I think it was just in general! It was open to the non-horsey public, she had like an old mobile home on the property that she’d use for stuff like that.
This thread actually inspired me to check on her website to see what she’s up to nowadays and it looks like they’re now offering ‘life coaching’ and academic tutoring, with a discount for kids in her lesson program, which is GENIUS!
My homeowners wouldn’t touch farm or horse ownership with a 10’ pole. Lol. I had to switch from USAA because they don’t cover farms at all, at least in my state. Bought commercial liability for both farming & the horses. Boarding was either no additional premium or very little extra, with boarders riding on the premisis included.
I do a few camps in the summer. Besides the horses we also milk my goats, do worm composting bins, and they buy t-shirts.
My sister is a photographer and through her I have also been paid for a horse to be in pictures. The money is good but it is hard work as you have to help control the horse but be out of the frame.
Agreed; I don’t think a lot of small farm owners really think about insurance. And they do things like offer lessons on their horses and board for a friend, etc. They are just lucky (so far.)
when my daughter had her summer camp running the T-shirt with camp logo was included with the camp fees and required to be worn while attending. The kid’s wore the shirts with pride…all the while advertising daughter’s summer camp as they went about town. (Daughter changed shirt’s color each year)
Biggest problem I can foresee about a day camp is having proper mounts, enough of them and some good backup instructors… if run correctly it really requires attention to details.
(Daughter made enough form her high school summer camps to pay for most her her college education)
I’m wondering if these people are lying about having a farm at all? I couldn’t even get a traditional homeowners policy in my state based solely on the fact we had a few pleasure animals.
I have a traditional homeowners policy at the moment. And an umbrella policy. They know it’s a farm. But when I boarded horses it wasn’t enough - boarders (human) were the problem, not even the animals. So we had a farm policy for a while but when I stopped boarding we switched back to a traditional policy.
When we first moved here we had State Farm and thought they would offer farm policies but they don’t. My ex-dh lobbied for them so he was able to have very specific and accurate conversations about liability but they drew the line at boarding horses. I have Allstate now and they are ok with owning horses just not boarding. And are happy to recommend I also carry umbrella insurance just in case.
Sometimes you also need to add on Care, Custody, and Control insurance separately for items owned by others but kept on your property - whether it be a horse, a goat, or a saddle.
Yes, I have a general farm policy but also CCC and boarding-related liability add ons (and an umbrella). I also make sure I am a named person/farm on the policy of my trainer and the outside clinicians we have come in. I also made sure the policy is in my and my husband’s name as well as the name of my LLC for the operation. Maybe overkill but I am not sure there is such a thing as overkill on this issue!
As for making money – I don’t think we really make much money, but my kids sell eggs and occasionally preserves. Just made 24 quarts of dandelion jelly last week, some of those will be sold. It’s a way to make them earn their allowances, which I think is a good thing. Oldest is 11.
It doesn’t cover everything that can go wrong, but Massachusetts has the following law:
Under Massachusetts law , an equine professional is not liable for an injury to, or the death of, a participant in equine activities resulting from the inherent risks of equine activities, pursuant to section 2D of chapter 128 of the General Laws .
[
https://malegislature.gov › Laws › Titlexix › Chapter128
](https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/Parti/Titlexix/Chapter128/Section2d#:~:text=Under%20Massachusetts%20law%2C%20an%20equine,128%20of%20the%20General%20Laws.)
Sorry for all the extra gobbledygook, but the law itself is quite straightforward (and was written in part by and eventing friend who happened to be a lawyer). This has meant that given our pretty high excess liability, our insurance company isn’t insisting on any additional coverage. And yes, they know that we keep other people’s horses here, that those horses are ridden here, and that those people do barn chores here. They were much more worried about who was on our payroll. In our case it’s just one man who helps out as an independent contractor when he’s needed, so no payroll.
The old story goes that to make a million dollars in the horse business, start with $5 million. We just want our horse business to break even, and that we manage to do.
Your daughter did great! I have another lady that works with me on the camps. I have the facilities and equipment although they do bring a couple of horses each day. She is good at things like games and crafts, I am good at the horse end of things. We make a good team.
I also use a young lady that is a working student. She gives me that extra set of eyes that we all need sometimes with kids and horses.
our kids were very active in Morgan Youth doing Horse Bowl at Nationals and were recruited by local 4H groups to be members of their Horse Bowl Teams (oldest son went to western district 4H finials twice). (While on a great summer adventure where wife and kids went to see some national parks they got off course to Regina Canada where they competed against a Canadian horse Bowl team)
Our daughter who did the horse camp used the information she had learned to develop her own program (which she sold to other camps). She created her own lesson plans. Half of her kids would do book work for half of the day the other half worked with the horses. Then they switch after lunch. (there were ten kids per one week session).
She used our horses and borrowed one for the summer. And the camp operated under our farm’s insurance.
Camp was so successful she had to hire one of high school friends to be a full time assistant others were hired on as needed bases. The second year she had students who had moved return from three states, so we boarded those kids in extra rooms (additional cost)
This was nearly twenty years ago. Today all the instructors are teachers.
(as a side note, when a favorite horse was to die ten or so years later we got notes of condolence from former students from nearly all around the world… how they found out I really do not know)
Really we were not in The Horse Business but tallying up what was spent and the revenue return we actually made money beyond the cost of the horses. Admittedly we had some unusual things that occurred like finding we had the mineral rights to the land we purchased to keep the horses on which proved to be valuable. Then others in the area deciding they wanted to live here also making our pastures worth considerably more than what we paid.
But without the horses we would have had no need for the pasture land.
My husband and I have talked about doing the Airbnb thing. Our property is kind of on two ‘levels’ with the house being on the upper one and entrance to farm being on lower part. There’s a business in town that builds one room log cabins and we’ve talked about putting one in lower section for short term rentals. It would still provide privacy for us and use of most of the property. You’d wake up gazing across hay fields and neighbour’s cattle herd with mountains in background.
It would be pretty rustic but I think that would be part of the charm. There is a well down in that part that could be used (once we find it). Maybe someday in the future!
We bought a property with a garage apartment and I have considered doing this because why not? It’s not like we have any plans for it at the moment. My husband is in no way interested, though.
If you had a large enough Indian population, large white horses that were bomb-proof for Indian weddings. I’ve thought about doing this. I have a friend who manages a beautiful hotel that does weddings and if I could find the horses…
We are on a dead end half mile road and at the end of the road is a small cottage no longer used. I contemplated renting or buying it (the owners only want the adjoining land to graze their cows). I thought it would be fun to fix the house into a “gingerbread house” and have folks come out from the more affluent city (about an hour’s drive ) with children or grandchildren for a visit with santa. A short sleigh ride or carriage drive from our farm to the cottage, a visit with santa with a photographer and send off a happy family with special memories. Never did it because I never felt I had a horse or pair I could trust to pull the vehicle and couldn’t interest DH into the work to fix up the cottage.
We are in a city, one thing we seen we can “rent” the animals we have to those who are just fed up with being indoors with no where to go. Our place isn’t a real farm but we are an island of open ground in the city. Parents bring their kids to be with the animals (closely monitored)
Many of our family’s friends have offered to become foster parents for such and such animal just to have something to do. (We freely share with them)
What they are wanting is to learn about the animal and how to become its friend. This is unlike the horse camp where horsemanship was the focus …today’s parents want their kids to have a friendly animal contact
Sort of like this where one of our miniatures goes to schools, many . many of these people have only seen some of these animals from a distance with instructions of do not touch
(And Sucha goes back to work being a Reading Dog as the library called saying people are asking for her to return… She has been off duty since early last year when everything shut down, but our area everything has reopened without any problems so back to work she goes)
She really was organized. We do HQB questions all the time too. I used to coach our 4-H group before I became a FFA Advisor. Funny how those questions pop up in my head sometimes.
I know someone that has a “farm stay” property on their farm and markets it for weekend/week long vacation rentals to people in NYC. It’s a small bungalow and very cute; modern and bright - but on their multi-purpose farm where there are free-ranging chickens and rabbits, as well as goats, sheep and a few horses. It’s insane what people will pay for it ($250/night or more) - and they can also sign up for two hours of “farm camp” for kids in the mornings – and do things like muck stalls and fill water tanks. 
But - for families that never get a chance to be “in the country” - it’s a pretty cool vacation.
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