How much should full boarding cost?
Work out a price that pays every hour of barn work at a barn hand's rate, covers feed, bedding, bills and buildings, and leaves a profit. Free, with no sign-up.
Horses that pay boarding, not boxes.
Yours and your staff's together, weekends included. Usually about 20 minutes a horse.
What a barn hand costs you, with employer's costs, holiday and sick pay. Your own hour is worth at least that.
Costs other than work: $477 a horse
Feed and bedding$250 a horse
What you buy for the whole barn, and what you pay for it.
- = $122perat$1 small bale ≈ 20 kg · that is about 10 kg a horse a day
- = $28perat$1 bag = 25 kg · that is about 1 kg a horse a day
- = $100perat$1 pack ≈ 20 kg · that is about 5.3 kg a horse a day
Bills for the whole barn$105 a horse
As you pay them, monthly or yearly. We divide by 12 horses.
- = $25$per
- = $35$per
- = $21$per
- = $24$per
Depreciation: buildings and equipment$122 a horse
What it cost, or would cost today, and how many years it lasts. Paying a lease, or have a figure from your accountant? Enter the amount. Renting the barn? Untick it and put the rent under bills.
- = $58$overyears
- = $24$overyears
- = $12$overyears
- = $28$overyears
Your own itemsadd your own
Something missing? Blanketing, the walker, muck removal: add an amount, or the minutes of work at $26/h.
Starting values for a barn with 12 horses in the US. Change them to yours.
Know your bills? Open this and enter hay, power, insurance and machinery the way you pay for them.
How we work out the price
We use the full-cost method that the state agricultural institutes of Baden-Württemberg (LEL) and Bavaria (LfL) publish for boarding barns.
The price covers everything a boarding horse costs you: hay, grain, bedding, the barn's bills and every hour of work. Your own hours count at a barn hand's rate, because that is what you would pay someone to cover for you.
The barns, arena and machines go in as depreciation: their cost spread over the years they last. Then we add profit and round up. If your state taxes board, add the sales tax on top.
What the numbers mean
Under the price you see how much of it is your work. It is often the biggest part of the price.
Next to it is the price without your work, as if every hour in the barn were unpaid. If your price is close to that, you are working partly for free.
For some countries we also show what owners usually pay, taken from barn price lists and surveys. It is not a price you have to charge. Where the data is thin, we show no range.
When to raise the price
Costs rise every year: hay, power, wages. Review your price every year or two and raise it at least every three years. LEL suggests about 2% a year.
Tell all your owners at once, in writing, with the reasons. Run the calculator again and attach its PDF: it shows what the price is made of.
Price extras separately
The calculator prices full boarding: the daily care of a stabled horse. Blanketing, the horse walker and holding horses for the farrier or the vet are extras. Price them separately.
Work them out the same way: the minutes a job takes, times your hourly rate. Then only the owners who use them pay.
Common questions
Because they are a cost too. When you are ill or need a break, someone has to cover for you, and they need paying. A price without your work only looks fine until that day.
Count everyone who works with the horses, you included, weekends too. LEL and LfL assume about 20 minutes a day per stabled horse: feeding, mucking out, bedding, water and turnout. Office work and extras don't count.
Yes. Enter your costs as you pay them, sales tax included. You can't reclaim sales tax on what you buy, so it is part of your cost.
In most states, no. A few states tax board: New Jersey does. If yours does, add the tax to the price the calculator gives you before you quote it to owners.
Enter the horses that pay, not your boxes. An empty box still costs money, and that cost falls on the horses you have. So the price is higher when the barn isn't full.
It prices full boarding. For less service, lower the hours of work a day and switch off the costs your owners cover themselves.
No. The calculator works in your browser and doesn't send us your numbers. They stay on this device, and the main ones in the page address, so you can come back or share the link.
From our research for your country: hay, feed and bedding prices from adverts, barn hands' pay from job ads, building costs and bills. Some are estimates, so change them to yours.
Sources
- LEL Baden-Württemberg: “Wie kalkuliere ich den Pensionspreis?”, slides of March 17, 2026
- LfL Bayern: “Pensionspferdehaltung” calculator (IDB), 2026 values
- Barn hands' pay: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics for farmworkers, farm, ranch, and aquacultural animals (SOC 45-2093), and barn-hand job ads
- Hay prices: balewise.com state hay prices, October 2026, and USDA NASS hay prices
- Feed and bedding: retailer prices for 50 lb feed bags and bagged pine shavings (Tractor Supply, Farm & Fleet), October 2026
- Sales tax on board: most states do not tax board; New Jersey does (NJ Division of Taxation, ANJ-12)
- Typical board prices: StallSource boarding cost data (77 barns in 21 states) and BarnBeacon state-by-state rates
- Other countries: local job ads, feed ads, barn price lists and VAT rates
This is a guide to your price, not tax or business advice.
You have your price. Nose charges it for you.
Nose charges each horse's boarding on its own billing day. It works out part months pro rata and adds extras to that horse's charges.