Does Your Decision Make Sense?
If a person making approximately $40,000 annually, boards her horse at a stable for $400 per month, takes weekly lessons, and competes twice a month at horse shows, she could easily spend over $1,000 per month. That means 40 percent of her take-home pay is consumed by the cost of caring for her horse and related activities. That is a huge financial commitment.
Budgeting is the prioritization of your spending, which means dealing with limited resources and allocating those resources to achieve maximum utilization. Maximum utilization can only be achieved when you consider your complete financial picture. Viewing the full scope of financial goals and obligations enables you to make informed budgetary and management decisions that will benefit both you and your horse. (To learn how to create a household budget, see p. 24.)
When making an equine-related financial decision (EFD), it is helpful to ask yourself three simple questions:
1 Does my decision benefit me?
2 Does my decision benefit the horse?
3 Does my decision make good sense financially?
If the answer is “yes” to all three questions, chances are you’re making a good decision for all parties involved. And, as long as the answers to numbers 1 or 2, as well as number 3 are “yes,” then you are at least making a financially sound decision.
To illustrate this point, consider Dr. Denise Gorondy’s example of an extremely old and debilitated horse that was in a tremendous amount of pain and could barely walk, yet the owners couldn’t bear to lose him and would not end his suffering. If the couple asked themselves the three EFD questions, they may have come to a different conclusion:
Did the decision to prolong the horse’s life benefit the owners? Yes. The owners were not emotionally ready to let go of the horse.
Did this decision benefit the horse? No. The horse was suffering from extreme pain and could not eat properly.
Did this decision make sense financially? No. It did not fit in the couple’s budget, and they had to resort to paying vet bills with credit cards. And, because the horse was not a vibrant young animal with a chance of full recovery, but old and debilitated, the expected benefits of their decision did not exceed the expected costs.
Because the only “yes” was to Question 1, the owners’ decision to prolong the horse’s life was neither good for all parties, nor financially sound.
In a different example, Dr. Gorondy had clients whose horse suffered a puncture wound in a joint. Though they had financial resources available, the owners chose to treat the injury themselves for two weeks. By the time Dr. Gorondy was called to examine the horse, the infection had spread to the bone and there were now only two options: perform surgery, or put the horse down. Had the owners asked themselves the three EFD questions when the horse was first injured, they may not have waited as long to call the veterinarian:
Did the decision to treat the puncture wound involving a joint themselves benefit the owners? Yes. They didn’t like the horse and intended to sell him and buy another. They, therefore, couldn’t justify spending money on a veterinarian if they didn’t need to do so.
Did this decision benefit the horse? No. There are some wounds an owner can safely treat, but a puncture wound involving a joint capsule is not one of them. (Puncture wounds are difficult to treat because the outer layer of skin heals over a pocket of infection that can quickly spread.)
Did this decision make sense financially? No. Putting off necessary veterinary care for an injury to a critical area does not follow the principles of asset management. For example, the property manager of a large office building pays to have the walls painted, carpets cleaned, and landscaping maintained. These are costs associated with operating the office building and continuing the flow of rental income associated with that building. In the same way, you should manage and maintain a horse to increase his value, performance, and happiness, which will, in turn, increase the benefits you derive. Your horse is an asset to you, whether a monetary asset because of resale worth or an emotional asset due to your enjoyment of horse-related activities.
Because the only “yes” was to Question 1, the owners’ decision to treat the puncture wound themselves was neither good for all parties, nor financially sound.
Brio’s Story
Nothing is black and white when it comes to horses. Decisions made where the health and welfare of any animal are concerned are a complex mix of finance, ethics, and emotions, as I have experienced first-hand.
It was a late January evening around 11:30 P.M. or so, and I was washing my face and getting ready to retire when I heard a loud bang outside the house. I didn’t immediately hear it again, so thinking it was the neighbor slamming a trash can lid, I crawled into bed. I had started to settle in when I heard the noise again, three times in a row, and I knew then it was coming from the barn. I shook my husband awake and said, “We have to get to the barn, something is wrong!” We bundled up and went outside where the temperature was around 15 degrees and the wind cut right through us. It was absolutely frigid.
When we got to the barn, my old gelding, Brio, had been rolling and thrashing, his blanket covered in shavings. He had been as demanding as ever at dinnertime, eaten his grain as usual, and had starting chomping his hay when I said goodnight, but now it appeared he was colicking. I ran back to the house and called my vet, explaining how bad it was and that she needed to come out to the farm. She arrived about an hour later.
The vet tubed him—a procedure where a nasal-gastric tube filled with mineral oil is inserted through his nostril and into his stomach—gave him a sedative and painkiller, and left more sedative with me to give in several hours if he did not feel better. Even though Brio was in extreme pain, he didn’t offer any resistance, which was unusual for him. He had been abused and mistreated before I purchased him and really didn’t think much of humankind. (In fact, he only considered a few people worthy of tolerating, and fortunately, I was lucky enough to be one of them.)
After the vet left, my husband and I returned to the house to get warm, checking Brio every 30 minutes until I heard him kicking and thrashing again. We hand-walked him and gave him more sedative and when he was quiet, we again left him so we could warm ourselves.
We hadn’t even reached the house when Brio started thrashing again, so I made another call to the vet. When she arrived, she gave him more painkiller and sedative, and we made arrangements to take him to the equine hospital a little over an hour away.
At the clinic, the ultrasound revealed fatty tumors had formed and strangled a portion of Brio’s small intestine. The vet explained this was common with older horses and there were often no warning signs—like a time bomb, only you don’t know the clock is running. Surgery was the only option; however, with the tumors, it would be complicated, and there was no guarantee my horse would be alive when all was said and done. The vet estimated the cost to be $8,000 to $10,000, a total that would run even higher when I factored in the $1,500 I had already spent on the house calls and the follow-up care that would be necessary.
I wasn’t prepared for this at all. Brio was twenty-six years old, but had been sound and healthy, and he had more fight and spunk than the seven-year-old in the barn. He didn’t look
