# Rough boarders - how much do you pay?



## EdmontonHorseGal (Jun 2, 2013)

i guess you could call my board situation a modified 'rough board'. we pay an additional amount during winter for hay and the horses are on pasture all summer. no barn, no stalls, no extra feed unless we bring and feed it. no blanketing services, nothing like what you'd find in a 'full service' barn. we arrange our own vet and farrier (option to use the barn farrier but he isn't the greatest in my opinion), and the horses are pretty much left to be unless the owners are out to see them. 

summer rate is currently $160 a month, and last winter was $190 (probably will be $200 this coming winter as summer board increased by $10 over last year). we pay a fee to the barn manager for deworming but it's reduced if we hold our own horses for him.

800 to 1000 a month in your area for full board?? OUCH!!!!!


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## Saddlebag (Jan 17, 2011)

What you might find in your situation is that your shavings disappear rather quickly as others help themselves when you're not there. Same with feed stuffs unless you can lock them up. Don't rely on people being honest. Lock it up.


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## Shosadlbrd (Nov 3, 2013)

I have a private stable and I offer a couple extra stalls available to people who want to rough board. $150 a month for stall and available daily turnout. 
They do and supply everything else. (I will feed if they can't make it on occasion)
My farm offers an outdoor ring, round pen, wash area plus within riding distance to trails, back roads and plenty of open fields. 
I can also haul for them if needed. 
I am located in Southwest Virginia


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## TessaMay (Jul 26, 2013)

I pay $225 a month in board, which includes a pasture with shelter, place to keep feed and tack, outdoor arena and Bo feeds up to twice a day. I buy my own feed and have to pick up after my horse. I also have the option to use the covered arena at the barn next door for $5 a ride or $50 a month for unlimited. I don't have her on hay at the moment, though may need to get some as she eats down the pasture. In the winter I expect to use about $100 worth of hay a month. 

Monthly at it's most expensive:
Board - $225
Hay - $100 
Grain/supplement - $20 
Arena - $50 
Total = $395


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## twolucid (Jan 14, 2014)

$200-$250 in Western Massachusetts will get you hay, shavings, and a stall. Feeding and turnout too but might not be the best of facilities. Usually you provide grain and stall cleaning. Or a co-op situation.


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## PadenPaint (Apr 27, 2014)

We call that self care  never heard it called rough board. 
I pay $110 for the self care board which includes his stall and acess to turn outs, but I have to be on the property to turn him out. I also have access to wash stall, large indoor arena, 2 outdoor arenas and a round pen as well as lots of trails. 

my hay is about $3.50 a bale and this last month he went through 17 bales = $60
I use the pellet bedding mixed with some shavings and use about 3 bags pellets = $18 + 3 bags shavings = $15 total = $33
and my grain is $17 a bag and I use 3 bags a month = $51
so total not including board is $144 and with board is $254 - not too bad, I usually have coupons for my feed so it is usually about $40 for feed actually


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## TessaMay (Jul 26, 2013)

Paden, are the bales you buy very small or is hay just ridiculously cheap where you are compared to me? :lol: Current hay prices here are $21 a bale (orchard) or $17 if you buy bulk.


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## PadenPaint (Apr 27, 2014)

the bales are 50-60 lbs squares, anywhere from 6-8 flakes per bale. It is really good quality brome hay and some prairie hay


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## PartialToGray (May 28, 2014)

I pay $250 including feed twice per day, and free choice hay (round bales.) Around here rough board is just being outside 24/7... Self care is what you describe and is pretty much non existent by me. My horse is turned out with one other horse and a pony, they have a three stall run in. Attached is my own personal 6x8 tack room.

Two rings on premises and 40 miles of trails included  They'll also hold my horse for me for the farrier and vet if I can't make it. I worm myself.


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## Chasin Ponies (Dec 25, 2013)

TessaMay said:


> Paden, are the bales you buy very small or is hay just ridiculously cheap where you are compared to me? :lol: Current hay prices here are $21 a bale (orchard) or $17 if you buy bulk.


That's would be outrageous here in the Midwest! Guess it all depend on whether hay is plentiful in the area where you live. Hay goes for $3.00-$5.00 a bale here depending on the amount of alfalfa in it but then it is being grown all around us.

I pay $150 a month and the stable provides a stall, sawdust, they feed twice a day, junky indoor & junky outdoor arenas, very limited turn out or trail availability. We provide hay, feed, vet, blacksmith etc.
It costs me an average of $280-$320 a month total per horse-I keep a spreadsheet on it! That is double what it was costing me 20 years ago so owning a horse is definitely getting more expensive.

Everything seems to depend on location, location, location. The closer you get to a big city the more money you have to spend and if your stable has little or no competition they can and will charge more!


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## Saddlebag (Jan 17, 2011)

My 6' rounds cost $55 delivered and deposited in the field. I can pasture board a horse for $165, owner supplies everything else and pitches in with cleaning or fence repair. Round pen with sand. Trails are next door.


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## TessaMay (Jul 26, 2013)

Chasin Ponies said:


> That's would be outrageous here in the Midwest! Guess it all depend on whether hay is plentiful in the area where you live. Hay goes for $3.00-$5.00 a bale here depending on the amount of alfalfa in it but then it is being grown all around us.


 The sad part is pretty much all the hay used in WA is grown in WA, so it's not like the price is high because it's being shipped across states to get here. Alfalfa is actually cheaper in my state than orchard grass (which I prefer). I just live in an expensive state I guess and it doesn't help that I live in a particularly expensive area of that state... but hay prices are high everywhere here.


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## aspin231 (Mar 20, 2010)

Tessa May, are you paying $20/bale for small squares or am I reading that wrong? I just moved away from BC, so just a hop skip and a jump, and $7.00 or so was as high as hay prices went, $5.00 usual and $3.50 ish in bulk. Just curious.


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## Endiku (Dec 6, 2010)

I don't own anymore because the time/cost got to me with two horses self boarded, but I was paying $225 for my mini mare to share a dry lot 50 x 50 pen with another mini mare. Hay was included for boarders, up to 15 lbs, but wasn't always good. $50 for farrier trims, $15 a month in grain (just a supplemental feed), and I was good to go. For a little while I was feeding the other farm horses for discounted board- but it only brought it down to $150 and I was out there 3 hours a night feeding and watering 40 horses. It was ridiculous. Not to mention that the farm was in terrible shape. Fences were falling and dangerous, there were nails on the ground, trash and poop everywhere, scary looking sheds...eesh.

My 2 year old TB filly, I happened to get boarded for free (short term while I tried to rehome her) after I moved both her and my mini from the farm due to dangerous fencing/stallions running loose- and thats what really opened up my eyes to the price of owning a horse. I supplied everything myself and it was EXPENSIVE. At first she was pastured (not much grass) so I was saved the price of shavings, but then she took to fence hopping over 4 1/2 foot fences, and we had to stall her. I was paying $7.50 for a large bag of shavings, and going through two a week. Probably should have used 3. That was $60 a month right there. My filly was an exceptionally hard keeper due to catching up on growth after starvation (not with me), and she went through 3/4 of a 50 lb bale of hay every single day. That meant 5 1/2 bales a week, at 7.75 per bale. That adds up to $170 PER MONTH just for her hay. Then there was farrier work every 4-5 weeks at $50, and her grain (alfalfa pellets, supplement, and SC) which was $55-60 a month. All together she was costing me about $340 a month for very basic care. In retrospect it may have been cheaper to full board her somewhere, but normal diets just didn't work for her.


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## verona1016 (Jul 3, 2011)

TessaMay said:


> Paden, are the bales you buy very small or is hay just ridiculously cheap where you are compared to me? :lol: Current hay prices here are $21 a bale (orchard) or $17 if you buy bulk.


Holy cow. A few months ago I paid $14/bale for 100 lb bales of eastern Oregon orchard grass ("the good stuff") $280 for 1 ton, including delivery, because I couldn't find any local grass hay, and I thought that was outrageously high. The batch of local grass hay I got before that was $180/ton delivered and my BO thought that was a so-so price (of course, I can only imagine the volume discount she gets on hay... she buys 130 tons each summer!)


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