Starting A Horse Boarding Facility? Several Things To Consider

If you are starting a horse boarding business on your property, you should consider the different types of horse shelters that are available and use them for different purposes. Having different types of horse shelters on your property will give your boarders more options as well. Here is a rundown of what to consider and the basic types of horse shelters to consider and where they can be most effective and useful on your property, as well as how to order the shelters and have them installed.

Stall Board

First, consider the types of boarders you want to attract, as that will have an impact on the type of horse shelters you select. There are typically two types of horse boarding services: pasture and stall board. Some boarding facilities also offer a deluxe stall board, which includes additional services such as farrier care, grooming, and lunging or exercising on top of providing an individual stall for each stall boarded horse. 

The type of horse shelters you select will largely depend on who your clientele will be. If you expect to have mostly show horses in your facility, then you should provide a horse barn with stalls, an equine shower stall, a locker room for the boarders to keep their tack and supplies, and a center aisle in between the stalls so they can practice their horsemanship regardless of weather conditions. This type of setup can also be great for pregnant mares and their expected foals. 

The location of the horse barn should be easily accessible for trucks to pull horse trailers up to, particularly if the majority of your boarders will be pulling their horses out for horse shows on a regular basis. Sometimes, popular boarding stables can have several large trucks and horse trailers boarding horses during the same time frame and jockeying for positions. If possible, you should consider attaching a lean-to horse shelter to the exterior of the main barn, which can provide a space for the farrier to do their work if the main aisleway in the barn is busy.

Pasture Board

Whether or not you will construct a horse barn, you should provide run-in horse shelters throughout your property. Run-in horse shelters or sheds provide shade from the harsh summer sun and shelter from snowy winter. They also provide shelter from wind, but you want to be careful to position the shelter so that the side with the opening is facing in the opposite direction of the most prevalent wind direction. Alternatively, you can choose a horse shelter that is open on all four sides with only the poles and a roof. 

If you believe you will have more pasture boarders than stall boarders, you should consider installing more run-in shelters with partitions that will help keep the horses separate so they can all seek shelter in the case of adverse weather conditions, especially considering the territorial nature of some horses when it comes to food and shelter. 

Also, section off equal parcels of pasture with horse fencing so you can have different pastures for the horses, particularly due to the hierarchical nature of horses. By having different pastures, you will be able to move horses around based on the dominance they do or do not assert on each other in the pasture. Each pasture should, of course, have a separate run-in horse shelter. 

In conclusion, when you determine what types of horse shelters you want to have on your property for your boarding business, contact a horse shelter supplier to purchase the kits you'll need. You may also need to hire a builder to construct the horse shelters, as most suppliers simply supply the materials and not the manual labor to erect the horse shelters.