Cost and what the cost includes - are there extra costs to blanket or feed supplements?
What do they feed, are there choices? How much will they feed before charging extra - my horse is a hard keeper. I buy his extra feed from the store myself though. Quality of hay?
Turnout - I personally want 24/7 turnout in a large pasture, the more horses the better
Facilities - Stall size, tack room and is it locked, wash stall, indoor arena, outdoor arena, trails
Can you use your own vet/farrier? This was a big problem for me at one barn!
Size of facility and type of other boarders - I really wouldn't want to be a a 4H barn with a lot of kids running around personally. I like a quiet, smaller place
Is it a lesson barn? What kind of lessons? Can you bring in your own trainer if needed?
Do they own a trailer, are they prepared to trailer your horse to vet if needed - obviously I don't own a trailer myself.
And very importantly, I just like to get a feel for the barn owner. I need to be able to trust them. I am a really good boarder in that I help out a lot and go above and beyond just cleaning up after myself. But I also ask more from the barn owner when it comes to feeding my horse as he gets a number of things and some soaked beforehand.

That's pretty much it for beforehand stuff. And even so, some of that I'll wait until visiting the barn in person. But if that's not an option because of distance, I ask a lot of questions. And request pictures. I have moved to a barn site unseen because I was moving to another state and it worked out wonderfully and I knew it would just by talking to the owner. She was awesome and you could just tell she really cared about the horses.

Once I go visit the barn, I can inspect things more clearly like the stalls, the fencing, the quality of pasture/turnout, size of riding areas, etc. And hopefully some other boarders are around so you can meet them and maybe ask them what they think.

Last Edited By: JowAngel Mar 10 09 7:26 AM. Edited 1 times.