.
No one moved out. If for no other reason than that the other barns also posted increases. Her increased rates are still consistent with the local market.
This BO has said for years that boarding makes almost no money for her. It’s the other business it brings that makes it worthwhile for her - lessons, clinics, haul-in’s, etc. & so on. Basically the board barn is providing the facilities for all of the real income-related activity. And the real income activity is a LOT of work for her. Work she loves and wants as her career, but it can be grueling. If she’s tired, her days are not such that she can kind of lean on a desk and space out for half a day with no one noticing.
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I’d approach the BO in a nice way. I own a very small retirement barn, the pony pays less than the 17h warmblood bc she eats much less and is messy and uses 2x shavings. I think if you are reasonable about it and not demanding you have a shot at compromise. That being said if she has a waiting list to fill your spot it might be a tough negotiation. It’s worth asking.
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The problem is that since that is the market rate, it will cost about that much to get re-established in the same location.
But if one cashes out and changes lifestyle away from rural, or else relocates to a much lower cost-of-living area, it may make financial sense. (Consider doing it asap, as with an increase in mortgage rates buyers will be able to afford less.)
Or else just stay put and enjoy your valuable property that you paid much less for, back in the day. 
I’ve had that problem - the real estate market went up, I could have sold and made good money, but where I was living was where I needed and wanted to live. I could sell, but then I couldn’t afford to buy back in to the same area.
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My property taxes this year more than doubled, my insurance went up by at least 30% for liability, the cost of all my repair supplies are up. Labor for my various trade based repairs is up and even electricity which feeds the well has increased. Boarders that are in full training and go to horse shows make up this difference in allowing a trainer to use time and talent. Fixed costs are just that. Every horse facility owner without exception says board just breaks even at best. Is 16% $40 or $400. In any event its hard to please anyone…I mean that anyone-- those of us who have barns typically just love horses.
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As a Barn Owner of a 19 stall boarding show barn for the past 17 years, I have never seen such an exponential increase in costs in such a short period of time. Everything has gone up or doubled or tripled in cost. Boarders tend to just look at hay, grain & shavings as our costs, but there is so much more. We lime, seed and fertilize 35+ acres of pasture every year. The cost of seed this year has more than doubled. Good help is a treasure so you better pay them top rate or someone else will. Workmans Comp is outrageous, taxes have increased and maintenance costs have skyrocketed.
People do not make money from boarding horses. I happen to have a great group of people and children that ride, which motivates me to keep doing this, but in no way is it a money making venture. OP has every right to ask BO why the increase, but also understand BO’s have many other expenses that you don’t even see. When costs are increasing at this current rate, the $50-$150? board increases are probably not covering all of the BO’s recent additional expenses. Compromising quality and care is not for us, so increases are inevitable, unfortunately, for all of us.
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I’m also a boarding barn owner and I cannot agree with this. Once you start doing that, it’s a slippery slope and a nightmare for administration. People find out that everyone is getting charged differently and then they’re going to petition you individually for reductions of rates.
When there is one uniform cost, the difference in care cost is spread out over the total number of horses. Most barns have a limit on what they consider to be standard feed, that way a horse who requires more forage, for example, to maintain good weight will pay a surcharge on top of the standard rate.
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I appreciate your point of view.
I think it would depend on the size of the facility and how many boarders you have.
I boarded my horses at several barns and they were all different.
At one facility the BOs gave multi horse owners a discount . That placed closed so we had to find a new barn. The new barn did not have the same policy, and there was a lot of heart burn and heated discussion over that, believe me .
One owner kept trying to debate with the BO about it. She finally gave up. BO wouldn’t budge.
Last barn I was at was private. She charged different rates, but she could do that easily because there only 4 of us.
I can see why you wouldn’t want to be burdened with the aggravation, if you had a large facility
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Its true about the hidden costs.
We have a 2008 3/4 ton to pull the horse trailer and because we pick up round bales weekly for the horses. If we had them delivered, it would cost more in a way reflected in board. And because we feed ad lib hay, we unload, flip and roll 4’ round bales by hand from fall to spring because we still need to buy tractor chains for traction and a bale spike to use the tractor for that. And its comes out of the personal cash flow to do that, not the board revenue. And we’ve all seen what’s happened with fuel.
We mostly feed a balance of whole oats, crushed barley and soaked beet pulp with a balancer because I spent the time to work out the nutrition to save the processing costs. There’s a bit of sweet feed for flavor and hemp hulls for Omegas too.
We had to split the turnout/shelter situation because a couple of horses were arguing over control of the round bale and had a horrible winter meaning there was more indoors overnight time than usual. That meant adding water heaters and doubled our electricity bill.
Ring maintenence is fuel, time and equipment, this year I need to add sand and replace some of the fencing. Not part of board income. I also mow field paths for riding/training and to keep ticks off the horses when riding, I even use a lawn roller aerator to help improve the ground.
Each year we improve the electric around the property a bit, that comes out of the board when the horses aren’t on hay in the summer.
I’m planning to upgrade the water system too. Better filtration and adding a UV sterilizer, maybe a tankless water heater by next winter. Also not out of board $$$, and our in house UV sterilizer needs replacing 
.
Yeah … sometimes I try hard not to think about it too closely.
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Yes, I’ve never understood or offered a multi-horse discount for boarders – it isn’t like it costs less to feed or care for horses because they share the same owner.
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