If you’re new to the thought of horse ownership and aren’t quite sure if it’s something that’s right for you, there are some important points to consider before taking the plunge. (Many of these points are also covered in our free eBook, 10 Tips for First Time Horse Owners.) There are surely great rewards in owning a horse, but it’s not for everyone.

A big factor to think about is your budget for horse ownership. Can you afford to pay for what your horse will need? Here is a basic list of costs that you will likely incur:

• Board or Pasturing: Where will your horse be housed? If you plan to keep your horse on your own property, costs will be lower but still not free. You will have upkeep of your barn, fence, shelters, etc to think about. For owners planning to pay for a stall or pasture at a local barn, boarding costs can run anywhere from $200 (that’s on the low end) to $800 a month for general horsekeeping. Stables with extra service offerings, such as show barns, may run even higher.

• Hay: If you’re in an area where hay is plentiful and easy to access, this expense will probably be fairly reasonable (especially if you have land with good grass). However, if you’re located in a place where droughts are common and hay demand is high, you might have to factor in travel to find good hay. If you don’t own a truck/trailer, this could mean an extra charge for delivery as well.

• Lessons and/or training: Not all horses will require training. In fact, if you’re a first time horse owner, it’s best not to purchase a green (untrained) horse. However, if you want to train your horse a new discipline that requires an outside professional, this will be an added expense. And what about you, will you need lessons? Factor this into your monthly budget if so. Group riding lessons are usually cheaper, whereas one on one coaching will likely cost a bit more.

Download our FREE eBook, “10 Tips for First Time Horse Owners” by clicking HERE.

• Fence/Shelter: This expense will need to be considered if you plan to keep your horse on your own property. Which type of fence do you want? What will be safest for the horse? (Tip: We suggest avoiding barbed wire.) If your horse is turned out 24/7 with no barn access, you will also need to think about shelter for your horse during bad weather.

• Tack & Grooming: Most items in this category (bridle, saddle, brushes, etc.) will be a one-time purchase or at the least shouldn’t require frequent replacing. But, if you’re anything like the average horse owner, you’ll probably want to buy everything you see when you visit your local tack shop. Start with the necessities, and expect that you’ll likely be spending more than your initial investment along the way.
  

  Photo credit: Sue Byford

• Grain & Supplements: Horses should be dewormed every 2-3 months or so. Factor in any additional supplements you may need for the horse’s well being (hoof, joint, etc.). Consult your vet what they recommend when in doubt. This will likely depend on your individual horse’s needs.

• Vaccinations, Dentistry, Vet Care: Be preventative and vaccinate your horse as recommended by your vet. If your vet does not offer dentistry services, you will also need to locate an equine dentist to regularly float your horses teeth (this is typically an annual or bi-annual service, depending on your horse). Don’t forget that emergencies do happen from time to time, and vet bills can quickly add up if your horse needs emergency care.

• Apparel for YOU: Riding boots, jeans, gloves, a helmet – all a necessity for comfort in the saddle! Oh, and rubber boots are a must-have for giving your horse a bath or mucking out stalls!

• Travel & Showing: Are you a trail rider? Do you plan to show your horse or attend clinics? Factor in a horse trailer and any expenses that may be incurred at live events where you intend to ride.

All in all, most horse owners would say that while it’s expensive, they feel the investment in their horse(s) is worth every bit. Many horse owners cut corners in other areas of their lifestyles to afford to pursue their passion. If you’re still not sure if it’s the right choice for you, considering leasing a horse to get your feet wet. This will allow you the experience of ownership without the full commitment, and is a great way to help you determine if buying a horse is a good move for you. And remember, costs will vary by location, so check around for a more accurate estimate to determine your costs.

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Did we miss anything? Leave us a comment below and share your thoughts about the expenses of horsemanship.

Most page owners have already opted to publish Timeline, so we’ve highlighted some of our favorite cover designs below. If you haven’t yet updated your page, you may want to check out our recent overview of the new features to stay on the up-and-up. Don’t forget to review Facebook’s cover photo guidelines to learn more about what’s allowed in your images.

To visit any of these featured pages on Facebook, just click the images below.

1. Lather and Lace

Lather & Lace offers skin care products, jewelry, accessories and gifts focused on the Equine/Old West/Vintage lifestyle. The colors really make this design pop, and we love how truly sassy this cover photo looks! We have to include a shout out to PixelGraphix who created this one.

2. Equine Liberty Sports

Equine Liberty Sports is both a teaching program as well as a way of experiencing your horse, pony, mule, mini or donkey. ELS’ cover photo does a great job of showing founder Leslie Nichols at liberty with her horse.

3. My Horse University

My Horse University brings research and knowledge from world-renowned experts to online courses and products. We love how their cover photo displays horses running out of the laptop…very innovative!

4. Sport Horse Products

Sport Horse Products is an online retailer providing products for the athletes (both equine and human) in your barn. Their logo looks great on this shade of green.

5. Ritchie Industries Automatic Waterers

Automatic waterers for livestock, equine, swine and exotic animals. Great placement of their product photo and logo…very sleek and professional in appearance.

If you need custom design for your Facebook page, send an email to mandee[at]horsefamilymagazine[dot]com and get $10 off your next graphics order when you mention this blog post.

6. Rate My Horse Pro

At quick glance, it may seem as though this page has an ordinary cover photo. Look a bit closer and you’ll see that RMHP has placed small “rating” stars in their image, appropriately showcasing that their website is a platform where users can rate equestrian professionals.

7. Horse Coupon Book

HCB has creatively designed their cover photo and profile image to work together as one. Pretty nifty!

8. Boss Pet Supplies

Boss Pet Supplies has a fun cover photo that shows fans that they aren’t just an equine company, but they also serve dogs, cats, birds and more.

9. Equestrian Professional

Offering resources for professionals in the horse industry, Equestrian Professional did well displaying relevant information about their website while staying within Facebook’s cover photo guidelines.

10. EquestrianCoach

This coaching website for riders has highlighted six of their coaches in their cover photo, along with a great profile picture.

11. Cinch Jeans

Cinch Jeans has done a swell job of making their cover photo look kick butt. As with any type of marketing, equine or not, images that provoke are a great way to get the attention of consumers.

12. Horse and Country TV

H&C is television for horse lovers, broadcasting in UK and Ireland. Their cover image displays their channel number, but more noticeably, we like how the horse seems to just “pop” out of the design.

13. Road to the Horse

RttH is using their cover photo space to announce the winning team of their 2012 event, celebrating Team Australia’s recent success.

14. Purina Horse Feed

This cover design is not only clean and eye catching, but it also ties in with the buttons below the image. We love how they’ve added customized buttons for their blog and YouTube within the main navigation bar.

15. The Morning Feed

This cover may be simple, but it’s BOLD, catching the attention of its fans. We like how their business name is abbreviated in the profile picture (TMF) and fully spelled out in the cover.

Does your Facebook fan page have a really cool cover design? Share your link in the comments below, and tell us what you think about these cover photos!

If you need custom design for your Facebook page, send an email to mandee[at]horsefamilymagazine[dot]com and get $10 off your next graphics order when you mention this blog post.

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When the HF fan page first launched in January 2010, it was under the intention that the blog would eventually develop into a printed publication. With that plan in mind, the page launched under the name “Horse Family™ Magazine”.

Business plans shifted later on and it was decided to keep everything online based, and at that point, it made sense to update the Facebook page name removing the word “magazine” from the title. But that was a no-can-do from Facebook since Horse Family already had more than 100 fans (which makes your business page name permanent).

What to do now?? The word “magazine” was a bit confusing to people, giving the impression that we were indeed a printed magazine. While it wasn’t hard to transition into an “online mag” for the main website, the Facebook name seemed to be the main point of confusion. There was also the fact that the little ™ symbol in the name was affecting search results, and when folks would search for us on Facebook, our page wouldn’t come up at all (that’s no good!).

Fortunately, after some lengthy waiting, Facebook came out with a link to put in a request for a page name change.

(Need that link? Click here to request a page name change from Facebook.)

This took us to a link where there were a few different options to choose from for the reason behind the page name change:

• “My business name has changed”
• “My page name is misspelled”
• “Other”

The first time we submitted a request, we selected My Page name is misspelled, thinking that seemed suitable. The response from Facebook said they needed documentation of the misspelling, which technically didn’t exist because the name wasn’t misspelled, it just had an extra word in it.

We went back and submitted a new request and didn’t worry about the documentation, this time selecting “Other”. We did this on Tuesday of last week, and by Thursday, we received the following response:

“Your Page name change has been approved. Please note that this change is final and your Page’s name cannot be changed again. Enjoy the site!”

Wooo! Our page will now show up in search results for anyone searching the name, “Horse Family”, and it will drastically eliminate confusion about HF’s actual product, which is, in fact, a blog, not a printed magazine. Let’s just hope we don’t need to make any changes in the future.

Have you ever wished you could change your Facebook page name? Tell us your story in the comments!

As the title of this post suggests, I’m here to let you know that #HorseChat is being placed on a temporary hold. After some contemplating, I’ve realized that sometimes a slight pause is necessary for growth.

You might be thinking, “How does pausing the chat help the growth? Won’t you lose people?”

Of course, I took this into consideration (because I had that thought too) and have determined that by taking some time to make a few changes and devote extra effort to additional planning, it will help the long term goals and growth of our online community.

Over the past few months, I’ve been dreaming, creating and developing my vision for Horse Family. In the weeks ahead, I am going to be working to restructure the chat a bit, and will return with a full schedule of expert guests. Horse Family will still be tweeting, Facebooking and blogging as normal, so please continue to communicate with us!

That being said, as of today, #HorseChat will be halted for the month of March. We expect to return sometime early spring and will be announcing the next date via our blog, social networks and email newsletter.

If you have questions regarding the chat or would like to recommend a guest or topic, please leave your feedback in the comments below. I’d also like to invite you to keep tweeting relevant horse topics on Twitter with the #HorseChat hashtag so we can keep the conversation flowing, even if it’s not in the form of an organized chat on Monday nights.

See you soon!

Mandee Widrick

Creator of Horse Family & #HorseChat

1) Post your horse on multiple classified websites.

Some of the most popular free equine classified websites include Dream Horse, HorseTopia, Equine.com, HorseClicks.com and Craigslist (okay, Craigslist isn’t just for equine, but it can still give you good leads). If you have a number of equestrian friends on social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter, these are also great places spread the word about your horse for sale. Don’t be afraid to use more than one website; in fact, more listings will likely generate more buyer leads. Some websites may charge a small fee based on how detailed you want your ad to be, but these fees are typically inexpensive and could easily be worth the investment.

2) Include bright, clear photos with any listings.

Whether you’re posting online ads or flyers in tack stores, quality photos are imperative. Most people are very visual, and if your horse is attractive, then don’t be afraid to show him off.

Avoid using photos that are dark, distant or blurry. Photos should be bright, colorful and appealing to look at. You want ad viewers to see your posting and think, “Wow, now that is a great looking horse!”

If you’re someone who likes to take constant photos of your horse (like me), you probably have LOTS of images on your camera already. Don’t use those pictures of him standing at one of those really weird angles that makes his head look ginormous or his back appear nonexistent. If you can’t get your horse to stand for a good photo alone, grab a friend or family member to help position him, then have them step back just far enough to be excluded from the shot.

3) Upload a video to YouTube.

Take the visual aspect of your ad to another level! Want to give prospective buyers yet another reason to come see your horse? Make a video highlighting the horse both on the ground and under the saddle. Many websites have a rule about including a video link in your ad description, but don’t be daunted. Simply state that you have a video available by request should this happen.

Your video should be done in good lighting (much like a photo) with little to no background noise. Avoid excessive talking in the video background and make the horse your main focus when filming. If you need to, edit it the video down to between 3-5 minutes when you get done – lengthy videos may get boring for a buyer with a short attention span.

Here’s a good example of a “horse for sale” video that we found on YouTube:

Be sure to also include a link to the horse’s online listing in the description of the video. Keep in mind that it may be a good idea to avoid including the email and phone number on YouTube for security reasons. Potential buyers can always contact you through the sale link and if they’re seriously interested, they won’t hesitate to find the correct link.

4) Highlight the horse’s accomplishments.

Has your horse been shown for Western Pleasure? Did he spend 2-3 months with a dressage trainer? Is he an amazing trail horse? Share in your ad description what your horse has been used for and who has ridden him, going beyond the generic ad that typically lists only the horse’s age, height and health information. Taking that extra time to summarize your horse’s qualities will catch the attention of a potential buyer.

Saying your horse requires an experience rider may scare away prospective buyers.

If your horse needs work, don’t scare buyers off with the phrase, “Experienced Rider Required”. Instead, find a way to highlight the positive traits of the horse and let prospects know that he may need additional training. Be completely honest about the horse’s experience so the buyer doesn’t get any surprises, while being clear that he likely has potential for the right person.

5) Do the “extras” prior to listing your horse for sale.

If your horse is in need of vaccinations, deworming or dental/hoof work, get that done before trying to sell him. It’s not impossible to sell your horse even if he is in need of additional care, but the buyer is less likely to have a reason to try to talk you down on your asking price if you make sure everything is current. Oh, and don’t forget to get a coggins test for Equine Infectious Anemia, as most states require a negative coggins certificate before a horse can be transported.

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To view the transcript of our #HorseChat from 2/27/12, “Best Methods to Market Your Horse”, please click here.

Photo credit: Gareth du Plessis

What are your horse selling tips? Tell us in the comments below!

All fan pages will be converted automatically beginning March 30th. Until then, page admins will have the option to tour and preview what these changes will look like. If you’re really brave, you can even publish the new appearance to your fans immediately.

So here’s what’s new.

Default Landing Tabs Are Gone

To me, this one is a bit of a bummer. I liked the ability to attract new fans through a default landing tab. Your tabs aren’t completely gone though (whew!) – they just aren’t the default page anymore.

Tabs Moved to the Top of Your Page

Like I said, tabs aren’t gone, they’ve just been moved. You can still have up to 12 applications installed to your page, but make sure you place the most important ones at the top where fans can see them without needed to click the drop down button. We chose to feature our Welcome tab and our Twitter tab at the very top for now. (We might switch these out later.)

Ability for Fans to Message Pages

This new feature is SUPER cool, in my opinion. Now if fans want to get in contact with you directly, all they have to do is click the “Message” button under your cover photo. The messages will go directly to your Facebook Admin Panel.

Cover Photos 

For those of you who have already switched your personal profiles over to Timeline, this is a no-brainer. Upload a cool photo that’s approximately 399 pixels in width that displays something fun and awesome about your business. But, Facebook does have some rules about the content that you’re allowed to share in your cover photo. You can’t promote your web link or any current sales that your business may be offering. Click here for guidelines.

Pin or Feature Posts

Have a status update or post that you’d like to highlight at the top of your page? Use the little pencil icon to “pin” it so it’s the first thing fans see when they access your page. You can also feature a story (make it larger and more visible on your Timeline) by clicking the star icon.

"Pinning" a story to the top adds a small yellow clip to the upper right corner.

Updated Administrator Settings – Everything in One Place

This is where you can access your page messages, new likes, comments and insights. It’s all nicely organized in one place.

Click here to update to Timeline now.

What are your thoughts on the new Timeline for fan pages? Is this a smart move for Facebook?

This post is a summary of our weekly #HorseChat for 2/20/12, featuring guest moderater Tim Urling of @TimsBoots. If you would like to be part of the conversation on Twitter, click here. #HorseChat happens every Monday night at 6pm PST / 9pm EST. 

Ever wondered how to find the perfect pair of cowboy boots? I definitely have, considering that my only nice pair of cowboy boots cost me about fifty bucks and came from Sears. They’re cute enough, sure, but far from being legit. That’s why I asked Tim Urling of Tim’s Boots to share his insight on how to pick a great pair of quality boots on this week’s #HorseChat.

Q) What is the number 1 thing you look for when shopping for the perfect pair of cowboy boots?

@TimsBoots: “Depends on the intended use. For me comfort is the #1 consideration, then quality.”

Brittany Lambert, @WishingWindsRan, shared that she struggles to find boots that fit her properly.

“Fit is most important,” she said. “I have a tiny foot and it is very hard to find boots that fit.”

Other deciding factors that were shared during the chat included:

• Support
• Durability
• Design

Q) What are some things you DON’T want in a pair of boots?

@TimsBoots: “Man made materials, plastics, cardboard, cork are all used by the cheaper manufacturers.”

Tim also said, “A good boot will be all leather construction with the exception of the rubber heel cap.”

He went on to educate chat participants about boot toe styles. “Interesting fact: toe styles really vary by region,” he said. “Texas area – rounded toe, NorthEast like snipped toes, California – sharp pointed, Tennessee – traditional pointed.”

Q) Do you currently have a favorite pair of cowboy boots? What makes them great?

@TimsBoots: “The squared horseman style with double stitched welt has become popular in the last couple years.”

@BeefCattleBiz: “Custom made for me!”

@Cowgirl_PMG: I currently am in love with Justin Gypsy boots! The styles are so colorful and fun!

Q) Do you do regular maintenance on your boots to keep them looking good?

@TimsBoots: “Maintenance is the key. Leather is a skin and needs regular cleaning and moisturizing.”

Q) On average, how long should a quality pair of boots last?

@TimsBoots: “With proper care a good quality pair of boots will last more than 20 years. Probably have to be resoled and heeled.”

@CherylHarless shared that she’s had her current pair of cowboy boots for 30 years. Tim suggested, “Even if you don’t wear your boots often, you should use a leather conditioner to keep the leather in shape.”

He also said, “Life of boots depends on their use. Hard working cowboys or construction workers should be able to get at least a year.”

Q) What is the best way to find the correct boot size?

@TimsBoots: “We sell thousands of boots over the internet. 99.5% fit right out of the box The sizing key proper measurements and knowing how the brand fits. Our team are experts. We recommend going and using a brannock device.”

Click here for a boot sizing guide from Tim’s Boots!

LEARN MORE ABOUT TIM’S BOOTS AT http://timsboots.com. 

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To learn more about our weekly #HorseChat, please visit http://horsefamilymagazine.com/horsechat.