I’m considering dedicating one of my stalls to short term vacation boarding. Since my training facility has the ability to take care of horses with special dietary or medical needs, and I can provide much more knowledgeable care than your average Farm Sitter, I am struggling with a day rate. Since it’s a short term I would require that the horse owner would bring all feed required by the horse.
To avoid confusion, I need to specify that this is for local Horses needing a boarding situation while their owners are gone on vacation.
Ideas?
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What do similar barns in your area charge, if there are any that do short-term boarding? A short-term vacation boarder shouldn’t need special care, since they are healthy enough to travel, so that shouldn’t factor into it. I would guess that most special needs horses would stay home and owners would prefer to have someone farm sit instead of boarding. You could maybe offer one rate for “normal” horses and a higher rate for the small number of special care horses.
A PPID horse who needs daily Prascend, or a horse who is on twice a day minocycline for Lyme, or twice a day SMZs for something that’s not contagious but needs longer-term treatment, or the next dose of Adequan falls into vacation time, are all healthy horses who need medical care.
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I agree that you should research what others are charging. Is there access to trails? Arena? Lessons? Jumps? Foxhunting? Do you have a nice camping area, or cabins? You may not be able to find something similar in your area to compare with what you want to offer, but at least you can get an idea.
I’m sorry, I should specify that this is a “vacation boarding” situation for horses only, while their horse owners are gone on vacation.
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A board barn I used to be at offers that service. She charges the same rates as her layover services but doesn’t typically do meds / care other than mixing supps into feed and regular turn out etc.
I think somewhere between layover and hospital rates is probably about right.
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Figure out what monthly board would be for your situation, divide it by 30 and then decide how much above that rate is this worth to you.
1.5x, double, etc?
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I wonder how many people need temp boarding for just 1 horse.
I guess if they have 1 that requires more than simple feed & turnout, it might help.
Of my 3, the mini needs to be locked in his stall for grain, so he doesn’t finish his TC Sr, then go into horse’s stall to share the verboten oats.
Why my herdboss horse allows this familiarity is a mystery.
When horse is done w/grain, mini is released & shares hay in horse’s stall.
I’m pretty sure my farmsitter can handle the lockdown & release, but maybe someone else would prefer to send the criminal to you 
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I’m not sure dedicating one stall makes sense businesswise - I suspect there are peak times of year where multiple people might be interested (like over the winter holidays) and also that some people interested would have more than one horse.
Instead I might start by just offering it when you have an available stall, and generally making it known that you can offer this service on your website etc.
I do have a friend who used a service like this. Her horse was in a pasture/co-op situation and she was going to be gone for several weeks and she was looking for an arrangement where her horse would get affordable focused care while she was away. I did this with a few friends over the winter one year to take our horses for a place where they could get a month of all day turnout.
How much to charge probably depends on what the current rate is. I think you could conceivably double your long term day rate, depending on what that is, and maybe sliding scale for a few days versus a month +. You’d be looking at what you offer compared to maybe some larger full board situations that always have space. You can also factor in any specialized services for layup etc that you can offer.
Figure out how much extra hassle it is to have horses coming and going and having that stall empty if you could otherwise fill it with a long term boarder. The short termers might be less hassle if absentee owners, or more, if their coming and going is very disruptive.
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I like to keep one stall available here in case I need it for repairs on some other stall. Additionally, I have a small pony stall that is specifically designed to be a temporary place for my 13 hand school Pony. So his normal stall would be available for the temp borders. So it really doesn’t take away from my regular boarding/training business plan.
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I was thinking (as a poster above mentioned) that you calculate what it costs daily for boarders and charge that by the day? If horse requires meds or special care you add accordingly. Since they would bring feed and supplements this seems reasonable.
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I think most people that would need vacation boarding would need more than one stall though. I don’t know anyone that keeps horses at home that only has one.
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I wish more barns offered that kind of service. Lots of folks may have just one or two out of their herd that need a bit more care than a twice daily feeder / sitter can reasonably offer. I certainly do. Which is why the vet’s hospital rates seem reasonable to me 
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I’m actually using such a service in January. Owner is charging me her usual board rate. I think this is very generous. I would happily pay 1.5x for a short term arrangement. Im paying for a month but hope to only need 3 weeks and will not expect or accept the balance back.
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On the one hand, I think a Horse-AirBnB is a great idea and much needed by many people.
On the other hand, if I were a boarder in your barn, assuming that this is one of the stalls on the aisle, I would not be thrilled with possible illnesses coming into the barn along with guest horses. We can only vaccinate for so much.
Although if I were a boarder that regularly went to shows, I might not mind as much. That would be the usual situation at a show as well.
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I have a friend who works for an outfit called something like Farmsitters USA. She has experience with cattle, horses, goats, sheep, pigs, chickens, cats, and dogs. Maybe find out what they charge, and charge something similar.
I would charge 1.5 times your daily rate. A new horse in is always an unknown. Still probably cheaper than a sitter.
Do be careful. I had this once and they did not pick the horse up. Thankfully they said I could have them and they were not bad horses so we were able to sell the two within a month.
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I recently took advantage of a service like this. The easy guys stayed home and the hard to deal with retiree with ailments and his friend boarded at a post hospital/lay up facility. Her standard rates were $30/day which is about what you would spend to board at a decent but not fancy barn with an indoor around here. It was a great comfort to know if the old guy had issues she could take good care of him.
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around here a dog boarded costs more
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Thank you everyone. I’m leaning towards $35 per day, with a potential reduction for anything between seven and 14 days.
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