Anyone With Experience Boarding Horses/Renting Stables

[Jake Thompson]

Hey everyone, I’m looking for insight from anyone who has operated a horse boarding/stall rental business. My wife and I have been looking to buy a piece of property with horse stalls and an arena (or possibly room to build our own). Rather than pay a premium for this and delay our FI date, we are considering renting out additional stalls to either help cover costs or possibly even make some additional money.

If you have experience with this I’d love to hear any tips regarding what to look out for, what is involved with doing this, etc. My wife has grown up around horses her whole life and we’d likely have her best friend who has also had horses her whole life to help us. I don’t have a ton of experience with horses, but am willing to learn.

Thanks!

[Karl B.]

Originally posted by @Jake Thompson:

Originally posted by @Karl B.:

My parents have had a horse barn since the 1970s. Instead of renting out stalls individually they had a barn manager who performed all the work. The barn manager paid the utilities, performed upkeep, paid for the hay and grain, etc. 

A few of the barn managers were shady (one lady owed them money and ended up stealing all the wheelbarrows, tools and even the light bulbs) and the guy prior to her let the place get run down. 

I found them a few potential renters and the current barn manager has been good so far. 

Of course, you could take the role of the barn manager/owner and do the work yourself; barn work is grueling work. I grew up bailing hay twice a summer. Hard work. 

Most of the barn managers we've had boarded a few of their own horses/animals (the crazy light bulb thief had goats in a stall) and rent enough stalls to others to help cover their costs. 

Treat potential barn managers/horse boarders like renters as it's a business and the rate of getting ripped off or short-changed happens fairly often in the horse world as a lot of horse people in my parents' area are like circus carnies - odd folk. 

Also, there are other issues. I remember years ago somebody broke into the tack room and stole all the saddles (several other horse barns were also hit the same night and so it was definitely well-coordinated). And barn things always went missing. We had an old claw foot tub in the pasture for the horses to drink out of and it was stolen. A surveillance system is a good idea. 

 Thanks Karl,

we are probably wanting to manage mostly ourselves, but have a part time employee or 2 to help. It depends on how big of a property we get and how many stalls we are renting.

Do you have any idea what financing options are available for this type of business? I was looking into SBA 504 loan which looks like it may work.

Hi. I'm not familiar with the financing options available. A good lender can help you on that most definitely. 

My sister rode equestrian for PSU back in the day and is now a licensed equine therapist. If you plan on having a nicer barn (which it sounds like you do based on your other post) then I'd look into possibly working with equine therapists as they help people and are professionals (which means they'll pay you on time). Though they'll need to carry proper insurance.