09/10/2026
I’m tired of seeing posts other barn owners write complaining they don’t make money boarding horses, doing what they love in the horse industry, no we do not make millions, but owning a farm you don’t, just like farming corn/soy beans has a ton of costs, running a horse boarding facility has costs as well.
It shouldn’t be a business built on guilt, and I’m going to say it, you can make a profit!
We are not making $10k a month no, but we are covering our bills and making enough to go out once in awhile, lavish vacations, no, but living here on this property is our vacation, we love what we do, we love waking up here, and we love the horses and our boarders.
Do we have unexpected costs, yes. Do we have months we are in the red due to those costs, yes, does it also in the same turn have months we do great, yes.
Do we get burned out at times, yes, working 365 days a year is a lot, but do we always have to work all day? No! The work is like the costs, it goes up and down.
No one opens a barn to get rich, but we also don’t stay open year after year to stay broke, my husband and I both work other jobs, both of us part time, and run our facility, we work jobs we enjoy going to, and we love sharing our facility with our boarders, our perspective is positive about what what we do.
Our frame of mind isn’t a get rich plan, it’s simply to be happy doing what we love, not cram our facility so full we get burnt out, we offer great care to the people and their horses here while making some extra money on the side, that’s the truth.
Do we have bad days? Yep, but it doesn’t take away from why we opened, we opened to offer our barn to like minded people, we didn’t want our boarders to go broke to stay here, and we also in the same turn didn’t want to go broke running it.
You can find a middle ground and it is a great opportunity, if you have the right perspective, it will last for generations, the key for us is pouring our happiness into our property but also making sure we have the time to enjoy life outside the gates too.
I hope this post can help another barn owner know 365 days a year doesn’t mean you give your soul away, you take your long days and bad days, but watch the sunrise, the sunset, listen to the birds, watch the horses graze in the pasture 😊
Take your time daily to breath and do something for yourself, you can’t run your business burnt out, need a day off??
Take it! Believe it or not your boarders will understand, if they don’t, they don’t belong in your facility. ❤️
