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My wife thinks she will have enough saved for a horse by September. She's scheduled a week's vacation to visit a guy near Chicago that her trainer trusts to pick out a horse. I don't know what might happen if she doesn't find one there that suits her. She will pick with her heart, not her head, which explains how she ended up with her current husband and two dogs.
Her grand plan, if everything were to work out the way she dreams, is that we would have two horses, trailer them to various parks, and trail ride. I'm more or less okay with that, I'm just worried with the costs I haven't considered yet, hence this thread. If I can get away with a $5000 tractor, great, but I think that's fairly unrealistic unless I want to be fixing it all the time. Is closer to $10k reasonable? I think I can get away without a skid steer, maybe rent one for fence projects or whatever. I suppose I'll have to get a bigger truck, a horse trailer, and a flatbed to haul the tractor / rental skid steer / hay.
My more fiscally conservative plan is this. She boards the horse at the barn she's currently getting lessons, we either find or build a house somewhere closer to the barn, on a little more land than I have now. I have a 0.45 acre lot now, but it's 92 ft wide and the sometimes the neighbors are a little too close. If she wants to go on a ride together, we can go somewhere for a trail ride. I know, it won't be on her horse, and we'll only trot a little bit and never canter, but I won't be living in a cardboard box in 10 years either.
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