On 8/20/13 9:33 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:


"F.O.A.D." wrote in message
...

On 8/20/13 8:44 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:


Now she has him spreading and packing about 30 yards of stone dust on
the trails so the goofy horses won't trip.


Not that I would ever want to own a horse or two, but I've wondered from
time to time how much work on a daily basis it is to "keep" horses
properly. It just seems to me that the "upkeep" is continuous and
never-ending. And if you go on vacation, do you have to hire a service
to come by and take care of them?

-------------------------

I really don't know how much it costs. It's a big secret around here. :-)

Judging by the number of bales of hay in the barn loft (and how often
they are replenished) plus the number of bags of oats and wood shavings
she has stored, I'll bet it's not cheap. Then there's the routine
visits by the horse vet, the horse dentist and the farrier. Of course
you also have to consider all the saddles, bridles and other
accessories that I don't really have a clue as to what they are. A
horse can't have just one bridle or saddle. It has to have several,
depending on what type of riding you do, I guess. She has one saddle
that she finally has decided to sell. It's a custom, show saddle that's
worth about $5K. I told her it would look cool installed on a custom
Harley-Davidson.

When she first got them, Mrs.E. used to be active in horse shows and one
of her horses is a National Champion in something. But, as the years
have gone by they have become big, 1200 lb. pets. She's an animal
lover and the horses are dear to her heart. It's ok. She deserves
them after all the years of putting up with me and our adventurous lives
together. Only problem is that they are about halfway through a normal
horse life which means they'll probably outlive me.

There's a young kid (also into horses) who has lined up a number of
clients and travels around daily to muck stalls, etc. Mrs.E. is one
of his clients.
Plus, she has a number of friends, including the people that bought the
old farmhouse from us (located at the end of our driveway) who are
horse people. They all help each other out and take care of the horses
when anyone is travelling away from home.

Then there's the town government. They send someone out to your barn
for an inspection every so often in order to renew your permit to have
horses. We never have a problem with that because Mrs.E. keeps the barn,
stalls and tack room in pristine condition. Unlike many other places,
our town does not permit spreading of the collected horse manure, so we
have a big, permanent dumpster that is emptied weekly.

In the past 12 years I rode one of them once for about 50 feet. Did
nothing for me. The only things I'll ride must have an ignition on/off
switch or pedals.





You'll appreciate this. When I was in Kansas, I dated a girl for a short
while whose daddy owned a commercial stables and a number of horses.

Being a lad from the *countryside* of New Haven, I wasn't much
interested in horses and I never ever went horseback riding with her.
Instead, I told her, I brought my horse with me...which, at the time,
was a 305 cc Honda SuperHawk that I had bought used after selling off my
250 cc Honda "Dream."

I really liked that SuperHawk. Looked exactly like this, and was
reliable and a delight to ride.

http://tinyurl.com/mn57hvv