It strikes me as one of those changes that might sound idyllic but is actually ... not.
The biggest problem of not Living with your Horse is that it's darn expensive. Feeding Canyon is pretty cheap, maybe $100 a month. Board, though, is $370 - $400, depending on if he's in an inside stall and pooping on shavings. Speaking of which, here's a nice article on horse expenses from First Horse.
(I just started on ACCO feeds. Canyon eats just 3 lb of grain a day. Easy keeper! No, they aren't giving me a dime. Darn shame, if you ask me.)
So adding another horse is another almost $400, not including shoes and vet care, where as at home it's another $100 a month (again, not including shoes and vet). Beyond food, the rest of our money would be going into land, an investment. One a little more stable (pun intended) than anything on Wall Street.
The other big problem is time. Our stables is a 20 minute drive from our home, so it's 40 minutes just in transit. I can't just go outside and ride, or even just bond. It's two hours just to visit, three if we're actually going to DO anything.
But it sure is a lot of work. This week I've been busy at home and haven't even been at the stables. That's fine, because there is someone there to take care of things. I don't shovel, feed, water or anything.
But what if there wasn't anyone else? What if it was just me? Could I keep up with it? It is just an hour out of a day? or is it much, much more?
I suspect we'd be working out of a run in shelter and pasture for a while, so maybe it wouldn't be too bad, no more than the lizard, three mice, two dogs and one cat we have now.
I must be insane.
But I think it might be worth it to walk outside and just sit in the pasture, just "be" with a horse.
It just might.
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