I always thought if someone with an interest or background in photography opened a retirement boarding barn they could take gorgeous photos of the horses a few times a week and share with the owners. Maybe have a barn FB page or something. I would LOVE that if I had to retirement board and couldn’t visit often. Maybe some already do, I think it is a great marketing advantage.
And who doesnt want to do photo shoots with horses all the time? Mine get accosted by the iPhone regularly. I need to whip out the DSLR if I ever get around to unpacking…
Yes but I think the worst barn owners, the ones who end up running a barn into the ground and creating a terrible unpleasant toxic environment and making boarders miserable are the ones who go in blind and ignorant.
Know two different retiree and lay up barn owners…they are lucky to collect the board on time but do put a pic up on FB periodically if the owner requests it. And some owners don’t want their horse up on FB unless they post it themselves. Don’t know how often somebody who has owned the same horse for 15 years wants photos or what BO wants to take the time to shoot each horse several times a week, keep up a FB page for absentee owners plus listen to their complaints the board is too high on their rare visits.
It always looks easier from outside then the reality and that’s why so many barns run by the less experienced are awful, even if they look like the Taj Mahal from a distance.
It all comes down to what kind of lifestyle you want. Just be sure to take off your rose colored glasses and really give it an honest look.
I was a lifelong boarder but also did a stint running a boarding barn of about 30 horses, and had worked for many barns in various capacities through my late teens to mid twenties. In my late twenties, I was lucky enough to “marry up” to someone who had a small hobby farm for personal use of his own. So for the first time, I have horses at home.
I love it. I love being in control. I love saving money on board. I love the freedom to do things, or not do them - if I’m too tired to sweep the aisle, it’s fine. If I want to bring the horses in early or late for whatever reason, it’s fine. The second you have a boarder, all that flexibility vanishes. They will expect things to be a certain way, and they will hound you about it. And since every boarder has a different idea of what’s proper, you’ll spend a lot of time either defending why you do things a certain way or catering to their needs. If you haven’t run a boarding barn (or worked in one before) it’s really easy to romanticize the idea of boarding. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it, but you need to give it an honest look. Sure, you’ll be maintaining the ring for yourself. But what if that would be once a week for your own personal use, but Sally wants the footing dragged every day? Or consider the wear and tear on your place: one horse in the ring once a day vs. 10? It’s not only additional wear and tear but additional labor and maintenance, as more traffic means more frequent maintenance. Or, say, imagine that you’ve set a course and are excited to ride it tomorrow. But you go out the next day and a boarder has put all the jumps down to poles for her ride (which is allowed as long as they put them all back) and now you can’t do what you’d planned. I actually boarded at a private place where the BO closed the ring for certain hours during the day so she could ride alone. The boarders HATED that (and rightly so, paying good money to be there) but I could understand why she’d just want to ride in peace!
There’s a thousand different examples of this and only you can decide what you would want to put up with. Just be aware that despite being picky with who you allow to board, you WILL end up with pain in the butt boarders at some point in time. We all know those people who seem perfectly normal the first 5 times you see them and they turn bizarre the 6th! And it’s impossible to keep everyone happy. The ONLY way I’d board is if it was one horse for a close friend and everything was CLEAR. Or if I leased the barn and it’s care entirely out to a trainer…but even then, having people in my space would annoy me. My home is my sanctuary. And while I miss riding with friends a little, I would really dislike having people here all the time.
Also if you’ve never done chores before for a significant number of horses, really think about it. Chores on a few every day is no big deal. Chores on 10 or 20 takes time. I’ve done the chores on 30 by myself every day. It really isn’t that much fun!
As far as a personal farm goes, though, I love it. We just have 3 so the chores are manageable, although there are days when I’d really just rather sleep in instead of getting up early to feed. My husband is a horse person too, so we share the load. I work from home and we are homebodies, so being around for chore time everyday isn’t a big deal - although that did take some getting used to when I moved in. My in-laws are 10 minutes away and handle chores for us when we travel or want a day away, and we also found a housesitter to cover when the in-laws can’t.
So all in all, there isn’t a right or a wrong answer. I personally would not recommend boarding, but if you really want to do it, by all means do! We need good quality boarding barns in this world. Just be aware of what you’re getting yourself in to. Think about the amount of work in your head - and double it. Do the same thing with the various costs. And if you’re still okay with it then, than go for it!
I have absolutely no experience with owning a farm, but after being a boarder at several farms, you couldn’t pay me to run a boarding facility. I have seen first-hand how hard it can be to run one as boarders and trainers don’t always pay on time or even at all sometimes. There seems to be so much stress when running a boarding operation due to this and the inevitable drama that comes with boarders. Trust me, where there are horse people there is drama no matter how small the farm or seemingly friendly the people are. Stay far far away from trying to run a co-opt as it just doesn’t work as great as in theory. People can be mean and ruthless to others, which just leaves you to break up the fight as the farm owner. It is a lot more trouble than it is worth.
Personally, I would either just have my own personal barn for my horses or even a retirement farm! I would love to have my guys at my own house, so I could enjoy them more often.
Check with your bank or financial services provider. Mastercard and Visa often charge 4% or more in fees.
Requiring first and last months board is not a common practice. You are likely to get push back on that item.
I agree with a lot of other posters, running a boarding facility is a lot of work and can easily become a full time job. Don’t discount the feedback you’ve received that boarding is a break-even business. It really is.
I’m the minority on most “should we board?” posts as my husband and I have had a mostly positive experience so far. Full disclosure, we have only owned our property for 2 years.
Here’s what (in my opinion) makes it work out for us.
I have a small property-5 stalls, 5 horses 12ish acres
I only offer self-care pasture or self-care stall board. I do help my boarders out when they need a sheet pulled or things like that.
We have a no drama rule. My boarders have been there from the start and they know that my tolerance for BS is low. They are awesome.
I am not fussy about how the barn looks. I ask them to pick up after themselves and I have one who doesn’t but shes awesome otherwise so I dont get mad if her lead rope is on the ground, or she leaves a sheet hanging in the wrong place.
I have an iron-clad boarding contract that spells out everything-especially that they are responsible for damage done by themselves, their dogs, their horses or any guests on the property.
My outdoor has lights but I have them set so that they a) automatically turn off after X amount of time and b) cannot be turned on before 6am or after 9pm.
I have open communication with my boarders and let them know everything that is going on so that there is no gossiping or need to start drama bc of rule #3. I will make you leave.
Now I only take friends of friends. You must know someone I know.
We are like you-we don’t need the income by any means and honestly the board pays for our additional insurance, the electric and my hay. But the tax write off and the property tax exemption we get for running an agricultural business is WELL worth it IMO. I this area, there is also a high demand for self-care boarding if you have a decent facility which we do.
I have only had one bad experience with a boarder who is now gone. We had to go after her in small claims and are in the process of garnishing her wages to get paid back. It was not a big deal for us, but reminded me that even if you have references on a person, you don’t always get the truth. In this case because of #5, it was a no brainer for the judge and took less than 15 minutes to get a decision in our favor.
As far as being gone, my husband and I still travel as our families are out of state, we both have careers that require us to be gone and we like to do things. My one boarder house sits for us and in exchange in the winter I do the morning care for her horse (feeding, blanket change, turnout). In the summer, we just have her take it off her board. It works out well for the half dozen times a year or so we are both gone. Otherwise, at least for most business trips. one of us is always home.
I have to say, I really enjoy our boarders. I don’t think I would want a bigger facility though. They are good people-the girls (and a couple of their friends who are always there) help ride my horses for me since I’ve been too pregnant to ride. My other boarder helps my husband tinker with farm equipment or just shoot the shit over beers because he grew up on a farm. Their horses are respectful and well behaved.
If you are considering having retirees then you have to understand you may be dealing with end of life issues. You have to make sure you can deal with the feeding and extra care these horses may need. You also have to make sure the owners are okay with the extra veterinary costs involved.
You may also be in the position of older horses getting down and not being able to get up and then also what to do when their time comes.
I would have some conversations in person, with owners of boarding barns before going into this.
That’s a WILL have to, not a may have deal with end of life issues in retirees including deteriorating health, inability to eat or rise after going down and finding they crossed the bridge overnight when you go out to feed…that’s a large and awkward carcass. Need to give some thought to gate, stall door and aisle witdths and accessibility to pastures . It’s a bad enough call to make and worse if the owner is not able to be involved and you handle everything, out of your pocket until they mail you a check, it’s 400-600 around here, too close to town to just dig a hole if you have an excavator or backhole and the ground isn’t frozen,
Not everybody has the stomach to take over the end phases of life and disposal of remains. That’s the reality.
On speaking to retirement barn owners, including the one I board at, most retirees last about 5 years, mines at 7, very few go past 10 years unless they were younger then early 20s when retired.
Too many don’t think about these things when dreaming of running boarding barns, any horse can die at any inconvenient time and location…usually when the owner isn’t there and can’t get there for awhile. Then BO gets to do it.
Boarding retirees, especially with absentee owners, can be more time consuming than boarding performance horses. I have a small retirement farm. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve been called away from my job, or had to spend extra time with one of the boarders. No big deal for me, as I account for this and it’s built in to board fees.
But end of life issues are important to consider. Do you have adequate space to bury a horse in an area that would not contaminate water? Do you have an excavator that you could call? And are you prepared to deal with the heartache that comes with having these horses in your barn?
I will never board performance horses again, but retirees are not for everyone.
This is important to consider - and not just for retirees.
Unless you lease the facility out to a trainer and make ALL of the care their responsibility, you are the one responsible for handling veterinary emergencies. Oh, you can put it into a contract that owners need to handle all issues, but the reality is that when the vet says “this one needs to be checked on at midnight, 2am and 4 am” and the owner lives an hour away, you’ll find yourself offering to do it…or you’ll be going out for a nice date with the hubs, all dressed up, and notice on your way out that something is colicing, or there’s gushing blood, or something is 3 legged lame…you will call the owner and they’ll be out of town or in an important meeting or on a date with their hubs and have their phone off, and suddenly you’re back in the house changing your clothes and spending 4 hours in the barn with the horse and vet. It’ll probably be raining, too. Or it’ll be Thanksgiving. I can’t tell you how many Thanksgiving dinners I missed from colicing horses!
At any rate, as the BO you must expect to handle stuff like this. Even if you put a trainer in charge, the same scenario could happen. And let’s face it, none of us are going to not handle an emergent situation. So make sure you’re okay with handling those situations, because they will happen. Make sure you’ve decided whether you will charge the boarder for handling these - and make sure that’s clearly communicated ahead of time.
Another way to think of it? Think of ALL the times you’ve sat there thinking “I’m so glad I board and I don’t have to handle xyz…” Ie. millions of blanket changes…chores when it’s -10 with 40mph winds…chores when it’s 110 and 97% humidity…middle of the night vet checks…dealing with pain in the butt boarders…fixing the broken fence for the 100th time…receiving texts from said boarders at 5am or 10 pm…etc. - well that is now you, my friend!! Again, you may not mind any of this, but you should be aware of it. So many people think boarding is this super fun easy thing, and in the right situation it can be. But it can also be a lot of work and headache.
The insurance is the least of your considerations!
I would also think about how flexible your full time job is going to if you have to come in late / leave early to deal with an emergency or other short notice issue. ( Naughty horse gets out/ some one needs the vet due to an emergency issue ect).
I have seen a lot of people who have done what you are thinking about doing get out of either the job or boarding horses because they realize doing both well was just not possible .
I totally understand why owning a boarding stable seems attractive to people. Many people love horses and want to really feel engaged in the horse community and enjoy horse related activity and bustle.
However, I strongly advise you against having a boarding operation. There are many much better ways of being engaged and active in the horse community. There are many much better ways to donate your time and energy to the horse community as well.
I get it that you don’t feel that you need to make money. But do you really want to take on the onerous physical and mental responsibilities of caring for other people’s luxury pets, plus the total loss of privacy or private time, only to find out that you are paying for the privilege of doing so?
Don’t forget the hidden costs of boarding. Over the years I’ve had clients (or their guests) steal from me, carelessly hit my pets with their vehicles, show up with guests who think it’s okay to walk through a barn with a lit cigarette or hold toddlers up pet strange horses, leave gates open (risking injuries to MY horses), bring dogs out that attacked my pets, and attempt to do a wide variety of strange things on my property.
Small scale barn work for just a few horses is not particularly difficult, IMO. But feeding/haying/watering and cleaning up after larger groups of horses is heavy physical labor. Even if you have an on-site trainer and an employee, I can guarantee that you will end up stuck with the work much more than what you think you will. Are you ready to get up at 4 am to feed and turn out 12 horses and muck 12 stalls before you go to work? Are you prepared for back injuries and rotator cuff tears? Are you prepared to show up late to work because you were stuck taking care of someone else’s colicking or injured horse? Are you prepared to miss holiday meals or a valentines day date with your hubby because of an emergency with someone else’s horse? Believe me, your clients (and/or any renting trainer) aren’t going to be missing their holiday meals or their valentine’s day dates!
Are you prepared to get kicked or bitten by someone else’s horse? No matter how gentle of a group of boarded horses you cultivate, sooner or later you are going to get injured by one, it’s inevitable. What does a trip to the ER cost you? Can you afford to miss work due to an injury sustained while doing less-than-minimum-wage work taking care of someone else’s luxury pet?
I think the fact that you have a full time job that you don’t intend to quit is an issue. Even if you have boarders or a trainer that are supposed to be responsible for their own veterinary or other barn emergencies, if it is your farm the buck stops with you. What are you going to do if you get a phone call in the middle of a work meeting from a neighbor describing a very sick or injured horse on your property and neither client nor trainer will pick up the phone or they say they are “unable” to deal with it. Even if the horses are behaving, you would be opening up your property, unsupervised, to a large group of people you don’t know all that well and who may or may not be able to behave responsibly and follow your rules. The idea of having a trainer rent the farm out is nice in theory, but a f/t trainer cannot generally make a living off of a 10-12 stall operation. I think there is also a huge risk of renting to someone who ends up proving to be flaky or financially unstable or simply not a good match.
The idea of doing retirement board is not a good one. There are a few retirement places that do good business, but in general there are a lot of issues with doing retiree boarding. Your fantasy of putting up a run in shed in a nice paddock and putting a few retirees in it is not realistic. 1) People often expect a bargain for retirement boarding, although they universally expect a high level of care. Many retired horses actually require very specialized care for chronic medical conditions. 2) Retired horses are abandoned more frequently than any other type of boarded horse. 3) Retired horses lack cash value, and can be expensive to care for, and can quickly run up big vet bills, so if they are abandoned with you it’s a bad situation. 4) End of life issues or serious health problems can be extremely difficult to navigate, with owners not wanting to provide adequate or realistic or even humane care. 5) Owners of retired horses are often very hands off, but that means that you are responsible for everything. 6) Good retirement board clients will only board at established facilities with established reputations because there is so much trust involved for absentee clients.
It’s a sweet idea but realistically this is a very inaccurate view of what good clients want. Very few owners want pictures of their horses posted by a BO on social media. Many upscale clients take their privacy very seriously. Most absentee owners don’t care at all about photographs of their horses beyond occasional texted photos of cuts/scrapes or to show current weight or muscling. What my absentee clients really care about is whether or not I’m meticulously tending to their horse’s care. They want updates about how their horse handled some bad weather or a foot abscess. Most savvy clients aren’t interested in “fluff” but rather more concerned about actual care. It’s not that they aren’t sentimental about their older horses, it’s just that they generally already have albums full of photos of that horse’s show or race career. I also don’t know any BO/BM with time on their hands to do “photo shoots.” Good photo shoots with horses require way more than a good camera. It takes a lot of work to get a horse “camera ready” and hairy retired horses make terrible models.
You’ve gotten some good advice here that should remove any ‘rose coloured glasses’ you may have had. You are making a big lifestyle choice, so you are being very smart to be doing the research beforehand. I’ll start on a positive note by saying that having your horses on your property is a huge privilege and can be incredibly rewarding. There’s nothing that makes me as happy as opening my barn doors in the morning and hearing my horses nicker at me. However:
In general, a few things I’d really think about before making this leap:
Will this move significantly increase you or your husband's commute to work?
Do you regularly have to travel for work, or work unpredictable/long hours?
Do you enjoy doing things that are not horse related? (Going out to dinner regularly, travelling over Christmas, playing tennis or going golfing?)
If the answer to all of these is 'yes' I would really reconsider this idea, and instead enjoy the luxury of having your horse boarded somewhere with full care.
The benefits of a ‘boarding barn’ vs a private barn are that you will have people to ride with, and that you may be able to offset some of the cost of your own horses. The benefit of a private barn is total autonomy, and privacy. As many people have suggested, running a boarding barn is a thankless, and sometimes down right horrible task. However, if you decide you want to do it (and it may actually be a good fit for you) there are ways to do it that can really improve your life. [LIST=1]
Treat it as a business: A boarding barn is a business, even if it's on your property. You need to look at the numbers and write up realistic business plan to really understand if it makes sense. Operating costs can be extremely high, and revenues low. In most situations, boarding operations barely break even (let alone contribute anything towards a mortgage or improvements to the property). Personally, I wouldn't even *think* about the hassle of a boarding barn unless I was very sure that it would at the very least cover the costs of my own horses, and offset some future improvements (it *is* possible).
Hire full-time help: Budget for this. You and your husband already have full time jobs. There is no way that you can have 10+ horses on your property and expect to do the work yourselves - don't try, you will HATE it. Realistically, in addition to daily feeding, mucking, and turnout, you'll need someone who can be there to hold horses for the vet/farrier, feed lunch hay, deal with things that come up in the middle of the day like broken fences, cut legs, blanket changes etc. The list really goes on and on and on. Unlike with a small private barn, at a boarding barn you have economies of scale, which can justify the cost of help - a huge bonus given that you and your husband have full time jobs and your own horses need care.
Have a trainer: I would highly recommend having an in-house trainer who you like and trust. If you have someone in mind, talk to them about what they would need to run their program out of your place (ie. is 10 stalls enough?) Make sure ALL the boarders are clients of the same trainer. It's significantly easier to manage, and you can set it up so you are not the go-to person for every single question. Depending on how you structure it, you may want to have your trainer manage your staff and general barn maintenance.
Invest in your sanity: Figure out what's going to work for you to balance your personal space and home with the barn. Suggestions include having a clear separation of the house and barn (think hedges/gates etc), strict barn hours, your own private tack room/groom stall etc. Think about what works for you and structure your set up around this. If all this fails, you can always kick out all your boarders, leave the stalls empty or keep only your horses there.
[/LIST] Hope that's helpful! If it doesn't completely scare you off then I'd say you are well positioned to take this on.
I can understand wanting to have your own horses at home but I think you are crazy to consider boarders, for all the good reasons already mentioned. And there is almost no profit in it, certainly not enough to be worth the trouble.
@BeeHoney has made several other very good points here. Particularly about the difficulty of finding and keeping good staff, as well as the (sad) fact that many of the younger horse professionals today are not sufficently well educated in terms of horsemanship, care, and farm maintenance.
I have worked in a large facility, ran a co-op barn, had boarders on my own farm and I have been a boarder. I loved owning my own farm. Mr. chai and I took in many, many horses, dogs, cats, chickens, donkeys, you name it, we would make room for it. I absolutely loved every minute of it. But it’s not for everyone. Horses don’t take holidays, so for many years, my life revolved around making sure we were home to turn in and feed. And vacations would cost double because we paid a good horse/dog/cat/critter sitter to stay on our farm. If you think that’s for you, then go for it because it is great to know your animals that well and have them so close in your life. If you do take in boarders, be very careful about who you let in, because you can bid your privacy goodbye.
On the good side, it’s fun to share a barn with nice people. You’ll have someone to ride with and share the fun. I loved being able to look out my kitchen window to see my big draftie looking back at me from the barn, or having our pony, Shady, come to the fence by the house at 11:00 every morning to whinny for his mid-morning carrot treat. It is just so much fun. Lots of work, but so worth it.
As far as buying a bigger barn and letting it out to a trainer, my advice is a giant no. You'll take on all the liability, headaches and drama that can come with a situation like that and if they don't have good horse care, if you have a heart, you'll wind up stepping in to care for the horses. Best of luck in your choice for the future!
Thank god for the people who do own boarding barns and do it well. They make horse ownership possible for the rest of us. I appreciate them even more because I know that I could never, ever do it myself. I have are several very good reasons, but ultimately I just value my privacy too much to ever tolerate a bunch of people at my home place all the time. Friends, strangers, good boarders or otherwise…just no. A boarding barn that has a separate entrance and zero intrusion on my home and personal barn/horses would make it somewhat tolerable, as an idea, but that is a rare situation. And even out of my immediate sight, it would not be out of my mind, ever, and that is another reality that I find unacceptable.
Even rented en block to a trainer, I would not be able to tolerate the nonsense that goes along with being the landlord. Trainers who don’t pay, don’t take care of the horses or property responsibly, or their crazy boarders that could make my life miserable, anyway, when they aren’t handled right. Because, ultimately, the buck stops with the barn owner. Even the possibility of such drama is enough to make me say no way to ever owning a boarding facility in any capacity.
But everyone is different, thank goodness. My personal nightmare is the stuff on which some people tolerate easily and thrive upon. My only advice is not to purchase a property that you cannot well afford without any other income. That way you are never forced into a boarding situation if it goes bad or just doesn’t suite you, in the end. Honestly, though, the best and most successful barn owners, IME, are those who are dedicated to the business as a full time endeavor. It is just really hard for the average ammy personal farm owner to also have a successful “side” business with the intense daily and property management demands that comes along with commercially boarding horses. Some do it and do it well, but often at great personal cost that often isn’t sustainable in the end.
Mine get accosted by the iPhone regularly. I need to whip out the DSLR if I ever get around to unpacking…