Horses and Good Schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here, should have been more clear. Not looking for a working farm with tractors and crops. Looking for a house with pens for a couple of horses. Grew up on a farm in Michigan so save your lecturing that PP's were doing. Appreciate the feedback though outside the snark!

I am the MD horse property PP and I grew up on a 5000 acre cattle farm on the great plains, paid for college with a full-ride rodeo scholarship as a barrel racer, so I do know a little about what you are talking about; and I will tell you very quickly, that owning a horse property here in MD is quite a bit different than the Midwest and where I grew up. You will need at minimum, 2 acres per 1000lb of animal - this is the standard set by every state university's agriculture program. Keeping the horses is pens will run you into trouble during the 6 months of "winter" here, and keeping horses in stalls leads to behavior problems. Dry lots turn into 6 inches of muddy sh*t that then turn into Mud Fever (AKA Scratches) on your horses' feet. Ask me how I know this. The ground does not freeze here, and mud is a problem, no matter how you try to mitigate it, it still happens. So you will need a plan B for those six months otherwise you will be in a constant state of treating bacterial infections in your horses' feet.

Just a couple of pens also doesn't give you a lot of space to ride to actually enjoy the horses, so you will have to trailer out somewhere. Add horse trailer and truck to expenses. Our property did not originally come with an arena and we just put it in this year so I could stop trailering out and for just a small, putter-around, start-a-colt-arena it was 30K.

You will, despite what you think, need at the minimum a UTV or a pickup to move hay, and a zero turn mower (10k used) to keep your property up, you will need snow removal equipment (or the budget to hire someone), the county doesn't plow private drives in the winter, we are on our own. You are also on your own for your driveway maintenance; resealing our drive this year was 5K and it's a every-5 years-thing. I watch our neighbors try to mow on their little garden tractors and it takes them all weekend to get it done, we have a big JD tractor/plow for snow removal and our neighbors pitch in to pay for the diesel to do it. DH is done mowing several acres in less than an hour on our big Kubota. Our JD Gator was 15k used without attachments like snow blower and salt spreader. You can look up truck prices, right now even the used ones are crazy expensive.

Feed prices are high here - my dad grew our own alfalfa on our farm back home and we used to feed it to beef cattle. Here I would not dream of feeding alfalfa to cows for what it costs to buy local or have it shipped in from the west, alfalfa is reserved for the horses that are hard to keep weight on during the winter. I sell our 3rd cutting horse quality orchard super soft grass for $8-$10/square bale, picked up, delivery to barns is more. Regular sweet feed starts at $16/bag for the generic stuff; more for the brand name bags.

Farrier care is higher - $250 for a half set of shoes on just my gelding, my other four are barefoot but still require trims every 5-6 weeks to keep them in good shape. We do our own worming and vaccinations, but just to get the vet out to do annual Coggins and rabies on 5 horses is around $600, and then there are about 3-4 times a year I need her out to look at something on feet or suspected arthritis, allergies, or take an emergency call for colic.

And lastly, a DH that is handy with repairs and can drive machinery is priceless, if your's grew up the way you did that's perfect (mine spent his teenage years fixing fences and tinkering with tractors in the middle of nowhere), but if you have a city boy, plan on hiring out a lot of stuff (or a divorce, because I've seen that happen).

Join those FB groups I recommended so you can start to get a feel for what things costs. Good, safe, bombproof horses are in the high four to mid-five figures out here.

Not OP either, but after reading this, if I ever have the money, I’m going to stop at chickens and board a horse elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

^^^ Lots of good advice here, but I would like to emphasize, for those who grew up in the West, having a place to ride is more of an issue here. If you are on a smaller farm, surrounded by other small farms, you're looking at trailering to ride, as pp noted. You need to think about this when you're looking at a property that isn't adjacent to a National Forest, etc.

Some of the counties around DC have organized "hunts" that have easements, but you need to be within the hunts' footprint and generally must own significant acreage to join.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like you should just set some cash on fire instead of buying a horse property.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like you should just set some cash on fire instead of buying a horse property.

Except that would just be a fire whereas horses are one of life’s great joys.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here, should have been more clear. Not looking for a working farm with tractors and crops. Looking for a house with pens for a couple of horses. Grew up on a farm in Michigan so save your lecturing that PP's were doing. Appreciate the feedback though outside the snark!

You’re misunderstanding. The experienced horse people are coming on here to say that you need that equipment to tend to your horses and “pens.” (We call them fields or paddocks, depending on size. There’s no need, in this area, for horses without health issues to be regularly kept in a dry lot or small sacrifice area.)

You’ll need the tractor with several attachments to turn the muck pile, bring another round bale out to the field, pull the manure spreader/mower/seed spreader/bush hogger, transport hay bales to your storage area, move dead tree branches off your broken fence, drag your arena, etc.

Agree with others that you may want to start with moving to an area where you can have easy access to an affordable boarding barn. And then eventually work up to keeping your horses at home, if you still want to. You’re not “wasting” money on board. You’re paying for the convenience of not having to do a bedtime check when it’s 15 degrees and sleeting, being able to go away for the weekend on a whim, having others (human and equine) to provide socialization, and more.

OP, I recommend going with an option where you can board close by. In that case, I’d recommend the Mason Neck area of Fairfax County. It’s zoned for South County, which is comparable with Lake Braddock, Robinson, etc. This house is nice, and you can take your extra money and buy a boat. Boats and horses. Life is good.

https://www.redfin.com/VA/Lorton/10748-Greene-Dr-22079/home/9829448?1280460695=variant&600390594=copy_variant&231528114=variant&1077477207=variant&utm_source=ios_share&utm_medium=share&utm_nooverride=1&utm_content=link&utm_campaign=share_sheet

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like you should just set some cash on fire instead of buying a horse property.

They say the same thing about sailboats!

[Anonymous]

Are there any “equestrian communities” in the region? I have a friend in SC who lives in a neighborhood with a common barn and riding trails throughout the neighborhood. Each house has enough land for a paddock and a small barn. But the contract with the vet and farriers to come regularly. It seems really convenient for people who love horses but have jobs that require travel. It is expensive.

[Anonymous]

OP have you ever had horses? Horses are very expensive to maintain. Vet costs are very high, hay, barn maintenance etc. it’s a lot of work so either you are into mucking stalls everyday, turning them out etc or you are hiring an employee. When they get old you can’t ride them but it’s heartbreaking to get rid of them sending them to a slaughterhouse.

Chickens are more reasonable or maybe a few goats but horses are a huge commitment.

[Anonymous]

Look for houses on agriculture zoned properties. Once you get to residential zoning, your ability to put horses on property is severely limited by acreage and then you have significant offset requirements. You also have to maintain manure and fencing a specific distance from lot lines and such. It is a PIA.

From a horse owner - board the horse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like you should just set some cash on fire instead of buying a horse property.

They say the same thing about sailboats!

Ha. We have both!

[Anonymous]

For reference - we pay $500 a month to board our horse in a very nice facility. This includes grain, hay, and basic care. This does not include farrier, vet costs, supplements, etc.

Consider $6000 a year to board and have someone else basically take care of your horse and have a great place to ride with trails vs. a property that you will pay a premium for and be tied to every day of the year. Try mucking stalls in middle of winter while it is a sleeting - it isn't fun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like you should just set some cash on fire instead of buying a horse property.

They say the same thing about sailboats!

Ha. We have both!

Nice! Here's a house where you could keep both a boat and a horse nearby:
https://www.redfin.com/MD/Annapolis/1689-Anne-Ct-21401/home/10055614

[Anonymous]

Board. The. Horses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you can afford horsies, you should be affording private schools.

or at least tennis courts

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you can afford horsies, you should be affording private schools.

or at least tennis courts

False, horses are so wonderful and so expensive that many horse people are constantly strapped from spending all of their available money on the horses.