First and foremost you need some way to differentiate the barn/ boarding operation from the home. Why??? Simple some boarder gets hurt and then they own not only your barn but your home as well. Second get yourself some **** good insurnce if you intend to board. Third look into the laws in your state about liability. In Illinois there is what is called the horse business act. You need to post signs all over your place so that idiots know that horse riding is inherently dangerous and supposedly that will limit your liability. Have never had to test it since we don't board but it also is supposed to help protect you form the looky loos that go "Oh what a pretty horse "and proceed to stick their hand in its mouth.
Stalls will have to be picked 2-3 times a day. Every boarder will want a different type of feed and feeding schedule It's almost like dealing with a bride planning a wedding (Bridzilla). Ferriers are a funny lot. Most don't need the agravation of a poor standing horse because they have more than enough work so they may not want to do your barn. Many boarders do not realize that its a horse not a three year old child and will not or do not have the mentalitiy to properly train their horse or correct bad habits. See the part above about putting hands in horses mouth. A horse should never be given anything from the hand. Put the treat in the feeder for the horse.
Now as for not making money based on what you have stated boarding 5 stalls at 250. We have two horses and here is just some of the costs....
Feed 8 dollars per 50 lb bag.
two horses fed twice a day getting 2 lbs per feeding each bag will last 'bout 6 days say a week with 5 horses maybe 2-3 days days.
Hay at 3.50 per bale
we go through about a bale per horse per day. We store about 600 bales.
Ferrier
$45 per trim every 6-8 weeks This you would charge back to your boarders but the way I have seen it work is the ferrier will do the entire barn you pay him then collect from each owner. We don't shoe our horses but that can drive the price up considerably.
Vet
Will work the same way as the ferrier. Maybe once or twice a year unless you have horses with problems.
Worming
everyone in your barn needs to get on a worming schedule. Again you buy the wormer and do it and charge back the boarders.
Getting started... At first you will find that the people that come to your barn are people with problem horses or are problem people because they have been asked to leave every other barn in the area. Collecting from boarders the vet and ferrier and worming stuff can be difficult remeber I said that the first boarders you get will be problem boarders. Collecting money is probably the biggest problem they will give you.
QRTRHRS is right on target. Great info! Pay particular attention to the earlier post that mentions insurance! You do not want to risk loosing everything to a simple accident. I can give you some help with the boarding contract when the time comes. Just PM me.
You hit on something that I had not and I agree 100%. You must protect your investment. For better or for worse, my state of PA is one of the few without shared equine liability laws. Although, finally the senate has passed one that is now going through the house. Seems our bar association has a problem with people accepting responsability.
We are set up as an "LLC". An LLC has most of the benefits of being incorporated but requires no officers, meetings, etc. It takes maybe a grand in legal fees to set up. You name managers, co-managers, etc., establish a separate checking account for the horse operation and do not co-mingle with personal affairs. You might want to write out a business plan, document it then follow it as most operations run in the red for a time. You will want to have full insurance coverage for all aspects of your operation. Be honest with your insurer and cover all areas. Our property is leased to the LLC. The LLC is a "paper" corporation with no actual assests. It provides a layer of insulation to a frivolous lawsuit. I don't mean to imply that we shirik responsability. We try our best to maintain a safe operation. I can tell you though that I have made mistakes and have been run over by a horse, spent day in the hospital not knowing where or what, etc.
All I am saying here is that most horse lovers accept this as part of the "deal". Some fall prey to scavenger lawyers.
"Getting started". This is exactly what happened to us. As I said, we completed the new barn allowing us room for boarders but only had folks interested in the "old barn" at a much lower fee.
Our best success at that level was with one boarder, new to horses, who came on as a volunteer. We agreed to teach her horsemanship for her labor. After a time, she purchased a horse for her own. We then agreed to board at a reduced rate in exchange for continued labor. It did not work. We had not set a rate and she was not showing. Then, she showed but expected more rather than a pro-rate to cover the lack of parcipitation.
I mention this because, I suggest, you set a rate at full board then allow for pay afterwards. Now, keep in mind that this is a tricky business. It is illegal of course to pay someone an hourly rate without the rest of the normal employee pers. I ask you though, how many operations can bare this to be done legally? Darn few I would suggest.
This is what we do, however dubious. If someone wants to learn horsemanship, we establish a fair exchange of labor vs horse time. IE; you clean stalls, then you can choose to ride some of our horses in conjunction with a trainer. The trainer is at your expense. We don't fuss with tit for tat, ie; an hour of cleaning for an hour of riding. Our volunteers can spend as much time as they wish with the horses.
Are we wrong? You decide. First off, this is minimal to what we do. My wife and I do most of the labor. We offer a positive experiance to some young folks that might otherwise be involved with drugs, etc.
Owning a horse is an expensive propostion. It is human nature to feel sorrow for those that want but cannot afford to pay the freight. Truth be told, their horse would be better served to be sold. Set your rates, be firm. Set up and treat all boarders equally.
Be honest. As I mentioned prior, I give a small break for multiple horses with minimal owners. I tell the individual right out that I would rather have one owner with four horses as opposed to four owners with four horses. I also tell them that should your horse require above and beyond care, that we will do our best to be there.
I realize I am sharing more info than perhaps has been asked for. I hope though, that by doing so will enlighten those interested in horses. Really, I hope to continue doing what I do but mostly, I like many just hope to make the world a better place for not only the horse but for all interested.
QTRHRS I don't think you understand my position. I am not against a boarding operation. I am just saying go into it with eyes wide open. Our first horse we boarded it was then when we got out of horses I told my wife we would never do that again unless we owned our own place. When that finally happened we had a large barn and several people asking if they could board. I told my wife no. ALong with all of the other things I mentioned I asked her if she wanted to be bothered by people being at the house/barn all the time and wanting to use the bathroom in the house and so on. My wife thought about it for a bit and agreed with me. We finally ended up starting a horse drawn carriage business. Went out and bought a 20 gooseneck trailer. Had an Amish carriage builder build us a white Vis-a-Vis carriage and started doing weddings and such. This provided enough income to offset the cost of the horses and a bit extra. We recently sold that business but still have two horses. I currently have two of my 5 stalls empty and do not intend to board. Two horses and the goat take up the others.
I think I understood you. I was agreeing and trying to expand on what you stated as well as everyone else who has chimed in here that has done some boarding.
You feel that the risks, expenses and headaches are not worth the bottom line for you, am I correct? If so, I hardly disagree. In fact, my payback will come on the day that we sell off to someone else. That is more so due to a still relatively hot market and a shortage of available horse farms in our area.
we have 6 mules and one arabian mare, i hate to tell you what is cost to keep them....{gulp} but we love them , i ride, but mostly i care for them, either you in to it or your not, i would sugest getting one, for your self, somthing settled in and easy to handle, beware i have seen some horses/ mules sold to be sound. ride/ work that would kick your head off in a sec. do your home work,child safe/traffic safe is a must. they are a reat deal of work, i know mine, what they will do, and they will stay in the fence even if a deer breaks it down. but keeping somebodys horse you dont know can be a big problem waiting to happen, i too am looking i to mini beef cows.. highland cattle.. any one have those? Rose
After much consideration we've decided to wait it out and not get into boarding now.
We've been educated through those of you who took the time to post here (thanks!) that there is way more to it than meets the eye.
Instead I am looking into signing us up for riding lessons at a local school and depending on how much each of us is in to it, in time, as finances permit, we will look into getting a horse or two of our own. Once we are already looking after our own horses we may think about taking on a boarder or two.
This seems like a better route as it will allow us to make some local contacts with horse people in the area.
For now we are going to look into getting some kind of other (potentially smaller :-) livestock so that our farm feels like a farm!. We will start with hens in the spring and if you have suggestions on sheep/goats then send them on.
We have Dexter cattle, they are a smaller breed, pretty docile. We started with 2 cows and a bull, now up to 7 head and expecting 4 calves this year. They don't get real big, most are around 4 feet high ( at the most ) and max weight around 1000 pounds for the bulls with the cows being around 750.
Do a search on google for them for more information if you are interested.
I happed to run across some information on Dexter's and Highland cattle just yesterday.
Do hobby breeders of Dexters raise their cattle for milk or meat or something else?
I also haven't been able to get an idea of what it might cost to get into something like Dexters - two cows to start with for example? Can you share some of your experience on this and other things one might want to bear in mind when thinking about raising Dexters.
My bad. Seems we are on the same page. Where I live I can find 10 boarding facilities within five mile radious. Most are now starting to become english barns. Not many western and even fewer for driving horses. We have a black percheron and a two year old quarter horse. We had as many as 8 horses here at one time some boarding, some track layups (Never do that again). We no longer board anything we keep our own and enjoy them and when family comes over we take the cart out and the big black percheron and go for a ride.
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