Would you take out a loan to buy a horse?

Finances are very much on my mind lately (I have a horse: when aren't they?), especially after spending yesterday at Equine Affaire and seeing loads of lovely, expensive horses for sale.

I'm going to assume that if you're a horse person you have gone into debt for something at some point. Maybe for something good, like a new truck or trailer or even a farm. Maybe for something bad, like unexpected vet bills or a new saddle that had to happen sooner rather than later. I shelled out $3k+ in vet bills this summer: I hear you.

In addition to finances, I've also devoted a lot of time to thinking about what my next horse will be like. Don't worry - Tristan is doing great, and not going anywhere. But he's 22, and I'm an obsessive planner. I have some really specific things that I want, and those things are probably not going to be cheap.

I paid $150 for Tristan. $50 of that was a Christmas gift from my family. I often joke that literally everything about him - from his bridle to one set of shoes to my helmet - has cost more than he did.

I will almost certainly not be going that route with my next horse.

So, I ask you:

Would you ever go into debt to buy a horse? Take out a personal bank loan? Pay a broker in installments? Jointly purchase with a trainer and pay back over time? HAVE you ever done this?

I'm genuinely curious. Please let me know if you would, and if so, what the circumstances would be. Or if you have done it, how did it work and did it work out?

Horsey credit cards

I've had the same credit card for many years - basically, since the first time I got a card. It's served me well, but for a variety of reasons, I'm looking to get another one and let the old one sit empty. It'll still be useful as a large credit pool, helping my overall credit score + history, but I'm not loving the rewards right now.

I'm looking at other credit cards and what benefits they offer, and I started to wonder: what are my options in a credit card that would give me horse-specific rewards?

Once upon a time, I had a Dovery Saddlery card. I signed up because it gave me a great signing bonus and I needed/wanted a backup card, just in case. I never really used it, even though it promised rewards. I see that credit card program is still active, but I'm just not sure it would be worth it for the things I can buy at Dover.

Now, if there were a SmartPak or Riding Warehouse card with good benefits, I'd be all over that! But alas, nothing yet.

Right now, I'm leaning toward an Amazon card, but I'm curious - do you use a credit card with benefits for horse purchases? Which one?

The Costs of Owning a Horse, Part 1: January 2016

in summary

In part inspired by Karen's excellent series on her blog, Not So Speedy Dressage, but I have been thinking about putting this together for some time now.

Throughout 2016, I am going to track, monthly, every penny I spend on Tristan. It should give you an idea of what it costs to keep a horse in my specific circumstances.

So, for context, my circumstances are thusly: I keep one horse in central Vermont. He is boarded at what is for the area a higher-end facility. He has a stall and turnout during the day, hay and grain provided. The farm has an indoor, two outdoors, access to dirt roads and some trails, trailer storage, excellent full-time staff, and a choice of resident trainers that are all also excellent. I have access to a tack room and more or less unlimited storage (within reason, but I have two saddles, two bridle racks, a large tack trunk, etc.)

I am not charged extra for blanket changes, feeding supplements, giving basic medications, holding for the vet, holding for the farrier, etc. The barn schedules the farrier and routine vet appointments in conjunction with other horses who use those same professionals, but it's very much my choice to use those specific ones (the barn works with other vets and other farriers in the same way).

I am charged extra for extra shavings (only used when Tris was on stall rest after his surgery), barn-supplied medication (like Previcox), or more involved medical care like soaking his foot.

In terms of the horse, we'll describe Tristan as a senior horse in moderate work, with some health conditions that require ongoing medication, slightly more frequent than average veterinary care, and ongoing supplements that I've found do help him. He goes barefoot and is trimmed every 5 weeks.

In short, I totally and completely lucked out and have basically the best barn ever, because on top of all that, they're all awesome people.

What does all that cost? Here's January's breakdown.

Board: $550, base price
Farrier: $45
Medication: -
$109 - 1 50ml bottle of Pentosan (8-9 month supply)
$96.00 - 1 200mg container of Pergolide (6 month supply)
$6.75 - shipping
Supplements: 
$69.95 - 1 8lb bucket of ReitHoof from Horsetech (60 day supply)
$125.95 - 1 25lb bucket of High Point Grass Pellets from HorseTech (60 day supply)

January 2016 total: $1,002.65
2016 total so far: $1,002.65

How do you calculate & pay your board?

I've been at quite a few barns now, and I've had my board calculated differently at each of them.

At my first barn, I paid after the fact for lessons on a monthly basis. I also worked at that barn regularly because I was flat broke, so the amount I owed each month was very different, sometimes by hundreds of dollars. I kept a running tally myself, but I can't for the life of me remember how they let me know how much I owed. I think it was verbal, honestly. Everything at that barn was verbal, which is amazing considering it was the tightest-run barn I've ever been at.

Barn #2 I only paid two months of board, one of those a sacrifice month due to leaving without notice, so that doesn't count.

Barn #3 was precisely the same base amount each month. There were no extras. I used an outside farrier, a different vet, and never lessoned with the barn's trainer. When I took lessons it was with an outside instructor and I paid that person directly.

Barn #4 was also precisely the same amount each month, and it included four lessons per month, as required. I am still really torn on that system. On the one hand, it was terrific to have a guaranteed weekly lesson, and I really improved quite a lot under that system. On the other hand, my schedule could be unpredictable, and when I missed a lesson it wasn't easy to make up. When Tristan was off for so long, I did some lessoning on other horses, but not consistently. I built up a HUGE bank of lessons that was basically money left on the table, which was hard.

My current barn does it my very favorite way: they invoice me. It sounds so sensible and business-like that I'm amazed I've never seen it before!

F'rexample, here's my July board bill. It's all itemized out: fecal samples, the farrier visit, and the basic board. When I work off lessons, that's accounted for, as are lessons or training rides or other services. They're also dated, so when I file these I have a really good records system. I love it. I also love that the barn covers the farrier and bills me monthly. It baffles me, I have to be honest, but I do like it. It eliminates one of the "did you leave a check?" conversations each month.

Every barn I've ever been at I've paid by check, though. If I could pay by credit card, that would be truly living the dream. I would love to add the points to my stash, especially right now since I'm saving up for the honeymoon in travel points.

5 Equestrian Products Worth Paying Extra For

As may have become apparent through this blog, I am pretty darn cheap.

However: there are some products out there that are worth buying on the more expensive end of things. They're not necessarily what most people think of first. I firmly believe that you can shop smart and get quality tack and clothing at a fraction of the price. (I paid $300 for my jump saddle, an older Passier, for example.)

Here are a few things that I personally have paid a bit more for and been thrilled with.

1. Oster Mane & Tail Brush

Buy @Smartpak, $11.95

I actually did a review of this mane & tail brush some time ago, and you can read my full gushing there.

Suffice to say: I was a buy cheap human brushes at Walmart horseperson...until I borrowed a friend's Oster. Holy mackerel. Little angels appeared and sang in chorus. It is legitimately that good.

I'm not sold on the other Oster brushes - they're nice enough, but not spectacular - but this? This is mane and tail brush perfection, and it is worth paying the

2. Brush Therapy Effervescent Brush Cleaner

Buy @Smartpak, $7.95 for two

This stuff? It is a miracle. A weird, powdery miracle in a purple tube.

It may seem indulgent, but trust me. It will change your life. Here's what you do: fill a rubber feed pan with water. Mix one package of this in. Place all your brushes bristle-side down, so the water covers the bristles. If you have wooden handles, go just below the handle; if you have plastic handles, get the water right up to the handle.

Wait 10 minutes. Take out perfectly clean, brand-new brushes. Rinse them once with clean water and you are done. Miracle.

3. Winter Tall Boots

Buy @Smartpak, range of prices

If you're looking at me funny right now - if you think it's weird to have a pair of tall boots just to ride in the cold - then you've never lived through a New England winter, and I kind of hate you right now. Kidding! No, actually, I'm not.

Is it more than a little indulgent to own an expensive second pair of tall boots for winter riding? Yes. Is it the only way to survive riding through 6' of snow and -17F temperatures with a modicum of grace? Yes. I don't care how many layers of Smartwool you wear underneath regular tall boots, it's not enough. It will never be enough. You need waterproof Thinsulate-lined boots designed for the purpose of keeping your feet functional when it's below zero.

I don't know that I have a specific product recommendation; I have the predecessor to the boots shown above, Ariats that I got as a gift about 8 years ago. They retailed for $250 then, and that's about what you'll pay for a good pair now. WORTH. EVERY. PENNY.

4. Elastikon

Buy @Smartpak, $26.95 for four

Have you ever wrapped a horse in vetwrap, and said every bad word you know and a few you invented while doing so as it slipped and slid everywhere? Like, trying to wrap a hoof? or a hock? or some other twisty bendy tricky part of a horse?

Elastikon is the magic wand you are looking for. It's sticky on one side, but stretches just like vetwrap. It sticks to hair, and then molds around whatever awkward thing you are trying to wrap. It wears like iron - easily twice as tough as vetwrap. I never try to wrap a hoof without it, and I would put the conservative number of hoofs I've wrapped at 2,163.

5. Sore No More Liniment

You can't buy this anywhere right now. :(

I also reviewed this in full. Since that review, there was a national shortage of Sore No More, and I could not get it at Smartpak or locally or anywhere. I sulked, but thought, well, it's expensive anyway. I ordered a bottle of Absorbine. FAIL. I am counting down the days until that bottle is gone.

Accept no substitutes. Pay the extra $ for Sore No More. You won't regret it. (If you can find it. Goddamnit.)

What about you? Is there anything on the more expensive range of products that you've tried and fallen in love with?

How I Spend $40 a Week on Groceries

Some time ago, I wrote a post about how I've managed my horse finances. It hasn't always been easy. When I first got Tristan, I was making less than $20k a year. I lived on $20 a week for groceries. Read the original post if you want more details.

I've mentioned on and off over the years that I still only spend about $40 a week on groceries for the two of us, and people have asked me how we do it. I thought I'd sit down and spell that out.

The following list is not comprehensive, and it's important to understand that there are a few things that do not count in our grocery bill: toiletries, pet food, and the occasional splurge, which I usually cover as part of my own personal spending. (See also, the $11 jar of locally made hazelnut chocolate spread from the farmer's market last week. NOT the most efficient use of grocery funds!)

(photos are all public domain, and linked to their originals on Flickr.)

1. Loss leaders

You may have heard this phrase before. "Loss leaders" are items that are on sale that a store will sell at a loss. The goal is to get you in the door for those spectacularly priced items, and then hope that you will buy other things in order to make up the margin. Think the Black Friday sales at 4am.

Here is the trick to loss leaders: don't buy anything else. In a typical week, I sit down with 2-3 grocery store circulars (the sales ads from newspapers; they're all available online on store websites now) and skim through them. I make a note of what's on sale where, and whether it's worth going to two or more stores. Sometimes it is - if they're on my route, if the sale is good enough - and sometimes it's not. This takes about 30 minutes, max. I often do it during lunch at work on a Wednesday or Thursday.

Keep at this and over time you'll get a sense of a few things. Loss leader sales ($1.99 for boneless chicken breast is a good one up here) repeat at regular intervals. They are located in specific places in the circulars, often mixed among mediocre sales and non-sales. The first page is a good place to start, but look through the whole thing until you start learning instinctively where to look.

So shop for those loss leaders, and don't get suckered into buying five other things that aren't even on sale. Eventually you get into a rhythm: you know how much of something that goes on sale regularly you'll need before the next purchase. I buy, for example, about 5lbs of boneless chicken breast for $10 about every 8-10 weeks. I freeze each chicken breast individually, and since they're big, they're about one meal's worth for my fiance and I. A few weeks ago, I bought 12 boxes of Annie's mac & cheese for $0.88 a box. It usually retails for $1.99 - $2.59 a box

2. Compare prices

Shopping for loss leaders only works if you have a sense of what a good price is. I could tell you, off the top of my head, the prices for my most commonly purchased items at 4 different grocery stores that are on my regular commuting route. I am always scoping out new items and new prices and cataloging the in my head. It's one of the reasons my fiance refuses to go grocery shopping with me: I take my time and always look at three times as many things as I end up buying.

It's part of the game for me. I enjoy food. I like buying it and cooking it and figuring it out. So I'm always curious what's new on the shelves, how much it costs, how much it would take to make a meal with, and keep that information in my head when I'm thinking about meals for the week.

Corollary to this rule: don't buy brand name unless you have to. I buy a mix, based on ingredients and personal preference. I'll always try out a store brand and see how it goes. Sometimes it's utter crap and we soldier through a box and then never buy it again. Sometimes it's exactly the same and costs half as much. For example, there is no mayonnaise but Helmann's mayonnaise and both store brand and Miracle Whip are the devil's piss. But generic ibuprofen is totally fine. I have a handful of dietary restrictions that mean I buy name brands more often than I like - high fructose corn syrup, for example, triggers my gout, as do many of the preservatives in cheap deli meat - but it's all about finding that personal balance.

3. Make a list and stick to it

I can't emphasize this enough. Make a list. Write down the things you need to buy and do not buy anything else. Force yourself to walk out of the store if you have to. When you sit down and look at the grocery store circular, you are in a calm, logical frame of mind. Don't make the list when you're hungry, stressed, upset, etc. Reflect on what's in your fridge and your cupboards, on your week coming up, on any longstanding cravings or curiosities. Peruse the loss leaders.

When I make a list, I do two things, which I admit are a bit obsessive. First, I divide the list by grocery store, and then put items in the order they will be found in the grocery store if I'm making my typical route. See above re exploring the grocery store, getting to know the layout and what's available. That means that I spend less time going back and forth and am therefore less susceptible to the traps at grocery stores - and I don't say that lightly. There is actual science in the way that grocery stores are laid out. They are designed to keep you wandering and to attract your attention to buy more food. Don't let them.

The second thing I do is I make a quick notation of price next to the item. I round up for any cents so I'm sure that there's overage. Then I skim the list and do a quick mental tally. If I've reached the end of my must-haves for the week with room left in the budget, that's indulgence money. I think about something I want to snack on at work or the barn, something the fiance loves but I rarely buy, or a new ingredient for a recipe I want to try. If it fits in the budget, then I add that to the list. Some people do meal planning; this has never worked for me. Instead, I have a set list of things that I buy on a regular basis, and a variety of ways to combine them depending on mood and time.

Final corollary to this rule: for the love of little green apples, do not go grocery shopping while hungry. Your eyes will get bigger than your stomach and you'll end up at the register staring at the pile of food you just bought and wondering how in God's name you will a) afford it all and b) eat it all. See also, the three different kinds of ice cream in my freezer right now.

4. Learn to eat creatively

All of my tips assume that you are at least a semi-competent and/or adventurous cook. If you are buying pre-made foods, pizza, quick and easy stuff, then you're screwed no matter what. There is simply no way to put together an affordable, healthy grocery shopping trip buying things you can just throw in an oven or microwave. I'm sorry.

Cooking is not difficult. It takes time, sweat, tears, some ruined food, and patience, but it is not a difficult thing unless we're talking really complicated stuff. Look: if I can spend 9 months killing the rise on every loaf of bread I made, then you, too, can learn basic kitchen skills. Once you do, the world's your oyster. You can be clever and thoughtful about the ingredients you buy and the way you put them together.

Cooking skills are the difference between "aaaaah, there's nothing in the cupboard, I have to order a pizza!" and "hm, I have a few weird ingredients but I think I can make something of this." Learn the flavors you like, and how to play around with food to make them. This will also help you with the loss leaders: typically there are 2-3 items of in-season produce that are dirt cheap. Buying lots of that and learning how to convert it into tasty food is an invaluable skill.

Corollary to this rule: eat less meat. Your bank account and the environment will thank you. I am most emphatically not a vegetarian, but between dietary and budgetary restrictions, I do a lot of experimenting with different kinds of protein. Meat is, for its dietary impact, ludicrously expensive. I only ever buy it on sale. Ever. I really mean that. We eat meat once, maybe twice a week. In the meantime: lentils, beans, eggs, nuts, and other delicious things are great for protein and they're all cheap.

5. Buy in bulk when you can

Say it with me: price per unit. You don't even have to be good at math. You don't even have to have a calculator. Most grocery stores will put the price per unit on the tag on the shelf! The typical grocery store price tag has the name of the item, and the price of the item. To the left of the price of the item is almost always the price per unit - per ounce, pound, gallon, you name it.

Buying small, cute sizes of non-perishable groceries is a fool's errand. I have lived in tiny, tiny apartments, and so I feel confident in saying to you that no matter how small your kitchen is, you can find some things that make more sense to buy in bulk. We're not talking Costco levels of absurdity, here. Just looking for a few seconds longer at the label and realizing something like this: that jar of mayonnaise is $3.89, which is a bit pricey when there's a smaller jar next to it for $1.89. But look! The large jar is more than twice as big, and its price per ounce is $0.15 less. That means that each delicious spoonful of this mayonnaise costs less, and the jar will still fit easily in my fridge. Try not to think too hard about the black magic that means mayonnaise never goes bad.

Obviously, caveats apply: you need to eat these things regularly, you need to have a plan for the food you buy, both for storage and consumption, and you need to be smart about it. Yes, 200 rolls of toilet paper for $0.50 per roll is a great deal but when have moved that same package of toilet paper from three different apartments, you will regret it.

Last piece of this rule is to also think about your price per serving of food. I have rough rules in my head for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and what constitutes a less versus more expensive type of meal. My typical breakfast is $0.50 - $0.75 in food costs: one English muffin ($0.25), 2 tbs peanut butter ($0.15), one mug of tea ($0.10). If I went with an egg and a slice of cheese instead it's closer to $0.75. Still way less even than the dollar menu at McDonald's, and tastier besides!

Let's apply this rule to dinner. I try to stay below $2.00 per person. I most often accomplish this by cooking in bulk and saving servings for lunches later in the week. Chicken casserole, which makes 6 servings: chicken ($1.00), box of pasta ($0.88), chicken stock (free, because I make my own, but for the sake of argument, $1.00), butter ($0.50), flour ($0.25), milk ($0.50). That's a base of $4.25; typically, I'll add some kind of in-season vegetable to it, like mushrooms or broccoli or peas. Let's say that brings it up to $6.00. That's $1.00 per serving. Maybe I have a glass of milk and a salad on the side - another $1.50.

You can make yourself crazy doing the math for every penny, but the really important thing is to just think about it, a little bit.

So, that is the very long, possibly overly-involved way that I keep our grocery spending to around $40 a week. Some weeks more, some weeks less. With the new house, I went on a bit of a stocking up rampage and spent $110 in one grocery trip, which still makes me slightly queasy. OTOH, we are set through most of June, so there's that?

Do you have a horse emergency fund?

I'm currently devoting all my extra cash toward building Tristan's emergency fund back up. I had a really solid personal emergency fund as well as a decent horse-specific one, but, well, the last 2 years or so have not gone so well for either of those two accounts. My personal emergency fund is on its own dedicated savings plan, but Tristan's account has mostly been seeded with a few dollars here, a few dollars there.

So as I am making plans, I found myself wondering: how many people out there have a horse-specific emergency fund? Hence the poll.

What do you do for extra cash?

Horse people know that money is always in short supply, right? 

I'm curious as to what people have done to earn some extra money for showing, vet bills, or just to shore their bank accounts up on a tough month. As we start to get ready to buy a house, money is even more on my mind. My savings are still not rebounding as quickly as I'd like, so I need to start tightening spending and focusing on ways to save and to add more value overall to my budget.

I've been thinking about the ways that I've done that in the past so I thought I'd toss a few of them out there and get your feedback. (I'll intersperse with horse photos so that you're not bored silly!)

In grad school, I picked up a few odd jobs for professors: I spent a few weeks proofing and copyediting in French, checking all the footnotes and bibliographic entries for a new book. I also worked briefly for an educational startup, and earned about $3k writing history essays that funded my summer schooling and showing.

Part of the key to using extra cash for horse expenses is keeping other expenses down, so I've done a few things over the years to earn Amazon.com gift cards. I convert those into other things, primarily gifts (around Christmas) and household necessities. 

I used Swagbucks.com for a while, but honestly? Not something I'd necessarily recommend. I used it when I had a desk job with lots of down time built in, so I could spend an hour or two a day doing the searches and hunting down high value tasks. The way it works is that you use their search engine, or perform certain tasks (surveys, sign up for 30 day offers, etc.) and you earn Swagbucks. Earn enough Swagbucks and you can trade them in for all sorts of things. I always swapped them for Amazon.com gift cards in $5 denominations. Over the course of 18 months, I earned ~$200 in gift cards. I used that to purchase a ton of supplies when I first moved in with my fiance. It was a LOT of work, though, and sometimes I screwed up with the special offers and had to pay for some services.

One of the most lucrative things I've done has been consumer testing. I did it a fair bit as a teenager, and have picked it up again lately. Lots of consumer research companies are always looking for people to test, and you can earn good money for offering your opinion on various products. Sometimes you have to fit a specific profile, and sometimes they'll just take anyone to taste test, watch commercials, or brainstorm. I've tested packaging, hot chocolate, candy bar arrangements, kitchen layouts, you name it. Recently, I've established a relationship with a local company that offers occasional opportunities, and it's been really helpful. If you live close to a major city, you probably have this option, and for an hour or two of time you can make $50+. I made $150 once for a 2 hour interview/testing when I was a teenager and all I had to do was talk about what might be exciting names and descriptions for potato chips.

Lately, I've gotten into Amazon's Mechanical Turk. You get paid small amounts for performing small tasks: typing in things from scanned receipts, identifying photographs, taking some short surveys. It's total no-brain work and honestly the return isn't great: you'd make far more getting a second job if that's what you have time for. But I don't have the time. So Mechanical Turk is something I can do on a laptop while we're watching TV at night. Half an hour or so of doing it in the background earns me a few dollars. If I plug away while we're watching and engage just a tiny portion of my brain, I earn a decent amount. The money goes right into Amazon.com, and if I keep at it - half an hour here, half an hour there - it really adds up. I can order staples like toilet paper, paper towels, etc., and save my cash for other, horse-related expenses.

So, that's a quick summary of non-traditional ways I've used to add a little more cash into my horse budget! I've never had the time for a part-time job, since I've either been in grad school or had a full-time job that was waaaaaay more than full time. So I don't have hours and hours to devote to something - and if I do, the best return on an investment is almost always going to be to work at the barn in return for lessons.

What have you done to earn some extra money for horse activities?

Bread Delivery and Other Barters

Once or twice a week, I get a call on my cell phone. Usually it's late morning. The number on my screen comes up as "Manghi's Bread."

Seeing that number on my cell phone almost always makes me smile. It's a signal that the owner of the local bakery is calling me and asking me to make a delivery for her. The only time it makes me sad is when I'm out of town and won't be back by 5pm.

On the days I can make the delivery, I leave work right on time, walk home, grab my car, and stop by the bakery. It always smells delicious, and everyone is cheerful. I take the slightly longer route to the barn and I pull over a few times at a small local hardware store, or coop, or country store.

It only adds 15-20 minutes to my evening, and it makes me happy to have my car smell of fresh-baked bread. Each time I make a delivery, I can order off the menu: I get one of anything I want. Usually, I opt for a loaf of whole wheat sandwich bread, but sometimes I'll get a honey bran, or maple walnut, or oatmeal.

I honestly can't remember the last time I bought a loaf of bread. I think it's been over two years. Either a Manghi's delivery run comes along at just the right time, or I bake some bread of my own. I love bread, and would happily eat a loaf every two or three days, so I try to limit myself to really high-quality bread with straightforward ingredients. It's my own small version of portion control.

Delivering bread is also great because it adds in an ironclad guarantee that I'll go to the barn. Especially in winter, it's much too easy to look at the temperature, get discouraged, and not even go out to groom. The last stop on my typical bread run is just 5 minutes from the barn. On days when I know that it's too cold to ride, I often grab Arya and bring her with me, and we work on some training at the barn. I tie her leash to Tristan's stall and we work on a long wait while I fuss over him.

I've bartered for other things in my life, too, horsey and not. I work with my friend to trade either a bag of home-baked goodies or business/website work for Tristan's massages. I've done many, many hours of chores to earn lesson credits. I've traded tack, or hauling. I've taken barters in return when I've provided help or services for another person. There's something more personal and satisfying about it to me - and it helps me afford a lot of things I wouldn't be able to do otherwise. I quite simply don't have the $200 a month in my budget for regular lessons, but if I carve out enough time I can get quality advice.

Have you ever bartered for things in your horse life? What's worked for you? Or do you prefer to keep business separate, and pay for everything you get?

Horse Husbands & Finances

Lauren at She Moved to Texas raised an interesting and important question: do you discuss your horse finances with your significant other? Read the comments - they're thoughtful and comprehensive!

I thought I'd take a minute to outline the way I handle my horse finances.

When I first adopted Tristan, I was working in a year-long paid internship at my undergraduate college. My take-home pay was about $18,000 that year. I adopted Tristan for $150 on January 2.

Field board for Tristan for the first two years I owned him saved a lot of money.

That first year was really, really hard. I had been sharing a house with other college friends, but they all moved away at the end of December, leaving me with one roommate who was an acquaintance but not a close friend. It was a big, mostly uninsulated house on the side of a mountain in Vermont in a town with a population of 765. Yes, really.

I snuck into the college dining halls for breakfast and lunch every day. I ordered one, sometimes two, items from the McDonald's dollar menu on the way home from the barn every night. My roommate basically did not live in the house for the months of January and February, and the house was heated by wood stove and a furnace that took heating oil. I couldn't afford heating oil, and didn't entirely understand how to order it anyway. Every night I got home from the barn at 9pm after fighting with the snowy mountain roads, put wood in the stove, poured lighter fluid onto it, flicked a match into it, put on three layers of clothing, my winter coat, my winter hat, gloves, scarf, piled on blankets, and slept on the couch in front of the wood stove. Going up to my bedroom was not an option; the frost was half an inch thick on the inside of the windows.

Every weekend, all day, I worked at the barn to help pay for board and lessons. I picked up shifts during the week when I could. I borrowed a saddle until I could buy a friend's for $300. I bought a $20 bridle at auction. I owned one pair of breeches and the $75 clearance tall boots I had bought four years earlier.

That summer, I moved out of the house, down into the valley, closer to the barn. I lived in a studio apartment that was so small I actually kicked open my refrigerator door in the middle of the night. Really. I swear. It was stiflingly hot in the summer, and the only thing I owned to put my TV on was an upside down tupperware bin; one day it softened and practically melted underneath the TV and the whole thing sort of sagged sideways in slow motion. (Thankfully the TV was ok! It was probably the most expensive thing I owned at the time.) My budget for groceries was $20 a week, and I still worked at the barn constantly.

I still saved money. I was never in debt. I never went hungry. I was content and happy. So I don't tell these stories to make anyone feel sorry for me! I had graduated from an excellent college with no debt, I had great life skills, and I was willing to work hard.

Things slowly got better, and the lessons I learned in that first year have stuck to me. Our grocery budget is still $40-$50 a week for two people. I scrimp and save and budget and Tristan has never, ever wanted for anything. I make a decent living now, but I work in nonprofits: I'll never match my two younger brothers, who are a computer engineer and management consultant respectively.

Owning a horse is so insanely difficult. It is one of the stupidest things I could do with my money. But to me, it is worth every penny.

Here are a few lessons that still stick with me.

Have a separate bank account for horse finances. I've maintained this for almost ten years now, and it works beautifully. I estimate a monthly cost for board and farrier bills, and then I add in a small padding percentage. I have that amount automatically deposited each month, and that's where I draw money from. If I buy something for Tristan with my credit card, I pay from that account. I write checks from that account. If there's overage - from an extra pay day or the like - it goes into a horse-specific savings account. It's not a perfect system - things come up. But it is the best system I've ever found, because it helps cordon me off from temptation, and it helps me stick to a budget.

You probably don't need that. The newest best whatever it is. That fast food dinner or lunch. Cable. The fanciest new car on the lot. Whatever "that" is, you probably don't need it. You need good nutritious food, a safe, clean place to live, and ways to engage your mind and body. Your horse needs the same. Is it fun to buy extras? Sure. I've done it. Do you need it? As in, you can't live without it? As in, you're okay with it costing 2-3x as much because you had to have it and so you put it on your credit card? The number of things in that category is extremely small. Possibly nonexistent.

Be honest with yourself and your partner. Don't say that your future self will take care of that bill. Don't pretend you need that thing. Don't lie to your partner about money. This stuff will ruin you if you let it. Keep a constant, watching eye on what you do, on yourself, on your reasons for choosing the things you do, and on the ways in which the money is going in and out. It's so easy to slip and justify. Don't stick your head in the sand. Face up to it. Applying your willpower to this area of your life will unlock all the doors for you. It's that important.

Get by with a little help from your friends. I'm very conscious of inherited privilege on all levels. I've been lucky in many ways. I have a wonderful, supportive family who have backed me up and taught me good lessons. I have knowledgeable, wonderful, supportive friends who have helped me out when I needed it - ridden along in the truck for moral support, offered a barter system for goods and services, bent the rules to make things just a little easier, and shared their incredible experience with me so I can make better decisions. Don't underestimate the value - social, economic, on every possible level - of a good support network.

I don't mean to preach, but this is something I feel very strongly about, in all areas of my life. Nobody's perfect - so says my smidge of credit card debt leftover from a very bad fall, and my slooooooowly rebounding emergency fund from Tristan's vet bills - but when you internalize good principles, you put yourself in a MUCH better position to rebuild. Ultimately, that makes life safer and happier for both you and your horse.

Worrying

This was never going to be a week conducive to rest and relaxation. I'm leaving for a long-planned vacation/road trip on Friday night, and there are dozens of small details I still have to arrange before then. Work is work. I'm facing up to some major changes in my life going forward.

However, two things right now are particularly heartburn-inducing.

The first is that I just mailed my entry to the King Oak Farm Fall Horse Trials. This is it. This is what we've been working toward all summer: our first (and likely only) recognized USEA horse trials. I've obliterated any semblance of budget I may have had as well as a few savings accounts to get us to this point, fretted and stressed and worked hard in every single ride I had available to me, shunted all other commitments to the side. After all that work, I'm still not sure we're ready. Oh, we'll be safe. Tris will go around. We certainly will not be competitive, but then my goal was always to complete, not to compete. But will it be a good, positive experience for both of us? Will I embarrass my friends and my barn and my trainer? (I worry a bit as well about embarrassing myself, but I'm more or less used to that.) I wish I didn't feel so sure that this is our one shot, and I wish I didn't feel such pressure to do it right. I wish I could be one of the many hundreds of people who surely enter willy-nilly and without carrying so much baggage.

My secondary panic is tied to the above: I'm stretching every bit of financial give I have. I had planned out the summer carefully but not allowed enough of a buffer, and I've had to dip into some savings accounts to round out the edges, and that stings. Last month there was the vet bill for the abscess; this month, my jump saddle needed billet repair, the truck needed new brake calipers & hoses, and my car insurance came due and increased in price. I spent the first three weeks of July running under budget and in the last week went $1k over. I am by nature a financially cautious person, which is at odds with being a horse owner. There are plenty of internet jokes about the expense of horses, but the hard truth is that owning a horse? Is a really, really poor financial choice. That becomes apparent to me in very dark moments when I realize that many other life possibilities are closed off by horse ownership, especially when I rely 100% on myself for all of my plans - buying a house, having kids, doing any sort of traveling that doesn't involve my tent.

Most of the time I cope. This week, on top of all the other planning and figuring out and anticipation, it's got me nearly constantly on the edge of a panic attack.