Inflation in horsekeeping costs?

One benefit of being a compulsive spreadsheeter is that I can easily look back on past expenses and see how they compare to today's. The ballooning costs of hay, feed, bedding, board, and other horse-related expenses has been a hot topic lately, so I was wondering what my data would show. 

Per-Horse Monthly Cost

I'm glad to see that my per-horse monthly cost of variable inputs (including supplies and labor other than my own) has bounced around in the $200-300 range from 2014-2025. However, the trend from 2022-2025 was a sharp increase that, if it continues, will push me above the $300 level in the near future.

Costs of Hay, Feed, Bedding, and Diesel

Next, I looked at trends for individual inputs:

• For feed and bedding, which I buy from the local Southern States, I noticed that the trendlines were basically flat from 2014 to 2020. During this time the CPI (consumer price index, a measure of general inflation) was at 1-2% per year. Businesses that were not making small but regular increases in price during this time were setting themselves up for a larger correction, and angry customers, in the future.
• The 2014 to 2025 increase in shavings was exactly the same as the cumulative increase in CPI over that time (36%), but almost all of that increase was from 2020 to 2025. Similarly, the increase in the price of Triple Crown Senior was 38% from 2018 (when I started buying it) to 2025. The ivermectin-based dewormer Equimax also saw its steepest price increase from 2020 to 2025, of a whopping 77% compared to 2016.
• Hay trended up more steeply, with a 2-string bale costing me twice as much in 2024 as in 2014. I'll note here that I didn't buy the exact same quality of hay every year and this isn't controlled for bale weight, so I would expect (and did see) more noise in the data. I suspect that the steeper increase from 2023 to 2025 is not necessarily because all hay increased in price but because I got sick of wasted hay and started being willing to pay more for higher quality (which sometimes works out, but sometimes still leads to even more expensive waste).
• Diesel fluctuated more, with a 5-gallon can costing me anywhere from $22 in 2014 to $12 in 2016 to $28 in 2022.

This might beg the question of why my monthly per-horse cost hasn't steadily increased over the years. Part of the answer is that in earlier years I felt the need to spend more money on fly control (fly predators, spray, roll-on repellents, etc) and pasture management (spraying and seeding). In more recent years I have decided that fly control is basically futile, other than masks and some SWAT on the midline, so I don't waste my money on it anymore. I also had greater need for paid help with chores in some years than others, with my labor costs varying from 0% to 18% of my total costs. Also, I have had horses come and go over the years, with some needing more feed than others, and the one constant (the dear old man, who turns 30 this year!) has had his nutritional years change over time.

Comparison to Boarding Barn

Something I've observed with horse businesses like barns and trainers is that they tend to avoid regular fee increases, which becomes problematic when they eventually realize their (usually already-thin) profit margins are slowly getting narrower and narrower. Then a bigger increase becomes inevitable, and the clients are surprised and upset. I used the Wayback Machine to pull past board rates from a local boarding barn's website, to compare its trajectory to my own costs:

For reference, this is a large, relatively high-end barn that is a boarding-only business, meaning they don't give lessons or require boarders to be in training. Although there are trainers on-site, the facility is not owned by a trainer, and training/lesson fees are decoupled from boarding. Care includes daily turnout, feed, hay, and blanket changes. It has an indoor arena, several outdoor arenas, round pens, and trails.

First of all, I was slightly but not very surprised to see that board rates stayed the same from 2014 to 2016. I was slightly surprised because the owner is a good business person. But I was not very surprised because, like I said above, a lot of boarding barns have historically been hesitant to routinely raise rates from year to year.

The 38% board increase between 2019 and 2025 was also not very surprising given the widespread inflation (28% increase in CPI over those years), but I can see how it's making boarders feel squeezed and worried about their future as horse owners. Notably, 38% is also how much the price of Triple Crown Senior and the bedding that I buy (America's Choice Mini Flakes) increased from 2018 to 2025. 

Bottom Line

Seeing local board prices grow faster than inflation in recent years makes me grateful that I have my horses at home. Since I do most of my own labor and don't pay myself, my cost tracking misses a large potential contributor to rising board rates. I'll be watching that per-horse monthly cost trendline though, to see how rising input costs affect my bottom line.