Yeah, that’s exactly my point. Ive learned a lot reading COTH threads over the years like which brand of $1000 custom boots are best, and about $1000 Samshield helmets and $8,000 French saddles. There was a thread recently about whether a good junior equitation horse was $100,000 and the conclusion was, that was low balling it.
Not my world, but I recognize it exists and if you want to jump 4 feet on a national or international level, the horses cost a lot.
My point was there is a jump from $500 grade pony and rubber boots, to $20,000 kids jumper and Ariats, to $100,000 plus equitation horse and custom Petries. And all points in between. Wherever you are, there is someone below you and above you in achievements and/or spending power.
I would think my family was middle class growing up. My mother was a teacher and then a principal , my dad started his own architecture firm and that was a struggle in the beginning and the recession. I also had 2 siblings who had hobbies and interests that cost money.
I took weekly lessons (worked for more when I could drive myself), local shows , and my parents bought me a horse for $2500 when I was 16 and could help with its care.
I never felt like jt wasnt enough, I knew some kids had more but I was lucky that I was truly grateful for what I had.
I got my first “made horse” last fall. He’s older, had an injury but did the big time Eventing stuff. He’s amazing but I’m also 33. I won’t be able to buy a horse that costs more than 4 figures ever but I’m ok with that. I’m not sure how but I guess my parents did a good job teaching me to be content. I’m happy just to have horses and do shows and work with what I’ve got !
I was the kid with working class parents, a $500 grade horse and second hand tack/show clothes.
I knew my horse wasn’t good enough for the big shows but he was good enough to win more than his share at the local/4-H/county Fair shows. And that was more than enough to make my horse crazy little girl dreams come true.
I showed in the low hunters once at the Evergreen Classic, which is an AA show, with a very beat up, second hand PDN that I bought for $300 and a $150 mustang.
My parents would have been upper middle class. They had a very successful business and made some very smart real estate moves. My dad tolerates the horse stuff, luckily for me my mom started to ride when I did.
We always shared a horse until I was in University and able to buy a nice yearling to bring along myself.
Growing up I showed at 5-10 B level shows and maybe one A show. My first coach was amazing for building a foundation, I still credit my leg and soft hands to her. My second coach had a breeding and training farm. I worked there in the summers and started exercising and catch riding his horses when I was 14.
As as adult I would be considered middle class. Unfortunately the cost of living -mostly housing - is outrageous around here. For a comparable house and property our mortgage is about $150,000 more than my sister who is an hour north. If we choose to have kids than I won’t be able to afford to show anymore, lessons would be a stretch too.
I’ll never be able to buy the nice made horse. But I can afford to buy a nice weanling or yearling and bring them along myself. My horse lives out 24/7 because it’s cheaper. Some things I buy used, others I buy on sale. I decide in the spring what my show goals are. 4-5 B level shows for miles or 2ish A shows to compare our progress against the imports, etc.
The post on facebook bothered me little. Not because of the post itself, but the people who were sharing it. Coaches with barns full of people like me, of course you see them, they’re your clients! Those people should be acknowledging the working class who can’t afford their own horse, etc.
Middle class = white collar, often single-income family.
Working class = blue collar, sometimes single-income, sometimes not.
Sometimes a working-class family can afford a horse if their income is high enough.
I’ve never known a middle-class, white-collar family that could afford a $20,000 horse. Maybe a $15,000 one, if they scrimp on many other things. But in a time when every kid in the family needs their own bedroom, own computer, own TV, own cell phone, etc., how does one of those kids get a $20,000 horse?
Your middle-class and working-class experience is very different from mine.
But then, my experience didn’t involve “Big Eq” (whatever that is). It involved Pre-Amoeba, Amoeba, Tadpole; Intro A, B, and C; and Training Levels.
Well, economic situations vary from place to place. Adjust my example in your mind to fit local costs. I was just trying to point out that you could spend a perhaps excessive amount of money on a kid’s horse (like $20,000) and still be priced out of the Big Eq.
By Big Eq I mean the Maclay regional and national competitions for “medals” in junior equitation over fences that seem to be the huge goal for well funded juniors. I only know about them from COTH but I don’t know how many threads I’ve read from hopeful beginner teens wanting to know how you can get there on a shoestring (answer is apparently: you can’t).
Way out of my experience too, but I find it interesting to read a variety of COTH posts and learn about other aspects of the horse world.
If $15,000 or even $10,000 is a more realistic price point for that example in your area, that doesn’t really change my argument.
Where I live, a two bedroom condo costs $500,000 so I have no idea how people make ends meet at all. I actually think most middle class families need two professional incomes.
I find it hysterical the trainers I know who charge fortunes are sharing this- with their own comments about "this is what it is about " type of things- really? Fees continue to grow and increase, horse prices are ludicrous and on a pessimistic view it reads like I see you struggling but still paying and paying - thanks because the more you little people pay it adds up to give us big people a play ground! LOL
For the greater most part at least in area of the horse industry that I have been involved there has been limited to little increases …1991 we paid for full board $450/mo… pretty much a common cost nearly thirty years later.
We paid $3,000 for a prospect two year old in 1991, daughter just bought a very similar prospect for…$3,000
Well starting with the fact I’ve been in California my entire life and everything is more expensive here, I always recall that my first horse, an appendix mare, cost $650. At the time (1970), an A-level Eq horse, almost always a TB, cost around $6,500. There was one at the public barn where I boarded, and we were all duly impressed with this VERY PRICEY horse (especially since the kid couldn’t ride it very well). My family was basically working class and no way could they afford a horse for me. I did lessons as a teen, and when I’d been working for a few years and worked out a budget, I bought that $650 horse. The next one, a full TB, cost $1,500. I once went hunting with her, as a guest, and at one point, we had to go through two gates through a very muddy farmyard. The MFH asked if anyone was wearing rubber boots. Guess who was? Yup. Me. So I got off and opened/held the gates while the upper classes with their leather boots rode through. ROFLOL
The state with the lowest median household income is West VA ($43K) while the highest is Maryland ($81K). A common definition of “middle class” is having a household income that is between 75% and 125% of the national median. Nationally, the median income in 2017 was $61K so U.S. middle class would be $46K - $76K. Middle class in Maryland would be $61K - $101K. Middle class in WVa would be $32K - $54K. (US Census Bureau 2017, not counting D.C.)
(Of course, “household” is a generalized term. Not hard to see how a two-parent family with three kids could have much less disposable income compared to a single person household, even if both “households” make the median income. Also, state-wide figures are more specialized than national figures, but there are often vast differences in both incomes and COL in different parts of a state. And finally, income is a pretty good but not complete way of measuring actual financial capacity.)
How much should a horse hobby cost? I think it’s justifiable to argue that a “middle class” kid (or adult) could very well be able to afford to do horses somehow, someway - whether that’s a $50 lesson once a week ($2600/yr) or maybe a $300-800/mo basic/DIY board situation ($3600-9600/yr). But if a local-level H/J trainer in the suburbs/exurbs of a major metro area barely breaks even on stall board charging $1000/mo, and it’s not hard to see how a “middle class” family making $76K can’t afford to spend more than 15% of their before-tax income on horses, the math gets harder.
In other news, an income of $701K puts a family in the 1% in Connecticut and an income of $255K puts a family in the 1% in New Mexico. (Economic Policy Institute)
Yes, these regional differences are very important to keep in mind.
When I lived in Tennessee 15 years ago, $40,000 was a very adequate salary (the state median was $35,000), it cost $10 to fill your gas tank in a compact car and a basic condo cost $20,000. You could get an equestrian estate type acreage for about $100,000. I wasn’t riding at the time, don’t know horse costs
I now live in Canada where it costs $60 to fill the tank on a similar compact, a condo is $500,000 and a three bedroom modest family house is $1.2 million.
Land and gas prices push up all the costs. An income of $40,000 would be working poor. And yet the median income in this city is $48,000.
I think there is a lot of black market and drug money undeclared and going into real estate, but that’s another story altogether.
OP started by this thread by posting regarding Kids/Children’s mounts. Warmbloods are sort of like Rolex watches there is always some one who has the money to drop on one but a Timex will give the same time as the Rolex .
No we have been in the high level of H/J or Dressage… really have no desire
but I don’t know how many threads I’ve read from hopeful beginner teens wanting to know how you can get there on a shoestring (answer is apparently: you can’t).