Horses..

[Pie face]

What I want to know is, the damned things have to be housed, rugged, clipped, fed special diets, mustn't go near a speck of dust, have to be attended by an entourage of people dressed in Dubarry; how do they survive in the wild, like in Yellowstone, etc?

Plenty of horses live outside in Canada, no rugs just a hay ring in a field of snow!

 

[jimred]

Just an observation last night as driving home.
Lot of horse paddocks on rough ground. At the moment lot I went past are just muddy bogs. Some right against the river. (if was cattle then would be hell to pay...)
Nothing against horses, but surely would be better covering the pony paddocks in wild flowers, trees and wild bird cover than arable land..?

It was probably good land before they put the horses in.

 

[Foxcover]

Plenty of horses live outside in Canada, no rugs just a hay ring in a field of snow!

Different climate. They don’t mind the cold, it’s the wind and rain they don’t like.

 

[pycoed]

View attachment 1164278


I rent land from horsey people for sheep. It takes all sorts!

Wasn't Thelwell marvellous?

 

[wilber]

Best thing for horses would be the frying pan. Destroy fences and knacker ground, i cant stand them and thats being polite.

 

[Pieces_of_Eight]

Same with dog owners, how much carbon is produced by dog food?

How much wheat goes into dog food? (you'd be amazed...)

Horse prices went through the roof during Covid (just like puppies) and they haven't really come down much since. Some of the adverts I've seen are absolutely bonkers.

 

[4course]

Different area of the country I suppose, just going by most recent survey.
Nowhere near as many mares put into foal these past few years as usual either.

think you may find its not mares in foal in uk that helps the increase in numbers. Up here its more the imports from the emerald isle.+

 

[Foxcover]

think you may find its not mares in foal in uk that helps the increase in numbers. Up here its more the imports from the emerald isle.+

Same with that though, in years gone by several of my customers would go shopping in Ireland every year without fail.
None have been this year or last.
Just my experience in this area.

 

[Jonp]

Same with that though, in years gone by several of my customers would go shopping in Ireland every year without fail.
None have been this year or last.
Just my experience in this area.

Funnily enough I was speaking to a women I know today. She imports cobs from Ireland and sells them in the UK. Business is good for safe horses to either parents with young kids or for older women looking to start riding. Said she had 52 for sale that had passed her strict vetting.

 

[Foxcover]

Funnily enough I was speaking to a women I know today. She imports cobs from Ireland and sells them in the UK. Business is good for safe horses to either parents with young kids or for older women looking to start riding. Said she had 52 for sale that had passed her strict vetting.

Funny how 20 years ago you couldn’t give cobs away, whereas now safe ones are worth a fortune!

 

[Av Gorritt]

Without a doubt. There's nothing wrong with horses, it's just SOME of the people that have them .

Likewise dogs?

 

[Jonp]

Funny how 20 years ago you couldn’t give cobs away, whereas now safe ones are worth a fortune!

Yes nice calm horses that can carry a bit of weight

 

[soapsud]

Wasn't Thelwell marvellous?

I went looking for the cartoon of the one with a larger lady standing up in the saddle leaning forward. Her rump is almost the size as her mount's and thelwell decided to draw the tail on her and leave the horse without!

If you have it, post it! From memory, the look of joy on her face is something else.

 

[borderterribles]

How much wheat goes into dog food? (you'd be amazed...)

Horse prices went through the roof during Covid (just like puppies) and they haven't really come down much since. Some of the adverts I've seen are absolutely bonkers.

Same here. Some nice tidy things about, but they will never be a superstar and it'll say "mid five figures " Wtf?

 

[4course]

Same with that though, in years gone by several of my customers would go shopping in Ireland every year without fail.
None have been this year or last.
Just my experience in this area.

Internet sales from ireland is where the majority are being bought from ,folk running the auctions/private sales up, half of them not realising they dont have the skills to bring a youngster on or havnt taken into account commission transport or the fact that ireland is a small country and every horse breeder is known by the irish sellers and buyers unlike the uk where for some un god known reason a subscription to horse and hound makes folk an expert .

 

[will_mck]

One morning I was driving to our farm and I happening to notice a fence of ours cut down in a part. I got out to see what had happened, we grow cereal and this was a week before harvest. My horse neighbour has never enough grass/buttercups/rushes/ragwort/dockens to feed the number of horses he keeps as fertiliser is too expensive and the grounds tramped into muck so his nags are always breaking out and grazing 'the long acre' as they say except this time about 40 of his horses and foals broke into 4 fields of almost ripe barley of ours and galloped several laps each of the headlands in each field. This must have happened the previous night, he must have realised late that night that his nags were out again and tried to retrieve them, he'd cut several of our fences in places and opened all our gates in an attempt to let them out of our fields again. Anyway you could see where they'd been retrieved from as there was a trail of soil on the road leading back down to his yard. Needless to say alot of damage had been done to our crops and fences so we asked him about what had happened, he denied his horses had been out at all and tried to blame another horse owner who has horses grazing 3 miles away and is the only other within a 10 mile radius. Several other similar experiences from the particular individual has really shaped my estimation of the nag owning fraternity, nowt wrong with horses though

 

[PSQ]

Great to hear this! Some of the would be horse haters on here would to well to remember that there are a damn sight worse things that your kids can get into these days, rather than ponies and horses.

Feed bills, vet bills, insurance bills, horse dentist bills, farriers bills, physio bills, bills for lessons, bills for the endless stream of cardboard boxes the couriers bring, the "I bought this in a sale!" bills, entries, accommodation, memberships etc etc....
... I sometimes wonder if cocaine addiction wouldn't cost half as much.

Joking apart, horses are financial vampires, a financial black hole that you can never fill with money: it never stops.

 

[deleted user 87364]

Best horse is a dead horse ! .....unless your selling fodder to them

 

[B R C]

Feed bills, vet bills, insurance bills, horse dentist bills, farriers bills, physio bills, bills for lessons, bills for the endless stream of cardboard boxes the couriers bring, the "I bought this in a sale!" bills, entries, accommodation, memberships etc etc....
... I sometimes wonder if cocaine addiction wouldn't cost half as much.

Joking apart, horses are financial vampires, a financial black hole that you can never fill with money: it never stops.

Tell me about it, we have 4 ponies but I only have two children…..

 

[Hfd Cattle]

I take it you have a different view ........