To be honest, personal finance and keeping horses confuses me. Some people seem well off and keep horses. Some people seem to be STRUGGLING and still keep horses.

I feel that I can provide for a horse monthly no problem; Full board is around $250 in my area, and even after that I should have an extra $300-450 a month to dediate to a horse. It will mostly be a pleasure/trail horse with a few shows entered, but not on a regular basis; I like shows for light competition and fun... not for serious winning. I think my friends are too nice to say it, but are getting annoyed at me always wanting to ride their horses (in exchange for me cleaning their pens and helping out at shows of course!). Every week they are showing me ad of a horse for sale and asking "are you looking for a horse yet"? No! Not quite yet!

The problem is "start up costs". The horse, the saddle, the supplies, etc. While I'm fully aware the cost of horse upkeep will sum up to be more than the "start up costs" several times over, maintence costs a little at a time.

So if it's going to take a while for me to get enough to buy the horse and all his/her supplies, should I also be worried about my finances in general? Like I said, monthly care isn't a problem. But like with any animal, a suprise vet bill is always a possiblity. My biggest fear is that I won't have enough to cover a surprise $1,500-$2,000 vet bill if it should be thrown at me if my horse gets seriously injured. I keep an emergency fund at all times and I can always take out a loan if needed, but it still worries me like heck! When I was younger, my mother had to put my cat to sleep because she couldn't afford for him to get surgery. Even as a kid, it broke my heart and still does to this day. I never want to go through that again.

How do you feel about this?