Life
A kingdom for a horse
Look at lifestyle before pondering a place for the ponies

Marilyn McCall
Special to Times Colonist

Saturday, May 07, 2005

Buying a horse property means buying into a lifestyle. If you love the lifestyle, the rewards of having your horses on your own property are endless. However, if you are not ready for the lifestyle, horse property ownership can be an unwelcome burden.

As the parents of a horse crazy child -- or perhaps you are the horse crazy one in the family -- once you have paid board for a period of time, the thought of buying your own horse property is bound to cross your mind.

Maggie and Colin Wood bought their 10 acres in 1981. Maggie had bought herself a horse, and the couple felt that their young daughter Becky was ready for a pony. And, because "boarding two horses seemed too expensive," they moved from their Gordon Head home to a property on McTavish Road that had room for kids and horses.

For Lorrene and Gil Soellner, buying a horse property "was a way of life to bring up our kids." Lorrene had boarded a horse in Calgary as a young girl, and after living in Kamloops, the couple planned a move to Victoria. Because Lorrene owned a mare and foal, they needed property. They found two acres in North Saanich -- that was 38 years ago.

The Soellners had bought themselves a lifestyle that they obviously still enjoy. "Our kids were raised with the horses," says Soellner, an experience that was to have a lifelong impact on their two children. Their son Ian went on to represent Canada in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona in the Modern Pentathlon, and daughter Megan has a career as a riding instructor and trainer. Today their grown children visit, and the Soellners hope that the grandkids will take up riding one of the five horses they keep on their property.

For Lorrene Soellner, the positives of owning property outweighed any negatives. Although she laughingly says, "Sometimes when I'm up to my knees in mud, I wonder why I'm doing this," she was emphatic about being able to look after her own horses the way she wanted them looked after.

Husband Gil shares the workload by doing the property maintenance and the trailering. She describes the pleasure of just being able to spend the time with her own horses and watch her equine family grow like her own -- she now has a grandson of one of her original horses.

Maggie Wood concurs, "If you love the lifestyle, everything is a plus." She describes the full-time contact with her horses as wonderful. "When I was home, I was always aware of what they were doing. I learned so much." She got a kick out of observing the horses' daily routine, as they always followed the same route through their pasture during the day. She says, "Having the kids involved is a real plus because they also learn a lot." And there are the less tangible benefits such as, "standing in the barn at the end of the day, maybe there is rain on the roof, and the horses are chomping on their hay and grain . . ." Wood's voice trails off at this point.

Both Soellner and Wood said it was cheaper for them to have their own horses at home, assuming, as Wood emphasizes, that you liked the lifestyle. But, the workload and commitment are not to be underestimated.

Daily care of horses can be physically demanding: they are usually fed twice a day, clean water must always be available (whether it is from buckets that need filling or automatic waterers that need cleaning), stalls must be cleaned daily and fresh bedding brought in to the stall, and horses must be turned out and brought in daily.

For Wood this was not a hardship. "I liked cleaning the barn more than I liked cleaning the house."

However, when she began working full time, she found she only had energy to look after the horses. There was not enough left over to ride. And because she always rode with her daughter, once Becky grew up and left home, "I lost my companion." Now her own property is horseless and Wood part-leases a friend's horse.

Property maintenance is also physically demanding and time-consuming. Paddocks always need picking, a riding ring needs to be raked, fences need to be repaired, and manure piles need to be tended.

Again, if you don't love it, you could resent the 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week commitment of horse property ownership. Horses need to be fed at the same time and they will paw, chew fences, kick at fence rails and generally be out of sorts if you don't stick close to a routine. In other words, you will pay for sleeping in on a weekend morning or coming home late from work. If you want to go away for a weekend, you must have someone stay on your property and care for the horses -- you cannot leave out bowls of food like you can for a cat.

Wood says she sometimes felt tied down as they went through a period when money was short.

However, their solution was to travel as a family to horse shows on the mainland, camping with the kids and horses, for a family getaway.

Another caution -- horses can get into trouble easier than you think. They can get down for a roll in the their stall, and get cast (stuck) in a corner, unable to get up without the help of their owners.

Some are escape artists. I remember hearing the joyful whinny of the filly Susie as she trotted up my driveway, very proud of herself for having figured out how to open the gate to her paddock and let herself out. Horses on neighbouring properties raced up and down their own fence lines, whinnying encouragement to her. It took the co-operation of neighbours to round her up and return her to her paddock.

If you are ready to embrace the lifestyle of horse property ownership, you can expect to pay between $450,000 for a house on one undeveloped acre or up to $2 million for a developed 10-acre equestrian estate.

Property prices will depend on factors such as location and number of property improvements.

Marilyn McCall writes monthly on equine topics. Next month's article will feature pointers on selecting the right horse property for you and your family. Her email address is marilyn.mc@shaw.ca

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