Re: horses and economics

["S. Brown" <sbrown@wamedes.com>]

Wendy said:
>Those people realized that $6000. for a good, solid, safe, sound trail
horse (or for 
whatever use they intended) was cheap. Basically a good investment on their
part. It cost us a minimum of $6000. just to raise those horses to age 4.
Between 4 and 6 it had professional dressage training, and miles of trail
experience. We wormed, handled, trimmed or shod, and cared for them for 5-6
years.

We've helped several people find suitable horses over the last 15 years and
we've purchased and bred several for ourselves.  We tell people the same
thing every time:  You are going to pay for it about the same either way.
(And this is comparing like horses, like situations.)  If you choose to buy
a young, green, untrained prospect, it will be a while before they're
ready...during that time you feed, worm, etc. while it's being trained,
thus coming into balance the amount you would pay if they already were old
enough and had some start in saddle work.  The greener the riders, the more
we suggest that they come up with the money up front and get the older,
trained horse...knowing full well how frustrated green riders can get with
green horses since it doesn't fit their image of a "horse of my own" and
they often don't understand the actual length of time it takes to get to
the "experienced" horse level or the importance of not pushing young, green
horses too fast...and they don't have the experience actually training a
green horse, necessitating a professional trainer.  

The most recent horse we found was one of Cynthia P-S's for a 13yo student
who could handle an energetic gelding but doesn't have enough experience
yet to ride a totally green, barely saddle-broke horse -- we needed one
that had already done a bit of endurance and proven himself to be a
relatively safe mount for a kid.  The parents understood the concept and
were willing to accept the prospect of spending a bit more for a more
experienced "first horse".  Catherine is now spending the winter teaching
him dressage, which, she has discovered, is "a lot harder than learning
this stuff on a horse that's already trained!"  (Out of the mouth's of
babes. ;-))  She will be more than ready to take him into the hills when
the weather improves a bit.  We were going to go out today but it was only
24F this morning...brrrr.  (I know that isn't cold to some of you, but
we're weather wimps here...and I'm a born and raised Minnesotan! <g>  The
PNW will do that to you. ;-))

Sue





sbrown@wamedes.com
Tyee Farm
Marysville, Wa.