How much to board?

[Iseul]

I'm serious about renting the whole barn..lol.

Anywho..highly doubt you'll be able to get any boarders at $300/month self care without providing hay/grain.

As for the arena, an indoor around here costs $10/hour/horse and rider pair. Another arena wanted $120/day for a little 4H clinic we were doing.
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[Taffy Clayton]

Around here, St. Louis, it is $15-25 per individual use. Say for one person to come and ride. If someone wants to rent the arena for an entire day, for a clinic or a club event more, maybe $150-200.

Just a side note, you will have clean up afterwards. You will have manure in the arena and on your gravel parking lot. That is why, I think your best bet is to rent the entire barn to one person.
They do that all the time around here, your main renter will take care of the everyday clean up and maintenance of the horses and the barn. And you can negotiate on the larger things, like cutting grass, repairing fences and maintaining the footing in the arena and round pen.

If you do individual boarding all of that is left to you alone. You will have several different people keeping different hay, grain,tack so you need room for all of that.
Where as if everyone comes in with one trainer, mostly there should be less drama, than with 7 or 9 individuals.

With individual boarders what if someone doesn't feed their horse, or is behind in board, has no hay, or even dumps the horse on you? With a trainer that is their problem.

And the best part is if it doesn't work out, you only have one person to kick out.

[amberly]

$150 for pasture board including hay.
But our area is most likely more expensive than most places.

[Iseul]

I currently pay $120 for pasture board with hay out all year round.
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[MammaCruz]

BARN FOR RENT

What should the ad read? I am wondering if that would work..

And didn't think about mending fences/manure on rocks and maintenance like that..... Hmmmmm

You Horse people are so informative!!

[Speed Racer]

Just curious as to why you bought a horse farm (not a ranch) and don't have any plans to buy horses yourself. I'd never spend money on something I didn't have any intention of using for myself. Very interesting and rather strange purchase, to my way of thinking.

As far as offering complete self care, you'd still be responsible for keeping the fences and property maintained properly. You'll also need major liability insurance, since you'd be letting strangers and their equines onto your property. Regular homeowner's won't cover the insurance you need if you rent out the facility to boarders or even just one other person.

Are you prepared to let people come and go on your property at all hours of the day and night? Because that does happen when it's self care. You also need to be aware that even if it's completely self care, you'll be ultimately responsible for any animal neglected by its owner, since it's on your property.

[MammaCruz]

Again...more stuff to think about.... Thanks.

[Muppetgirl]

Even though the facility seems nice, you're really going to have a hard time with boarders if you just want to do the bare minimum. Self care boarding is tricky, as everyone has their own standard of self care.

Just ponder these two instances:

How will you feel if one of the self care boarders doesn't clean their stall for a week?

How will you feel when one horse is left outside by their self care owner because they couldn't make it out to turn him in....and a huge storm is blowing in?

I'd charge more and clean the stalls, turn out/in and feed hay myself. That way I KNOW the horses are in good shape and the boarders KNOWS that if they cannot make it out that their horse is in good hands.

[wetrain17]

I was also wondering why you purchased this place if you know nothing about horses. Did you see it as a way to make money? Boarding facilities barely break even with their costs. You could rent the barn out to a trainer. Just make sure you have the proper insurance.

I would say a fair amount to charge someone to come and riding in the indoor would be 15-20/use in your area. Again, make sure you have insurance to cover everything in case somthing were to happen.

[verona1016]

Given that you don't have a horse management background, I think renting out the whole barn to a trainer is going to be your best bet. Running a full-care board facility would probably be a lot more than you're willing to get into, and self-care facilities still require a lot of property upkeep and cleaning up that you'd have to do, even if you have reliable boarders who clean stalls/feed/etc as they're supposed to (and there's always at least one who doesn't!)