I am not planning on buying these horses anytime soon. The reason is that they are EXPENSIVE!!!!!! My friend's horses, that she sells, start at $5000 and they go up from there. And I mean way up! These horses have many great things about them. They're smaller in size than most draft type horses, they have very gentle personalities, and they are pretty. But, I can't see myself paying that much for these horses just so I can put them on my farm. I can just imagine how pretty all that hair would be covered in mud and burrs. lol.
So as of right now, I'll stick with the horses that we have already here. They aren't exactly what I want, but they will work for now.
So until next time,
Small Farm Girl, exploring the possibilities......NEXT!
7 comments:
If I ever got a horse (which I never will - no space or money, but I can dream!) it would be a Morgan!
People will give you an expensive horse, check around before buying anything at that price. I have seen trained teams of draft horses go for a fraction of that. Careful, think before you buy one.
Carol, Morgans are great horses!!!
Sunny, Oh, I'm going to wait for a LONG time before I decide on what I'm going to add to the farm. I'm tired of jumping into things.
What a beautiful horse! I have never seen such a beauty. It looks like the supermodel of horses :). Good luck to you on your journey. I hope you find the right fit that works for you! Will whisper sheeep, sheeep and cross my fingers, lol.
Hey Kellie, I'm considering sheep too...... :-)
If you're looking for more horses, there are *lots* of people trying to find a good home for older or disabled horses who can't be ridden anymore; some of them are happy to pay a moderate amount in boarding fees each month, so you'd make some money back.
My only note there would be that you said in the past you had barbed wire fencing; that's a really bad idea with horses.
You could also try to get in touch with other local farmers and lease out the fields to someone else for a year or two while you figure out what to do with them.
Choosing animals for your farm is critical to its wellbeing – particularly if you want it to be more sustainable homestead than hobby farm. Here are some things to think about:
1.Can we eat it if we can’t sell it?
2.Can I sell more products than it costs to feed them?
3.Is there currently a market for those products in my area?
4.What is the current trend in prices for that market (is the market already saturated)?
5.What is the cost of feed to maintain them? How much feed can be raised on farm versus purchased?
6.Do they have specialized housing or fencing requirements?
7.Are they prey for local predators?
8.Can you use your animal products to make value added products – sell yarn or sweaters rather than raw fleece; cheddar cheese rather than goat milk, etc. Do you have the manpower/manhours to do that?
Cute and fuzzy are wonderful, but can become terribly expensive in the long run. Ask some of the folks that got into Emus, peacocks, donkeys, or animals such as miniature cows, miniature goats and miniature horses.
There is a lot to be said for raising pastured pigs or pastured chickens based on the above questions. Read some of Joel Saladin’s stuff. A farm stops being fun when you have to have a full time outside job to support your animal’s habits.
Pete in Texas
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