Should you buy a horse?
Posted by Bill on Oct 11 2006 at 10:29 am | Tagged as: General, Horse Ownership Costs
I’m going to try and talk you out of buying a horse. Stay with me…it’s not as bad as it sounds.
If you’re reading our horse blog, you probably fall into one of the category of either owning your own horse and commiserating with our newbie fumbling or you long to own your own horse someday. Horses aren’t casual recreation purchases for most people. Since there is so much involved in horse ownership, horse owners tend to be pretty fanatical. It’s not like buying an expensive toy, like an RC car or a motorbike. When you don’t want to play with it anymore, you can’t put it away for a few months until you get interested again. So if you REALLY love horses, there is probably nothing I could tell you to convince you that buying a horse isn’t a good idea. On the otherhand, if you’re a fence sitter or are thinking about buying a horse as a gift for someone, maybe this is time for some serious consideration.
Our First Horse should be a real eye opener for anyone who hasn’t owned a horse before. One of the things we write about the amount of time/work involved. Actually for one horse, it’s not bad. But you’re going to need to spend at least an hour a day just keeping your horse alive (cleaning a stall, feeding, watering, debugging, medical attention, hugs, etc.). If you want your horse to be more than decoration, you’ll need to occasionally ride it or it will rust (okay, it will get rusty). In my experience you can’t ignore a horse for a year and then slap a saddle on its back and go for a ride. You have to work the horse and keep it trained, at least with the minimums like giddy-up, whoa and “WHOA!!!”.
Then there is the ongoing expense. If you do the work yourself, it’s not too bad, unless your horse needs medical attention. You’ve probably seen our horse expense list. We spend about $40-$50 a month per horse but one month recently our expenses went up to $173 for one of our horses! Make sure you have some cash tucked away for those months. And keep in mind we have our own barn and pasture. If you don’t live on property that includes these basic horse accommodations, you’ll either need to either put in horse fencing and plant good pasture grass (if you have the room and are zoned for horses) or board your horse somewhere, which will add significantly to horse ownership expenses.
There are scheduling issues. Although some people leave their horses out in pasture for days at a time or longer, we bring our horses in daily for some supplemental nutrition via oats and alfalfa pellets and provide fresh water daily. Fresh water is most important and since we don’t own an automatic waterer, we simply must check and refill water containers daily. This means we sometimes do horse work at midnight or later if we go out to see a movie or take a day trip. Anything longer than a day trip means we have to ask someone to mind our horses for us. If you have dogs, you’re probably familiar with this routine. Only you can’t load your horse into the family SUV and take him to a vacation kennel.
Having said all that, I don’t regret for a minute owning a horse, or in our case now, owning horses. However I do have some pre-purchase suggestions to help make sure buying a horse is the right thing for you:
- My best suggestion is to volunteer at a horse barn. Seriously, once you assure the barn owner that you’re not crazy, volunteer to help out daily for a few weeks or a month. Clean out stalls, feed horses, brush them, help with some basic training, but do it every day so you can see how it impacts your schedule. In addition to determining if this hobby is right for you, you’ll also learn valuable lessons on what to do and not to do. You might also make some valuable contacts and learn who to buy from, what are good prices in your area, etc. In fact, some of the best horse deals come from people who haven’t publicized that their horse is for sale.
- If you’re not wealthy enough to have an attendant for your horse, volunteer at a veterinary facility or stable where horses are rehabilitated. Your horse might become injured at some point, requiring you to provide rehabilitation services for many months before you can ride it again. Do you have the time, money and patience for this?
- Visit your local horse supply stores, such as the feed store, tack shop or farm co-op. Read the bulletin board postings, chat with the employees. You’ll likely walk away with some great information and you’ll need to know these people anyway if you decide to buy a horse.
- Consider taking a weekend or longer to volunteer at a horse rescue (we have some listed on our Links page). There are people out there with a passion for rescuing horses from destruction or food slaughter. The horses they work with are often great for casual recreation and are sometimes registered, former race horses or trail horses. Some are rescued from abuse or neglect. Help out a worthwhile charity, learn about horses and maybe fall in love with a horse.
I probably didn’t talk you out of buying a horse but hopefully you got some suggestions to help you make a rational decision. Although I don’t recommend it, you could just ignore our advice and go in blind for your own newbie horse ownership adventure. That’s what we did 
.
I would add..
5. Lease a horse for a year. It allows you to take on many of the responsibilities of horse ownership without the financial risk of actually buying a horse. If you still want to buy a horse after a year of leasing…you probably are ready to do so.
Good idea COD. As long as you have an option to buy. I’d hate to get attached to a horse and not be able to keep him/her. But as far as evaluating horse ownership, leasing one is a great idea.
[…] Posted by Bill on Dec 20 2006 at 04:51 pm | Tagged as: Horse Lifestyle A few posts ago (Should you buy a horse?), I recommended leasing a horse as a great way to figure out whether or not you should buy one. I still think horse leasing is a great idea but today I read about a downside that needs to be considered. Mona over at Horse Approved passed on the story of a 14 year old girl named Sarah in North Carolina who is trying to find an old friend. Her parents leased a mare named Colorful Clue for her as a Christmas present a few years ago, intending to purchase the horse if Sarah proved she would be responsible for it. Unfortunately, the actual owner of the horse fell ill with cancer and wanted the sell it for more than Sarah’s parents were able to pay. Eventually Colorful Clue went to auction and Sarah’s parents lost the opportunity to purchase her by only $50. Now, two years later, Sarah is trying to track down Colorful Clue. She says her budget is higher now but even if she couldn’t purchase the horse, she’d at least like to know how she’s doing. […]
I can’t figure out how to get on the blog, but here is a comment on horse purchases. Our barn owner has a pretty good rule for purchasing a horse for kids–it’s the “Rule of 20″. She takes the child’s age, then determines how old the horse should be by subtracting the child’s age from ‘20′. So if you have a 10 year old child, then the horse should be not less than 10 years of age; a 14 year old child could go as low as a 6 year old horse. Makes sense to me, although we bought our 12 year old daughter an eleven year old horse, just to be on the conservative side.
Jeannette
I think if you own a horse right now and you have the money to own it you should be thankful and just love your horse because there are other people out there who really want a horse but cant have one beacause they cant afford one and there whole life is spent loving horses, wanting one but they dont have the money to do it. I feel really bad for those people.
We went a similar route except we signed our daughters up for lessons with a local instructor. She happened to have a horse for sale that matches or desires and family perfectly. We are boarding him with her while we all learn horse basics from her. It’s a great set up and gave up experience before spending all that money.
I really want a horse, i’m 12 years old and there is a six year old horse which i have tried, she is lovley, evreyone is warning me not to because she’s too young, but she’s ever so sensible, and i have been a horse person since I was 3.
WHAT SHOULD I DO!
Just took a look at your ‘horse expense’ list. Just wondering where on earth you live? Only $1 per bale for hay? Hay is 15 to 20 dollars per bale here in California. Granted, the bales are very heavy 3-wire (85 to 120 lbs, depending on variety of hay).
I think your blog of expenses might be very misleading to a ‘newby’ horse owner. I would say that one would need at least $100 per month boarding at home for feed, shoes, ordinary vet bills, worming. And perhaps another $200 per month set aside in a special savings account for incidentals, such as emergency vet bills. Consider colic surgery (a real possibility). It can cost from $5,000 to $12,000!
Thanks for reading
Joy, great comment and you’re absolutely right about $1 a bale being a very low price. We got lucky and met some horse friends who have hay fields and in a normal year for rain, good horse hay is in abundance here. Our bales are 35 to 50 pounds, generally, so they’re smaller than yours, too. Since we wrote this (wow over three years ago!) the average price is $2 a bale, which is still an awesome deal considering feed stores sell similar bales for $5-$8.
Yes, prospective new horse owners - read Joy’s note and review average expenses for your area before deciding.
I’m with you Jo! I’m the same age as you(12) but i want a gelding who has DZ Weedo bloodlines! My dad won’t let me, and I don’t think it’s fair at all. I do work at a horse stable and I think that it’s fun. To me it keeps excitment in my life well anyway good luck to you! I haven’t given up yet and I don’t think that I will!!=)
I don’t think this is being fair at all to people that don’t own horses. You seem to be assuming that anybody who doesn’t own a horse, knows nothing about horses, and the article seems to only be about self board horses. I’m 15 years old and I’ve been riding horses for 7 years. I’m an eventer, and I ride up to and sometimes over 4 times a week and i work at my stable many times a week as well. I have trained, and taken lessons, and I’m ready for a horse.. even my trainer says so. The only reason I don’t have one is because my mother is too scared about prices even though we though we have done all the expenses many times and found that it didn’t even cost 50 dollars more than the price we already payed, though a car will be payed off next year and then my mom says we can start horse searching. Some people cant aford to and some people just have parents that wont allow them. But to a newbie I would just recomend signing them up for lessons with a trainer until your sure you want to ride horses and your trainer thinks its time. Have your trainer help you find the horse for you, she’ll suggest lots of horses, she’ll deny lots of horses, and there will be some that she aproves. Then work out the cost with boarding with your trainers barn and other barns and find the best for you and your horse. Always do this before you buy the horse though because you dont want to end up having a horse with nowhere to go. Most boarding barns provide vet, farrier, care, feeding, watering, stall, and pasture for your horse and you can come and take care of them whenever you can. Also, dont forget tack. Some stable have saddle and girths that you can use but its alway smart to get your own and have your trainer make sure they properly fit. Buy a bridle and a suitable bit for your horse. With the bit it will probablly take alot of trying around because some will be too strong or easy, or your horse will just not like it at all. You’ll need saddle pads, some times technical saddle fitting pads like half pads that cost over 100 dollars if your buying a good one, and consider that your horse may need a martingale or breastplate, or spurs and a crop, and safety boots for thier legs is always a good idea though alot of rider out there dont use them. dont forget halters, fly sheets and masks, shipping supplies, and grooming tools. You’ll also need clothes and gear for yourself, like breeches, boots, gloves, chaps, and a good helmet. You’ll need even more if you plan to show. tall boots, show shirts, show helmet, show jacket, show pads, and more. you may even need multiple saddles, bridles, girths, and bits. And it all depends on your disipline for what you get. The sport is very expensive but with the best deals many people find it not too bad on thier wallets and totally worth it. These people all come from multiple children families and thier parents arnt doctors or lawyers and they dont have high paying jobs.
Also I dont techincally agree with the idea that newbies should never start off with buying a horse, though it can be unsmart and unsafe. I know people who bought a horse right into the begining of their horse career and are awsome horse and rider teams and are absolutly amazing horsewomen and they havent lost intrest.
* By refering to trainer as a she i mean no offence, only reason I did that is because my trainer is a woman. And saying horsewomen is only because I know no horsemen