d3bbievictor
Tourist
for upkeep and the like? liek atoy horse like a farrabella or similar
Whats the cost of a mini horse?
- Thread starter d3bbievictor
- Start date
Feeding one of my minis is cheaper than my large doggy, but unfortunately veterinary care is the same as with a full sized equine.
countersoul
Lurker
Try 10 MILLION, Scrub.
Espedus
BANNED
Ok 10 million
saddlebum66
Supreme Citizen of ZV
That's another of the " If you have to ask....." questions.
There's nothing wrong with inquiring about the matter at hand. It could very well be that Debbie's financial situation just isn't **quite** ideal enough for a full sized horse, but she figures that maybe it might just be good enough for a mini horse as they are considerably smaller in size. (although she hasn't specified that as a reason, it's just a "could be" reason.) There are no stupid questions (well maybe some), but there are stupid answers. Her question could also be just an inquiry in general.
Except for food, they cost the same. $300-400/yr in vaccines and dewormer. $40 ish per 6-8wks for farrier. If you're boarding commercially, they may charge you the same as a big horse, could be $400-600/mo, more if a stallion. Vet calls cost the same, prob at least $200 a year if all goes well. If not, we just paid a $7000 vet bill for one of our minis. Food, 2 bales of hay a week maybe, that's $40-80/mo depending where you live. Bag a grain a month maybe,$10-20.
Animallover
Citizen of Zooville
Figure out the cost of what food, vet, hay, water, boarding and accessories around you would cost and then triple it and then you'll have it about right
Also you don't want to keep a horse alone, so another horse or a companion animal at least would be good. They do get pretty lonely on their own.
You can keep them in a large ish backyard if you are on quarter acre or so, but you will need to buy in hay and get rid of the manure. Also depending on your local regulations it may or may not be allowed.
Wormer is $20 per tube here, will last 3-4 times for mini. Agistment for stallions can be expensive but you can find a good deal if some one needs to keep the grass down on their acreage.
You can keep them in a large ish backyard if you are on quarter acre or so, but you will need to buy in hay and get rid of the manure. Also depending on your local regulations it may or may not be allowed.
Wormer is $20 per tube here, will last 3-4 times for mini. Agistment for stallions can be expensive but you can find a good deal if some one needs to keep the grass down on their acreage.
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Bigpaws_Bear
Esteemed Citizen of ZV
Prices Vary Greatly, here's a few listings from my local Craigs'list.
All of these are from TODAYS listings Sunday August 16 2020
Mini horse, show quality - farm & garden - by owner - sale
Wildfire at Vulture Ridge, a 2019 chestnut tobiano colt currently 31.5”- great show prospect,...
fayar.craigslist.org
Mini ponies - farm & garden - by owner - sale
4 mini ponies. The 2 brown ones $500 each and the grey and Appaloosa $1000 each. Call or text Five...
fayar.craigslist.org
Palomino Pinto Mini Mare "SOLD" - farm & garden - by owner - sale
Hi, I have a beautiful approximately 8-year-old miniature horse for sale. "Buttercup" is broke to...
springfield.craigslist.org
All of these are from TODAYS listings Sunday August 16 2020
Hewflungpew
Citizen of Zooville
i am inclined to agree with saddlebum.
While I see both side's.
Its my oppinon that if you have no or little knowledge of the animal you intend to keep it will be the animal that suffers for your ignorance.
And that is somthing I can't and won't stand for.
Even experienced horsemen are still learning. Why put an animal throu any discomfort just cause you want him/her.
Selfish selfish selfish@selfish.com
UR20Z
Dumpster Diver
And that post demonstrates that you have no actual knowledge worth speaking of, and a total lack of anything related to being qualified to do anything with horses but stand at a safe distance and look at them.
After dealing with a barn full of them for the last ten years or so, I can tell you without any hesitation that the only thing that's cheaper about minis compared to "regular" horses is the feed bill. Everything else about their upkeep is AT LEAST as much as a regular horse, and may even be more expensive. Vet bills are likely to be higher, as they're prone to founder (Very few realize until too late that feeding them like a regular horse is a *WONDERFUL* recipe for founder) Colic treatment costs at least as much (and they tend to do that more often that regulars, for the same reason as founder) *MANY* of them have teeth/mouth issues, since their teeth are very, very often - often enough that I'd be tempted to call it "normal" for them - full size, crammed into a too-small-to-fit head/jaw. They seem (at least to me) to be prone to skin conditions for no obvious reason. Feet issues like abscesses seem to be more common than in regular horses, especially if they're on terrain that can be called anything like stoney. And trying to find a farrier that will do anything more than take one look and realize that you want him to deal with minis before he turns around and jumps into his truck and burns rubber to get the fuck out of dodge, never to be heard from again, is something of an adventure. As a barn-hand with the ability to do trims in an emergency, I can testify that dealing with a mini's feet, no matter how well-mannered it happens to be, is *MUCH* more strain and pain in the ass than doing the identical service for a regular (or even draft-size) horse - There's just plain no good way to get into position to do the job because of how small they are.
Basically, you need to plan on a mini-horse costing at least as much as a regular horse. And then double it, 'cause you need to have at least two - a lone horse, mini or otherwise, is a horse that's miserable, and in the process of going insane.
All-in-all, I have to agree with @saddlebum66's summary: If you need to ask the question...
a negative comment towards someone doing research and asking questions before making a big decision. such a big boy
The things I agree on, dental issues. Mini mare I've got does have them with teeth being too large for the jaw. Mini cross stallion does not.
My minis have great hooves, especially the stallion, never had any issues knock on wood. The farriers do grumble a bit when they have to do them as this is a lot of bending over compared to a full size horses. But the farriers have not been running off like mad on me. Some mini places actually have got a special farriers ramp for this purpose if they have a lot of minis to be done.
Laminitis, yes I have heard they could be prone to it on the new spring grass, especially mini Shetland variety, so I usually lock them up in a crappy grass paddock for such times, but never had issues knock on wood again.
But it's not all that expensive to keep a mini to be honest. Biggest costs are feed and agistment, and if you can find 2-5 acres that someone needs to keep the grass low on, that can be rather inexpensive. Fencing needs to be in order though as little buggers love escaping, especially if the paddock is low on grass or something.
I agree re experience, it's best to start working with horses for a bit, like volunteer at a local barn or something, before diving in head first and buying a horse of your own.
Around here they can be had for $100-$500, but often the purchase price isn't the biggest expense, it's the up keep. I'd budget in $100 per week at least to start with for one, and $150 for two minis.
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UR20Z
Dumpster Diver
Gawd, I wish I was wherever you are! A two-twine 70-80 pound bale of timothy so bad (by my standards) that I'd hesitate to feed it to cattle (but have to settle for, since it's quite literally the only thing there is to be had other than alfalfa that's priced even worse, and if you sink a thermometer into it, usually shows a "fever" of 115F or higher 'cause it gets baled so damned wet it's a miracle that it doesn't burst into flames on the spot, or so-called "local" that I don't consider fit to be used as bedding, never mind feed) runs between $23 and $31, depending on which cutting, and what month it happens to be when you're trying to buy it. (from about the second week of December to roughly late April to mid-May, prices go through the ceiling around here - it isn't unheard of to see the same bale of second-cutting timothy you paid $25 for in August going for $40+ in February)
And grain? Where in the name of Epona are you finding grain going for less than $25/bag??? Around here, that's starting price for a plain white bag with a stitched-on tag that reads "Oats, Crimped - net weight 50 pounds - product of XYZ Farm". Start getting into "fancy" stuff (meaning basically anything with a brand name and a picture of a horse on the bag) like Nutrena Senior, Omolene, or anything more "interesting" than generic C.O.B., and you start seeing price tags starting at $35 and going up. Depending on exactly how "fancy" you go, you can easily find yourself in the $50+/bag range.
In here, pasture grass hay is $12-15 a square bale, Lucerne (alfalfa) around $22 a square. Much cheaper in round rolls of you have room to store, $100 for a 5x4 round roll of grass hay. We don't usually feed grain to our minis, they are on the grass mostly plus a vitamins supplement.
Bagged pellet feeds, yeah start from $35 upwards
Bagged pellet feeds, yeah start from $35 upwards
saddlebum66
Supreme Citizen of ZV
You know, pardner...I never said it was a stupid question, nor did I Imply it. Apparently, while we're agreed that there are NO stupid questions, there are people who make bad assumptions. What I said was half of the old Maxim: " If you have to ask, you can't afford it". That's just as valid today as it has been for maybe the last million years. If you can make something bad out of that, I guess you've been hanging around the internet too long and maybe not enough in a Library or with live people.
Do you have land or boarding the horse somewhere?
mareman123
Tourist
one thing i keep seeing is founder: minis get fat on air lol. i like the ration balancer feeds as they are low calorie one bag of Purina's enrich costs $30 i think lasts a full size horse 50 days so a mini would last longer. farrier is every 5-6 weeks probably 6-7 on a mini not being ridden that is $50/horse, vet bill is a couple hundred every spring for vaccines & dental, emergency bills can add up quick, when you want to go away have to find someone to come over and feed/water, hay can be hit/miss in availability/quality/price depending on the area,
I would say best to start working morning or evening at a boarding barn helping with stalls and stuff to get a better idea if the lifestyle is for you
I would say best to start working morning or evening at a boarding barn helping with stalls and stuff to get a better idea if the lifestyle is for you
I always thought that was a funny anti-zoo argument that we have sex with animals because its cheaper and easier than humans.
Like, do you know how expensive and labor and time consuming it is to take care of horses? Lol if i wanted easy, cheap sex, just pay an escort lol.
I feed "top shelf" Nutrena feed at $23/bag. You can get crap quality "All Stock" feed for $9 here. Hay is about $5.50/bale but we import ours and pay $155 for 800lbs. You can pick small squares out of the field for $3 in some areas. You just have to find a good horse friendly place to live
Like Kentucky, for example lol. Out west prices get a lot higher, and in the NE as well.
ScreamingTrees
Lurker
I've had experience with the costs of horses from 800 - 2200lbs, so I sort of know the worst case stuff. I too have been researching minis, and my answer is basically rounding down from what I know (minis I assume are in the 300-500lb range.) I've also made a point of not reading the other replies yet to keep my bullshit all pure af.
Vet care is the only wildly variable cost. The rest is fairly reasonable, with some caveats. Why is the vet expensive when you can (with jurisdictional variations) do so much of it yourself? Because, averaged over the life of a horse, there will be some bad things that happen, and that $100 annual visit suddenly gets an added $2000 colic, or whatever. You have to assume shit is going to happen. Check out insurance plans.
Food I assume to be less than with the full size, so here are some thoughts on food: It can be reasonable if there is forage, however, one thing I've noticed is that minis can founder quite easily apparently, which requires you to carefully control diet (a pain in the ass, and also more expensive) so forage doesn't automatically mean free food. What is forage? I mean just quality hay or a field they can graze, which is very geography dependent. Another variable is where you want to put the mini - if you live in Los Angeles you're going to have a hard time with affording an acre and keeping it green.
The benefit of being a zoo is if you are going to be a horse person, and you are fine with throwing away societies' expectations wrt marriage and 1.3 kids or whatever, you can arrange your life to accommodate horses. Move to some not-a-housing-bubble rural corner, buy or rent affordable space there: This will get you cheap forage, and you might find that hay prices happen to be much less than you were paying as well.
Also, here's some advice I got from watching many horse people: Don't buy stupid shit. Seriously, there's a ton of crap that horse people think they "need" but if you watch people doing horses on a budget, they don't get all that shit. They don't buy fly spray, they change when they turn out, for example. If you are getting the "oh, you'll need to buy the special blanket with the special matching halter..." shit from people, just nod politely and stare off into the middle distance.
So, how much per month would I guess a mini would cost? I'd wild-ass guess just around $100, averaged out, with a bigger month or three off the start as you buy stuff you'll need. That's assuming you've aligned your life to horse ownership and got a bit of forage and turnout and he or she is in your yard somewhere so there is no boarding fee. Note again that I don't have mini experience specifically, but I have some experience with anything over a mini.
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EDITS (after seeing other replies, lol)
- Lots of better responses than mine, lol
- I forgot farrier costs, but you can trim yourself if you're handy. Takes a bit of skill, but a big $ saver if you are tight
- The "know your area" stuff is fair. Hay where I am is reasonable, but it isn't reasonable everywhere, obviously.
- The price of the horse is almost not important: The ongoing costs are where horses suck the life out of you, lol
Vet care is the only wildly variable cost. The rest is fairly reasonable, with some caveats. Why is the vet expensive when you can (with jurisdictional variations) do so much of it yourself? Because, averaged over the life of a horse, there will be some bad things that happen, and that $100 annual visit suddenly gets an added $2000 colic, or whatever. You have to assume shit is going to happen. Check out insurance plans.
Food I assume to be less than with the full size, so here are some thoughts on food: It can be reasonable if there is forage, however, one thing I've noticed is that minis can founder quite easily apparently, which requires you to carefully control diet (a pain in the ass, and also more expensive) so forage doesn't automatically mean free food. What is forage? I mean just quality hay or a field they can graze, which is very geography dependent. Another variable is where you want to put the mini - if you live in Los Angeles you're going to have a hard time with affording an acre and keeping it green.
The benefit of being a zoo is if you are going to be a horse person, and you are fine with throwing away societies' expectations wrt marriage and 1.3 kids or whatever, you can arrange your life to accommodate horses. Move to some not-a-housing-bubble rural corner, buy or rent affordable space there: This will get you cheap forage, and you might find that hay prices happen to be much less than you were paying as well.
Also, here's some advice I got from watching many horse people: Don't buy stupid shit. Seriously, there's a ton of crap that horse people think they "need" but if you watch people doing horses on a budget, they don't get all that shit. They don't buy fly spray, they change when they turn out, for example. If you are getting the "oh, you'll need to buy the special blanket with the special matching halter..." shit from people, just nod politely and stare off into the middle distance.
So, how much per month would I guess a mini would cost? I'd wild-ass guess just around $100, averaged out, with a bigger month or three off the start as you buy stuff you'll need. That's assuming you've aligned your life to horse ownership and got a bit of forage and turnout and he or she is in your yard somewhere so there is no boarding fee. Note again that I don't have mini experience specifically, but I have some experience with anything over a mini.
----------
EDITS (after seeing other replies, lol)
- Lots of better responses than mine, lol
- I forgot farrier costs, but you can trim yourself if you're handy. Takes a bit of skill, but a big $ saver if you are tight
- The "know your area" stuff is fair. Hay where I am is reasonable, but it isn't reasonable everywhere, obviously.
- The price of the horse is almost not important: The ongoing costs are where horses suck the life out of you, lol
T
tamlilcat
Guest
I owned a mini stallion. The cost was about $100-150 a month. He was very healthy, and we never had any major vet bills. Except for his normal check ups. As far as his hooves went. They make some really cute little shoes for them. We didn't have much problems with his hooves as the guy we got him from was a farrier as well. He was a lot of fun, and sadly he passed away very unexpectedly one day. I really miss my little Charlie horse.
saddlebum66
Supreme Citizen of ZV
Always good to know when I put sand in your shorts, little man.
caikgoch
Esteemed Citizen of ZV
I see something missing from this conversation so far. If you are going to keep a stallion, you are going to need a special fence. Do not doubt that. Minis can slip through common fences and a stallion will create powerful temptations. Take this from a long time stallion keeper, even when he doesn't go mare hunting, mares come to him. Where do you think the proverb "Good fences make good neighbors" came from?
saddlebum66
Supreme Citizen of ZV
Robert Frost??
I'm keeping mine behind double fence, first one two electric tapes, second normal plain steel wire fence, 1.5m apart.
caikgoch
Esteemed Citizen of ZV
Yep, that kind of setup is pretty common when you look at stud farms. And BTW, just because he's mini doesn't mean that full size mares won't be interested or interesting to him.