cost to maintain a horse

[cowboydoc]

Dan,
Yes to all your questions. Just remember though you can't feed a horse alot of grain at once or they will founder. You can only feed them 5 lbs. at the most so you will have to feed grain daily. As far as hay you may get into trouble putting out a round bale for one horse. Problem is that one horse won't go through a round bale very fast and they are prone to mold and that causes colic. But if you got a round bale feeder and put it in your lean to you would be fine.

As far as winter goes yes your horse will do just fine and without a blanket! A good three sided lean to will be fine. Just make sure that you line the sides up about 3 or 4 foot so they don't kick through if you make it out of tin.

Electric fencing will be just fine. I wouldn't use barb wire though.

As far as a friend just get a goat. Doesn't sound like you have anything there to worry about the goat getting into.

Finally don't even worry about the land. As long as there is no wire or anything out there your will do just fine. They don't need pasture if you're feeding good hay and grain. Your horse will eat what grass is there and chew on other things.

Good luck.

 

[cowboydoc]

One other thing if you are not going to be there to feed grain you can get timed feeders that will only drop a little bit of grain in the feeder at a time. They are a couple hundred bucks but in your case may be worth the investment not to have to drive there all the time.

 

[dmccarty]

CowBoyDoc,

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately this means we can keep that horse! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Water is going to be my biggest headache. I've been following the threads about the post drivers and I think that will likely be a purchase in the middle of next year..... /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif Need the post driver if we have horses dear.... /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif Tit for Tat! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

I won't move the horse to the property until we live out there. I have thought about getting goats. Actually in NC there seems to be a decent market for meat goats because of the Hispanic, African, and Middle Eastern populations. The town to our west has a market and meat packing plants.

I'm sure my wife will be happy to hear about all this info from TBN. She really loves the horse and it would be a good experience for our daughter.

Much Thanks!
Dan McCarty

 

[cowboydoc]

Dan,
The best deal I've found on postdrivers is that worksaver from the guy that Hess recommended in the thread on post drivers. You can't even believe the amount of work that one will save you. One of my friends is probably the cheapest guy in the world. This is just an example of how cheap he is. His house burned down a couple years ago and he has been building a new one ever since. Well he's to the finish work and I went over there to help him one weekend. I have all the compressors and nail guns so I loaded them up and took them over there. We used them that weekend and I left them there for him to use. We ran out of nails that weekend and he went to buy some more. Well you know how expensive the nails are for nail guns. Instead of paying the higher price to get the nails for the nail gun he went back to putting it all in by hand! Anyway back to the pounder. He needed some fence put in at his new place. I told him to come over and help me finish up the fence at my place and I would bring the tractor and pounder over to his house to put his posts in for him. Well he just wanted the post auger that i have, he didn't want the post driver. To make a long story short he came over and helped me. We put in 120 posts over the weekend. He was totally amazed at how many posts we could put in and especially at how tight they are when put in. Well he called me last night and said that I didn't need to bring my tractor and pounder over if he could buy my old post pounder! To say the least they are impressive and a tremendous work saver.

 

[joysusan]

I recently moved to a place on two acres so that I could bring home the two horses I have been boarding for three years. Although I have no regrets, I probably could have boarded the horses for the next 15 years and have spent less than what it cost me to have them at home. Of course, there is a BIG difference in the relationship you have with your horses when you are taking care of them every day. It was worth the money. I started planning for the move in February in terms of research and plans. I am so thankful that I took the time to carefully research all aspects of caring for my horses - it saved me time, money, aggravation and gave me the confidence you need to take on the responsibility for caring for horses. I also arranged to help out at a stable in the middle of winter to see if I could get up every morning in the freezing cold to feed and water horses. The experience was a real eye opener and very helpful.

I researched the following areas in books, magazines (Horse Illustrated, Western Horseman), John Lyons tapes, government publications, this site, the web and anyone who would talk to me: (1) Clearing a pasture - landscaping, excavation, drainage (I had to eliminate a swamp and drainage ditch), grass planting (types of grass and planting techniques), poisonous trees, plants and weeds - I spent about $10,000, but I did alot of excavation; (2) Barn building - foundation, types of barns, location of barns, drainage around barns, stall types, material for stalls, lighting, ventilation, stall floors (I chose rubber mats), wash stall materials - I had a 8 stall 36 x 48 barn built (5 stalls for horses, tack room, wash room with plastic paneling and hay room - cement center aisle and cement floor for tack room, hay room and wash stall) for about about $32,000; (3) Well digging (I had to dig a new well for the barn) - location, depth, types of pumps - My cost was $3400; (4) Paddock & Arena - foundation, surface material - about $500; (5) Fencing - Type of posts, post installation (I rented a bobcat with post hole digger for $250 for two days); types of fencing - high tensile, high tensile encased in plastic, electric, flexible plastic, wood ( I chose five strands of high tensile encased in plastic and one electric wire encased in plastic for the pastures and flexible plastic for the arena - the material cost much more than I expected - about $5,000.00 to fence 3 acres and to put up 70 x 180 arena - so I did all the labor to save money); (6) Saddle racks, buckets, shelving, salt holders, cross ties, pallets for hay room, feed barrels, etc. cost about $300.00 (7) Feed - I buy 100 lbs of Tiz Whiz 12% per month for my 12 year old Morgan and 100 lbs of Tiz Whiz Senior per month for my 22 year old Arabian for about $40.00 per month; (8) Hay - I chose a Timothy/Orchard Grass mix, 200 bales at $2 per bale should last about 1 year, (9) Ferrier -For two horses about $600.00 per year, (10) Vet bills - for normal vaccinations and one minor problem per horse per year (upper respiratory infection, scratched cornea) - about $500 per year, (10) Trailers - trailer v. stock trailer, goose neck v. bumper pull - I settled for a transportation special bumper pull for $1200 that I will work on next summer.

Boarding was fine when I only wanted to ride a couple times a week. But now that I have heard them whinny when they hear me walking toward the barn and watched them raise their heads and come running when I call them from the pasture I wouldn't have them any where but in my back yard.

 

[cowboydoc]

Although I have no regrets, I probably could have boarded the horses for the next 15 years and have spent less than what it cost me to have them at home

Oh how true that statement is!!

 

[jims5acr]

I would like to add to the Don't use barb wire fencing. We bought 6 acr and it was all barb wire fenced. We had a plan to replace it but it was low on the list until the thoroughbred got his back leg through it one night. Not to gross anyone out but the resulting wound was 12" long and down to the bone on his back leg. I thought for sure that was the end of the horse but the vet said as long as it does not get infected he would be ok. Well 6 weeks later and alot of hours by me and my wife tending to it the horse is doing fine but the very next day we replaced all the barb wire fence with field fence and electric. A hard lesson to learn. Barb wire fence is cheap but for a horse it can be deadly.