I buy beef and pork and turkey from a lady who has a couple short term rental options on her farm and she makes a KILLING with it. People love to come down from Boston and stay on a real, actual farm. (If you want to talk to her, lmk?)
Raising a few cattle for slaughter could also be an interesting option? People pay big money for custom beef.
What scares you about it? I had my own reservations before jumping into it, but I’m curious what yours are. How far is the apartment from where you live - is there decent privacy for you and your guests? Would it be more of a ‘crashpad’ for people who just need a place to sleep? Or would you expect them to hang out around the farm, do a lot of cooking, etc? I don’t live on my farm, so when I have guests I only see them when I’m there for chores or to ride, if they’re even around and not out hiking or enjoying the area. I always tell people they are welcome to come meet the animals since I run it as a mini farm sanctuary and I can talk endlessly about each of our rescues’ stories - some take me up on it, some don’t. It’s definitely not without its annoyances (my fuse is very, very short), but it’s a lot better than having boarders and their horses that are not mine all up in my space (tried it, hated it). And you will have to pry my ammy card from my cold, dead body, so lessons are a no-go for me. It’s definitely a good way to make decent cash if your region supports it. Turnovers can be a lot of work, but you’ll come up with a system and if your apartment is small, easy to clean, and people don’t spend a lot of time there, it’s really not bad. And it’s super flexible - you can block off dates in advance if you know you’ll be busy certain days/weeks. I always block off the weeks I know I’ll be horse showing and have limited time. And I usually block it off for a week or two towards the end of the summer when my husband and I like to have it to ourselves.
@Inimitable thank you for this great info.
Part of the fear is the proximity to the house. It’s a garage apartment and the entrance is right by the back entrance to our home. While it’s completely separate, I don’t love the thought of walking out my back door to feed the horses and bumping into strangers. Especially since I have a young child.
I also worry about people expecting unrealistic levels of “customer service” during their stay. But it sounds like a lot of people doing short-term rentals aren’t experiencing that frequently.
The apartment would mainly be more of a place to sleep than some sort of fun crashpad or quaint vacation getaway. I live in an extremely rural area, a few miles outside a town that has nothing but a gas station, a bank, and a pizza place. But there’s also a few event venues in close proximity to me, so there is a big demand. And with the exception of the apartment entrance being so close to my home, it is set up nicely to be a short-term rental. It’s a very small 1br, so it would have limited appeal to a lot of people long-term… plus, like a boarder, it makes an awkward situation if you learn you don’t like the tenant.
I’ll share more of my thought process:
Boarding: would require virtually zero investment to start, with the exception of making sure I’m properly insured and legal. Otherwise, I could post on the local FB groups and have boarders relatively quickly. It would change very little about my day in/day out routine. But… ya know… BOARDERS. I’m not sure I want my peace disrupted on a regular basis. Plus, while it would be a nice chunk of change to offset the expense of horse things around the farm, once you factor in my costs as the barn owner, boarding is lucky to even break even.
Lessons: I could also post on my local FB group and be off the ground very quickly (again, making sure I’m legal and insured). There are a lot of good things about giving lessons and I enjoy it, but I’m worried about burning myself out because it is pretty labor intensive for me. Plus, I’d be directly competing with some of my friends and neighbors, and while I’m free to do what I want, that does worry me a little.
Short-term rentals: good mix of mostly “passive” income without a ton of expense… except… the apartment does need some renovations to get started. Would it be worth the investment? And do I want total strangers staying on my property?
So that’s where my head is on all this.
There are some great ideas on this thread for option D. Some I’ve considered. But, for example, my black thumb would be no use growing any sort of crop or plant to sell. 
I already have a couple other non-horse side gigs, I’m strictly thinking of ways the farm can help pay for itself at the moment.
Gotcha! That makes sense and would give me pause, too. But you never know how much it might, or might not, bother you until you try. If it’s already furnished and/or would take minimal investment/effort to get up and running, it might be worth throwing up a listing and seeing how it works for you. I have found that in general guests are pretty self-sufficient. The key is to make sure they have everything you think they might need when they check in, as well as any house rules and instructions clearly laid out, so they’re not bugging you for more toilet paper or asking dumb questions. You will still absolutely get people who don’t read or who are just an overall PITA, but that is rare IME. Folks tend to understand it’s not a hotel with a 24/7 concierge, but that’s not to say they won’t occasionally message you at 10pm to ask how to turn the heat up when the thermostat is staring them right in the face.
Do the numbers to see what would offer the most income for the least amount of time. My guess is AirBnB will be the winner.
I can’t get my costs down low enough to make boarding costs reasonable. Maybe you have.
Lessons could work but that’s even more of your time and you have a little.
Have you thought about summer camps and after school camps?
Having any tenants has its risks. The nice thing of short-term renters is that you can choose to block rents for periods of time if you just don’t feel like dealing with renters, or want to use the space for a visiting guest; and there’s less obligation to chat with the renters. I’d feel weird not saying hi to someone that’s been on my property for a year, but I don’t want to talk to people all the time.
Could you put up a privacy fence or something to block your walk to the barn, so you don’t feel obligated to chat if the renters are outside?
On Airbnb I believe you choose a blurb about what kind of host you are - super hands on, available as needed, or mia (summarized). That helps usually block renters that want a new bestie for the week. Idk if the other websites also have that info piece.
If you decide to try the Airbnb, do you have any friends that could come do a “trial run” for a night or two to see how it is? Have them simulate noise levels, going in and out to “events” and coming in late, etc. Might give you a good idea of whether it’d be worth trying.
Between those 3, I’d consider B and C, and add in potentially horsie birthday parties in the nicer weather months.
we have been volunteering to a local veterinarian group who has set up a foundation to promote animal knowledge to grade schools, once a month a specific topic is addressed.
Since we have a wide variety of small child friendly animals we will take an appropriate animal to the meeting at our dedicated grade school.
Other schools have asked us to bring the miniature horses to their school, they offered $1,000 for an afternoon demonstration.
The smaller miniature also doubles as a unicorn for birthday parties, $500 is the minimum for him to show up.
The goats were requested by a local defense contractor to be in attendance at an internal sales meeting of minds, the goats were to be an ice breaker as they were bringing in employees from around the world. The goats were the hit of the meeting, the person in charge is now known as the Goat Man
A neighbor moved out into the country to a small ranch where she has started a day camp exposure to animals, she is reportedly booked pretty solidly
I would LOVE to do something like this. Alas, I don’t think it would be in any of my animals’ wheelhouses. However, it’s definitely right up my alley. Especially the school-related stuff.
AIRbnb hands down. Short term rentals are the most profitable and the least hassle. Folks love staying at farms. Super popular in my area. Hell I’m renting one to get ready at for my wedding bc obviously I need pictures of me in my wedding dress with highland cows.
My junior coach does AIRbnb at their farm too. Much better than filling the empty stalls with board horses that will never turn a profit. I believe they also have a good bit of demand doing like intro to horses type lessons for the AIRbnb guests.
Buy one that will do it. 
I will see if I can find some in-depth information about the foundation
It provides the the desired outline of each monthly meeting, comes insurance for the animals we are allowed to bring to these meetings.
Adding stuff like this can be an extra cash cow as well. One of the AirBNBs I stayed at offered add on yoga sessions (from the wife) and gourmet dinner (from the husband who was a chef) - we bought the dinner option and it was amazing.
I know retirees can come with their own challenges, but in that case maybe try retirement board for absentee owners? I’d think you could get a lot of interest from people in the HCOL areas on the other side of the bay, which is just far enough away to discourage daily visits. A barn near me started doing that in the past couple years and the owner told me they only have a handful of owners who actually visit on a regular basis.
That’s all I’m really set up for. I mean, I have 2 grass “rings” where I ride (and could give beginner lessons in), but my place would have little appeal to most boarders who want nicer facilities.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s a market for people who want an affordable place with a lot of turnout beyond just retirees, but you also hit a lot of crazies advertising to that market. 
Boarding’s chief appeal is easy start up and minimal change to my routine. But man, it comes with so much potential for things to go wrong.
How much do you like being “needed”?
I would for airbandb and lessons. You will make money on those too.
Short term rental of an on site apartment is hands down the best side income stream of all of those ideas. I have a boarding business and a rental business and the rentals are a much better income stream for the effort. There is a learning curve to doing rentals, just like with everything else, but I think very worth the time.
I roll my eyes when I hear people recommending retirement boarding. I personally won’t accept a retirement boarder on my farm unless the horse was already boarded here prior to retirement. Older horses require a lot of special care–special feed/special nutritional requirements, daily medications, frequent dental care, and extra worry during harsher weather. At the same time, owners are often less willing to spend extra $$ on an old retired horse vs a horse they are riding and competing. It’s not uncommon for older horses to be abandoned financially by their owners. If there are payment issues, older horses cannot be sold to recoup costs. Caring for older horses means handling a lot of end of life issues which is time consuming and emotionally draining. I love the retirees, but owners who are prepared to pay a fair rate for long term retirement care costs and prepared to handle their horse’s end of life issues in a reasonable and humane manner are hard to find.
In our area (adjacent to Dartmouth Medical Center) these kinds of apartments are in high demand for traveling nurses. Not sure where you are located, but that might be an alternative use for it with less hassle than vacation rentals.
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