okay... how expensive is a horse really?? Monthly food.. farrier vet??

[Fancie]

when and if I get one I plan on having 6 months to a years worth of $ saved up for emergancy... I am not looking at getting one anytime soon... just curious more or less.

You all have been very helpful.

 

[Chicks_N_Horses]

I have raised (and am currently raising), owned, and I train horses. I would like to think I have a good bit of knowledge by now...

You can keep horses for reasonable prices.

I can feed 2 horses for $75.00/month and that is very good feed they are on. Organic. Includes their hay. One problem is you run into problems with hay. That is why I like to stock pile it up. I ran low and sent the DH out looking yesterday...everyones hay is molded and not fit for horses right now due to the constant raining.

I do my own horses feet. You can get a farrier to teach this to you and you can do it just fine on your own. A farrier around here is 25$ a horse and mine are done every 3 months, by me though. We only shoe one horse and it is not all that expensive. Maybe 500/year and she is a reiner so she gets sliding plates and the works. Regular shoeing (which i recommend barefoot if at all possible) can be done at reasonable prices too.

They need maybe $100/year worth of wormers/shots/meds

Then you need some tack which you can get at really reasonable prices.

This is just simple horse keeping. If you have to board that is where you will find a huge expense. I would suggest buying your own peice of land for the same price you could make boarding payments...If you don't already have the space to put them.

If you wanted to compete or do shows that is where more money is generally put into horses. The gas to get there, the hotels, the stall fees, the fancy tack, the entry fees, the food...stuff like that is where I find a big cost...plus I am a tack a holic and buy everything I think I need...which can be hard to resist LOL

Horses are a rewarding and enjoyable thing to have as a hobby or make a living at.

 

[lorieMN]

another tip on doing you own horses hooves..we do ours once a month,takes about 5 minutes and to run over them with a rasp and trim out some sole if needed and they are done..if you do them every 3-5 weeks,most times you wont even need to nip them..but I do recommend a barefoot trimmer to train you,its pretty easy to lame a horse by taking off even as little as 1/16th to much

 

[dun chick]

I have 5 horses, two mares, stallion and two babies born earlier this year. Things can add up, vet at least 2x year for shots, coggins yearly. Farrier used to run me about 40/horse for trimming, I only shoe in the summer for showing and trail riding. I own my own farm but we continue upgrade so wonder sometimes if boarding would be cheaper, but nothing like having your babies meet you at the gate in the morning/evening. I now trim my own horses feet, have a girlfriend who has been a farrier for 20 years and she taught me how to trim, I leave shoeing to her. We feed a low carb feed, which is ten bucks a bag. I buy three bags a week/ hay about every two weeks. A bale is 3.00 each, I feed around 3 bales per day and pleanty of turn out in the pasture which we upgrade every other year. Basically figure 1/2 bale to 3/4 bale per horse per day depending whether it's summer or winter.

 

[gaited horse]

here is how we save money we do your own shots, your horses are barefoot, buy used tack.