You ladies are a wealth of information, thank you!
What is reverse stabling? I am guessing it's stabling during the heat of the day and turning the horses out at night when it is cooler?
How big does the paddock need to be? We would be fencing the paddock area ourselves and also building the stables/tack room. How big do the stables need to be?
Are two horses together enough company? I don't think there are any horses on the property's of the immediate neighbours (can't be sure though!).
Am I correct in thinking horses only need shoes if they are ridden regularly on roads (or other hard surfaces)? Kateo, why is it better for the horse to be barefoot? (Which would be my preference, as it costs less and we would be riding on dirt trails. Just wondering why it is better for the horse!)
Oh, Onyx, be noice! We're also sensitive...
None of our horses have shoes - I took shoes off my boy years ago, when he was still in competition training. There's a few websites around, and if you google barefoot trimmer you'll come across Carola's website - she's in Sth Gipp, but travels everywhere, and just her site alone has heaps of info
DP has been learning to trim using the tools here at home.
Don't allow a vet or farrier to do your horse's teeth - there are dental specialists out there who train specifically in this field, not as a sideline. Teeth are too important to mess around with - it's all they have between their gut and starvation!
Yep, $5k IS a reasonable price to pay for a pony that's well bred and been there, done that. That was beyond our reach, so we went with the cheaper option that I've had some experience in, which won't be the path you can take. That's why I mentioned that if you go with something greener, it will be cheaper to buy and then cost you for training...making the horse about the same cost as a BTDT horse that you can just go on with.
One thing I won't admit to DP (but he already knows!) is that the cheapest part of horses is buying them
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