DeAnn, I am going at accept a compliment from you,
although I don;t know you, as I have boarded horses, and currently do....from
the perspective of a small boarding stable who has learned unless you have
an iron clad contract, and hard and fast rules, with PENALITIES, people will
just plain take advantage of you. I started giving people a great
deal on board some years ago, as a favor (one $30 a month, one $50 a month-they
both provide hay and do cleaning and BOTH got separate paddocks with
stalls), and found, the area and stalls never got cleaned on schedule, boarders
run out of hay and expect to use yours, etc. The list goes on, to being
late on board, leaving gates open, leaving electric fence on ground and water
running.....pounding nails in your barn without asking, using your stuff,
leaving trash, more etc. You end up worming their horses, catching and holding
them for shoers, and dealing with THEIR horses bad behaviors.
Last nightmare was two older, sick ladies with special
needs horses; who only wanted to lease back pasture and do all work themselves,
guess who took over when one lady broke arm, and one broke foot, I did, all
graining, feeding MY HAY, picking up hay for them, never charging them extra
because I felt sorry for them; one old lady then started to complain about stuff
(horse had situation here that was better than anything it ever had); she ended
up claiming we had oral agreement that her horse get separate stall and paddock
for SAME PRICE as pasture board and if I moved the horse and it got hurt, she
would SUE me for endangering her horse! Nightmare, took written statement
to terminate board and get her off my property.....
How do I tie this into endurance riding? Well, NEW
boarder friend, unfortunately reaps consequences of bad boarders, gets, coming
in, new contract, way elevated price, which is STILL lower than other situations
in my area. However, look what she is getting......what I can do for
her, is......electrolyte horse before and after hard rides, give it
turnout, check it daily, and especially check legs and back for soreness or
swelling after long rides, give special supplements, feed her grain, etc.,
blanket and unblanket, fly mask and un-fly mask, et.c Horse gets access at night
to 12 X 12 stall with paddock, and huge turnout during day. AND CLEAN!!! For this, I charge $225, feed my own hay (alfalfa,
oat and two kinds of grass), HAUL her horse to conditioning rides, EMAIL her
late night after hard rides as to how horse has recovered, etc. Lets also throw
in that i have paid for good and SAFE fencing; feed hot mashes on cold
nights....
I am NOT MAKING MONEY doing this! I am making a
little towards the costs on my own horses.
PLUS many people who board have to pay special use permits
to the county to run a stable ($1500 and up, and hearing), pay MUCH higher
insurance for boarding/ranch policy, as homeowner policies will NOT ALLOW YOU to
accept money or run horse business off your property, deal with hay vendors, buy
hay a year in advance, and take loss if it moulds, has bugs, mice get in it,
etc.
I talked to a LOT of boarding people before I took on
current lady. Nobody is making money doing this! They all agree you
need hard and fast rules, and consequences.
I have been on both sides of this! I pasture boarded
for years, and had horses in huge pastures with not-enough hay thrown out, and
bad fencing, multitudes of brush and poison oak with ticks, and lumped in with
other horses that kick.
If you have a decent facility to board....please
appreciate it! .
Go to Jessica Jahiel's website and look at her wise advise
on cost of "allowing a friend to board a horse at your house",
By only charging friend for hay, property owner was losing
money.....by charging $300 a month, owner was making about
I have never boarded my horses, but I have several friends that run
boarding facilities and I will tell you that they are very hard workers.
Like Mary said, the boarders come first. I've board horses for people and will
never do it again. They either don't pay on time or constantly
complain. But I notice that they aren't the ones checking their horses
on a daily basis either.
These people that lump entire groups together crack me up.
