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Last weekend Barn King and I ran into a lovely young couple bubbling with excitement because they were shopping for property
where they could keep horses. Neither knew much about horses nor did they know how to ride, but they were starting horseback
riding lessons the next day...
I got a kick out of their enthusiasm, answered questions and directed them to additional resources, but it should go without
saying that no one should attempt to keep horses on their own property unless they're experienced horse care givers and unless
they realize that the demands of horse-keeping are unrelenting.
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| Do you have equipment to handle deep snow? |
Horses have to be fed routinely,"come hell or high water." If they're stalled, the stalls must be cleaned and rebedded
and fresh water must be available at all times. Manure has to be managed -- nowadays in accordance with strict rules in many
areas. Fields and fencing have to be maintained and so do run-in sheds and the barn if you have one. There's a lot of hard
physical labor involved in keeping horses at home and it's a long-term commitment, considering that horses can live well into
their 30s.
WEATHER HAZARDS
In areas with frigid winters, horse-keeping means breaking up ice in water buckets and troughs no matter how cold and
miserable you are, unless you have heaters, wrestling 50-lb bags of frozen feed and hauling in plenty of hay. Conditions
can get really dicey if there's deep snow unless you have the equipment needed to plow, and especially if it rains ice
and you don't have a barn where horses can be stalled.
One winter, after we had two blizzards close together
that left a few feet of snow, there were horses in the area that were stalled for weeks because the property owners didn't
have the equipment needed to plow paths to and in their fields. We heard about one horse in the area that lived outside and
died because it got down to roll in the snow, couldn't get up and developed serious hypothermia before the owners could
get the help needed to rescue the horse.
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| You can't have just one horse... |
Horses can also get injured and or ill despite best efforts to provide a safe and healthy environment. Anyone keeping horses
at home should know what to do in case of injury or illness until the veterinarian arrives and they need to keep emergency
supplies on hand. In addition, there are some areas where emergency veterinary care for horses is sparse or nonexistent and
this needs to be factored into the equation.
Another point to consider is how horse care will be handled if you get sick or need to go away for a few days. Is there
someone reliable who can fill in or can you afford to hire someone to take over?
And oh! Don't forget that you can't have just one horse. Horses are herd animals and they aren't happy living
without another horse, or perhaps a goat or donkey.
Lastly, consider the hazards of riding and handling horses
alone on your own property. How will you get help if you get hurt?
Keeping horses at home can be a wonderful
and gratifying experience, but it requires thorough knowledge of what's entailed, lots of education, very careful planning
and lot and lots of preparation. It may -- or may not -- be less expensive than boarding a horse, but weigh all the pros
and cons -- think about it twice and thrice!
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