At our barn, pasture board means round bales from October to April, which are replaced as needed, maybe once a week, maybe less, so maybe 30 minutes of labor, tops, per pasture. Tanks fill while someone is cleaning stalls, maybe once every few days. That’s pretty much it. While I"m not naive enough to think that fences repair themselves, decent fencing stays up and doesn’t need a lot of routine work. Pastures get mowed 2 or 3 times/season and that’s the extent of the maintenance they get. Pasture board costs about half of what stall board costs, and the main perk is being able to use the facility, arenas, trails, etc. along with everyone else. For the amount of care received, half the stall board cost is maybe even more than it ought to be but I won’t argue.
IM sorry, but if someone told me i had to pay the same for pasture board and Stall board i would laugh in there face and walk away…
Stall board is def more expensive, shavings, labor, and then protection as needed… NO way would i pay even close to what i pay for a pasture…
THE ONLY option i would consider is a semi private pasture/Paddock with FULL shelter of some kind and LOTS of natural shade AND i would still like access to riding areas.
I would not pay to keep my horse in someones back yard with no amenities…
I don’t understand why the pasture boarded horses are eating more hay than the stall boarded horses. That absolutely makes no sense. While all my horses except for a Shetland cross pony have stalls, they are out 12 hours a day (or night) weather permitting during the summer and they consume LESS hay when the pasture is decent and more hay during the winter.
Aside from the hay consumption, I agree that keeping horses in stalls costs more in terms of bedding and labor, plus electricity to run fans in the summer. When I had a pasture boarder I charged him less than the horses who were stalled,
[QUOTE=blondmane;7167421]
- Flame suit on- just wondering after adding up the numbers…
Why do people think it costs LESS to keep a horse on pasture than in a stall? If a facility provides a round bale 24/7, 365 days a year in addition to the “pasture” grass so that the horses don’t make the area a dirt lot, why is it that they are chastised for charging as much as stall board? Hay costs MUCH more than labor and shavings to clean and bed a stall.
For example: When 3 horses eat 1 round bale every 3 to 5 days (which works out to 22 square bales) even though they have plenty of nice grass in the pasture, it equates to almost $350 per horse per month. They are getting more hay than horses that are stall boarded and getting turnout on pasture for 8+ hours a day in addition to grain. Both “groups” benefit from the amentities of the facility, yet the pasture boarded horses are eating much more hay.
Just wondering - don’t throw me under the bus![/QUOTE]
I don’t understand your comparison. That’s like saying hay costs more than halters. The comparison should be the cost of keeping a horse in pasture compared to the cost of maintaining a horse in a barn. Both situations require hay; the pastured horse needs less because it has pasture grass unless it is on a dry lot. Why would you say a pasture-boarded horse needs more hay than a horse kept in a stall?
So the pastured horse needs only hay. The horse kept in a stall requires hay, bedding, and the labor of cleaning, turnout, power costs for fans, lights, and whatever else is in the barn.
I think your definition of pasture board must be different than mine. My definition of pasture board is a horse kept in a field with other horses, a water trough, and hay as needed depending on the quality of the pasture grass. You must be thinking of horses with a stall who get daily turnout. If that is so, then yes, a horse kept in a stall with 8+ hours of turnout would cost the barn owner more – not because of the hay, but because of the labor involved in daily turnout and the value of the land.
[QUOTE=Plainandtall;7167447]
Round bales cost less than square bales. Sometimes by as much as half.
Bedding can cost $5 a day. [/QUOTE]
^
THIS
WTH are you paying for a round bale & what does it weigh???
I’m also betting that round bale is not in any sort of feeder so a lot is not eaten but trod on, spread around and peed on then used as bedding.
All of the above posts contain good reasons why pasture board is cheaper.
It certainly is cheaper, and much less labor intensive. All three of mine have been on pasture since May. Haven’t fed a single blade of hay since then. And they’re all a nice healthy weight.
I don’t fill the trough everyday, I check on them twice a day, no stalls to clean, no aisle to sweep, no buckets to refill twice a day, happier horses with room to exercise. Love it!
Since you say they’re going through round bales every few days, you need to invest in a Cinch Chix Round Bale Net and, if the horses are shod, a plastic hay ring. I only use small rounds, about 425-475 pounds, and with the CC net, it lasts 2 goats, 1 Percheron, 2 QH’s and 1 Clyde-X seven to nine days, with only about 1% waste even on the coldest of spells.
First of all, it depends on MANY factors.
The biggest is the cost of land.
If you live in an area where land is VERY expensive, the (pro-rated) mortage/rent, etc for an acre of land may be greater than the (pro-rated) mortgage/rent, etc. for one horse’s share of the barn. And if you are in an arid region, you may need more than one acre of pasture per horse.
It also costs time and money to MAINTAIN pasture - reseding, fertilizing, mowing, etc.
So yes, in an area where land prices are sky high, it is not unreasonable for pasture board to cost more than stall board.
But in most areas, the land prices are low enough not to have a big effect.
If you are greedy, and put too many horses on the pasture, you will ruin the pasture. You should limit the number of horses to what the pasture can support.
No question that, for a stall kept horse, the cost of bedding, and the labour to muck, etc, is a cost the pasture boarded horse does not incur.
Feed costs should be about the same.
But there is NO REASON the pasture boarded horse would need MORE HAY than the stall kept horse - even if the won’t for some reason, eat the pasture.
If you are spending MORE on hay for your pasture kept horses than your stalled horse, there must be a LOT of waste, and your round balkes may be false economy.
If you are throwing extra hay at them to prevent them from “destroying” the pasture, then you have too many horses on too small a pasture- again a false economy.
Around here (No VA) (4 horses on about 15 acres, rotated between about 8 cross fenced areas) they turn there nose up at hay between April and October. There is no point in even putting it out.
I have also kept 4 horse on 5 acres (rotated) and they ate more hay, but nothing near as much as they would eat if stalled.
There may be good reasons for pasture board to legitimately be more than stall board.
But feeding MORE hay to pastured horses than stalled horses is not one of them.
[QUOTE=blondmane;7167421]
For example: When 3 horses eat 1 round bale every 3 to 5 days (which works out to 22 square bales) even though they have plenty of nice grass in the pasture, it equates to almost $350 per horse per month.[/QUOTE]
If 3 horses are getting theough the equivalent of 22 bales in 3 days, that works out as 2.4 bales per horse per day.
If it is 5 days, that is still almost a bale and a half per horse ber day.
I do not know where you are, so I do not know if they are Eastern (~50 lb) or Western (~100 lb) bales, but even if they are Eastern bales that is a a RIDICULOUS amount of hay per horse.
[QUOTE=Janet;7168257]
If 3 horses are getting theough the equivalent of 22 bales in 3 days, that works out as 2.4 bales per horse per day.
If it is 5 days, that is still almost a bale and a half per horse ber day.
I do not know where you are, so I do not know if they are Eastern (~50 lb) or Western (~100 lb) bales, but even if they are Eastern bales that is a a RIDICULOUS amount of hay per horse.[/QUOTE]
Thank you for doing the math, Janet - I had exactly the same thought!
Maybe the bales the OP is referring to are the tiny little rabbit sized ones you get at Petsmart… or typo’d and meant to say “When 3 ELEPHANTS eat 1 round bale” instead of horses…
Yep. This. My small draft can eat (1) 45-pound bale of hay a day in winter or when dry paddocked. Once on grass, he rarely consumes 10 pounds a day. Either this is a facility for draft horses, the rolled bales are too loosely baled and you aren’t getting the true poundage you are paying for (that has happened to us), or something in the math is really off.
I can see how the fee for pasture board in a dry pen could be comparable to one for self-care stalling in the barn. But, you would be expected to then pay for bedding, clean the stall, fill the buckets you have provided, provide your own hay and grain at your own expense, and do at least one turnout/retrieval per day. And that would then kick up your stall expenses again. At least that’s how it works in this area. To have it comparable to full board fee? No way.
Around here pasture board costs less - much less than stall board.
Most places, “pasture board” entails the horse being out in a group on acreage - they eat what the pasture provides mid winter through late spring. Summer and fall the pastures are dry, and they are tossed hay, once our twice a day.
Blanketing is rarely provided, same goes for grain. Essentially, many months of the year all the barn staff does is count noses and make sure the water is full.
By contrast, stall board requires that the stall be cleaned daily (labor), that they be fed hay 2 - 3 a day (cost and labor), and that bedding be provided (more additional costs, and more labor).
Blanketing and graining service are often included.
At my barn right now - the pasture group is getting hay once a day - so BO tosses hay once, and checks water - and then 15 horses are taken care of.
My contrast, the 15 in stall paddock combos require more feedings, daily cleaning, water check etc - BO can take care of the 15 pasture horses in the time it takes to feed / clean / bed one stall.
$350 per pasture horse for hay sounds extreme!! I live in a region of the country with some of the highest hay prices around, and paying retail (not bulk), and I can feed one horse TOP quality hay for about $165 a month (without access to pasture). That is feeding 30 pounds a day of grass alfalfa mix, at $22 a bale for 120# bales. It would have to feed 63 POUNDS of hay a day - per horse, to match your pasture hay costs.
I worked for someone who felt this way. He felt if he kept nice grass paddocks for boarders they would pay comparable prices for the benefit of having access to an indoor arena and pasture board (most outside board here is not try pasture board as we have a short growing season).
His plan was to have staff clean and bed the horse shelters and keep the paddocks clean and rotated to prevent overgrazing. He had a barn for tacking up and such.
BUT…he failed to do his research and didn’t believe me…people WANT their horse on grass, but the people that have the $$ to pay the kind of fees he was after would want the amenities, convenience and services that come with inside board.
So regardless of what your costs ARE, the market for outside board will only support a certain level of pricing. For this reasons, most barns have to limit the level of service to outside board in order to accommodate the pricing for their area and may accept a lower profit margin (or lower % to cover overhead costs for outside horses)
On the other hand, you can have many more horses boarded on a much smaller footprint when you keep them in stalls with runs and even less in stalls all the time with a bit of turnout in a turnout paddock here and there, as horses do in places where land is at a premium.
In that situation, you may be making more money boarding stabled horses, compared with pastured ones on land that could bring much more if developed.
There are trade-offs in all we do.
OP, you’re doing it wrong if you’re describing your own situation.
Pasture board usually means the horses are on pasture at least part of the year - and typically that means there isn’t hay supplemented while on pasture. Why would you supplement? If 3 horses are going through that much hay, something is wrong.
I have 5-6 horses on a round bale in winter and it takes them 5 days in a slow feeder to get through a 500-600 pound bale…which is just about right (20 pounds of hay per head per day). In winter my horses are supplemented with extra fiber, grain, or alfalfa depending the specific needs of the horse. In the summer, they get no hay as long as the fields are holding up and they look good. The paddocks are cleaned as soon as the ground has thawed and will handle the tractor. Once the paddocks are dried, I clean weekly.
As someone else said, bedding is the biggest expense for stall horses. $5 a day per horse is just about right unless you have a bulk supplier. Either way it takes manpower to clean the stall and move that manure. Stalls have to be cleaned twice a day. It’s MUCH more time consuming and expensive than pasturing horses.
3 horses are eating 1 round bale every 3 - 5 days???
[QUOTE=blondmane;7167421]
- Flame suit on- just wondering after adding up the numbers…
Why do people think it costs LESS to keep a horse on pasture than in a stall? If a facility provides a round bale 24/7, 365 days a year in addition to the “pasture” grass so that the horses don’t make the area a dirt lot, why is it that they are chastised for charging as much as stall board? Hay costs MUCH more than labor and shavings to clean and bed a stall.
For example: When 3 horses eat 1 round bale every 3 to 5 days (which works out to 22 square bales) even though they have plenty of nice grass in the pasture, it equates to almost $350 per horse per month. They are getting more hay than horses that are stall boarded and getting turnout on pasture for 8+ hours a day in addition to grain. Both “groups” benefit from the amentities of the facility, yet the pasture boarded horses are eating much more hay.
Just wondering - don’t throw me under the bus![/QUOTE]
How small are these roundbales and how much do they cost?
Our bales are 800-1000lbs and normally last between 6-8 days for 3 horses out 24/7 with no grazing available. Without grain it’s costing me $200 a month to have the three horses.
I could cut my costs if I could clear out more area to fence, plant some pasture, and started a rotation. Then I’d only need to feed hay in the off season.
At my barn horses on pasture board don’t get fed hay - they wouldn’t touch it anyway with all the grass out there. BM and HO’s have tried to feed hay to pastured horses before and they usually just waste most of it or ignore it completely.
My gelding is on a small dry lot regularly during the winter (and now due to an injury) but when he was out on pasture in the spring before he got hurt, he wasn’t being fed hay at all.
I, too, certainly wouldn’t pay the same amount for pasture board as I would for stall board. Two totally different types of board and so much less labor intensive to keep a pastured horse vs. a stalled horse.
If you’re paying $350/month to feed hay to THREE horses, that’s pretty normal IMO!
I usually spend about $150/mo for hay for my one horse, and that is free-choice square bales.
I put out hay year-round in my run-in free choice. My 4 horses are going through one small square a week and have been pretty consistently all summer (I have 2 bale-sized nets and am filling one per week as it gets low). From December to March, they eat 1-2 bales a day. If your horses are going through that much hay in summer, they must have no grass to speak of.
However, the figure you cite is not crazy to me – my dad boards horses and has had a few drafts and draft crosses that eat that much regularly in the winter. His prices are comparable to most barns in the area that keep horses on full board – however, he is full and often with a waiting list. He keeps 1-2 horses per field, with good Centaur fencing, constant access to good round bales, run-ins, grain once or twice a day depending on the horse’s needs, good grazing practices, auto waterers, with an all-weather arena and miles of trails. He has had no problem getting and keeping boarders who want their horses kept in this healthy manner. He also spends a lot of money keeping the pastures and hay in good condition, so he can’t charge less and provide a comparable product.
