Horse farms

Our place is funded by the salaries of the 2 owners, who are family members + boarders and lessons. When money is tight and you have all those darned horses to deal with, I can remember the stress from being low on hay, bedding, etc. and the never ending distractions from unreliable help who would no sooner turn on you and report you for abuse just to be jerks. Glad to be away from it, and the fact that they have gotten rid of most of the horses, downsized to something managable at least. There are things you can do like compost that can supplement an operation with horses and at the right size, you should be able to pay something respectable for help, but people don't want to work, we have a decent person there now, with much less going on, I'll say it again, glad I'm not involved in it for the most part, probably so much easier now without a full house.

Hard to understand the people that let em starve, at our place they have always been fed before we are ! Their well being is always #1, even when times were tough, you just can't let that happen, stalls have to be clean, they need exercise and good feed, clean filled water buckets etc., can't lose sight of that ever, and if the funds won't support what you have and you have too many, you have a big problem headed your way at full speed, you have to know this before getting involved, it's common sense actually.

As for the abused horses- I wonder why it's always dogs and horses that get starved? Every town seems to have 1 or 2 starved dog/horse stories every few months.

'course, all those small horse operations could get sold and turned into suburban subdivisions- I guess that would make ya happy

Hate may be a strong word, but there is a certain amount of disdain directed toward horse people. Some of that stems from jealousy as the horse owner has disposable income that they use to support their horses that most "farmers" see as a waste of resources. That 10 or 20 acre "hobby farm" could be used to produce crops. The same horse people that move to the country are the first to compalin about noise, dust, traffic from farm machinery, restrictive zoning, being expected to provide adequate fencing and security for their animals and the odors from hogs, cattle and sheep.

The ag community is full of stories about horse people that abused private property rights by riding on posted ground, didn't pay for hay, thought that they should pay less than market rates or were abusive when told what it would cost to board their horse or weren't allowed "free" pasture access.

Lately the stories of starving horses are truely appalling, Horses abandoned in the Shawnee National Forest or just plain abandoned.

I don't know the answers or have any solutions, but it should be required of prospective horse owners what the costs of feed, boarding, veterinary care, shoeing and general costs are. I know I have had several people decide not to buy a horse when they figured out what the costs were.

Where we are 2 hours south of Chicago a new cottage industry has been developed to board, train and transport race horses. It's cheaper than trying to keep them at the track.

Where the heck is "around here"?, "around the area I live in"?, and "around this area"?

~Will