# Bording vs your own farm: which is better??



## hflmusicislife (Dec 15, 2010)

My family (I'm 14) has been looking for a place with about 15 acres so we can move our 3 horses to our own place, plus get a couple more. (It's WAY too expensive to board more than three.) I've been boarding for almost 5 years, and I'm SO sick of it. The place we board at is generally crap, and they've really started getting lazy. The water in my mare's field froze and it took them 2 days to get water to them. (I brought her in and gave her a drink both days, don't worry.) The ring has been frozen since it hit 40 degrees, which was a while ago. The barn is falling apart. They told me I can't bring my (clipped) mare in because she "paws when we're feeding" and won't eat her hay. She barebly eats the hay in the fields because it's such low quality, so I've had to buy bales of good hay to feed her myself the days I'm there. The only reason we're staying there is because it's clsoe and we can't afford anything else. 
I was talking to my horsey-friend the other day, who has horses at her house, and she said it's a TON of work. I obviously understand having horses at your house is a lot of work, but do any of you guys have an opinion on this? Is having your horses at your house, getting taken care of the way you want, better than boarding?


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## wheeler4x4 (Dec 10, 2010)

It depends on how much work you make it, all of our horses are field kept, we only have one stall for if a horse gets injured. We feed once a day, and have to fix fences occasionally, and every once in a while my dad goes out in the pasture with a bobcat and pushes all the manure and mud into a big pile. (like once or twice a year)

Obviously if your horses are ridden heavily, they need to be fed twice a day probably, but if they are not worked hard, they really only need to be fed once a day as long as they have an endless supply of hay.

As for stall kept, thats obviously a bit more work, but even with that, I would think its worth it to have them right outside your back door 

The only downer I think is its harder to go on vacation, having to find someone you trust to take care of them.


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## Ray MacDonald (Dec 27, 2009)

Well its more work but its fun! We keep are horses stalled at night and when its bad outside. I don't know if it would be cheaper or not (depends what cost boarding is) You have to pay for feed, shavings, dewormer, vet, fairer, as well as water and lights to the barn. And hope that the water line wont freeze! lol


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## franknbeans (Jun 7, 2007)

Having done both,(also in MD) it is really nice to have them right at your house, and you bond much better with them, I think. However, it IS a lot of work for sure, but work I enjoy. I would rather be mucking stalls and fields than cleaning my house! lol. It is tough when you want to go away, but in MD it should be no problem to find a friend, neighbor, etc, who will help, or you pay them.


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## equiniphile (Aug 16, 2009)

I have 7 horses, and it would be VERY expencive to have all of them boarded. Plus, 3 are minis/companion horses that are probably each worth about 2 months in board :lol:. I like having them on my property, not having to follow barn rules, etc.


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## AllThePrettyHorses (Dec 15, 2010)

I would think that it's cheaper to keep a herd of your own horses on your property than board...though I guess it depends on the cost of boarding.

Is it more work? Yeah, obviously. I think that's inevitable. It's fairly enjoyable, though, if you like horses. I'm very grateful that we are able to keep our horses at home. I like the peace and quiet when you're the only one in your barn, and not having to deal with drama or other people. There's also no fear of other people "tampering" with your horse or your stuff.


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## vikki92 (Dec 18, 2010)

I have six horses who have never even seen the inside of a stable and only get fed pasture grass & hay, nothing speical, and our vet says they are perfectly heathly & happy horses. so i think its better to have horses on your own land, its easier! & cheaper! & more fun!


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## hflmusicislife (Dec 15, 2010)

Thanks everyone. Our horses are super easy keepers (a qh, a paint, and my qh/tb/welsh/wb) I was getting worried last year about her being too heavy. She shouldn't get grain but all the horses there get fed and it's not very fair to make her watch them eat... I'm happy to know that I'm not insane for wanting our own place


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## AspendaleFarm (Feb 25, 2011)

Gosh, what everyone says, I agree with. The only downers are having to take care of them when you're sick. If there are other family members who can pick up the slack and do the horse chorse, that's not an issue. And it's harder to go on vacation. I have three or four different people who I can call on to take care of my horses when we leave, but since we travel somewhat frequently (probably go away for the weekend every other month), I try to rotate so they don't get sick of helping out. We pay $10 a day, which isn't a lot. Still, you have to figure that cost into your vacations.

That having been said, we feed three times a day and muck twice a day. Just feeding at noon goes really quick - 5-10 minutes from door to door. We throw the appropriate amount of hay into the feeders, and mix our senior's grain and give it to her. In morning and at night, two or three of us go down to the barn together. We feed (really quick), do any worming or medicines, top off their water tank and together we scoop. There are four horses and usually we divide the number of piles up and there are usually about 25-30 piles total. It takes longer in winter when the muck is frozen because we have to loosen some of the piles with a shovel. But although friends of ours leave their muck all winter, and scoop it with a tractor in the spring, we can't do it. The worm load would get too heavy in the horses. We have a pretty small paddock. Anyway, I really like having a nice clean paddock, so I'm glad to do it - and it's a nice, quiet time outside every day. We could do it once a day, but it feels quicker to do it twice.

I love getting to go down to the barn. It's therapy! And even when we go long periods without riding because of the weather or something else that's come up, we still get daily interaction with the horses and that daily dose of calm, peaceful quiet down at the barn. I like to just tinker around down there and sweep up loose hay in the feed room, dust off the tack, or whatever, just to spend more time down there. I definitely prefer cleaning the barn to doing housework! LOL!

Plus... I *know* the horses are being taken good care of. I especially worry about our very senior mare (29 y.o.), so I can give her special care and adjust her rations and supplements if needed, and I can blanket her if it's freezing rain outside. She'll just stand out there and get soaked and start shivering if she's not blanketed.

Here's a picture of our barn. We built it ourselves and I specifically designed it to function both like a regular stalled barn and a run-in shed. The horses most of the time let themselves in and out, but I have electric wires on handles that I can hook across the back of each stall to keep horses inside (or out!) if needed. I *love* this set up. It's the best of both worlds. 










And then you can see the front side - having the overhang protects us from weather while we're working. I just throw the hay over the bottom half of the door into each corner feeder. The feeders are just red oak planks across the corner (horses won't chew on red oak), about 3-4 boards high and lined with flexible stall matting to keep the hay off the dirt. The feed room is at the end of the run of stalls there, with access to the tack room through the feed room on the paddock side of the barn (that white door in the picture above.) I think an efficient set up helps make having them at home very pleasant!










As for cost, it is *definitely* cheaper to have them at home. Our tank heater in winter gets expensive, though, ($50/month) but I know plenty of people who don't use them and just haul water every day. I prefer not to haul, though. But you can decide whether you want the convenience of square bales or the cheaper price of round bales - around $3-4 square bale around here, which ends up being about $45-60 a month for one full sized horse, or $25-40 for a 4x5' round bale, which will also last one full sized horse a month. And of course, if you have enough pasture land (we have zero!) and you rotate grazing and manage your pastures, you can cut the hay cost down, and maybe cut some or all of your own hay for winter.

Hope this helps some. As long as you can just set your mind to deal with the inconvenience of finding someone to take over duties when you go away, and don't mind spending time with them each and every day, you'll love keeping them at home!


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