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unicornduke:
bomberqueen17 replied to your post: To do in crunch time
you want draft horses too??? farmsister and her husband worked on a farm that used them and it’s like, their fondest ambition to get their own, but. $$$$$$$.
oh my god do I ever
so much oh my god.
like honestly if I could have my ideal farm, it would be vegetables and horse powered, maybe two teams and I could do whatever I wanted. Maybe do the maple syrup lines with a team or logging with them.
my dad thinks it’s a cool idea to do horse drawn hayrides and we actually had a friend who brought his percherons down and did them for two years. I think he got hurt and couldn’t do it any more
But I told dad they need a job outside of the busy seasons and he wasn’t ready to commit to that lol
I mean generally a decent team isn’t too expensive, it’s just the harness and collar that are big bucks. maybe the wagon. That’s if you have the land for them. We’ve got some land that would only be good for pasture and hay is easy to make and cheap if we can’t, so for us, horses would be easy.
my horse stayed on the farm and was super cheap to keep after the initial costs. Less than $500 per year from what I remember. But we already had a barn that we converted part of into a stall, we had hay ground that we made into pasture for him. We were already haying so it was easy to set aside the best quality for him, around 150 square bales a year. We had water and electricity running to the barn.
if you don’t have those set ups, it gets expensive fast. I know there was some expense with the trailer and converting the barn. My horse was only $500 and he rode and drove, just not as part of a team.
I also rode horses for about ten years growing up plus another two doing horse care stuff at a therapeutic riding place. I have some basic driving knowledge as well.
It’s funny because we had horses when I was a kid. But Farmsister was the baby; she’s five years younger than me. We sold the horses when she was still kind of little. She never rode them. Ditto for chickens– we had those when I was a kid, and she barely remembers them.
I rode horses for a decade or so, but I haven’t been on a horse since… hm. 1998? So I don’t know how much I’d remember. And I’ve never driven a horse, so I don’t know anything about that. Sister and her husband know more, they’ve driven more than ridden I think.
They’re worried about feed costs. They have haying equipment, and have started to get into haying, but a horse would need supplemental feed. And the horse stalls have all been converted to other purposes, so they’d need to come up with shelter.
But the farm has great pasturage– actually they’ve been trying to find another farmer, maybe someone starting out, who wanted to keep cows, because the land is set up for grazing cattle, with permanently installed fencing in some places. They just can’t afford a herd. Cattle or sheep would be ideal, and horses could go in with them without much trouble.
It’s hard, though. The farm’s not exactly swimming in profits, so anything they do has to earn its keep pretty promptly. So it remains a long-term goal.
(Your picture was not posted)
unicornduke:
bomberqueen17 replied to your post: To do in crunch time
you want draft horses too??? farmsister and her husband worked on a farm that used them and it’s like, their fondest ambition to get their own, but. $$$$$$$.
oh my god do I ever
so much oh my god.
like honestly if I could have my ideal farm, it would be vegetables and horse powered, maybe two teams and I could do whatever I wanted. Maybe do the maple syrup lines with a team or logging with them.
my dad thinks it’s a cool idea to do horse drawn hayrides and we actually had a friend who brought his percherons down and did them for two years. I think he got hurt and couldn’t do it any more
But I told dad they need a job outside of the busy seasons and he wasn’t ready to commit to that lol
I mean generally a decent team isn’t too expensive, it’s just the harness and collar that are big bucks. maybe the wagon. That’s if you have the land for them. We’ve got some land that would only be good for pasture and hay is easy to make and cheap if we can’t, so for us, horses would be easy.
my horse stayed on the farm and was super cheap to keep after the initial costs. Less than $500 per year from what I remember. But we already had a barn that we converted part of into a stall, we had hay ground that we made into pasture for him. We were already haying so it was easy to set aside the best quality for him, around 150 square bales a year. We had water and electricity running to the barn.
if you don’t have those set ups, it gets expensive fast. I know there was some expense with the trailer and converting the barn. My horse was only $500 and he rode and drove, just not as part of a team.
I also rode horses for about ten years growing up plus another two doing horse care stuff at a therapeutic riding place. I have some basic driving knowledge as well.
It’s funny because we had horses when I was a kid. But Farmsister was the baby; she’s five years younger than me. We sold the horses when she was still kind of little. She never rode them. Ditto for chickens– we had those when I was a kid, and she barely remembers them.
I rode horses for a decade or so, but I haven’t been on a horse since… hm. 1998? So I don’t know how much I’d remember. And I’ve never driven a horse, so I don’t know anything about that. Sister and her husband know more, they’ve driven more than ridden I think.
They’re worried about feed costs. They have haying equipment, and have started to get into haying, but a horse would need supplemental feed. And the horse stalls have all been converted to other purposes, so they’d need to come up with shelter.
But the farm has great pasturage– actually they’ve been trying to find another farmer, maybe someone starting out, who wanted to keep cows, because the land is set up for grazing cattle, with permanently installed fencing in some places. They just can’t afford a herd. Cattle or sheep would be ideal, and horses could go in with them without much trouble.
It’s hard, though. The farm’s not exactly swimming in profits, so anything they do has to earn its keep pretty promptly. So it remains a long-term goal.
(Your picture was not posted)
