Horse boarding

I had the opportunity to visit one of the largest horse boarding facilities in our area just a few days ago. The owner/operator had an open house for those people who were interested in horse facilities, whether it would be designing them or becoming an operator of one.

She gave a nice presentation and tour. When it came time for questions I had a few of them. I asked about operating costs and in particular about liability insurance. Her answers were evasive about the actual costs of care, custody and control insurance (that is the insurance required by boarding stables for them to operate) but she did emphasize that it was expensive.

I remember when I was a horseback riding instructor the average yearly insurance rate for liability alone was just under $900 a year. After Katrina and 9/11 the insurance rates sky rocketed. For the $1 million policy that I held the rate jumped to $1500 a year. I have not checked insurance quotes for quite some time now so I don’t know if they are still elevated or not.

For a boarding stable, often the insurance rates are based on the most expensive horse boarded. If you run a boarding stable that has horses valued at more than $20K then your insurance rates will be higher than the person who boards horses worth under $5K.

For those people that are looking for horse boarding, don’t forget to check and see if they have insurance to cover your horse should the horse get injured or die in their care.