Horses and Good Schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

WTH - that’s not what you do! You let them live out their life. Euthanize them humanely when it is time.

Horse owner and for the record, our horse would never go to the slaughterhouse.
However, euthanizing a horse is extremely expensive. It isn't like putting down a dog. While it isn't necessarily the vet cost, per se, it is removal of the body. Most farms do not allow you to bury the horse on the farm (and if they do, it requires a back hoe) so you would have to pay to have the horse cremated. It can be several thousand dollars to transport the body and perform the cremation.

Where I grew up, we had a farmer with a backhoe dig a hole and bury the horse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just found out that DH will only have to commute 1 day per pay period (2 weeks) going forward and I'm fulltime telework but need to be in the general area. We want to leave DC (currently in a SFH in Deanwood) and leave the masses to get a nice house with space for horses and chickens. Have 2 kids in elementary school and wondering where we should start looking. Budget is up to 900k. Thanks for anyone who can help with a start. Would prefer MD over VA. Thanks all.

A farm is a full time job
You have to feed the animals daily. Horses cannot be left in the barn, need exercise
Barns need to be cleaned
Even if your job is 40 hours a week, and have no commute, that is not enough time.
Just live near a horse farm, one that gives riding lessons and allows for the horses to be rented

[Anonymous]

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!

Pens? Pens for horses? Who says that ??

[Anonymous]

Rent 'Green Acres' from Netflix, same story, so much cheaper.

[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!

Pens? Pens for horses? Who says that ??

People from the West I think. I mean calm down, management of horses varies by region. As a helpful PP pointed out earlier, we have MUD here. But other places have no mud and no grass and different strategies can work. Imo horses need turn out but if you have a walker and/or you rotate horses in larger spaces, small areas can be fine.

[Anonymous]

Davidsonville, MD. Commute to DC is much better than Western HoCo/Poolesville and Davidsonville ES/Central MS/South River HS are top-tier schools.

[Anonymous]

I would like to hear more (maybe an AMA?) from this PP who wrote the excellent long post—I didn’t know that rodeo scholarships were a thing:

“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;”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would like to hear more (maybe an AMA?) from this PP who wrote the excellent long post—I didn’t know that rodeo scholarships were a thing:

“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;”

+1! That was one of the best posts I’ve ever read on DCUM and I’ve been here for years and years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would like to hear more (maybe an AMA?) from this PP who wrote the excellent long post—I didn’t know that rodeo scholarships were a thing:

“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;”

+1! That was one of the best posts I’ve ever read on DCUM and I’ve been here for years and years.

Yeah, I love when we hear from people who have done interesting things outside of the DCUM bubble. Did you read the AMA from several years back where a plumber (or his wife) took plumbing questions? Similarly excellent, and I’m sure you’d love that one too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Davidsonville, MD. Commute to DC is much better than Western HoCo/Poolesville and Davidsonville ES/Central MS/South River HS are top-tier schools.

Horse property in Davidsonville is $$$.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Davidsonville, MD. Commute to DC is much better than Western HoCo/Poolesville and Davidsonville ES/Central MS/South River HS are top-tier schools.

Horse property in Davidsonville is $$$.

Maybe, but it’s worthy of OP to look at and consider because it ticks all of their boxes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Buy yourself a scenic 4 acres and board the horse at the nice farm down the road.
- actual horse owner for 20+ yrs.

I agree. We own land, are building a house on fifty acres of it, and yes, I'll keep boarding my horse (owner for 10+ years). Why? Partly because he has a herd at the stable, partly because I don't like riding alone, and partly because it's good to have extra eyes around, experienced ones, so that I can say, does he seem off when he trots left? Or is he keeping his weight on this winter? and so on. And yes, even if you own land, it's cheaper to board.

[Anonymous]

Buy a house in North Potomac and board your hourses at Potomac Hours Center. If you purchase a house close enough, you can visit your horses every day.

[Anonymous]

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

This is the weirdest comment.

OP, look at Howard County.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Buy yourself a scenic 4 acres and board the horse at the nice farm down the road.
- actual horse owner for 20+ yrs.

I agree. We own land, are building a house on fifty acres of it, and yes, I'll keep boarding my horse (owner for 10+ years). Why? Partly because he has a herd at the stable, partly because I don't like riding alone, and partly because it's good to have extra eyes around, experienced ones, so that I can say, does he seem off when he trots left? Or is he keeping his weight on this winter? and so on. And yes, even if you own land, it's cheaper to board.

+1000000