What do I need to know?

[tressa27884]

My DH and I [mostly I] are interested in a self sustainable farm. We recently went and looked at a 17 acre place that currently boards horses [and a buffalo - but that's another story]. The site has four pastures, a number of indoor / outdoor areas, a 15 stall covered area, a covered circle ring, and a hot walker.

I know this is a question that has a variety of answers, but.....can somebody give me an idea of what boarding goes for. If I wanted to rent out a pasture what would the cost of that be? Anybody here have anything similar - what will the annual costs be?

Tell me all the pitfalls of buying this place please!

Thanks

Tressa

 

[goodhors]

Boarding is a VERY complicated can of worms to open. Are you horse savvy or or is
anyone in your family? People entrust their animals to your care and supervision. As
the Managers of the facility, you need to know horse care frontwards and backwards,
be able to detect illness, damage, know how to feed correctly without over or under feeding
a wide variety of horse breeds. You will need the patience and problem solving abilities
of Solomn in keeping boarders soothed and not tearing each others throats out. Even
then, you won't be able to keep many of them at all happy.

I do not recommend leasing out parts of the property, they won't take care of things,
unless they have to pay for repairs or will lie and say it was already broke. Horses
and careless workers can do a LOT of damage in a short time. It is NOT their stuff.
They
will complain about what you do or don't do on the place. You are giving them full-time
access to your property, to come and go when it suits them. This keeps property open
to everyone else who might wish to visit, day or night, even if boarder only rents a small
portion of the place.

Hate to say it but many horse people are downright weird and have bad reputations as a
group for being bad payers. Unless you do background checks, are moving in local horse
circles, you won't know who they are, until you get stiffed. And yes this happens even when
you have an excellent contract. Maybe renter is great, but customers they attract are not
what you really want around.

Do you have liability insurance? With horse operations, accidents happen. You need to
protect yourself, from what happens on your property, which may not be under your control.
Lots of trainers don't carry insurance, can't afford it, so things would come back to you if there
were problems. Those kind of renters can pack and go, be gone by dawn with you left holding the bag.
Does happen!

Sorry, I would not recommend renting out parts of the farm or taking in boarders. If you
are horse ignorant you are going to get really hung out to dry, probably never see it coming!
You can like folks, but get things ALWAYS done in writing. Every detail covered, (and if horse
ignorant you don't know the details that can happen), all agreements spelled out.

Probably spending time with a lawyer who can explain what kind of coverages, contracts you will
need. Then you need to contact some other local boarding barns and spend some time following
the Barn Owner or Barn Manager around for a week to see what their jobs entail. Have to say I
don't know many of either, who put in anything less than a 12 hour day, 6-7 days a week. That
"hands-on" might give you a bit of a better understanding of everything needed to be a presentable
barn owner. You may have to just hire in a Barn Manager with the horse knowledge, to do the
daily work with horses. You will need to get friendly with local Vets and Farriers to service your customers.

And despite what costs you hear about, I don't know any person getting rich boarding horses. Expenses
will eat up a lot of your incoming money from the boarders, if you have a quality operation. Most
places like yours, small time, will just have a tiny profit margin. Prices you can charge will depend on
your neighborhood. Some areas are flat-out cheap, you won't even pay your expenses at the local
rates of board, despite having better features at your place.

There are a lot of other details in this service area, but if you are not passionately into horses, you
probably should think of other ways to make your farm profitable. Boarding is not a good idea. I
would not have boarders on my place for any price. Just a constant headache.

 

[tressa27884]

The property we're looking at taking over is intended to be a small family farm for us. It has a manager / trainer on site 24/7. I'm just wondering whether or not we want to take it on, or ask them all to leave if/when we buy the property.

Thanks for your input. I appreciate it.

Tressa

 

[freemotion]

My DH and I [mostly I] are interested in a self sustainable farm. We recently went and looked at a 17 acre place that currently boards horses [and a buffalo - but that's another story]. The site has four pastures, a number of indoor / outdoor areas, a 15 stall covered area, a covered circle ring, and a hot walker.

I know this is a question that has a variety of answers, but.....can somebody give me an idea of what boarding goes for. If I wanted to rent out a pasture what would the cost of that be? Anybody here have anything similar - what will the annual costs be?

Tell me all the pitfalls of buying this place please!

Thanks

Tressa

What boarding goes for varies widely from state to state and from farm to farm. Full board or rough board? Turn out? Indoor arena? Trails? Style of riding of the trainer? Care and upkeep of the facilities?

I've boarded my own horse at many different farms over a span of maybe 15 years and have paid from $350-$450 in MA and CT for full board (all care including feed and feeding, daily turn-out, changing of blankets according to the weather, stall cleaning, heated lounge with bathroom, and space to safely store my saddle and equipment) and the higher end stables can go for even more.

I'm not sure from your description if your prospective property has an indoor arena, but it doesn't sound like it. Around here, that would drop the price to $200-300.

Whether or not you allow the trainer and boarders to stay depends entirely on you. I've been in great facilities with wonderful people and others I've stayed two weeks and asked for the rest of the month's board back when I left (stall not cleaned, water bucket dirty, and they gave me grief when I showed up and cleaned it myself!). The manager/trainer is a big piece of this. I've left facilities that I was at for years when the management changed and it went downhill fast.

I'd go observe for a while. Like a LONG while. Long enough that they forget you are there. Ask around....at feed stores, their competition, vets, farriers. Many won't say negative things but someone will if it is really bad. They will be very enthusiastic if it is good, noncommittal if it is bad. Just ask the current trainer which vets and farriers come onto the farm and who delivers feed, etc, and get contact info. Talk to these people in person only so you can see their faces and body language. It is not likely that any of them will come out and say bad things about their clients to a stranger on the phone. You want to see if they shuffle and squirm.

There is a trainer I am thinking about right now who has rented many facilities in this area and I really don't know how she continues to operate. She is infamous for her dirty deeds.....subleasing client's horses to other clients without their knowledge, not paying bills, putting two horses in a stall, etc. Amazing.

Be very, very careful. It could be a great way to finance you farm, or a nightmare. I'd say only buy this farm if you can afford it without the boarding income.

 

[tressa27884]

Thanks! I'll do that.

I love this site. Makes me feel better knowing that I have a resource to get questions answered.

Tressa