overnight boarding stable

HI I'm new to this site. I am interested in starting an overnight boarding stable in my area. I am familiar with this type of facility;however I would like some input from anyone with experience with overnight boarding. My family has a beautiful 1200+ acre farm in northwest Georgia. Our property borders the Pinhoti trail at Simms mountain and we have our property with acres of mountain and valley trails. We are also conveiniently located to civil war battlefield of Chickamauga(45min. away), which is horse friendly. I have looked into Ga. laws on equine liability and wondered if that alone is enough or is liability insurance a must? Any information will be appreciated!

I wouldn't do anything without the proper insurance! Your local riding association should be able to help you with that though.

For overnight board, do you have somewhere for the humans to stay or just the horses?

Bales and Breakfast facilities where both horse and humans are looked after are a growing trend. If you don't have a place for guests though, try to make a deal with a local hotel/resort.

Also make sure the horses that come and go isolated from the "regulars" (to prevent the spread if disease).

Niki

Niki, great advise!! Welcome Kristy. I hope that you do proceed with this business..I love the term "Bails & Breakfast", thats new to me I will be telling folks about it. YES, the insurance is so important, always protect yourself. It hopefully will be a lot of fun, but it is a business.

If you haven't already built the barn you are intending on useing, then make sure that the stalls are larger than normal because it will make your customers feel better about their horse being able to truely strech out and rest from what ever traveling they have done. We went to West Virginia from Alabama and my pony had to stay in a very small stall she was exausted.

It sounds that you may also be able to provide a trail for your customers to explore. hummmm a thought you probably already had or maybe you would like them to sleep get up and get out!! LOL get paid first

Is your location close to the interstate? Or maybe it is off the beaten path with great scenery?
I would love to hear more of this adventure!! thumbs up on this one!!

hey there, welcome to the forums!!! :D

Great advice! Thank you! I will check into insurance. I have an 18 stall barn that just needs a little attention. It was used to house mules for farming way back when. There is a lot of history there. It is a large barn and has a large area in the rear that could be used as a bunk house(5 bunkbeds). There used to be a beautiful victorian home in front of the barn that burned in 1996. The outbuildings are still in good condition and I would like to use them for housing and maybe even a general feed/tack store. The area where the house sat is nice and level. I believe it would make a nice area for hookups.
The farm is off the beaten path, but so beautiful. We are about 2hrs. northwest of Atlanta, 25min. from Rome Georgia and 15min from Summerville Ga. We have great trails on the Pinhoti trail, our farm has 1200+ acres of mountain and valley trails, the Chickamauga civil war battlefield is 45min. away too! I feel we have a great place. I've been riding these trails all my life, it's part of great childhood memories! The town we're in is Holland,Georgia, so small we're probably not on the map. I love Bails and breakfast . I've not heard that one!
Keep the great advice coming! I am trying to get an idea of how everyone feels about overnight boarding, and the type of facilities you would like to stay at.

HI! Didjital!!

Hi Kristy! Welcome to E-Equestrian! I think that is a great idea! It really sounds like you are going for your dream! I would love to see some pics of your farm!!! I am sure your overnight stable will be a success!

I will send some pics as soon as I get some! I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions on what to charge per horse/night and per person/night? I have stayed at one that was very reasonable, she charged $12/horse/night and $12/person/night. I'm not sure what the charge was for hookups, but I've seen other places $25/hookup/night. I would want to be reasonable to boarders as well as practical for myself. Any ideas on what the average fees are? Thanks everyone!

This is going to be on your family's property right? I would probably lay out how much acreage its going to take up (your facility) and based on your taxes per acre adjust it accordingly.

If you already have electricity out there and have drops like camp sites (or dont) you'll want to adjust for how many outlets might be out there and the power the put out. This will tell you at least based on taxes on the land you're using and its electricity you can know what you need at least to sustain and break even. From there you can really know how much you can use to make the rest profitable for yourself.

If this is very simliar to a camp site only for horses and owners/trailers you may want to investigate what types of things they'll need that are a monthly recurring bill that goes against the principle of the cost of business. Then you can build profits in from there...

How many acres were you planning to dedicate on the farm to this, 5, 10, more?

Excellent idea tho, can't wait to hear more!

Thanks for the information! I plan on talking with an owner of an overnight boarding facility to get her opinion as well. We have a very large area just waiting to be used, but i'm not sure of the exact acreage. This plan is in the beggining stage, so i'm trying to learn as much as possible. I have been told the small business association is a good place to start and opinions from people like yourself. I want to know what people want from this type of facility,not just for the horses but for themselves as well! Thanks again!

Yep, SBA loans and companies can definately help out a lot -- Really depends on the plan before SBA loans can be given... but we'll be glad to help you in your research!

I'll look through a few things and see if there is anyting else I might be forgetting. But to start, you definately need to know how much that land you have now, that you want to use, costs you (before the business) then what you need to add, and justify those costs and then offset them with profits (extra boarding/stabling) once costs are paid back

can't wait to see your new business start!

:) Great! Thanks for the info. I'm really excited about this venture. I love being around horses and this would be a good way to incorporate my love of horses and family together! My family (husband, 2 kids and an uncle) are helping me with this project. It's nice to get everyones input. It really helps to get all of the great advice from people who know horses and love to ride. We have two horses of our own. Magic, my husbands beautiful tovero paint gelding and Little Nellie, my breeding stock paint mare. I would love for the kids to get involved. My son 11yrs is a real go getter! He'd ride all day if he had a good horse(we're looking) and my daughter 9yrs., she's a little weary of horses. she loves to play with them(grooming,braiding their manes,feeding,ect...) but won't ride unless I lead her. As soon as I get some recent pics I'll send them! I'd love to show em' all off!

Cool! Post those pics as soon as you can :)

Hey there, also, if you have contacted the Better Business Buero they should have told you that if you make less than $6000 a year you do not have to have a business license and until you do make that amount, in one year time, you do not have to apply...I would call a camp ground like a KOA, if they are still around, and ask what they charge for trailer hook up and as far as the boarding well, are you only provideing the stall? will you have shavings available for them to buy? I remember buying shavings for $10 a 50lb bag at shows I think it is a lot more now. $15 to $25 per/horse per/night would not be unreasonable for the boarding of the horse.


Keep us posted this is very interesting!!

Hi everyone! This has been a very long day. We started on restoring the old barn. We tore down all of the old insides of the stalls.We now have a large empty hull. So now the real work begins. If anyone has a good idea for stall design please give me some advice! I would also like to see pictures if possible. I knew this was going to be a lot of work,probably doesn't help that i'm working with a hubby with a broke collarbone, but boy it wore me out today!lol!
Thank for the info on the small business association. As for the hookups I checked with an electrician and got some info from a lady that has an overnight facility. They were very helpful,so I think I've got that covered. I have really got great responses from people wanting to know when we'll be open. If all goes well I'm hoping by spring! Keep the good info coming I need all the help I can get! Thanks again!!://\\

Kristy, hi there I am sorry I didn't see your reply til now.


As far as the cost on stalls building them youselves would be the less expensive, but if you want stalls that you can remove maybe looking in any horse magazine at those type stalls would be the route you would like to go.

I hope that you are takeing pics of the progress, I love that kind of stuff. Please post them if you have.