We have a large all weather ring that our neighbors use for 10+ horses per day. They use their own jumps, we irrigate with auto sprinklers, they are maintaining at moment (but we do have the equipment so that is not a necessity). What would you charge per month? We are in a very prime location for summer AA shows if that affects anything.
I would charge (Depreciation on footing + Maintenance costs + Electricity/heating) * (1 + Gross Margin%). = Profit. Break down the costs on a monthly or yearly basis depending on the agreement, solve for either gross margin or profit depending on your preference.
If you use the ring as well, I would split your costs with yourself on the basis of activity. I would also make them sign a contract for acceptable us and maintain the ring yourself to ensure the footing is being properly cared for.
This of course assumes that you are in a fair market for arena rentals, and there is not enough competition where expecting to cover your costs/turn a profit is a ludicrous idea.
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I am not sure how to calculate depreciation of footing. It’s Wordley Martin footing and quite a bit of it as a large ring. I use it very little at the moment. I am fine with them maintaining as they drag every day and might as well not put wear and tear on my equipment. My main expense are the sprinklers going off every day, but I don’t know exactly how much that costs. Any ballpark figures on what to charge per month? There are many AA shows in the summer and we are within 5-6 minutes of the Horse Park so in a competitive market.
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Are they using yours just for the convenience of not building their own, they can’t afford to build their own, or they don’t have the space to build their own?
Few barns I’ve seen allow this, but the ones I saw in Ohio usually charged around $100-175/month/horse for haul-in arena use. Or anywhere from $15-45 per one time use (per horse). But, for 10+ horses, that may make it not worth it for your neighbors.
I think to calculate some kind of depreciation value you could use the initial cost to install, divided by the declared longevity before new footing needs added or the arena completely redone. Wordley Martin should be able to provide an estimate on how long their footing will last based on your amount of traffic. So, say it has a 20 year life span with your amount of traffic and proper maintenance, and you spent $100,000 for initial installation, it depreciates $5,000 per year. $420/month (rounded).
The manufacturer of your sprinkler should have specs available that list the water output per hour or similar time amount, use that to calculate your water usage.
Same with your lights, if it’s lit.
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I can’t tell you exactly what to charge, but I can offer you some thoughts. Usually when I don’t know what to charge for something I try to start by figuring out what it costs me, and then take other factors into consideration. A nice outdoor arena with an irrigation system might cost $60-100K to install. Let’s go with $60K, and expense it over 17 years, that’s about $300 per month. The footing probably isn’t going to last 17 years, so you may want to separate that out and calculate that separately over a shorter term. Maybe that adds $100 per month. The cost of water to irrigate a large outdoor arena could be quite significant. I’d recommend you look directly at your water bill and figure that out. That could easily be another $100–or more!/mo.
That puts you at $500+/per month. Now, figure out maintenance. I would expense your equipment and then use a fraction of that since you likely are also using your equipment for other purposes as well (maybe $30?). Figure out the time that would be spent on maintenance per month and add the cost of that in as well (maybe $200?)
A few more items to consider: If you feel that the ring gets the majority of it’s yearly use during busy summer months, I think it would be reasonable to adjust the price upwards for those months. I doubt your arena is quite as busy or in demand during January. If you or your clients are also using the ring, it probably is appropriate to adjust the price downwards somewhat.
Neighborly relations are also a factor. After people have been using something for free, even something as obviously expensive and nice as a lovely outdoor arena, people start to feel entitled. A request for a charge that reflects the arena’s actual value and cost to maintain–however fair it is!–might come across as greedy or demanding. Realistically there might be a price point at which your neighbors would react with a huff and say “no thank you,” and if you aren’t using the arena much yourself, it might be a better deal to get $500/mo. than nothing. Perhaps a more palatable way to structure it would be to do a per horse fee, and set a number like $50-75 or even $100 per horse per month. Assuming your neighbor is a pro or has boarders, this would keep the cost proportionate to his/her actual business. I think that most people are comfortable thinking that about $50-100 of their horse’s board fee is probably going towards riding facilities. (At some places the number would be much higher depending on the facilities vs. number of horses.)
If the people using your arena are people who are renting your neighbor’s farm for the summer, you should be aware that the availability of your arena is likely adding a pretty significant chunk of change to the rental fee. The difference in monthly rental fee for a horse property near a show grounds with vs. without an arena would be significant, especially to people who are schooling 10-15 horses per day.
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Is the neighbour using the ring for their own training purposes or for teaching lessons?
If they aren’t using it commercially, then you are talking about charging your neighbours.
If they are using it for lessons, then you are talking about charging their clients.
There are lots of threads about ring use fees for lessons, but I’ll just throw out 10$ a horse. So either clients would pay you directly (I rode at one barn where there was a box we shoved the cash ring fee in. Because it was the 80s and life was simpler then. Or your neighbours will raise their rates to accommodate a ring fee.
If your neighbours are using your facility for their own daily training needs, probably a flat monthly fee is best. Ten horses a day, I think 500 a month would be very reasonable for not having to put in a ring.
If it’s a mix of both, then some mixed rubric.
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Thanks so much for all the replies! Very helpful!
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