cost to maintain a horse

[Charlie_Iliff]

Mike:
We forgot to advise about the cost of new screens on the barn and leaving work early to help bring the more fractious equines in by dusk, when the West Nile infected mosquitos no doubt come out in force.
I'm trying to get together the money to get a Power-Trac, which will be used, in part, to do horse-related chores. I don't think it would be an effective argument in favor of a new toy for me to prove conclusively that the horses have already bankrupted us. But, the other arguments haven't worked, so maybe I'll try it.

Charlie Iliff

 

[MikePA]

We have a million dollar umbrella liability policy which will cover such things. However, I did just call my agent and increased the medical portion of my homeowner policy to $500K. It was at $100K.

 

[pdxman]

Just a couple more to add:

Bedding - My wife buys the wood shavings in bags because we have no place for bulk storage. I think the cost is about 5-10 dollars a bag. They make stall cleaning easier. You don't have to replace shavings each time you clean though, a manure fork helps sift the dirty from the clean. Usually replace new when too much urine soils the bedding.

One of our horses recently dropped a lot of weight. The vet visit resulted in the horse having her teeth floated (filed down). Seems like this was done a year or two ago and although not frequent, would apply to regular maintenance. Cost was about $225.

As kids grow, their saddle sizes may change resulting in different tack. Riding style changes also dictate different tack (ie English and Western). You can always find a buyer/seller of this stuff on the used market though.

Again, not trying to discourage you. Just adding more info. Nothing worse than seeing a child or family get personally attached to the animal and have to give it up because of unforseen reasons.

Another up-side is that horse ownership is a great way to help instill responsibility in a child or adolescent plus build their confidence. If handled/supervised in the proper manner by the adult.

We also have an 1 million umbrella policy and is good insurance for many different scenerios.

 

[cowboydoc]

Mike,
Just make sure he knows that you have horses and other people ride them. My friend had a 2,000,000 policy and it was still debated because he hadn't told them he had horses.

 

[MikePA]

I will check my files, but I am fairly certain we had to list all the pets we had. They even wanted to know the breed of dog.

 

[cowboydoc]

pdxman,
Now we're really getting into the costs of owning a horse. Most people can handle the costs to feed and care for a horse but then you start adding everything else and it gets very expensive! Stalls, barn, tack, truck, trailer, insurance, etc., etc. etc. the list goes on and on. Then one or two horses turns into more horses and better truck and trailer, more land, new barn and on and on again. It's a great way of life as you mentioned definitely not the cheapest!

 

[Molerj]

Excellent responses. I have a friend that has three girls that wanted horses. He had
a pole barn/stall put up, fenced in several acres, (with the plastic fence $$). He now has
an old horse (21 yrs.) & the place looks great. He buy no means is a farmer or part time
farmer. I wish I could've showed him these messages before. Then again, maybe he's
happy as could be.

 

[HarveyM]

We have three horses (2 thoroughbreds, one mini) and I agree with everything I've read, except that I would tend to double whatever number you come up with for planning purposes. At a minimum you can count on nature kicking in truly freak occurences, like having two floods in a year turn our brook into a 150 foot wide river and take down 80% of our fencing. The true challenge I've found is being ready to react when something happens, as horses are not my chosen profession (computers :~)

 

[HarveyM]

I particularly enjoyed MikePA's description of the winter nights, and we might add 5:30 AM 0 degree mornings when the horses need to be fed and put out to pasture.

Nothing like walking through the barn and having a horse reach out and wrap his jaws around your shoulder.

I actually had one reach over my shoulder and take a hammer out of my hand when I was trying to drive a nail into a board. Shook me up as I realized that on the backswing I could have taken an eye out.

Horses are fun, but a lot of commitment. My wife is the horse person, and she now says that the outcome of moving them onto our own land is not having time to ride. Funny thing, she does have time to compete in dog agility /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif .

 

[GrantMO]

ejb,
Also figure on the cost of learning how to handle and ride the horse(s), unless you or someone close to you is a horse person. If you don't have a lot of experience have someone with experience help you pick out a good, safe horse. Sometimes an instructor or trainer do this for a percent or you might get lucky if you have a family member or friend who will help. You could also take lessons, if necessary, buy one and board him a while while you get your place set up. That way you can see if you like the whole deal before you set it all up at home. It's a great passion to have but a lot of work too.