horse boarding costs

The cost to properly take care of a horse is more than the average boarder realizes. If you have never lived with your horse and cared for it daily you really can’t have an accurate understanding of how much time and money it takes.   

You can expect to spend up to 30-minutes per horse each morning. A great caregiver will have a strategic and efficient morning routine that will cater to the needs of the horses. A typical morning consists of a general walk thru the barn and greets each horse, conduct a health inspection and if you don’t have to tend to an overnight injury then you would prepare specially customized grain concoctions with supplements for each horse. A delivery system will be in place of the order of who gets grain feed. This is dependent on learning the behavior of each horse. Some are impatient and paw at the ground, get vocal, pace, bang upon the gates. A caregiver who understands this behavior will elect to make feeding a teachable event. So it may take longer to get the food out because they will not want to reward this behavior and will have to wait until a horse stops what he is doing so he can be rewarded with the grain. Once the grain is delivered then a caregiver may do some other chores to give the horses some time to eat.  This may include feeding the barn cat and the resident dogs. Once the grain is eaten another strategic system is used to decide who gets turned out with who, and in what order. This typically involves opening a series of gates and haltering each horse, leading them to their assigned pasture and releasing them. A caregiver that truly cares about your equine bestie will also use this as a teachable moment because they handle any issues along the way and they will always take the time to be sure he is released correctly and does not bolt when his halter is removed. Not all horses are created equally. Quality caregivers learn the behavior and personalities of every horse in their care and they must adjust their teaching moments to fit the individual needs of every horse. This is also time for fly spray, and blanketing if needed.    Read More