Jeremy and his wife are in the Army and are re-locating from Kentucky to Missouri, are fairly new to horses and are looking to purchase a horse and board near the Army installation. They apparently found out that the Army Stables where they are going is small, filled up and has a waiting list. They asked what to look in a private or public stables or boarding facility to re-locate their horse to or if they buy a horse after they move.
My answer to Jeremy and his wife: Please go into horse ownership with your eyes wide open. Soldiers often are overwhelmed with long work hours so the care of the horse often falls to the spouse. Ensure you can afford the cost (both money and time wise) and understand what a large committment this entails.
The cost of care and management of your horse at the public/private stables need to be well defined…..just what are you paying for? It is not as simple of just hearing “full care” or “partial care”.
If the stables is a “full care” facility that usually means they feed and water the horse, and pick manure from the stalls. They may or may not provide the feed. Often boarding stables bring loads of hay in at their costs and bill the individual horse owners for what they use.
What do they feed as per type of hay, how much and when?
Where is the hay stored at? Look at it and see the quality. Does any of it look to be molding?
How big are the stalls and are they covered to give some protection from rain and Sun? Are the stalls safe and absent of hazards?
Do they use automatic watering? If not, how big are the stock tanks and do they appear to be regularly cleaned?
Does the Stables require health documentation such as an EIA (Coggins) Test and required immunizations?
Is there a quarantine requirement for new incoming horses?
Does the full care cost also include worming, and if so how often and what schedule are they on?
Does the full care cost include turning the horse out into a turnout? If so, how often?
What areas can you ride in and when? Is there trail riding or open fields, forests or deserts to ride in? Is there an arena or a large round pen available?
Walk around and see if the stalls appear to be excessively dirty. How do the other horses boarded there look? Look particularly the feet (hooves). I would be wary of a stables that allows the owners to neglect hoof care.
How about the horses the owners own,….to they appear to well cared for?
How many other boarders are there? What is the turnover rate? Why are people leaving? Talk to them and see if you could live with their personalities. Often there may be some horse smart people there that you can rely on for help learning.
Do the owners sell horses? If so, this may be horse trading operation where horses at bought at sale barns and rapidly turned over or sold.
Are there operating hours? Or do you have 24/7 access to your horse? Are they any security precautions or measures to protect the horses from unauthorized access?
I may be jaded in my views and experience, but I have seen a lot of low rent operations in business thinking they can make money. In fact, my standing up of this site was intended to help new un-experienced horse owners and even some experienced horse people who may not know there is a better way.
Most of us know there is minimal money making involved in the horses business, so the places you want to avoid are Boarding Facilities that answer most of the above questions in a negative manner. I have seen many facilities that do not require any health documentation; do not have a quarantine process; bring in a load of hay, require all to purchase the hay they provide (and charge double); charge for a non-existent worming program and charge for non-existent turnout,…..all in order to make a buck.
Good luck in your search for a suitable horse and boarding facility. I understand the Army has been closing down a few, if not many, of their Horse Stables facilities on military installations - probably not as important as Tennis programs or basketball courts. Safe journey.
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