Oh, I agree that our system is totally f*cked. The world is ending. (Not being sarcastic.) Life is growing completely unsustainable environmentally, economically, and socially. I take great comfort in the fact that I do not, and will not, have children.
That said, I do take issue with the premise that my individual solution (which, really, finding individual solutions is the only thing you can do while waiting for our increasingly right wing and authoritarian society to do a 180 and finally legislate universal healthcare) is completely impossible or unsustainable, especially for people who find themselves on a luxury sport pet forum, with the corresponding greater degree of education, disposable income, and privilege.
The question asked, after all, was “How do people here afford their luxury sport pets”, not “how I can avoid homelessness when there aren’t enough hours in the week to earn the average rent in my city at my current rate of pay.” My “individual solutions” are a lot more accessible to COTHers who ask how to afford competition horses than they are to 90% of the rest of the world.
Do I have inherent advantages I didn’t earn? Absolutely- but guess what so does most everybody on this forum whether they want to admit it or not.
So how did I do this unsustainable, impossible thing?
Couple ways:
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When I got laid off from a fancy lawyer job after Lehman Brothers collapsed and knew I could no longer afford to keep my horses in the NY/NJ area, I sold my car, bought a truck and trailer, and moved to TX. Nobody was ever forced to remain in one of the most expensive markets in the country.
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I now live in Buffalo, where the cost of living is 1000x more sustainable than it would be in NY, CA, or Boston. It was a conscious decision based in no small part on the fact that “I could work at McDonalds and still afford my mortgage”. Again, no one was ever forced to stay in the most expensive places in the country.
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I managed my horses as investments. I bought my first rental property with the proceeds of selling a horse I made up from scratch. In fact I have purchased three different houses, including two that I have lived in, for less than I sold that horse for. Do most people in the country have “Make up a $$$ show hunter” as a viable skill set to draw on? Absolutely not! But guess what we’re on luxury sport pet internet here so what is stopping this audience?
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I bought doubles, lived in one unit and rented out the other, so my mortgage has been covered by tenants for years. Most people who are debating how to afford a competition horse can walk into a bank and qualify for an owner occupy mortgage. Buying a home in the first place poses significantly more of a hurdle for other people who aren’t, say, renting out their spare horse farm in Maine. That said, once you can afford to purchase A home, you can afford to purchase a double where a tenant pays a good chunk, if not all of your mortgage.
Many people who have amassed the ability to buy their first home decide at this point that they would rather have their privacy, and not undergo the hassle of being a landlord, more than they would like to have $10,000 - $35,000 extra dollars a year, depending on rents in your area, to blow on their sport pet. Ok, but at that point, that’s a decision a COTHer with more than average resources who can afford a home in the first place is making, not the systemic oppression that keeps so many people from being able to purchase a home at all.
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I rented out my second bedroom on AirBnb. Yep. So I bought a $143k house (in 2018, not the 50s -see again my contention that nobody was ever forced to live in San Francisco or NYC) with a mortgage payment incl taxes and insurance of $1,100, rented out the lower unit for $910, and then rented out the second bedroom in my unit for an additional $750-850 a month. That’s $11,000 a year for being willing to undergo the hassle of being a landlord and an additional $10,000 a year -in a rust belt city, in an apartment with two dogs, no TV, and no central air- just for being willing to have a rotating cast of roommates. If you have a 2 bedroom, guess what, you can do AirBnb. And, while affording a 2Br in a decent enough location and state of repair that you could AirBnb one of the rooms is getting increasingly out of reach for a majority of Americans, it’s much less out of reach for someone who is contemplating how to rearrange their finances to include campaigning a three day horse on the weekends. At that point, it’s more a question that if they have to pick between having a rotating cast of roommates to afford a ricockulous luxury, or foregoing the ricockulous luxury, they prefer to forgo the ricockulous luxury.
In my professional jobs as a real estate attorney and business management consultant, I advise regular people how to build wealth through real estate and building their businesses. I don’t tell them to just make up a fancy show hunter to sell because that’s not a realistic option for them. I am not, after all, advising them how to afford luxury sport pets on a luxury sport pet forum.
However, we’re on COTH here, where people routinely discuss $7,000 saddles or blowing $1,500 a weekend on aiming a flight animal at telephone poles. I could not possibly roll my eyes any harder when someone who is renting out their spare horsefarm in Maine starts soapboxing that my solutions are unsustainable for most people. No shit! But, news flash, I’m not exactly talking to most people, no matter how much “horse poor” luxury sport pet enthusiasts love to assume the mantle of the downtrodden because they just can’t afford a hunter that will be competitive at Wellington.
“Most people” are your Starbucks barista and the guy who vacuums your car at Delta Sonic. Are my solutions unsustainable for them, for reasons that are deeply systemically ingrained and which need to be addressed on a legislative and societal level? Absolutely.
But are my solutions unsustainable for people who have a spare horse farm, or who own three different saddles for their event horse, or who dropped $1000 on tall boots plus $500 on a helmet as their hobby outfit? Decidedly less so!
When you can’t afford rent, much less buy a home, because you make $13.50 an hour and rents in your city are $1600 a month for a 1BR, then you are systematically oppressed by a society that has lost its way.
But when you get to the point where you have a CHOICE to buy a single family home or a double, newsflash, you’re not oppressed, and you’re making a CHOICE, which may or may not affect your ability to additionally afford a luxury sport pet.
Let’s be real and recognize that people here in COTHland have a lot more CHOICES available to them than most people, and my solutions to luxury sport pet ownership are decidedly more in reach in this corner of the woods than they are for 99% of thr rest of the world.
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… and it has totally eaten into my available riding time, too.