A very real & honest look at the mistakes and triumphs that are part of starting a horse business.

Building a large barn and starting a horse boarding business was my dream but it turned out to be a lot harder than I imagined, in fact It was a nightmare often in the early years! What was even harder for me was learning to become the business owner I needed to be to run a successful boarding stable. This book is about what it takes to work in the horse industry and what barn management is really all about.

This is our story. The true story of Vinland Stables in Neenah Wisconsin. My name is Sheri Grunska and I wrote this book to show you how we built our barn from nothing and what it took to get our business off the ground. It is really about what it takes to become the business person you need to be to run a boarding facility efficiently and with confidence. This is the most honest total barn management book you will ever read and it is really two books in one. This book is about my family's journey of building our barn and all that it took to get the loan and get the barn up and open for business. The reason I wrote the first part of the book is to help others that want to build a barn and show them all that goes with the building process both good and bad. We made a lot of mistakes in the building process so now I hope to help others so they don't end up with the mess we did. The rest of the book is about actually running a barn on a day to day basis with clients and horses. It is the most complete barn management you will ever read.

In this book, I will show you how to write a business plan if you are applying for a loan and give you examples of what our business plan looked like fifteen years ago and what it should look like now. Included is a sample of a boarding contract and what sections mean for you and your business. I will help you with setting up your barn rules and make you think of things you haven't thought of before.Running a horse boarding facility is about so much more than feeding and cleaning stalls. In fact that is the easy part. In this book I will discuss subjects like, herd management and the boarder. How do you give a 30-day notice? What are the boundaries between the barn owner, barn manager and the client? I will talk about subjects like If you are struggling with a client or need to raise your board and don't know how to do it. What do you do if you have a horse that is dangerous and you need to talk to the owner about the situation?You will not find another book on the market that addresses these real situations in the horse business. I will share with you what we have learned over the years through many trials and errors. I will give you the tools to handle the most stressful situations. If you feel sometimes like you are alone in running your farm and no one else would understand the problems you are having then read this book. You will find out very quickly that what you are dealing with is very common in most barns and you are definitly not alone. The good news is you can correct the issues you are having and create a sound profitable horse business.