I'm one of the lucky ones, I've lived in the
country for most of my life, so have been able to keep my horses at my
house. I agree, there's no way I'd want to forego having a horse.
They've been a part of my life - forever.
My current costs are mostly for hay and
farrier. Vet bills are negligible unless one gets hurt, then it's
expensive.
Here's the breakdown, per month, for one
horse:
$ 60 Hay
$ 30 Farrier (averaged out over a
year)
$ 4 wormer
$ 26 feed, electrolyes, salt
So that's about $120 a month. I give
vaccinations myself, so I can save money there. Probably spent $35 on
vaccines per horse last year, for the total year, not per month.
I won't count the rest, the truck, the trailer, the
gasoline, the pasture, fencing, etc. Because I'd have most of that
expense anyway, since I really don't want to live "in town."
In the past 5 years, I've spent less than $1,500 on
vet bills, but that's on a lot of horses -- at one point I had 14 horses,
now I have 5. It's impossible to say how much I've spent on vet bills over
the years, it's been a lot. But it's not a constant, or usual,
expense. Thank goodness.
