➡I accidentally bought Balut eggs: 2 live ducks! Now a Chat Thread!

[ShrekDawg]

I may be off but i think my sister's horse costs about 300.00 a month just to keep. Any vet or farrier is on top of that

Oh wow that is expensive!!

I was estimating like $50-$100. I guess I was way off.

At the ranch there's a vet they all use and they say she gives her services at a reduced cost.

That’s good! I am somewhat afraid of that, like that if I keep them at home I won’t get a barn/group discounted rate ha

 

[littleprairieheartsfarm]

Keeping a horse costs about what an apartment does to rent each month.

Couldn’t have said it better myself

 

[littleprairieheartsfarm]

But I’m having trouble adding it up in my head haha cause I didn’t think feed and stuff cost that much but maybe there are a lot of other expenses I am missing. Probably the latter.

We feed our horses grain once a day in the evenings. The minis get a small portion just so they can get their supplements.

Grain is 17.99 a bag for our minis, we go through a bag about once a month but Sugar is eating a lot of it up now since she’s not keeping weight. 15.99 for the two full sized we go through a bag a week for them and 17.99 for the draft and that’s a bag every two weeks.

We feed alfalfa which is $23 for a 3-string bale, we use alfalfa since the horses were wasting the coastal/bermuda we were originally giving them. Mammoth (draft) eats 1 - 1 1/2 flake, the two full size eat 1/2 each, and Olly and Snoopy get 1/2 to share. They do fine on this and are on 9 acres of pasture 24/7.
Sugar gets free choice coastal/bermuda in a slow feed hay net, and one flake of alfalfa since she’s penned all day long.

The coastal/bermuda is also 3-string and cost $23 at the time of purchase about a month ago.

 

[NanaKat]

Witch Hazel and Pomme Tom were born about May 24. They are now about 10 weeks old and attached at the hip.
She has a cute spot under her chin and a white streak down her back. She is a cuddle bug and he is more independent.


Pomme Tom has a spot that looks like an apple on his side thus the Pomme in his name. Has to have some tabby in his genetics based on his face and tail color. Definitely some calico. He has spots all over including a dot at the top of his head.

 

[Sara L]

Went by TSC, somehow managed not to walk out with chicks or ducklings. They had Russian orloff pullets too.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Couldn’t have said it better myself

I had no idea they were quite so expensive.

We feed our horses grain once a day in the evenings. The minis get a small portion just so they can get their supplements.

Grain is 17.99 a bag for our minis, we go through a bag about once a month but Sugar is eating a lot of it up now since she’s not keeping weight. 15.99 for the two full sized we go through a bag a week for them and 17.99 for the draft and that’s a bag every two weeks.

We feed alfalfa which is $23 for a 3-string bale, we use alfalfa since the horses were wasting the coastal/bermuda we were originally giving them. Mammoth (draft) eats 1 - 1 1/2 flake, the two full size eat 1/2 each, and Olly and Snoopy get 1/2 to share. They do fine on this and are on 9 acres of pasture 24/7.
Sugar gets free choice coastal/bermuda in a slow feed hay net, and one flake of alfalfa since she’s penned all day long.

The coastal/bermuda is also 3-string and cost $23 at the time of purchase about a month ago.

Thanks for breaking it all down. That’s really helpful.

Although that said, my first reaction was that’s insanely expensive but then using my calculator to add it all up, it doesn’t sound too terrible haha or at least like if I take away all the other horses and just take the amount for the minis aha but even the draft doesn’t eat nearly as much as I thought a draft would haha although I guess that’s actually probably a ton of food for just one horse?

I’m guessing they eat a lot less being on all that pasture all day though? I don’t have nearly that much so I guess I’d have to feed a lot more hay? But I do have enough that they could probably get a decent amount or I could even maybe grow some of my own hay?

And oh wow $23 seems really high for a bale of hay!! Are 3 string bales bigger than the typical square bales?

I don’t even know if we even have 3 strings here. Haven’t really looked though.

But it seems mostly regular square bales or the big huge round ones.

And around here it’s almost all Timothy or Timothy/Orchard Grass/Clover mix or grass hay/mixes. Although I think alfalfa is available too.

And it’s really reasonable for bales, at least I think so haha

How much of a bale is a flake? Maybe I could just leave the whole bale out? Or would it go bad?

Also, just cause I’m curious, why is Sugar penned?

And I think maybe my numbers are skewed cause I’m used to buying expensive food for the dog when we had him and the cat.

 

[ShrekDawg]

View attachment 1872261

Witch Hazel and Pomme Tom were born about May 24. They are now about 10 weeks old and attached at the hip.
She has a cute spot under her chin and a white streak down her back. She is a cuddle bug and he is more independent.
View attachment 1872259 View attachment 1872263

Pomme Tom has a spot that looks like an apple on his side thus the Pomme in his name. Has to have some tabby in his genetics based on his face and tail color. Definitely some calico. He has spots all over including a dot at the top of his head.
View attachment 1872265 View attachment 1872264
View attachment 1872262

Awww they are sooo cute!!

Went by TSC, somehow managed not to walk out with chicks or ducklings. They had Russian orloff pullets too.
View attachment 1872285 View attachment 1872286 View attachment 1872287

Impressive!! Lol

 

[ShrekDawg]

Okay, thinking I might need to go to the doctor for this cough. I still have a cough even after all this time. Not nearly as often as before but definitely still there and definitely still annoying. It’s mostly dry though at least but it’s definitely still deep/wheezy too. Thinking I might ask about the carpal tunnel too while I’m there and kill two birds with one stone.

 

[littleprairieheartsfarm]

I had no idea they were quite so expensive.



Thanks for breaking it all down. That’s really helpful.

Although that said, my first reaction was that’s insanely expensive but then using my calculator to add it all up, it doesn’t sound too terrible haha or at least like if I take away all the other horses and just take the amount for the minis aha but even the draft doesn’t eat nearly as much as I thought a draft would haha although I guess that’s actually probably a ton of food for just one horse?

I’m guessing they eat a lot less being on all that pasture all day though? I don’t have nearly that much so I guess I’d have to feed a lot more hay? But I do have enough that they could probably get a decent amount or I could even maybe grow some of my own hay?

And oh wow $23 seems really high for a bale of hay!! Are 3 string bales bigger than the typical square bales?

I don’t even know if we even have 3 strings here. Haven’t really looked though.

But it seems mostly regular square bales or the big huge round ones.

And around here it’s almost all Timothy or Timothy/Orchard Grass/Clover mix or grass hay/mixes. Although I think alfalfa is available too.

And it’s really reasonable for bales, at least I think so haha

How much of a bale is a flake? Maybe I could just leave the whole bale out? Or would it go bad?

Also, just cause I’m curious, why is Sugar penned?

And I think maybe my numbers are skewed cause I’m used to buying expensive food for the dog when we had him and the cat.

We are extremely lucky that all of our horses (except Sugar currently but she’s even getting better and gaining back her weight) are easy keepers, especially Mammoth since drafts are notorious for not keeping weight and having to eat a lot.

3 string is a square bale, it’s the 110-120 lb bale versus the small 50lb 2 string. The “string” literally means how many strings are holding it together. A flake is one section of the bale, I’m not entirely sure how to describe it, pictures would be more helpful.

On your small acreage, you would probably have to supplement a lot of hay for full sized horses, and to be honest, 2.5 acres isn’t enough for full sizes. You could get away with minis, but they’ll still be pretty hard on your yard. Round bales can be helpful, but in all honesty they create mostly waste as the quality is significantly reduced in terms of nutrients.

Sugar is penned because she’s new and her collapsing trachea. We have to be very very very careful with integration because any kind of running/chasing around can cause her to get into a deadly coughing fit.

 

[ShrekDawg]

We are extremely lucky that all of our horses (except Sugar currently but she’s even getting better and gaining back her weight) are easy keepers, especially Mammoth since drafts are notorious for not keeping weight and having to eat a lot.

3 string is a square bale, it’s the 110-120 lb bale versus the small 50lb 2 string. The “string” literally means how many strings are holding it together. A flake is one section of the bale, I’m not entirely sure how to describe it, pictures would be more helpful.

On your small acreage, you would probably have to supplement a lot of hay for full sized horses, and to be honest, 2.5 acres isn’t enough for full sizes. You could get away with minis, but they’ll still be pretty hard on your yard. Round bales can be helpful, but in all honesty they create mostly waste as the quality is significantly reduced in terms of nutrients.

Sugar is penned because she’s new and her collapsing trachea. We have to be very very very careful with integration because any kind of running/chasing around can cause her to get into a deadly coughing fit.

Oh wow that sure does sound lucky! Seems it would be a lot more expensive if they weren’t?

And thanks, that makes sense. I don’t think we have those here. Never seen them. mostly real small square bales, 40-45 lbs, but some say 50 or 40-50. The small bales though. Think I may have seen some big ones some but haven’t looked much locally besides CL haha anyway, it’s all Timothy and orchard grass and/or clover mixes like I mentioned before and between like $5-7. Closer to $6 or $7 for first cut Timothy, $7 or $8 for second cut. And the occasional like $4 hay haha but usually it’s lower quality I think. But yeah, around $6-$7. This year it actually seems to be cheaper haha seeing lots of $5 and $6 bales for first cut. Maybe it’s a really good year for hay or something?

And for the flake thing, I guess I was more just wondering like how many you get out of a bale/how long a bale lasts rather than necessarily exactly how much a flake is if that makes sense?

Wow I didn’t realize they needed so much land!! I often see people keeping way more horses on way less land here. Maybe that’s not ideal? Do some people just have a pen for exercise and just feed hay? This is usually at big barns with lesson horses or whatever and stalled horses.

Maybe they’re not supposed to have that?

I thought I read a while ago it was an acre per horse? But then I read something else recently that said like 3 acres per horse? And seen lots of other numbers that were way higher or in between like some said 10 acres per horse!? So now I just don’t know. I did some reading a while ago but I don’t really remember it cause it was last year. I think it said it was highly dependent on how good the grass in your area is? Currently our front is a lot of weeds in certain parts but there’s also a lot of grass. And even though ours is weeds right now (it’s only weeds cause we dug all the grass up a couple years ago and never fixed it haha), around here it’s all really green/fertile/nutritious grass. Probably not quite as good as like New York or Kentucky but still good grass/soil. From what I’ve read, with good grass they need less room? Or no?

Do you think like two minis would be okay here?

I will get a picture or two of the yard tomorrow.

And of course this is all just hypothetical since I probably won’t get any horses but our property just seems like so much land for me that it’s hard to imagine it wouldn’t be enough for animals aha but I guess it depends on how good the grass is or what kind of animals or whatever. And I guess if I had sheep or goats and horses then it really wouldn’t be enough? Because more animals would be eating it?

Is that land thing if they’re gonna survive off it/try to eat reduce feed costs or is that even just for exercise needs?

Honestly didn’t think of the hard on he land bit either. Not sure my parents would want them tearing up the lawn and eating trees and everything! Haha and some of the pens I’ve seen have been like mud so I guess they really are destructive haha

Maybe sheep or goats would be better. although I think I’ve read that goats are just as if not more destructive haha

And thanks for the info on the round bales. That’s helpful. I wouldn’t have guessed that. It looks like the same hay to me?? At least the ones I’ve seen around here haha but maybe they put the best stuff in the little bales or something.

Ahhh okay. That makes sense. Poor girl. definitely sounds like it’s for the best though.