Horizon Structures Presents Series: Hunting for Horse Housing By Nikki Alvin-Smith

By Nikki Alvin-Smith

The hunt for good horse housing solutions can be a complex task mired with pitfalls. The horse owner’s key concern will hopefully be locating proper care for the equine(s) but a major impediment to finding the right horse housing option is often the cost. The rising expenses associated with horse care and management such as medical care, bedding supplies and feed and forage provisions, insurance and property prices, all factor in to the ultimate decision. Here is a breakdown of the main horse housing options available with some pros and cons to each identified.

The Boarding Barn

Probably the ‘go to’ solution is housing the horse at a boarding facility. There are different levels of care available to fit different price points at many horse facilities. The cheapest being the rough board option (dry stall or pasture) or barter board and the most expensive being the full-service board, replete with stabling and turnout in individual or group turnouts as preferred, with facilities at hand including indoor/outdoor riding arenas.

Depending on the type of boarding program you choose, the main pros of a boarding barn option are likely to be:

Set price point
Daily horse care chores taken care of by others
No responsibility for property management such as manure removal, pasture care or snow plowing
Social interaction for you and your horse
Limited responsibility for obtaining supplies for horse care

There are some cons to putting your horse into a boarding barn however:

Add-on fees may be charged for ancillary services
Price point or services may change with limited notice
Access to your horse may be confined to certain hours/days
Access to outside trainers may be restricted
Lack of control over horse management practices

Subsidize Your Horse Habit

While the above pros and cons lists to selecting the boarding barn option for your horse housing might give pause to the horse owner that likes to control all facets of their equine partner’s lifestyle, there is a blended solution that can work on either a minimal scale on a small lot or on a larger more conventional basis. The option to establish a horse facility offering housing and equine care for others while maintaining some of the stall space and paddocks/grazing for your own equids.

From a two-stall horse barn with storage/feed room and overhang set up in the backyard that could be shared with another horse owning friend to serve as horse housing, to a center-aisle barn built to offer top-end horse care and everything in-between, the opportunities to become the host rather than the client is tempting. The modular barn building options make barn purchasing and barn ownership easy to accomplish and with the ‘to the penny’ pricing that includes set up and delivery shopping and taking ownership of a new barn is a straightforward process. Permits may be required for building any size of horse barn or livestock accommodation and zoning restrictions may also apply as to acreage and land use in certain areas, so it is important to check this out before you buy.

Many barn owners say they could never go back to boarding their horses elsewhere as they love the responsibility of caring for their own horses, while others might throw in the towel after a few years of horse barn operation citing the high costs of labor or monumental workload, and have difficulty managing their enterprise.

The pros of operating your own horse facility and allowing access to others such as enjoyment of the complete control of horse management protocols and choosing your own hay supplies and how much bedding your horse gets and how frequently it is mucked out, are tempered with the cons of the sincerely onerous task horse care can become especially over time. What started as a passion for horses and the time spent in their company riding them and perhaps competing them, can diminish to a disturbing lack of hours available to spend with your own horses as instead your energy is prioritized to caring for other people’s steeds and their owners. Should you make your horse passion your job? Here are some questions to ask yourself before you take the plunge and make horses your career

Aside from a horse facility offering a means to subsidize the barn owner’s horse housing requirements, there is a business opportunity and money can be made operating a horse barn. Here are some ideas on how to build revenue streams for a horse boarding operation.

The Ubiquitous Run-In Shed

The run-in shed is by far the cheapest horse shelter you can install that will do the job of providing horse housing. Simple to acquire and set up, it is an extremely popular solution to backyard horse housing need.

A field with a hedgerow surround or a barbed wire cow fence is not a safe environment for horse keeping. Similarly a line of established trees in some part of the field does not offer enough shelter from varietal weather elements year-round in most instances. The hot weather in particular is especially tough on horses and they appreciate the shade of a permanent structure.

Permit wise a run-in shed that has been constructed with integral anchor ties is portable and may not require a building permit. But this does not mean that the town council will allow horses to be kept on the property so it is prudent to still check the local building code and zoning requirement before opting for this appealing budget-friendly choice.

Your Hunting Grounds

The choice of horse care and horse housing options may depend on your location. Traditional horse farm regions of the country will likely have high property prices and more high-end horse housing choices, while less affluent neighborhoods or regions may encompass more ‘fit for function’ horse housing solutions.

Thankfully the hunting ground for buying a horse barn is no longer dependent on the region where you live or what the local construction companies have available. Nationwide access to modular barns is now possible from leading horse barn suppliers which not only provides a greatly increased range of barn designs and styles to choose from, but this convenience also helps keep the price point more accessible across different tiers.

PLEASE NOTE: AHP members ~ Please share this content without edit. Kindly include URL links included in article, Horizon Structures URL and author’s URL and byline wherever published. This material may not be used for AI or LLM training applications. Please respect author copyright. If you advise use we will be happy to reciprocate share your publication/posts.

Feel free to contact Nikki Alvin-Smith for further information and high-res photos.

About Horizon Structures: One horse or twenty, there’s one thing all horse owners have in common…the need to provide safe and secure shelter for their equine partners. At Horizon Structures, we combine expert craftsmanship, top-of-the-line materials and smart ‘horse-friendly’ design to create a full line of sheds and barns that any horse owner can feel confident is the right choice for their horses’ stabling needs.

All wood. Amish Made. Most of our buildings are shipped 100% pre-built and ready for same-day use. Larger barns are a modular construction and can be ready for your horses in about a week. All our barn packages include everything you need to move your horses right in. Horizon Structures also sells chicken coops, equine hay feeders, greenhouses, dog kennels. You can also find garages, sheds and outdoor living sets available at Horizon’s sister company Stoltzfus Structures.

Headquartered in South-Central Pennsylvania, Horizon Structures, LLC was founded by Dave Zook. Dave was raised in the Amish tradition and grew up working in the family-owned shed business. He started Horizon Structures in 2001 in response to an ever-increasing customer demand for high quality, affordable horse barns. Over the years, the company has grown and now has several build shops located throughout the US enabling them to service customers nationwide.

For additional information about the company or their product line, please visit their website at https://www.horizonstructures.com

Horizon Structures LLC, Atglen, PA
Media Contact: NAS@NikkiAlvinSmithStudio.com
Tel: 607 434 4470
https://www.HorizonStructures.com
Photos are available on request