The horses are kept on our 3.3 acre property, so we don't have boarding expenses. We do have however, a 7.5 years left of a 15 mortgage along with property tax that we have to pay for instead of board. Our monthly mortgage for this type of property in Tucson for 2010 is 1646.76 and includes the principle amount, mortgage interest (which we can deduct from our taxes), home insurance and property tax. This amount will not be included in the itemized listing, but must be considered by those who want to do a cost analysis of boarding versus keeping horses at home.

All feed consists of bermuda grass hay, bermuda blend pellets and a supplement of potassium chloride. Because of the desert conditions, we cannot pasture the horses to help with the feed costs as some may be able to do in more appropriate environments.

The supplies that we have to keep replacing are shavings, wormers, insect control (fly spray, tape, fly predators, fly masks) and broken tack (not much for 2010, yea!). The horses are barefoot, so we do not have the extra expense of shoes.

The most unpredictable costs are the veterinary services and medicine. We count on vaccinations/general checkup expenses each year, but sickness and injury are the real wild cards when owning horses.

For 2010, one mare had a persistent habronema that finally healed in late 2010. She needed her Prednisone and Panalog (we use the generic Animax) to help the healing, as well as maintaining good wormer and fly control.