09/13/2026
This article really hits home for us at Owl Glen.
As I commented under the Owl Glen post, we see this from the other side too. There are people who want a show barn, beautiful facilities, perfect footing, everything maintained and all the extras that come with a higher end facility, but they still want to pay what amounts to a beer barn budget.
The reality is, just paying board at the lowest rate we can realistically keep it at doesn't magically create the money to make all of those things happen.
And there is something else people don't always see. They seem to think the owners have endless money and can just pay for the gravel, the arena footing, the repairs, the fencing and everything else the property needs.
That's simply not the case.
The owners were forced into early retirement and cannot afford to keep funding repairs and upgrades. So as the ranch manager, I'm constantly trying to find ways to make things happen.
Five truckloads of gravel recently cost $3,000. The arena footing last summer was almost $5,000. When I say I paid for the gravel, I mean literally. I worked out a loan with a boarder and paid it back through board fees from an arrangement that even displaced my own horse so a stall could be used to help cover that cost.
The labor here (as it is in MANY horse farms) is also done by people who have full time jobs away from the ranch and volunteer their time in exchange for housing and utilities. There isn't a paycheck or unlimited resources behind them either.
So when someone looks around and says, “Why don't they do this?” or “They need to do that,” sometimes I think the better question is, “What would it take to make that happen, and who is willing to help?”
Because wanting more is perfectly reasonable. We want more too.
But a better arena, better fencing, more amenities, more maintenance and more services all take money, time and labor.
We're not trying to run a show barn on a beer budget. We're trying to provide a good, safe place for people and horses while keeping board within a range that people can actually afford.
And that's really the point of this article.
If we want these places to stay open, we have to recognize what it actually takes to keep them going. Passion doesn't pay the bills, and neither does simply wanting more.
