How to Buy a Horse for Under $5000

Dry Fork Ike

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Why the Horse Market is a Buyers Paradise

In my area training runs at least $750/month, so there is another $1500 to get the horse “green broke”

Want a little more reliability then add on more training.
Gee it looks like our horse costs more to raise thanwhat you or I want to pay!

So what allows us buy a horse for less than cost?
Market reality is the keyword here, and there are a number of things that have drawn down prices on horses.

• No or very little killer market, laws forbidding slaughter of horses in the US
• Pending laws forbidding export of horses for slaughter to US or Mexico
• Higher hay and grain cost due to US subsidizing grain for ethanol production
• farmers producing less hay and more grain for ethanol market less grain for animal feed.
• US government Free or cheap horse BLM Mustang program

Like most things that government employees or official get their hands on,
The Horse market is in the toilet, so this is your window of opportunity,
if you choose to buy a horse.

I get the same question from so many people; “how do I buy a cheap horse” and my
answer is always the same; “you can’t”. Are there exceptions? I am sure there are, but
let’s look at what is involved in breeding and raising a foal both the time and costs.
Price of mare $2500 / 10 foals = $250

Now it could be more, but not less, I am assuming you want a good quality horse.
Cost to care for mare while in foal $1000, for hoof trimming wormer, shots, feed
andgrain, again a minimum does not include housing costCost of stud fee usually at least $500

So we have $1750 in just the mare expenses nothing for the labor involved, no vet bills,
so we then are ready for the live foal which arrives and again no vet expenses , for
mare or foal, so far so good, now let’s raise that foal for one year.
1st Year costs:
Hoof care $180
Feed cost $600
Healthcare; shots, wormer, $250
again no costs factored in for labor which now involves not only feedin
, but alsocleaning the stall, and training.
So our yearling now involves an investment of:
$1750 + $1030 = $2780

Add about $1000 for each year:
Colts should not be started before 3 years of age, or their useful lifespan will suffer
$2000 + $2780 = $4789

Oh, you want a trained horse?  Well I’ll cover that issue tomorrow…

We Are Training Some Good Trail Horses

When I say we, I really mean Stephanie Russo and sometimes me Dale L Anderson.  This is how it seems to work best; Stephanie does all the hard work gets the horses going well and then I ride later.  I am now 65 and the balance sure is not what it was, so it is nice to have Stephanie helping.

Stephanie puts the miles on Blue Jack  a Quarterhorse gelding

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Blue Jack is yielding nicely to the bit

I start out crossing the scary bridge, lesson learned, Blue Jack did a brief inspection and across we went

Blue Jack guides straight down the log road a real solid feel to this horse

Blue Jack crossing water in Cranberry Lake

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Ike is For Sale Big Well Muscled Gelding

For the past week, has been riding Ike out on the trials,a lot of creek crossings, steep uphill and downhill work, and a lot of miles. Ike has gone to a real metamorphosis he definitely is a different horse. I personally have not seen that great a change in course in such a short period of time he has gained so much more confidence in himself and his rider.

Here’s a great photo shot by Stephanie from Ike’s back of a cow elk going down the same trail with no problem

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Here Ike is standing in a creek bed getting a drink of water

Here hike is going down the trail through a muddy spot, the trails have a lot of variety this time of the year as we’ve had a lot of rain,  slick spots, occur randomly.

and when we get back to camp we like tie horses up here, Ike was tied to the trailer, he has learned to stand quietly.

Here Ike is tied to the high line, using just a collar, so if need be can be highlined when camping in the mountains.

Ike is a big boned well muscled horse that will do well on trails for sure. Stephanie really likes the way Ike is going down to trails

]]> http://thehorsebarn.com/ike-my-buckskin-quarterhorse-gelding-trained-on-trails/feed/ 0 http://thehorsebarn.com/smart-choices-when-riding-horses/ http://thehorsebarn.com/smart-choices-when-riding-horses/#comments Sun, 27 Jun 2010 20:48:16 +0000 http://thehorsebarn.com/?p=687
Cross That You are Ready for it Making Smart choices while horse back riding, kinky both you and your horse safe, don’t let your ego take over.  Stephanie, had a two-year-old out for his first ride his eighth right overall, went left out of our campsite, and there was this scary bridge to cross, I [...]]]>

Cross That You are Ready for it

Making Smart choices while horse back riding, kinky both you and your horse safe, don’t let your ego take over.  Stephanie, had a two-year-old out for his first ride his eighth right overall, went left out of our campsite, and there was this scary bridge to cross, I asked her if she wanted me to help lead the horse across the first time, she said no I’ll go the other way and off she went down the little country road.

Two hours later Stephanie had made a loop up the mountain and returned to that same bridge from the opposite direction, only this time the colt had more confidence, more training, and more incentive to cross that bridge, because camp and his horse buddies were on the opposite side.  No more scary bridge, just a more confident horse

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I lost some Ben K Green Horse Books

After 4 years I finally asked my wife where they might be and guess what, yep 30 seconds later there they were.

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2006 AQHA Red Roan Mare

This is a real nice filly, very willing and wants to please

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Check out my ad on Craigslist: Click Here!

Four Drift Colleen is a stout heavy boned mare with Joe Hancock And Driftwood bloodlines, Colleen is nicely started and doing well, but has not had enough riding time on her for a child or beginning rider. Colleen would make a great trail horse or breed her to get colts that hold up under heavy use, I bought Colleen when she was 5 months old, I was going to use use as a broodmare but I quit raising colts a couple of years ago and I need to reduce my herd.

I have dropped my price on Colleen as I’d rather sell her locally than send her back to Montana where I bought her, seems to be a little stronger market for ranch bred mares there. However if you are someone looking for a horse bred to work and hold up under heavy use, that you might raise a colt out of later, Give me a call, my wrangler will be around this week and you can come and take a look. There will be absolutely no sales pressure, I enjoy showing my horses to interested buyers.. I will be selling more horses this summer, so if Colleen don’t strike your fancy, maybe one of the others will.