IB Stables

09/04/2026

What Does Your Monthly Board Actually Pay For?

I recently saw a comment in a local horse group suggesting that boarding rates are far higher than the actual cost of caring for a horse. From the outside looking in, it can be easy to assume that board simply covers hay, feed, bedding, and basic daily care. In reality, operating a safe, well-maintained equine facility involves many additional expenses.

Along with the direct care of each horse, monthly board helps cover:

• Property rent or mortgage
• Business and liability insurance
• Electricity and utilities
• Facility, arena, and equipment maintenance
• Fuel for the equipment used around the farm
• Manure removal
• Repairs and replacement of items damaged through normal wear and tear
• Water and feed buckets, hoses, pitchforks, cross-ties, and automatic-waterer parts
• Cleaning supplies and everyday necessities for shared areas
• Payroll for the dependable people who help provide daily care

The list is nearly endless—and many of these expenses continue to rise.

Board is not simply payment for a stall and a few bales of hay. It supports the people, equipment, facilities, and behind-the-scenes work required to provide consistent, professional care while maintaining the safe and comfortable amenities horse owners expect.

There is an enormous amount of time, responsibility, and expense involved in properly caring for horses and operating a quality facility. Boarding rates reflect the true cost of providing that level of care—not just the items that are easiest to see.

09/02/2026

One in five women (20%) will be impacted by memory changes, mental sharpness, Alzheimer's disease, and other forms of dementia in their lifetime. One in ten men will be impacted.

Many ask, why do we only reference women when we discuss positive benefits from horses and riding? It is because 92.6% of horse owners in the United States are women. Benefits do not pick genders, men experience the same benefits from horses and riding, but it is women, the 92.6% of horse owners in the US, who are disproportionately affected by depression, anxiety, and cognitive decline compared to men. And so, female equestrians, ALL 92.6% of you, you are why we research and share this scientific-backed research. But men, this counts for you too!

While activities such as puzzles and learning new skills are often recommended for cognitive engagement, horseback riding may offer something different: a combination of physical movement and constant mental processing.

When you ride, you are not simply repeating the same movement over and over. You are monitoring your horse. Adjusting your balance. Processing sensory information. Making decisions. Coordinating your body while responding to another living being.

Your brain and body are working at the same time. Researchers refer to this type of simultaneous physical and cognitive demand as dual-tasking, and it is one reason scientists are interested in activities that combine movement with complex mental engagement.

Horseback riding is not proven to prevent Alzheimer's disease or dementia, but the combination of physical activity, coordination, sensory processing and cognitive engagement makes it an interesting area for researchers studying brain health and aging.

Maybe keeping your brain engaged does not always have to look like sitting down to solve a puzzle.

Equestrians: As you've gotten older, have you noticed that riding challenges your mind as much as it challenges your body?

Tell us in the comments. If you'd like to read the full article, comment below so we can connect!

08/15/2026

08/03/2026

Of these three riders only one is mounting correctly and safely. The rider on the left is the most dangerous. Not only does this rider have the reins totally loose, which if the horse moves off, she has no way to stop the horse, but she is also looking forward. Looking and turning your body forward when mounting with a foot in stirrup, when the horse moves off, tends to make you fall backwards as you lose your balance when a horse moves away.

The rider on the right is safer because her body is not twisted forward and thus safer because she is less apt to fall backwards if the horse moves off. However, she too has her reins completely loose and could not stop her horse if it started to move off. Additionally, she has both hands on the saddle. If the girth is not tight enough, it is likely that when she puts her weight in the stirrup to mount, she will pull the saddle off the back and down to the horse's side. It is far better to grab the crest of the horse's neck with your left hand to make sure you will not dislocate the saddle.

The center rider has the reins snugged up, which does not mean applying bit pressure, so she can stop her horse from moving off if it tries to move off as she mounts. Better yet, she has the left rein shorter than the right, which bends the horse's head toward her. You always want your horse to turn toward you if they move off when you are mounting because it is much easier to continue to mount if the horse is coming toward you than away from you.

The center rider is also not twisting her body forward but rather she is facing the horse perpendicular for the spine while mounting This position provides her with better balance should the horse move off. Additionally, she has placed her knee against the saddle to have her body pressure the horse's side, not her toe by the horse's belly that can cause a horse to move off from toe contact. She is completely correct in both her mounting position and control.

As a horse trainer who is always mounting green horses that move off when being mounted, I will add one point to the correct rider's mounting in the center image. I tend to turn my body and foot in the stirrup slightly toward the back of a horse when mounting an untrained horse.

This way, if the horse takes off quickly, as many green horses do, and because I have my reins such that the horse is turned toward me with their neck bent, the force of the horse taking off quickly in a left turn, while facing a little backward, the spin of the turn will help throw me up into the saddle.

07/26/2026

WHY SOME OF THE BEST HORSE TRAINERS SEEM DISTANT...

It isn't that your horse trainer doesn't like you.

Some of the best trainers and competitors in the horse industry are introverts. For many of us, that's how our connection with horses started in the first place.

While a lot of people grew up learning how to fit in, seek approval, and they learned how to thrive in crowds... many of the future trainers found peace in a barn, a pasture, or on the back of a horse. Horses became the place where life made sense to them.

The truth is... Most trainers don't get burned out from training horses. They get burned out from people.

They get burned out on the nonstop constant phone calls. The messages. The expectations. The pressure. The difficult conversations. The emotional weight that comes with serving the public.

And those competitors who sometimes seem stuck-up? Many of them aren't arrogant at all. They're simply people who recharge in solitude instead of crowds.

The trainers and competitors who stay in this industry for years usually learn how to manage that part of themselves. They learn when to socialize, when to serve, and when they need to step away long enough to reset.

So if your trainer goes quiet for a while... or that competitor you've always admired disappears for a few days...

Don't automatically assume they're upset with you. They may simply be doing what they have to do to protect their own mental energy so they can come back and give their best to their horses, their clients, and the people who depend on them.

This is a topic that barely gets talked about at all in our industry...

So here's an honest question for y'all. ..

How many of you are introverts, and how many of you feel more drained by people than by spending a full day with horses?

📸 credit: Jared H Searcy
ReelCowboy

07/23/2026