Horse owner feedback please

[Chickerdoodle13]

The best advice I can give to anyone is not to put the horses in every night. I've seen several times how good horses are ruined by "Babying" them too much. I'm not saying you would do that, but horses do very well in a natural environment. We RARELY put ours in and when we do it is only during nasty weather, bad rainy, or bad wind. They have trees and a run in shed outside for the small stuff. Since we leave them out, it eliminates cleaning of the stalls for the most part and we never have to blanket our guys.

Even though our horses will go in the barn, they don't really like it and would rather be outside any day. My friend had a horse who was put in all the time and it got to the point where it was skittish to everything. It was never fun to ride him! He also ALWAYS wanted to be inside and had a poor coat and needed to be blanketed in the winter, and even on cool summer days for that matter.

In the wild, horses live on plains where they have very little protection. What we give them is heaven compared to what they would have if they were wild.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
If you are thinking of boarding other peoples' horses, then that is a whole 'nother thing.

a) you will need insurance. No, really, you will. First, because you do not want to be doing 'stealth' boarding with just plain ol' homeowners, as they can cancel your policy if they find out and you may have a heckuva time getting coverage from anyone else; and second, because if someone's horse gets hurt, or worse yet one of your boarders (the people that is) get hurt, you can end up losing pretty much every penny you own if you do not have liability and care-and-custody insurance.

b) you will probably not be able to get away with just a run-in shed, you will need stalls and chances are you will need to keep the horses *in* the stalls fairly frequently (unless you find a very unusual boarder), which is more work and expense (stall cleaning, turnout/bring-in time, summertime hay, and also buying bedding and disposing of manure).

and most of all, c) your chance of running into a somewhat difficult boarder are Not Small. Boarders can make all sorts of headaches, including but not limited to: nonpayment of board, stealing everything that's not nailed down, showing up at 1 a.m. and knocking on your door to borrow a leadrope, making repeated timeconsuming petty demands, and badmouthing you all over the county even if you didn't do anything wrong. There are of course GOOD boarders in the world, but honestly the ones that gravitate to very small backyard operations are somewhat more-than-average biased towards the pennypinching checkbouncing oddballs who have extensive trouble getting along with people. You may have to go thru a certain number of headache boarders to find one you really get along well with.

Honestly, most people do not find it cost- or energy-effective to just board one or two horses. And on five or ten acres, you're not going to have room for more than that unless you want to step into a whole 'nother level of capital improvements and daily chore time.

Not telling you what to do, just a word to the wise

If you want company for your own horse, there are generally rescues looking for people to take in older or otherwise 'homeless' horses, though.

Oh, btw, another cost of having your horses at home is the cost of care while you're out of town. Chances are you will have to pay someone to horse-sit. I do not know what W NY rates are (I only boarded while I was in the area), but around here it ranges from $10-40 per visit, and to get a really GOOD horse-sitter you have to be either incredibly lucky or pay towards the upper end of that range. It adds up real fast and makes vacations rather more expensive

Good luck,

Pat

 

[helmstead]

Around here, we average $150 a month for feed and hay per horse.

Each horse averages a bag of feed a week and a half a small square bale of hay a day. Our horses are easy keepers, though. Many horses need more like one full bale of hay per day...but I've found the one 50 lb bag of grain per week is average across the board.

You can expect to spend about $30k on a barn.

 

[CarriBrown]

Quote:
I pay close to $18.

I say bring them home. If you are able to cover the initial cost of putting up pipe corrals, etc. it will be cheaper in the long run.
I have two horses, both QH, and both pretty big, so they go through a good amount of feed. I'm lucky because they do just fine on alfalfa and neither need shoes. So, I pay $80 every 6 weeks for trims, $200 a month for feed, and $50 a month for the manure cans (yep... what a rip off). I don't buy shavings (never have) and both of them are easy keepers and don't need supplements, etc. They get their 5 way shots, too, but the cost varies, depending on if I call the vet out or take them in.
I found the biggest expense is the initial set up... the corrals, arena, bull pen, wash racks, tack rooms, whatever else you're putting up.
I have two covered 12x24s, along with a 40x60 and that whole set up was $6k. Granted, I bought the very durable pipe corrals because once you buy them, you'll never have to spend that money again. Also included in the 6k- watering system, feeders, gates, and installation. Add more onto that for good footing.

 

[Jillylam]

I was totally stunned reading what you guys are paying for hay. $11, $13, $18? I thought $5 was a lot. Why are prices so high? I just assumed hay was made locally everywhere. I feel very dumb right now.

 

[Moonwalker]

2 years ago we were paying $10-$15 for an 1100lbs round bale. This year we have been paying $87 and had to ship that in from LA!
In answer to Jilly's question, the reason hay is so dear is either drought (our case) or too much rain at the wrong time (TX)
As for barns, sheds and such, there are really nice shelters available along the lines of the "Garage In A Box" you can find at Tractor Supply or Lowe's. Those aren't suitable for any but the smaller horses becasue the cross braces are a bit low, but they can either be used a s a run in shed or you can use fence panels to make stalls or even buy prefab stall units.
If horses are kept outside year round, they will grow an nice fur coat in the winter. Ours come in with snow on top of them in the morning! The hair coat insulates so well, the body heat doesn't even escape enough to melt it. They have a 3- 1/2 sided shed to go in when they want but usually just go down into a low area out of the wind.
Many horses will stand and doze out in the heat of the day as well. BUT they DO need a place they CAN go if they want to for shade, as well as having free access to clean water year round.

 

[allenacres]

We brought our two horses home from boarding when hubby and I bought our 13 acre place. It had a 30x40 building for hay and tack storage but didnt want the horses in there because its a metal building with an asphalt floor.
We already had perimeter no climb fence and I added hot wire to the top.
With the help of my father in law, we built a 12x36 3 sided run in, which makes 3-12x12 run in stalls. Im going to say the total cost of materials was between 400.00-600.00. Much cheaper than the pipe panel stalls at the feed store that run 1200.00 each, without the siding and the roofing. Our labor was free. These prices are from a year ago, so I know they have gone up some.

For fencing as I do keep some of my horses separate, I use portable electric fencing. This way you can also save your pastures by making sacrifice pastures. And if you want to change sizes its easy, and this is something you can put in yourself so your only paying for materials.

I dont use bedding at all. We put down 5/8" minus crushed gravel, about a 6" base and then put stall mats on top of that. Horses do not need a big bed of shavings, they just need a shelter to get out of the weather, most of the time they will stand outside a shelter because they are fight or flight animals that are preyed upon and they can not see "prey" if they are inside a shelter. Mine do go in when its raining however, probably because we built the roof pretty high so it feels really open. They also go in in the summer, to escape the flies. You will need to clean your own stalls once a day, but its more fun that going to the gym.

As far as hay, yes you will need to stock up and shop around for prices. To help offset the cost of hay I feed beet pulp. By having your horses at home you will soon learn the good sources of quality hay.

Farrier would be the same whether you are at a boarding barn or at home, same for vet fees. Only thing is at a boarding barn you can usually split the farm call. I give our horses their shots so I rarely use a vet. And all our horses are barefoot, I learned how to do this but not everyone wants to learn that.

For riding, we are blessed with the ability to ride on trails from our home. I also leveled a spot for a round pen and put in a load of sand. I can use it almost year round as I made a slight slope to the spot I leveled.

And the fact that I can see my horses out my window, I know they are not locked up in a stall all day, they are out 24/7, I can pet or ride them any time I wan know they get fed what they are suppose to get fed..peace of mind for me.

The only major downfall, is getting someone to feed them when you want to go on vacation.

We started with 2 horses, we now have 4 and another coming on board soon. But Im a riding instructor and train horses, so some of these horses also earn their keep. (One is draft rescue)

 

[Equest94]

Hey, I'm from Western, NY too (Niagara county)!

Where abouts are you? I board my mare for $250 a month, includes stall cleaning, blanketing, feed/hay/water, and turn out. They have trails, an outdoor, and an indoor. The people are wonderful and the horse's are all very well taken care of.


Believe it or not...it's a top Western Pleasure show/training barn as well...

 

[miss_thenorth]

I have abolutely no right to complain! (and I did) We bought 16 flake bales for about $5 a bale. that was a $2 jump from the year before.

I might re-evaluateputting the horses in at night next winter, if we get other shelters built. Right now, all we have is the barn, andmy chickens are in there,--so door gets closed.

 

[Nupine]

We have 3 horses, 1 we need to sell, and we need another. Our horses have about 10 acres of different pastures, a big wood barn which we will be turning into a pigeon barn. For their shelter we have a carport for two large cars. Our older horse has a stall and a small run. I think it is best for you to continue to board your horses. When we boarded our older horse at a large stable 2 years ago, it was a ton of fun. They had a 60x420 indoor areana to ride in! It was expensive, but we really enjoyed it. But for some reason, you don't enjoy your horses near as much when you have them at your house. I would recommend to have them boarded in the winter and home in the summer. That way you can save money and ride year round. Plus you don't have to go out early on freezing early mornings! Cost of horses at home-A round bale for the two horses every two weeks-$30 1/3 bale of alfalfa hay a day for older small arabian $4 per bale. 50# of grain every 4 days-$7. Hope this helps!
Ashlyn