750 a year? Wtf is this retard smoking. Cost for land, hay storage, water, vet, and farrier. Human time cost to feed them twice a day, get rid of or spread the shit. Blanket, saddle, bridle. You’re looking at a few thousand a year minus the time sink.
This article says 8 to 11k yearly. https://horserookie.com/average-horse-cost-by-state/
While cost of owning a car is between 3k and 9k yearly according to https://www.move.org/average-cost-owning-a-car/.
I would have thought that a horse would be much more expensive, like 10 times a car cost.
Interesting, I recall a colleague in UK mention that it was costing her up to 20k a year. That was her max but not always/everywhere - would have been almost 30k USD at the time, so it sounds considerably cheaper in US but obviously a lot more land available and affordable
I also had a colleague in the UK casually talking in the break room if she should buy a house or a horse because they were comparatively expensive.
Had em in a poverty state 20 years ago 🤷
That link about car cost is from 2021, pretty sure inflation had a significant impact on that in the last few years too, not to mention car companies getting rid of lower end options for a while now.
cost of owning a car is between 3k and 9k yearly
Maybe if you drive a fancy new car, but an older, reliable car can be much cheaper. For example, I drive a Toyota Prius that I’ve had for 10 years, and I paid $10k for it (approximately, and cash, so no financing). I’ve driven about 100k miles, spent about $3k on repairs, and have spent about $500/year on insurance. So an estimate for total costs is:
- gas - $7.8k (~45mpg @ $3.5/gallon)
- insurance - $5k
- repairs - $3k
- depreciation - $7k (assuming $3k value if I sold)
- taxes and fees - $2k (~$100/year registration + emissions cost)
- regular maintenance - $500? (I change my own oil, so $20/oil change every 5k miles, plus spark plugs, headlights, etc)
- tires - $1200 (changed them twice for ~$500-600 each time)
Total cost over 10 years is $27000, or about $2.7k/year.
So that $3k/year low end figure is actually a little high for me, and I ended up rounding most of these things up. I’m guessing a cheap EV could come out even cheaper.
So if you’re cheap like me when it comes to cars, owning a horse could be about 10x the cost of a car.
Almost all of those problems are solved by your local park.
Vet costs can be reduced by the skillfull application of healing stones.
horse sick? get a new one
Yeah but horse
Important argument many fail to consider
He said to keep it alive, nit to actually care for it in any meaningful way.
Even completely throwing morality out the window, just keeping a horse in functional condition so that it can be ridden to places would still require quite a bit more than that.
Zero emissions? I know people find it ha ha funny, but farts legitimately contain methane and other green house gassses.
Cows for example are a large contributor of GHG
plus if we had as many horses as we did cars we would be living in a horse shit apocalypse.
Compress into brick, then build tower. Now you also have tower.
I generously donate my castle composed entirely out of horse shit to you kind sir.
Only you can solve the housing crisis
Foreever gratefull I am
And it’ll be built like a shit-brick house
We don’t need more Trump towers thx
Yep before the automobile streets were covered in horseshit.
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If you think a horse has the environmental impact of an automobile, I have a bridge to sell you
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Horses aren’t cows
Source on point 2 ?
I, uh, errr, uhhhhh…
Motions vaguely at the four-legged animals
They’re just different, trust me, okay???
Horse is the male, cow is the female. Just like dogs and cats.
White cows make normal milk, brown cows make chocolate milk. That’s just science
And if you’re fancy, you’ll find red cows that make strawberry milk.
I dunno, I’ll have to do my own research on this one, my third cousin’s dog walkers nephew’s barber said he read a tweet declaring they were actually the same animal, just one ate more as a youth and has an accent due to the weight.
I mean you’re not wrong but no matter how small an impact it’s still not ZERO emissions, so the guy you’re replying to is technically correct.
Ah yes, good ole technically correct, the weakest and most schlubby shade of correct, whatever would we do without it?
Actually, it’s the best kind of correct. But hey, don’t let all that butt hurt bother you. I hear there’s a cream for that.
I love that I agreed with you and you STILL felt aggrieved, lol.
Jokes on you, clown, I’m never butt-hurt, only butt-turned-on!
Disdaining the “technically correct” pedants is freeing, try it sometime, you might like it ;)
Alright, I’ve decided we’re besties now. Good exchange, buddy. Good exchange. :3
Seriously though, I’m smiling.
<3 Based and Horsepilled!
If you think a horse has the environmental impact of an automobile
At what point reading my comment did you come up with this?
Look at how much calories a horse needs per day, and then look at how much CO2 gets emitted to produce said food. Even the amount of CO2 a horse exhales per day is already significant.
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This is complete bs.
Tldr: cows in sheds eating corn is the problem, cows eating natural grass actually sequester more carbon than an empty field.
Long answer: Photosynthesis can only get carbon from the atmosphere. This carbon is then turned into plant material in grass. This grass is then eaten by the cow. A small portion of this grass will be converted into methane and other byproducts in the cow’s digestive tracks. Some will be turned to energy for the cow and a vast majority will be shit out as raw unprocessed material. This raw unprocessed material, i.e. cow shit, this will last in the environment sequestering more carbon for longer time than just grass sitting there by itself. A grazed paddock will grow more grass than a non-grazed paddock because the cows are eating the fucking grass. i.e. more carbon from the environment is getting sequestered in the grass and the cow shit.
The only reason that cows get such a bad wrap is that variouse other factors are being counted that really shouldnt be under cows. Deforestation to grow plants to feed livestock, the transportation of meat, livestock feed etc etc.
A properly managed grass fed beef (like what we have here in australia) actually has a net negative effect on ghg. The factory farmed beef eating corn in a shed thats never seen a blade of grass is whats actually causing the ghg seen in the reports.
We have already seen this narrarive been used to strongarm small farmers grazing cattle while the multinational farms get away with fucking the environment cos they can afford the cost of beurocracy.
We are all just 3 warm meals away from anarchy thats something we should do well to remember.
Ps. Its not “cow flatulence” its “enteric fermentation” (burps) cow farts just makes a better headline.
Edit: formatting
I think you should’ve put TL;DR in the beginning, otherwise it looked like you’re arguing cows don’t fart, when you were actually about net effect.
I never thought about it from this side, but it makes sense, and seems like another way big corporations fuck the world up.
Good shout.
Its a classic case of simple answer to a complex problem that nobody really thinks about cos it sounds vaguely reasonable in a headline.
I can’t believe my eyes, someone that isn’t spouting the usual bullshit about cows and GHG on Lemmy.
I’ll be gobsmacked.
tract
rap
various
Ok, no cow riding.
I feel hay and grass may end up more expensive than anon thinks… For grass, you need a big place where your horse can graze. Anon either is such a big landowner or intends to rent such land, but it won’t be cheap. Then the hay for when the horse is kept indoors… Gotta be a lot of hay. And the means of bringing and storing the hay may be of non-negligible price. Then there are vet bills, because horses can get sick or injured…
I knew someone who owned horses long ago. Well, more like someone whose parents owned horses since we were kids. They even had a coach that these horses could pull. But they didn’t use it as a means of transportation unless just doing a simple roundtrip for leisure, and there’s a simple reason for that: You can’t leave your horse for hours on a parking spot. You can tie it up somewhere maybe, but not for a long time, there aren’t many places fit for leaving horses nowadays.
there’s a simple reason for that: You can’t leave your horse for hours on a parking spot. You can tie it up somewhere maybe, but not for a long time, there aren’t many places fit for leaving horses nowadays.
This is why you just need to move somewhere with a significant Amish population first. Like, significant enough that local infrastructure plans around them.
Lexington, KY has a ton of horse hitching posts/ bike rack posts. That may be because they maintain a fairly decent mounted police division.
From what little I know about horses, almost all your time is spent trying to make sure they don’t kill themselves. I can leave my vechile outside in the cold for weeks at a time and not have to think about it.
if you tie it up outside and leave it there and it dies it didn’t kill itself
That makes horses relatable. I can’t relate to being a non-sentient bundle of metal and glass and stuff, but I can relate to freezing to death and killing myself.
Horses win.
I regret I have but one upvote to give.
And, when it’s no longer useful, you can eat your horse.
…Yeah!?
0 emissions
FYI: Horses fart and methane is a greenhouse gas more potent than carbon dioxide.
I’m also intrigued by the “costs $1000 and $750/year to maintain” claim, as the horse people I know spend closer to 20x that.
Humans also fart methane, is that a reason not to ride them?
If your ride consents to that, just pug the hole.
No.
they um also breathe
Not through the mouth though.
$750 a year to maintain health
Lol
$750/month if you have to stable it.
Yeah, this might be 750 dollars worth of bottom of the barrel, wholesale, oats needed to give the average horse enough calories to survive.
These prices are ridiculously incorrect, but we can dream and strive to build a horsepilled world.
My in-laws have some horses on their little hobby farm. They grow and bale their own hay which gives them an excuse to play with their antique tractors and makes it affordable enough to keep the “hay burners” around. I agree the prices anon provides are pretty rediculously low
You will get an OWI if you ride a horse drunk.
Source: I know a guy who trained his horse to ride from the bar to his house on its own. Cops still pulled him over because he was sleeping on the horse.
Dumbest shit ever. I literally have a designated driver under me!
I’m pretty sure it depends on the state and whether or not that state considers a horse to be a vehicle/device. Alabama, for example, I believe does not consider a horse to be either, while I think California does. There’s this story that sometimes gets submitted to TIL-type communities where a man from Louisiana was decided to be ineligible for a DUI charge after doing exactly that, but he was still given a court summons for “disturbing the peace by intoxication”.
In sweden there were some cases where people lost their driving license because they … Walked home drunk so yes it do depends a lot. Guess drunk horse riding there is not legal.
I think you may be talking about endangering traffic, not just walking while drunk.
Nope, just drunk.
OWI?
Operating? While Intoxicated
I’d feel bad about leaving them tied to a tree while I’m at work, so I’d probably just go with a bike which is fueled by snacks and doesn’t even shit!
a bike which is fueled by snacks and doesn’t even shit!
Well the actual motor that powers the bicycle does shit, though.
Yeah, but I was gonna anyway.
The increase in fuel you need for the physical exertion of riding a bike increase your waste output tho.
But there’s also the byproduct of making you swole and potentially making exercise your new hobby, which then further increases your energy consumption and waste output…
Yeah, it gets you in shape: Triple bonus!
You even get a wide variety of fuel options for your bicycle. I rode one to work every day for a few years, and my fuel of choice was oatmeal, which is healthy, cheap, and delicious (esp. w/ berries and honey).
Unfortunately, I changed jobs and cycling is no longer practical, but riding a horse is even less practical (can’t really tie them to the parking garage in the city…). Maybe I’ll get an e-bike and get back in the saddle.
False - you can get a DUI on a horse (in some states).
That is a shockingly cheap horse.
Ignoring lack of parking, slow travel and waste disposal, it’s more like 3-6k if you already live on a farm. 5-10k if you board it with someone, and you’ll likely need a car to get you to the stables.
A bicycle however…
Believe it or not, riding a horse while drunk is also an offense in many places.
Except you can’t drink and ride a bike in many areas. I doubt most cops would enforce it though.
I had a friend back in my younger years who got a drinking and driving ticket on his bicycle. Around 1995.
I was drunk and high out of my gourd one night biking home along Bloor Street and got a ticket for speeding lol. This was maybe 2004. I have thankfully matured since then.
Wow, it’s honestly my dream to get a speeding ticket on my bike. I saw my opportunity one day where there was a school zone and a cop, so I pedaled as fast as I could, but still didn’t get pulled over. I even bombed down a hill doing almost double the speed limit, and still no ticket.
I’ll get it one of these days.
If you do promise to be as incredulous as I was when he gave me the ticket. Like man don’t you have better shit to be doing? Let’s ignore the fact he thankfully didn’t see me kicking rear view mirrors a couple of blocks previous because they were parked in the bike lane.
Jesus Christ I was an ornary youth lol
Oh, I absolutely would be. But you can bet I’m framing that ticket the moment I get home.
You can in Germany. I only once fell into some bushes, but since I could not remember that it does not count.
Where is this guy getting a horse for $1,000 from?
I mean if you want any old horse and can transport it you can often get them for free. They’re like pianos
does a horse not transport itself ?
Not in a way amenable to seal the deal a few cities across, unless you get a one way ride up there and you’re prepared to camp/hotel a few nights on the way back
I see, guess I didn’t plan all the way through
Don’t blame yourself, they just don’t teach horses in school anymore
Isn’t that the point though. He’s replacing his car with a horse because apparently a horse makes more sense in this guy’s world.
If after buying the horse you have to use a vehicle to transport it, doesn’t that invalidate the argument?
I guess, we’d have to consult with the horse-pilled anon OP if he meant to replace absolutely all driving with horse riding, but I was assuming his take was mostly about day to day trips and not necessarily all trips.
you can often get them for free
The maintenance cost of a “free” horse is anything but
Oh I’m not discounting that. Free pianos don’t tend to be cheap either to get tuned, and that’s if you can even tune them in the first place.
Where the fuck you store it though? A shitty car you can park anywhere, a horse is gonna take some space. Especially for us poor fucks where the temperature drops below freezing for part of the year. Car just maybe not gonna start today, a horse might not start ever again.
Consider horse a room mate. Finally someone to talk to.
The lowest emission vehicle you can own is an electric bike.*
Will cost 1–4k and way less than $750 annually in maintenance. Can get a road-only one or one capable of going off-road. Does not require insurance or licensing. Can’t legally drink and ride, but you’re very unlikely to get caught if you do, and unlike drink driving the risk is overwhelmingly only to yourself.
Keeps you fit and healthy by being active in your daily life.
* yes, lower even than an analogue bike, because the electric motor is more carbon efficient than human muscle power which requires eating more.
yes, lower even than an analogue bike, because the electric motor is more carbon efficient than human muscle power which requires eating more.
Everytime I saw this claim, it ended up being bullshit. What’s your source?
What’s your source?
A bull.
It’s been a while, but I believe this video was where I heard it. From memory (I’m out right now and can’t rewatch to verify) it was specifically the per-kilometre carbon emissions, not taking into account manufacturing costs.
Obviously there’s some fuziness depending on your diet and the power source used for charging. A vegan who would be charging in a coal-powered grid is going to look better, relatively speaking, for an analogue bike than someone who eats multiple kilos of red meat every week who has solar panels.
I’m not vegan, but I largely replaced by cycling calories w/ oats when I biked to work for a few years, and my area is largely powered by coal and natural gas (not sure on the exact ratio). I haven’t done the math, but I’m guessing I would come out ahead of an electric bike, especially if we included manufacturing and shipping costs for the motor and battery.
You are the horse.
I’ll take that as a compliment.
Can’t legally drink and ride
On a scale of 1 to YEEEEE-HAAAAWWWWW, I rate that as a yeeeee-NAAWW.
Lmao $750 a year 😭
Yeah those prices might have been accurate about a century ago.
