Finding a home for your horse at the right farm is an important step in animal ownership, safety, and biosecurity. By visiting farms and learning about their husbandry practices, you will find a place for your horse where it can be healthy, stress-free, and safe.

The first step in choosing a home for your horse is to find a farm operation that matches your tolerance for risk. Horse activities are inherently risky, and there is a wide range of risk horse people are willing to take. Our guidance focuses on the steps the boarding farm and the client agree to take to reduce the likelihood that horse(s) will contract an infectious disease. These steps are often referred to as “biosecurity protocols.” Best practices are presented under each topic. Not all farm operations will choose to follow every best practice and you must honestly evaluate how you feel about their choices. Similarly, if you feel the farm’s rules are too stringent, you may want to consider another farm. 

When considering biosecurity protocols, the nature of how you interact with your horse and its pattern of travel is a good place to start. Do both of these match that of other horses at the farm? Do the horses at the farm spend most of their time at home, or do they often travel long distances to large shows? If your horse never leaves the farm, it is important to choose a farm where many of the horses do the same to reduce the number of potential exposures to disease-causing organisms (pathogens).