tbh when I ran into the āhorses are for rich peopleā bullshit I was so confused because theyāre cheaper than a motorcycle? cheaper than an iPhone? then I realized most people werenāt dealing with the $900-$3k auction slaughterhouse bound pasture ornaments I grew up riding. I get that theyāre extraordinarily cost prohibitive pets, especially if you donāt live in an area where land is as cheap as the dirt but you say āhorseā and Iām like. oh yeah.
horse.
like ohhhhhhh. you meant an $18k+ thoroughbred that is somehow more inbred than any of these 3 sad little equines. havenāt encountered many of those.
also it is so interesting to talk to these people about how they got their horses. I met a woman who had a really beautiful white gelding and I asked her how she got him and she proceeded to explain to me he was mauled by a pack of feral dogs (common in my area) and his elderly owner didnāt have the money to get him treated or the desire to put him down so he was giving away this poor baby on a first come first serve basis. one of my momās neighbors inherited an elderly horse from his ex girlfriend and had the horse on essentially horse hospice for years and the horse was just not ready to go. there is a horse distribution system like the cat distribution system.
the term ānever look a gift horse in the mouthā is still relevant and there are still people trying to gift you horses with terrible dental issues. for free.
I love telling people that my mum bought my familyās first horse at a yard sale. We lived in a really rural area at the time and yeah, our neighbours (next ranch/farm over) had a yard sale and sold off three of their old ranch horses. She bought one for $200, led it down their lane and then up our lane and tada we had a horse in our back pasture!
Mr Mustang was $400 from the Bureau of Land Management.
Pal was $900 from my godmother who had some vet bills to clear up.
And thatās the ones we paid for. We had a whole suite of elderly horses while I was growing up that we just got for free. Elderly school horses who were retiring or old kids ponies with asthma in need of a good home to live out their days. They were great horses who had a ton to teach me.
There is absolutely a horse distribution system like the cat distribution system, you just need to be in the right place and also be happy to have an older horse with probably some health issues (and definitely terrible teeth).
MOST horses are not owned by the rich. But those are the /visible/ horses if youāre in an urban or suburban area.
(Yes itās a weirdly phrased set of data and probably a little out of date)
