The cost of living, Davis bell boots, and Smartpak (a silly thread)

[colorfan]

Yes! Prices are going up. Butter has over doubled in the last 2 years. Flour has almost doubled since 2020, vehicle parts have tripled in a couple of specific instances.
I keep most of my horse related receipts, there seems to be a big jump between 2021 and 2022 and then again between 2022 and 2023.

Beet Pulp:
2014 $11.97
2016 13.29
2018 14.10
2019 14.48
2020 16.39
2021 15.27
2022 22.80

Horse ration
2016 14.98
2018 16.57
2021 17.25
2022 21.18
2022 22.25
2022 23.25
2023 27.15

Nuggets (which I use as treats)
2014 15.05
2018. 19.76
2023 36.55

[RhythmNCruise]

I was feeding a cheaper brand (4Health) for several years, and he was doing well (I thought) on their sensitive skin formula. But June 2022 he wound up with a $7k emergency vet bill due to fluid in his chest cavity. The causes were basically inconclusive, and they kept saying cancer. I did a ton of research and since he had basically stopped eating anyway, I tried various foods. We even did Ollie (I was basically desperate to get him to eat anything). I had bought a small bag of Orijen Amazing Grains Six Fish recipe at some point and one day I tried that again and he gobbled it up. Fed him that for quite some time, but talk about pricey! So I tried the Pro Plan and he likes it a lot and seems to be doing well. And we’ve been over a year with no more fluid in the chest…happy, healthy dog. I have no idea if the food was the culprit, but I read enough to make me think it played a major role.

I’m blessed with special needs animals. The horse is just as bad. Feed him the wrong thing and it’s the end of the world.

[JenEM]

Yikes! The Davis ones are the ones my farrier recommends.

I just checked my SP order history. Earlier THIS YEAR, I only paid $20.85 a pair for them. There might have been some kind of 10% sale but even assuming that, it’s an enormous price jump. And I need to switch mine out to the last pair I have in stock after the farrier comes this week, as the velcro on the ugly teal pair is dying. Not looking forward to restock expense!

Last week, I ducked in to the local feed store to grab more fly spray, which we’ve been going through at a remarkable rate this year. They had Bronco for $6! I bought two bottles because while it’s not the best, none of them seem to work for more than 3 minutes anyway, and if that was a pricing mistake, I was getting some while the getting was good. I haven’t seen fly spray under $12 in years.

[2tempe]

I used to be a Davis buyer but have switched to Centaur. They have limited colors on Amazon $14.95. Also Shires brand even cheaper. Haven’t tried shires, but my Centaurs hold up pretty well - maybe 5 months. Its always the velcro that seems to bite the dust for me…

[Christa_P]

I’m currently using the neoprene Shires bell boots and some ribbed, Velcro rubber bell boots on top. Yes, double boots, it might be overkill but I prefer her shoes on.

[candyappy]

@RhythmNCruise

The freakin’ fly spray was almost $34. Insanity. I’d change to a cheaper brand but this works and it’s one that he’s not sensitive to.

That is another one!!

I buy Gordons Horse and Pony Spray ( oil based) . It used to be $39.99 for a gallon. 2 years later I just paid $ 54.99…

[FLeventer]

The Italian pull on bell boots have gone up almost $20. When I went to the non Italian double thick bottom ones, I went from paying $9.99 to now paying around $25.

Gloves have also gone up, I used to pay $19.99 for a decent pair of Heritage gloves and now I’m paying $30 plus dollars.

The price of fly spray has become crazy.

[Amy3996]

@vxf111

That’s an astounding jump ($14) given that the average yearly increase on the product was $2.

Maybe that’s an error on the website, because WOW that’s a significant price hike?!

I’ll be interested to monitor these changes over the next little while. My two local supply stores (a smaller regional chain and a TSC) were $22 and $24 respectively today. $36 seems absurd - I wouldn’t put it past SmartPak to just be gouging the crud out of people simply because they can.

[emeraldcity]

This is GENIUS. So much time I’ve wasted sewing the damn velcro back on because the stitching is the only part that seems to wear out!

[trubandloki]

@Amy3996

I wouldn’t put it past SmartPak to just be gouging the crud out of people simply because they can.

Or, Smartpak recently got a new supply of them in at a higher price so they had to increase what they charged and the other places have not encountered that yet.

[Amy3996]

… which is why I said I’ll be interested to see how prices fluctuate over the next several months.

[athelas]

I have been putting off buying a new pair of crochet back gloves because I am morally and ethically opposed to paying $30 when they were like $19 two years ago LOL.

Also the cost of Ultrashield, good god.

[sherian]

I had a stash of fly spray and grooming products from gift baskets from silent auctions - they ran out and I am in sticker shock. And what happened to thrush buster?

[Jarpur]

I’ve been mixing up my own spray for years, using this, which is currently on sale at Tractor Supply ($20.99 for a quart of concentrate):

Gordon's® Permethrin 10 Livestock & Premise Spray

This is very economical, and it’s worked for me, although we don’t have horse flies, deer flies, etc., just filth flies – don’t know how well it would do with those. Due to drought and very high temperatures, the flies here are currently non-existent (the one good thing about these conditions).

[K_VanOlst]

@Jarpur

we don’t have horse flies

Horse flies are visual hunters, there is no fly spray in the world that can save you

[Jarpur]

That sounds like the pits!

[Small_Change]

Well, this is a very interesting but scary rabbit hole to go down! I just looked at a few receipts - my Prascend has gone from $409.27 for 160 tabs in September of 2020 to $490.25 for the same just a week ago.

[Texarkana]

Usually for the summer months I have some flexibility in my horse budget because my hay costs are virtually nil.

But this year the cost of fly spray is eating up all that flexibility.

Plus, I don’t know what’s the deal, but I seem to be going through it so much faster than in years past. A bottle is gone in less than a week whether store bought or bought in concentrate/bulk and poured into a reuseable spray bottle. Yet I have less horses than previous years. I don’t think I’m using it any more frequently than in years past.

[NaturallyHappy]

Yikes! I use 5 a day!!!

[ghst13]

To spread out costs, I have amazon auto deliver fly spray every other month throughout the year. That builds up a stockpile that I deplete during the spring/summer/fall. It helps soften the blow instead of buying as needed during fly season because it just becomes a regular recurring expense like supplements.