There are. That doesn’t stop the local shooters standing in the field opposite us, 10 yards from the road. Very eagerly counting down the days until they stop.
Depends what you need him to be fit for. If you want him out competing at a decent level, then probably not. If you just want to do some hacking/schooling then probably yes.
Ours are at home (3 of them) so no costs for that (apart from mortgage etc).
They’re also all good doer native types out 24/7, so that keeps costs down a lot
Haylage-£140 a week (goes down a lot when there’s actually grass!)
Farrier-£160 every 6 weeks (1 shod, 2 trims)
Insurance-BHS gold, £8...
One of ours started yawning a lot when his kidneys were shutting down.
Probably not that in your case OP, but it’s one of those things that can be a sign of lots of things.
We used to live right by the Donkey Sanctuary. Hacked the horses up past some of their fields. Some of the things we saw were….very odd. (And a lot of very angry staff that we were using the public bridleways).
The problem is, it’s not your friends horse. If you can get the YO on side then you might be able to cut down on the visits. But at the end of the day, the horse is someone else’s “property”, and they have the right to see it
If you care about your mark, then of course you should memorise it.
If it’s a “just for fun” trip out, then do whichever makes you feel the most comfortable.
November to January is my busiest time of the year work wise, so mine doesn’t get a choice about having a break! Can’t say I’m sad to be missing out on trying to hack in the pouring rain.