Every time my sister and I do to dump the lawn tractor’s trailer out sticks, hay or whatever else is in the back of it, my dad always says, “Make sure you don’t get it stuck in the mud.”

Just a couple of weeks ago my dad was dumping the trailer of branches that had fallen from the trees in the front paddock. While I was in the bar mucking stalls, all of a sudden I hear my mom call my name. She walked over to me and said, “Sara, go and put Molson’s harness on.” I asked her why and she said, “Because your father got the tractor stuck in the mud.”

So I harnessed up Molson and brought the towing strap and singletree (something that is used to hook the horse and load together) out with me to the back where the tractor was stuck. I hooked the tractor up to the towing strap and the singletree and then I hooked Molson up to the singletree. I stood by Molson’s head and asked him to walk on. He pushed as hard as he could and yanked the tractor right out of the mud. My dad walked up to Molson with a pat on the neck and said, “Molson, you have just earned $150 of your feed bill.”

That’s what it would have cost for a tow truck to come.

Money is another thing that people do not take into account for when they buy a horse. In the first article in this series, I told you I bought Molson myself. Buying the horse is the cheapest part of having a horse. The average price for a “good” horse is $4,000. This depends on the level of training the horse has had, the disposition of the horse, its conformational balance, and its age.

Then, after buying the horse, you have to buy equipment for the horse. I like to drive horses, as you already know, and I needed to buy a harness that fit Molson and a vehicle for him to pull. My harness cost me (not my parents) about $1,000 altogether and my wagonette cost $1,500. But the cost of the harness is comparable to the cost of riding equipment like the saddle, bridle, stirrup irons, stirrup leathers, girth, etc.

After you buy the horse and the equipment you have to worry about hay, feed, boarding, farrier, vet and equine dentist bills. On an average, hay costs about $4 per bale and 50 pounds of feed costs about $9 a bag. Molson eats at least a bale per day and a half-pound of feed a day. Oh, and if you don’t have housing for the horse you have to board it somewhere – which can cost an average of $550 a month.

Molson is shod (horseshoes) every six weeks. The prices vary throughout the seasons because during the summer I used more barium studs (made for tractions). In the winter he has snow-pads so that the snow doesn’t stick to his feet and create gigantic snowballs between the showed and his hoof. On average, his shoes cost $175 per shoeing.

Now I have found new shoes for Molson that are rubber. I decided to have them put on Molson because I drive him on the road often. This provides more traction on the pavement and absorbs more of the concussion, from the legs, made from working on the pavement. With less concussion in the legs there is less chance that the horse becomes arthritic. Many of the horses in the city have this type of shoe and so do the Disney trolley horses.

Then there are the vet bills. A horse needs at least one check up a year for vaccinations. Molson gets vaccinations twice a year because I show him. Then if he were to get sick or hurt (hopefully he doesn’t), it would cost extra. Just for the vet to step out of his/her truck, the cost is $30 to $40. Then for the vaccines it is about $100.

A horse’s teeth need to be floated every nine months, depending on the age. If the horse’s teeth are not floated they grown uneven. This occurs because their teeth constantly grow and way they chew, in a circular motion, causes the teeth to get used more on the inside. For a horse to get his teeth floated, it costs the owner $90 or more depending on the equine dentist.

I’m not quite sure Molson will ever break even with the cost-to-work ration in my father’s eyes. But he does do more work around our house than most horse’s do. He drags the barrow in the paddocks every week and he has hauled trees for my dad to cut. He also has four-wheel drive that doesn’t get stuck in the mud or snow and his one horsepower is stronger than our 16 horsepower Cub Cadet tractor.

Furthermore, he always greets me with a warm, low pitch nicker.