Geez, I'm outta here, this is too much I'm drowning in showy-ness! I don't even have a towing vehicle, let alone a float...for now...and have theoretically sent us bankrupt by eyeing off the Boeckman Floats catalogue with great zeal...!
They CAN be hard work, CAN be super expensive, and don't have to be. Lots CAN go wrong, for sure - in all sorts of silly ways that you can't plan for. Last year, almost to the day, we brought home a gorgeous TB with a beautiful nature and fabulous movement that we got for not much (had been off the track for 9 months and wasn't much good to the trainer who lived on a small block - he just wanted a good home for his country winner). Cost us as much to buy and bring him down from Kilmore combined as it cost to put him down when he broke his leg a week later
Mind you, my QH x that I still have has only seen an after hours vet once (touching wood furiously!!) for a suspected colic that resolved itself with some relaxant drugs. My horse cost me $1200 in 2000, so he's been a true bargain!
True that, Joeve - they are definitely safer kept in a herd, or within sight of other horses if they must be kept alone in a yard. Even if you got a little shetland to keep a bigger pony company, that would be good - horses need to be horses, and herding is pretty fundamental to their psychology. Brosha Park breeds the Australian Ponies and Shetlands (I didn't know about the shetties till I got there to look at the Oz...and came home with one of each!). So, if you could do with a lawn mower...