Spin off- Frugal Horse Tips?

[Foxglove]

Buy a frugal horse. Three of mine are “ranch bred/raised” West of the Mississippi. They need no blankets or shoes. When we showed in halter, we did blanket in the summer to prevent bleaching of the coat. The horses are out 24/7 and only come in to eat. My stalls are clay floor, with sand on top. 6 Tons of sand lasts about two years and costs $100 or so plus the $ to have two teenagers shovel it into the stalls.

I have “cheap” horse hobbies these days —fox hunting (we are the cheapest subscription in the US --maybe the world due to club’s age and many endowments over the past century. And in the summer I do Mounted Archery. A bow, a few arrows, and my horse. Entry fees are about 1/4 what we paid for 3-Day eventing.

Good topic.

[Heinz_57]

@ParadoxFarm

And when they are allowed, there can be a fairly hefty haul-in fee.

Even the state & county fairgrounds, which are pretty non-fancy places to host a show, has gone to a no haul in policy. It was only a matter of time, I’m sure they got tired of having to pay to clean the parking area after inconsiderate people leave poop and garbage all over.

”‹”‹”‹

[TheHunterKid90]

I don’t blanket anything that isn’t a show horse that I want a tight coat on…no blanket purchase and no blanket repairs when they tear them off each other. They all have sufficient shelter and grow coats.

Everyone is barefoot unless necessary. I remember when I was a kid it was just the status quo to shoe everything. I don’t get caught up in the barefoot trend but I don’t shoe just because.

Buy the large bottles that have ten doses of 5 way vaccine and rabies and vaccinate my own.

Hay that is fed outside is off the ground in a sled type hay feeder. Allows for very little waste.

Horses inside don’t get the luxury of wasting their hay…if they want to drag it out of their feeders and drag it around their stall, they can eat it for breakfast too. 🤣

My vet is the bomb and stops by twice a month to check in (on the house) he is able to pin point things that might start to become an issue and I can treat myself instead of waiting til an actual injury occurs.

Don’t get caught up in the supplement rage. I’ve had customers end up paying the cost of board half over again because they were convinced their horses needed a dozen different supplements.

Shavings bought in bulk from a mill. Some loads are finer and some are more flake but in comparison to buying bagged, its worth it.

[Heinz_57]

@beowulf

Lucky! It must be regional… I can’t remember the last time I saw meat for under $1.00/lb that wasn’t something incredibly unpalatable (like chicken gizzards).

I’m a bargain shopper when it comes to meat and buy what’s on sale at the butcher’s section. It means I get a lot of weird cuts for the freezer… but not any that have been $1.00 or less. Even the most basic chicken breast (non-humane/not cafe-free)is ~$2.10/lb minimum here.

But… I also try to buy the meat that I know has been humanely sourced… which… can jack up the price.

I get the no waste thing. I’ve tried recycling my tea pouches but I don’t think the flavor is the same. I love the Morrocan Mint at Trader Joes - it’s gotten me through many a boring afternoon at the office - but can’t get the same flavor out of an already used packet.

We are lucky to have a non-national chain store in our small town, I think that has a lot to do with it. I couldn’t go to a Safeway or Fred Meyer/Kroger and get $1/lb chicken, for sure. I just try to buy extra when I find meat on sale, nobody wants to pay $6/lb for ground beef! :lol:

I would love to buy more local meat (would raise our own, if we had more land!). Like the half a steer our neighbor offered us a few months ago… Unfortunately we didn’t have the freezer space, but even that was $3/lb hanging weight, plus butcher fees.

[2DogsFarm]

@TheHunterKid90

Buy the large bottles that have ten doses of 5 way vaccine and rabies and vaccinate my own.

My vet is the bomb and stops by twice a month to check in (on the house) he is able to pin point things that might start to become an issue and I can treat myself instead of waiting til an actual injury occurs.

Agree to give your own vax, but here (IN) rabies can only be given by a vet, who then sends proof of administering to the state & you get a rabies tag (like those for dogs or cats).

:eek: I want your vet.
I’m assuming since you mentioned “customers” that you provide a large steady clientele to said vet.
For owners with small herds (like my 3) I can’t imagine my very busy vet being able to provide, nor would I expect, bi-weekly farm calls gratis.
She does do phone/text consults at no charge, that serve the same purpose of heading off unnecessary farm visits.

[SinMiedo]

Learn as much leather work as you can! It’s amazing how much high quality tack gets sold on eBay/consignments for next to nothing that needs nothing more than a few stitches or strategic repair. I’ve gotten boots with tags marked down to less than $100 because of a few loose stitches that could be fixed in 15 minutes and lots more things I couldn’t otherwise afford. Investing in an awl, some thread, decent hand needles, and lots of reading/tutorial watching has saved me an astounding amount of $$

[asb_own_me]

@endlessclimb

That reddit post…

So you’re saving your behind off, living super frugally.

Then you die.

Hearses don’t have trailer hitches, lady. Can’t bring it with you. Don’t be a psycho. (“I’m an attractive person” sure but you also sound like a miserable old lady. eesh)

Right? That’s what I was thinking. No point in being the richest b*tch in the cemetery.

[endlessclimb]

@2DogsFarm

Agree to give your own vax, but here (IN) rabies can only be given by a vet, who then sends proof of administering to the state & you get a rabies tag (like those for dogs or cats).

:eek: I want your vet.
I’m assuming since you mentioned “customers” that you provide a large steady clientele to said vet.
For owners with small herds (like my 3) I can’t imagine my very busy vet being able to provide, nor would I expect, bi-weekly farm calls gratis.
She does do phone/text consults at no charge, that serve the same purpose of heading off unnecessary farm visits.

I have never ever ever gotten a rabies tag for my horse in Indiana.

[x-halt-salute]

@asb_own_me

Right? That’s what I was thinking. No point in being the richest b*tch in the cemetery.

I think that’s where the difference in being frugal just to keep your head above water and being frugal to grow savings are (or perhaps should be) extremely different mentalities.

I have been willing, in my life, to do some inconvenient things for relatively small savings so that I could afford rent, bills … and a horse … in a tight month on a very small income. Not taking anything to the grave – just paying my electricity bill and the farrier. The Reddit post seems overzealous even from that vantage point, but the idea of looking for ways to save tiny amounts makes more sense when you’re truly living hand-to-mouth.

If the dollar I’m budgeting is either going to be spent on eating something healthier and more enjoyable or sitting in a bank account until I die, though, then yeah I’m not going to go to Reddit-extreme frugality lengths in order to squirrel a small amount away. Totally different motivation than when you need every penny to pay the bills.

Honestly, though, those who need to be frugal are usually more acutely aware that time and convenience have value. Sure, I could save a couple of bucks a month doing all my laundry in a pail with my grandma’s washboard. But I could earn more than a couple of bucks by doing something else in the hours I’d spend scrubbing every month. Same thing goes for a huge number of the frugal measures in that Reddit post. A lot of the “frugal” tips you’ll find out there are not frugal once you factor in opportunity costs of spending time resources on labor intensive activities with minimal financial impacts.

[Scribbler]

Yes.

Also looking at my friends who actually get in financial trouble, I’d say there is a big gap between sensible financial stability and getting in trouble.

Anyhow the rules for stability are:

Don’t have more horses than you can afford to properly care for.

That care includes regular vet visits and the intervention of a trainer when needed. Otherwise you can end up with a horse you can’t ride and then start looking at a second horse that will magically be better.

Buying green is no.bargain if you don’t have the skills or cash for a trainer. Better to spend more for a going horse.

Just shell out for the saddle fitter up front. It’s no bargain to collect 3 or 4 or 5 NQR saddles at $40O each that have little resale value and then you “can’t afford” the decent used $1500 saddle.

Take care of your gear which includes not ending up with a lot of worn out bargains that get eaten by mice. Or crappy old jars of half used product that you can’t find when needed and must replace.

Don’t take equity out of your home for basic living expenses. Don’t live off credit card debt either.

Do basic maintenance on your car even if it’s cheap and old.

Then there is moving from financial stability to being more frugal, and that’s when you need to decide what your time is worth. Obviously if you work at home and/or have horses at home it totally makes sense to eat at home all meals. If you commute to work and then barn, if you are out of the house for both lunch and dinner, then drive through starts to make a lot of sense. It’s pretty hard to pack both a lunch and a supper! I suppose someone does it, but I don’t have time in the morning or in the evening exhausted after the barn!

Anyhow I harp on eating out because that is the one thing I could cut back on. My work and riding life is in the suburbs to exurbs and there are convenient food options on my usual paths. Very often they seem the best choice to make my day work. I do think about this but usually in the moment it’s worth it.

And the only thing out there that I can buy at under CAN $1 a lb is bananas.

I remember buying nice little fryer chickens to roast in Baltimore 20 years ago for about $2 each at Safeway. Same thing is going to cost at least $12 now where I live. There are no cheap groceries here anymore.

[Foxtrot_s]

I lived very frugally in my 20’s but bought quality items and now 30 years later it is still in good repair. The big saving was - as I was working ful time, plus school, and had a social life, I leased out my mare for half her board to a very nice girl and we are still friends today.

[Mango20]

Aldi has family packs of chicken legs on sale for $0.69/lb this week. I think they’re normally .99/lb, so there’s your less than a dollar per pound meat. I don’t think there’s anything else I’d want to eat for less than $1, and I definitely don’t want to only eat chicken legs.

The best frugal horse tip was already given - buy a frugal horse. If you can cut out things like supplements, injections, shoeing and bodywork, you’ll save a huge amount of money over someone who pays for all of those things.

[SonnysMom]

@trubandloki

I am still trying to figure out where one buys meat that is edible for less than $1/pound.

My big horse cost savings is we bale our own small square bales. (We buy our large bales.) Though I suppose that only counts if you do not count the cost of the equipment and labor. Our equipment is older than we are, but was still not cheap (not $1/pound meat cheap) and we have had to put some money into it to keep it working.

Turkey at Thanksgiving buy and freeze a few. Maybe ham around Easter and corn beef around St. Pat’s Day. She did mention she shops at Aldi’s. According to the on-line circular for the Aldi’s closest to me: Family pack chicken drumsticks 69 cents a pound, Chicken leg quarters 49 cents a pound. I have had Aldi’s boneless skinless chicken and their seasoned boneless seasoned chicken and it is pretty darn good but the boneless/skinless is not $1 a pound.

[quarterhorsemom]

I keep my horses at my own property, so I don’t pay board. Have two easy keeper quarter horses who get hay only in the winter, & pasture only for spring/summer/fall. We have seven acres of hay field on our property so we also don’t pay for hay (although we do have to pay someone to cut and bale it for us). We feed 24/7 with a Hay Chix net and a Tarter hay basket which has reduced hay waste exponentially. Buy all tack used and shop sales for other items. Both horses are barefoot so I pay for trims only. Our vet offers a discount for spring/fall routine care farm calls if you do it on a specific date (each town in our area has a different date so they don’t have to make a special trip to your area) so we always take advantage of that. We don’t do shows, so that’s a huge saving in itself! No supplements, chiro, or anything like that unless specifically recommended by our vet. I have an ongoing list on my phone of horse things I want but don’t need, and send people the links when they ask what I want for Christmas or birthdays. 😂

The thing I’ve splurged most on is my horses themselves! They came to me very well trained so I haven’t had to pour money into training, either.

[Scribbler]

@Mango20

Aldi has family packs of chicken legs on sale for $0.69/lb this week. I think they’re normally .99/lb, so there’s your less than a dollar per pound meat. I don’t think there’s anything else I’d want to eat for less than $1, and I definitely don’t want to only eat chicken legs.

The best frugal horse tip was already given - buy a frugal horse. If you can cut out things like supplements, injections, shoeing and bodywork, you’ll save a huge amount of money over someone who pays for all of those things.

I’m in Canada. We just don’t have prices like that. Two chicken leg (back quarters) are about $7 and in the family pack of say 5 to 6 legs you might pay $13.

”‹”‹”‹”‹”‹”‹Food prices in the States are just way way lower for a bunch of reasons.
”‹”‹”‹”‹”‹”‹

[SuzieQNutter]

@gertie06

Seriously. Is there really a difference between “schooling tights” and the leggings I can buy at Walmart? Okay, so they don’t have knee patches. Not once have I ever worn through the inner knee of any breeches :).

No Walmart over here. I picked up a pair of white sticky bum breeches for $20.00 at a second hand sale. I wash them immediately after a competition and pack them away for next time.

Jodhpurs seem to start at over $100.00 and can go up to whatever price they can think of. I can pick up leggings for $5.00 at cheap shops and on sale. $10.00 can be there usual price. $20.00 if you want to get fancy.

I was taught waaaay back in pony club that you do not wear sticky bums daily. Nor do you wear long boots. You learn to ride without the sticky bum or the support of the ankle of the long boot.

Then when you compete you ride in sticky bums and long boots and you can sit without moving.

[x-halt-salute]

@Scribbler

Yes.

Also looking at my friends who actually get in financial trouble, I’d say there is a big gap between sensible financial stability and getting in trouble.

Perhaps. Looking at the people I know who get into financial trouble, though, I’d say the gap can be frighteningly small. One catastrophic injury (a head injury in an equestrian fall, a bad auto accident – anything that can impact your livelihood and generate big medical bills at the same time) is enough to put a lot of otherwise financially sensible, stable folks against the ropes. I’ve seen sudden, chance situations create real financial trouble many times more often than I’ve seen eating out or buying a poorly fitting cheap saddle put someone into a situation that can’t be solved with a couple months of moderate belt-tightening.

There is an idea out there that financial difficulties arise primarily out of waste and indulgence. Sensible financial decision making is part of the equation. But so is luck. And so is access to resources (e.g. legal help, lower-interest credit). Not all of those are within any individual’s control.

On a totally different note, I wish Aldi would open a store near me. They’ve got nothing within hundreds of miles. But I’m the kind of person who, when traveling to Germany for work, finds the nearest Aldi and buys groceries to pack lunches and eat simple picnic-style dinners while in town rather than eating out for most meals. I prefer the no-nonsense, affordable but decent quality basics approach to the typical American supermarket.

[TheHunterKid90]

For some reason it isn’t allowing me to quote but yes, I too have never been made to get a rabies tag for any horse…however, health certificates do require either a rabies certificate or a date of vaccination with an ascension number off the bottle you drew the dose from. I keep my bottles for the purpose of him writing me a health certificate.
On the other hand, the vaccine company (a very well known supplier) ships me rabies vaccines every year with no prescription 🤣 the vet is just as blown away as I am. Must be a glitch in the system, or they have me down for 100 refills or something!

and to the person who said they wanted my vet…yes, he is the absolute bomb!!!

[ChestnutArabianMare]

Number one: buy a sound, healthy horse that happily lives outside 24/7 and can go barefoot year round (easier said than done).

Number two: Round bales. Net round bales to prevent waste.

Number three: Buy quality used tack - teach yourself about saddle fitting. Lots of good resources on YouTube. Unless your horse is a really weird shape, this is pretty simple. Google what brands fit best for your horse’s shape. If it’s in good shape when you buy it, you can easily use it for the next twenty years.

Number four: Don’t spend money on riding specific pants unless you’re showing. Amazon sells athletic tights with pockets for a heckuva lot less than breeches.

[x-halt-salute]

@ChestnutArabianMare

Number one: buy a sound, healthy horse that happily lives outside 24/7 and can go barefoot year round (easier said than done).

Number five: pray to the gods that have dominion over bizarre veterinary conditions and pasture accidents that your sound, healthy, easily kept, barefoot horse stays that way in the long run. Not all of them do.

Number six: have a plan b (insurance, savings, side hustle options, advance planning for physical and financial conditions that might make euthanasia the best option) for when your sound, healthy, easily kept, barefoot horse is no longer sound or healthy or easily kept.