The marketplace for horse boarding services has changed in the post-Covid era. A lot. The rising costs that are hitting the farming community in general are no joke.
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| Willowview Hill Farm, Stamford NY |
The other day I had a call from a lady who sounded very 'sound', with good horse knowledge that was looking for a straight boarding option for a couple of pleasure-riding horses. Nothing wrong with that. Or with the fact she wanted a boarding space with good standards of horse care and a well-run facility. Trouble is, can she afford it. Are the prices for horse board that people may be used to paying even last year or the year before, realistic in today's marketplace?
At our dressage yard at Willowview Hill Farm, pictured above, we have a small barn and an indoor arena, access to 26 miles of trails, and plenty of turn-out, and organic home-produced hay for feeding our performance horses. We offer dressage training services, with boarding only being available for horses in training with us.
Why? Because straight boarding is not something that we feel you can make profitable as a business and it is not the best use of our professional experience as Grand Prix level riders/trainers. Yes, the training/lesson side truly is where most horse businesses make their money. Not from just renting a stable space and paddock, and incurring all the costs to do so. But even that may not be enough. Many hats are needed.
As a horse breeder, trainer/competitor and farmer of organic hay for more than two decades, I can attest that the horse business is a tough world in which to make money, no matter how much talent or financial wherewithal you have at hand, or how many hats you wear. A lot of passion, heartache, hard work and diligence goes into making it work. I also have a background in corporate finance, so am also well aware that there are times when you will make money and times when events conspire to thwart your efforts. Plan as you may, you must always expect the unexpected.
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| Lesson and Showing/Coaching Yield Extra Income |
Let's look at the direct expenses that are involved in stabling a horse for a month from the viewpoint of a horse farm owner:
Farm Structures Maintenance and Original Capital Expenditures -
No matter how you do it horse barns take a lot of money to build properly, and require ongoing maintenance in one form or another throughout their lives. This might be simply new light bulbs, flyscreen repairs or a coat of paint on the entrance doors, or it might be digging up footers post winter freeze and thaw and relaying mats, deep clean expenses for materials and labor etc. Or could involve a major expense like a roof repair, a stall wall replacement or new floor in the tack room.
Financing a build is not cheap, and whatever deal you can find the interest rates on loans and payment plans take some time to eat up in amortization/depreciation tax benefits. And if you are not making money, the amortization/depreciation doesn't benefit you at all.
Fencing Costs and Repairs
One 10' foot section of 4-board fencing without electric added to the interior to prevent wood-chewing currently costs $22-$25 per post, plus $10 per board,so figure about $60 per section without labor to install it.
However you cut it, that's expensive and you haven't added gates yet, or water troughs.
When fencing needs repair, and it regularly will need new gates or fixing, there has to be a monthly fee incorporated for those costs. And if tariffs rise, so will those costs.
Services
Well repairs, well-drilling, tank heaters, water services all cost money. A lot of money. Electric costs have risen over 25% across the board too. And horses drink a lot. No-one in their right mind will use run-off from a roof as the horses' drinking water or allow their horses to drink from a pond or standing water. Even streams can be toxic so water will need to be supplied. It will also need to be hosed or carried to the receptacles, and even automatic waterers will need heat-taping in winter or draining and buckets used. Labor is involved here as well as the costs of the electric and water acquisition.
Insurance
Insurance underwriters for farm coverage are pulling out of certain regions of the country altogether, including the North-East US. Where insurance is available, for liability and property, even when the operator has zero claims and a good track record as a professional horse owner, the year after year rise of 20% to 30% increases hit hard.
Hay and Grain
Good quality horse hay doesn't come cheap. We charge $8-$10 bale for hay we sell but it is organically grown, and there is no 'pickle juice' and we sell the small squares. Of course large round bales could be found cheaper, but almost no farmer can put them up without using some sort of chemical preservative to try to assuage the dust and mold issue large bales experience. So while a round bale may save money in theory, the vet bill later may paste it back in to the picture.
In any event, feeding an average horse dry forage is going to cost about $300 plus or minus a month. And don't forget that hay needs a place to be stored, so there is another structure or interior space required for that.
Hay costs a lot of money to produce and harvest. Machine time, twine and supplies for maintenance of equipment, breakdowns, property taxes, loss of crop due to weather or disease. The list goes on.
Grain costs are also expensive. An average bag of grain runs $25+ and for the average horse not in high performance work most folks will feed that one 45# bag out over two weeks. So allow another $50+ per month to grain a horse.
Bedding
A 3.25cft bag of shavings currently costs about $7-$8 and will last one horse partially stabled (say overnight) about 2-3 days, after the original bed has been set which will require 2/3 bags. Cost per month for a partially stabled horse that is mucked out a minimum of 3x a day is going to run about $120 a month.
Labor Costs
Unemployment fees (can be as high as 4% of gross payroll amounts), matched social security and medicare expenses, disability insurance, worker's compensation insurance plus the actual payroll amount mean that $15/hr costs the employer a lot more than $15/hr.
If the farm owners complete the work themselves they may save the worker's compensation and disability costs, but they will have no safety net if they get hurt. But whoever does the work, there is a cost for their time one way or another.
Pasture Maintenance
Manure removal, harrowing, topping or mowing out, liming or fertilizing, etc. are all part of pasture management.
Equipment Costs
Every time you start up a tractor or UTV there is a cost. Not just the diesel or fuel, or the machine time for the operator, not just the initial capital expense or wear and tear on the machine, but also the service costs for maintenance. Costs for oil, hydraulic fluid, filters and even ordinary regular maintenance is increasingly expensive even if you can do that service work yourself.
An Arena
Provision and maintenance of an outdoor arena hopefully fenced for safety, requires aggregate and equipment to maintain. And indoor arena will have similar requirements but factor in lighting and additional insurance costs and of course, the major capital outlay and maintenance needs
Miscellaneous Costs
There are many factors to running a farm. The ground maintenance for lawns or grass around the buildings, strimming and weeding, the driveway and access maintenance - the list goes on an is extensive.
Damage to buildings and fences caused by horses is not uncommon, and that goes for stall walls and gates as well as the equipment used to care for them like hoses for water and frost-free faucets or buckets.
Then there are hay and pasture testing, water testing, soil testing and other variables to consider.
There is also a factor of security expenses, Wifi and the like.
There are also legal costs that can be incurred when a boarder doesn't pay up, medical costs for operators if an injury or accident occurs, and accounting and business running expenses like licensing, permits, registrations for government requirements etc.
Take Home Message
If you operate a horse-boarding business and charge less than $1000 per month per horse then you are most likely losing money each month. Direct costs like hay/grain/bedding and a turn-out paddock will easily top $550 a month even if the facility is existing. That's without insurance, labor and all the other stuff.
There has to be add-on services such as a regular lessons or training, coaching or other aspects if the business is going to be viable.
So long story short, if you are looking for a decent quality facility that offers a good standard of care, fencing, stabling and well-fenced/maintained paddocks, good quality feed and forage, without an indoor arena - don't expect to pay $550!
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| Grand Prix trainer/rider Paul Alvin-Smith |
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