Relocating!!! NEED ADVICE! GA/NC/SC/TN/KY areas

[wronglead]

Hello all,

So, I am looking to relocate for grad school next spring and I was hoping people in my prospective school areas could tell me a bit about the boarding market.
I am looking for information on areas surrounding:
Savannah, GA
Columbia/Aiken/Charleston, SC
Charlotte/Tryon, NC
Lexington, KY
Nashville/Memphis/Knoxville, TN

What I am hoping to find out:
How much is the average fairly private boarding barn charging in your area? (Decent barn, no onsite trainer- but any trainer welcome to lesson with their students onsite, BO provides care, outdoor HJ arena, good turnout, etc.)
For those of you with boarding facilities, how much does each horse cost you to care for in a month in your area? Basically, how much are you putting out for care costs vs. how much you charge boarders?
Is there a demand for private boarding facilities, with like criteria mentioned above, in your area?

In my location, demand is small, but availability is smaller, so the average dry stall with basic care (dump feed, clean stalls, regular turnout, etc.) is between $250-$400- owner pays for horses food, bedding, hay, etc. Depending on how easy the horse keeps, it is about $250-$350 a month for average quality feed, hay, bedding- hay and feed are $$$$$ so expensive in my area. So on average, people here spend anywhere from $500-$750 to board their horse somewhere- and that does not include any training or lesson requirements, which most facilities do require in the area (for this reason more private boarding barns like I mentioned above are more appealing to those with more shallow pockets).

Is your location similar? Thoughts? Opinions? Advice?
Any info is greatly appreciated! TIA!!!

[Texarkana]

Those are a lot of different areas.

I moved from SEPA to Nashville, TN about 10 years ago. It’s a strange horse market here.

One thing that initially shocked me (and continues to shock me) is how much MORE expensive anything horse related is around here than it is in the mid-Atlantic area. Boarding, training, feed, hay, vet care, even basic supplies… all so much more expensive, especially when you consider the lower earnings potential living here.

I don’t know where you’re currently located, but the cost of quality horse care is the same as what you posted. It’s getting harder and harder to even find good boarding situations for as low as $500.

When you get further out from the city and away from the concentrated horse scene, prices drop considerably. But with that price drop comes a huge drop in quality and selection. Away from the horse scene south of Nashville, there is very little demand for horse services at all, including boarding. As a result, there aren’t many options for anything.

With all that said, there are a lot of perks to living here. It’s such beautiful country for horses and the climate is near ideal. The horse community south of Nashville is pretty diverse with good activity. The location is also good in terms of traveling to other parts of the country for things like shows or trails.

[wronglead]

Thank you so much! This is just the sort of info I am looking for. Great to know about the south of Nashville being the primary horse spot in that area… Looking at properties and boarding barns online I would have never figured that out.

[cloudyandcallie]

In Savannah and surrounding areas you will pay $400 up for any boarding. And be ripped off and cheated no matter how much you pay. And if you plan to go to SCAD, well google “Annewakee” and Dr. Paul Poetter. forget the spelling. The money came from the Annewakee school in Douglas County where he was convicted of molesting male children.

[Texarkana]

[QUOTE=wronglead;8705608]
Thank you so much! This is just the sort of info I am looking for. Great to know about the south of Nashville being the primary horse spot in that area… Looking at properties and boarding barns online I would have never figured that out.[/QUOTE]

When you search boarding online in Nashville, you won’t get all that many hits. The places that advertise need to advertise for a reason-- they are subpar and have a lot of turnover. Or they are located “off the beaten path” away from the horse scene, thus needing to advertise.

The horse scene in Nashville is concentrated in Williamson county and flows over into the contiguous areas of the surrounding counties. Basically if you stay south of Nashville proper, north of Columbia, west of Mufreesboro, and don’t venture over the western boarder of Williamson county, you’re golden. Go beyond those boundaries and you’re on your own.

Many people may love being “away from the scene,” but there is a decided lack of services with which you’ll have to contend. About five years ago, we moved north of the city… my biggest issue is lack of vet care and having to trailer close to two hours one way for decent vet services. My next biggest issue is the exorbitant prices I have to pay to ship in quality hay and feed, since what’s available locally is inconsistent at its best and garbage at its worst.

[knightrider922]

I would love to hear more about Tryon area as well!

[wronglead]

Again, wonderful info Texar. I really appreciate it. Cloudy, $400 for a dry stall or all expenses included?

[cloudyandcallie]

OP, for $400 it is supposed to be full board… But the BOs will cheat on hay and grain and keep horses out of their stalls 24/7. Same at $600 around savannah. It’s like they want you to pay for a stall but not use it. Less work for BOs and more bugs and heat for horses. You have to stay on the BO every day, and even pay extra to buy your own additional hay. And Pasture maintenance? LOL. Mostly weeds, no manure pickup and lots of ants.

So I ended up spending a total of about $1000 per horse and cleaning my stalls and feeding while BOs stayed in their houses doing whatever they do instead of working in their barns. So I paid extra so mine could be in their stalls, bought my own shavings and bought extra hay so mine could eat hay instead of weeds. Don’t buy the “it’s good for them to be out 24/7.” Savannah is bug country and bugs will eat your horse up. Even if you spray daily yourself, since paying a BO to spray your horse won’t get your horse sprayed.

[wronglead]

Cloudy, thanks for the info. I’m not looking to board at another facility, but rather, buy/build and open up my own low keyboarding facility. I basically live in the swamp in FL, so I understand buggy and hot weather- horses cannot live out in these parts either. I would obviously plan to be a very fair BO and care for every boarders horse as much or even more than my own. Any profit I make off my boarders is well-earned in extra time and care I put towards making sure they are treated with the same amount of love and respect I would give mine.

[mroades]

Cloudy, you are incorrect that there are NO good facilities around Savannah. OP, if you want to know the good ones, pm me

[ElementFarm]

OP, I can’t speak to any of the specific areas on your list…

but, there are LOTS of threads on here about how it’s near impossible to run a profitable business solely boarding – the way to keep your head above financial waters is to run a show and/or lesson program, as the real money is made in lessons, coaching, and schooling. Horse board in most areas, pretty much only pays the cost of the daily upkeep, and generally falls short of extra costs: like mortgages, fencing replacement, arena maintenance, and general property upkeep.

Not saying don’t do it, but before you jump in, research WELL the area you’re looking to move to, build a strong business plan, and add at least 20% overhead to your expected costs. Good boarding operations are harder and harder to find in most parts of the country, and the good ones often lose out to the sub-par ones that cut prices by cutting service/quality/care, which sadly many horseowners are oblivious to.

Good luck wherever you settle.

[Rackonteur]

Um … you’re going to go to grad school AND try to run a boarding barn?

OK, seriously confused here …

I’m just trying to figure out what degree program is offered at which schools in all those areas you’ve named. For instance, the Savannah-Charleston area isn’t exactly big on graduate programs compared to NC, TN, KY, other parts of GA, and maybe some other areas of SC.

Usually, for grad school, people go to whatever universities have the best professors and research depts. in their subject.

I’d recommend a graduate program that might get you a job that pays really really well and then move to an area with jobs and good boarding barns.

Just advice from an old graduate student and never-rolling-in-money horsewoman!

[Guilherme]

Knoxville prices for “full care board” will run from a low of $300 to a high of $750 (that last at a very high tone facility run by a branch of a political NAME family). In most cases you’ll get what you pay for.

Climate in East TN is four seasons but biased towards summer. Being at the west end of the Eastern Time Zone our really warm hours are in the later afternoon. It’s light until way after 8 p.m.

In the mountains we’ve got bugs but not like in the Tidewater or the Delta (over towards Memphis).

Vet. services are decent, anchored by the UT Large Animal Clinic in Knoxville. There are several good local vets as well.

Hay quality runs the gamut, but mostly it’s “cattle grade.” That can actually be decent quality from some producers. We recently seem to have lost our best source, but I’m not really sure what their status is.

There is a show scene and we’re very close to the Smokies and the Big South Fork. There are several Military Parks at Civil War Battle sites and many allow riding.

There are two, large public show venues at Walters State CC and Roane State CC (the Henry/Stafford Ag. Expo. Center).

G.

[wronglead]

Element- Yes, I’ve read the threads about how boarding does not pay. It is terrifying to read them given my plan. I appreciate the tips though; that is why I am trying to get some true market prices and demand ideas for each location from COTHers. I do not want to set myself up for disaster.
Rackon- My advice to you would be to not be so condescending when you are trying to offer “advice” to others. Fortunately, some of us are much better at managing time than others; balancing grad school and a boarding facility will not be an issue for me.
G- Thank you very much. I appreciate the info- so far people seem to have nothing but great things about the East TN area.

[cloudyandcallie]

OP, I think the posters are just trying to tell you the truth. I had only one BO who made $$$ honestly, and she ran an after school camp for kids during school year and ran summer camps in the summer. Plus she taught lessons 4 days a week. And her husband worked at the barn after he got off work each day.

Beware of people who say there are good boarding barns around here now. When they get paid to judge, and uh, well then due to the judging method some people decline to participate in shows where said person is paid to judge, well you can draw your own conclusions. Ask the person if she was paid to judge a show for any boarding barn she recommends, and if she gave the championship ribbon to a rider who fell off but rode at the barn which paid her to judge the show, and ask why she has changed jobs so many times.:eek:

Boarding will allow you to pay for your horses’ expenses and break even according to the now employed on a plantation in SC former BO mentioned above. But you won’t make any money to live on around here. People are used to shoddy care and being treated poorly, i.e., cheated on what they paid for.

I hope you do have success wherever you decide to go.
Talk to the owner of Cypress Stables over in Bloomingdale. She is nice.

[wronglead]

Thanks Cloudy. I am not looking to “make money” but rather what you mentioned about “breaking even”. I’ve put myself in a situation which financially allows me to buy a farm this size for myself wherever I decide to go, but what is a four or six stall barn with my one lonely horse to fill it? And the thought of boarding my horse repulses me as, like you mentioned previously, people try to scam you and just will not look after my horse the way I do. I want my horse fix throughout school, and I currently manage a barn right now so it seems like the appropriate path. I will definitely look into Cypress Stables for more info.

[mroades]

It’s cypress grove stables just fyi

[IPEsq]

I think the real estate market for what you are looking for won’t be as good in Savannah and Charleston.

[Prime_Time_Rider]

We own a small private barn and board a couple of horses to offset some of our costs. The last time I ran the numbers I calculated that it costs us about $300 per month for feed, hay and bedding. That does not include utilities, water, taxes, and what we pay our part time groom to clean stalls. Our biggest expense (and variable cost) is hay. We buy our hay from our neighbor when we can at $8 per bale, but if we have to buy it from the feed store it’s more like $12 a bale and that’s for coastal hay. So, you’re not going to make much money even if you charge $500 or $600 per month.