Financing horse stuff

[Bigfoot]

Probably more of rant, than a question.........Its my favorite time of year in the horse industry........It'll soon be tax return time. People with a down payment in their hand, out buying the best of everything. I don't know if I pitty them, or I just get a good laugh out of them. That sounds bad of me to say, but I've seen the process so many times.

Friends, and I don't use the term lightly. Good friends will be buying 50 plus thousand trailers. 50 plus thousand dollar trucks. All their old stuff will be for sale for nickels on the dollar. Even if you can afford the payment, it doesn't mean you can afford the item.

Just a rant I guess, but this habit is so terribly expensive. I have the habit, so I know Crome where I speak. I just hate to see families throwing their "financial future" in the wind, just to have the best.

 

[highgrit]

Horse folks are rich.

 

[Tim/South]

Horse folks are rich.

Until it is time to pay for their hay.

 

[tom4018]

Let me know about any good bargains. Then again come tax time I might have to sell something to pay a tax bill.

 

[Bigfoot]

I'm telling you, it's kinda sad. I'm elbow to elbow with working class people every weekend. They are $100 plus thousand deep on a truck and trailer. Many are deeper than that. Some people can afford to do what they do. I'm happy for them. Not a jealous bone in my body. I can't take care of what I have, I'm not going to covet what others have. I just hate to see people so deep in debt for a hobby.

 

[tom4018]

I'm telling you, it's kinda sad. I'm elbow to elbow with working class people every weekend. They are $100 plus thousand deep on a truck and trailer. Many are deeper than that. Some people can afford to do what they do. I'm happy for them. Not a jealous bone in my body. I can't take care of what I have, I'm not going to covet what others have. I just hate to see people so deep in debt for a hobby.

I think some people just want to look like they have more than they do. They can have the payments that go with it, I have paid and still paying for my mistakes. Age has gained me some wisdom I think.

 

[Bigfoot]

What reignited my intrest in this subject, is something I had a front row seat to lately. A guy about my age, maybe a shade older, he has all the "stuff". He had to take out a personal loan last year to finish the season. I noticed last night, they have a ton of crap for sale on every form of social media there is. He's kids really enjoy the sport, and do well above average at it. They could have rodeod for years out of a steel trailer, pulled by a Dailey driver.

 

[tom4018]

What reignited my intrest in this subject, is something I had a front row seat to lately. A guy about my age, maybe a shade older, he has all the "stuff". He had to take out a personal loan last year to finish the season. I noticed last night, they have a ton of crap for sale on every form of social media there is. He's kids really enjoy the sport, and do well above average at it. They could have rodeod for years out of a steel trailer, pulled by a Dailey driver.

We saw that when my daughter showed cattle. People buy the top heifers out of sales, pull in with big aluminum trailers and new dually crew cabs. Really made my old flatbed trailer with the slide in racks look bad. Most of these people had money and were not average working class people, some their kids didn't do most of the work either. It showed when they did things too, at least my daughter did her part.

 

[cow pollinater]

I hear you. I'm going to help a friend and his wife brand their six calves later today. They're working in my corrals so we had to move the calf table out of the way so as to not risk injuring their ten thousand dollar rope horses. They are bringing the cattle in this morning if they can get them baited in with hay (don't want to risk getting the horses hurt crashing around in the brush) They'll haul the horses in one of their brand new trailers behind one brand new truck and the cattle in the other new trailer behind the other new truck... It's been that way for years.
Every year I pressure him to get his own ground so we can get him set up with his own bull(he bums one from me) and we won't have to haul his cattle around to work them and every year he tells me how he just can't figure out how I can afford to own land.

 

[TexasBred]

If you're a good cowboy or horse lover don't be offended but there is a large group of these folks that give the really good ones a really big black eye. Seems the only ones I've ever know were also those that had to have the best of everything, truck, trailer, horses, tack, beer cooler, hat, boots etc. and had absolutely no idea how they would ever get any of it completely paid for....and probably never worried about it. Wouldn't buy a $800 horse from you but price the same horse at $1800 and they would buy it in a heartbeat. Most do have jobs of some form or fashion doing something 5 days a week but usually stay just one step ahead of the bill collectors.

When one would walk in the door of the bank with the big hat, fancy boots, long sleeve shirt year round, laundered jeans, wallet always in his front pocket and Skoal can imprint on the back pocket the red light went off in every office.

Then there were the good ones....hard workers, give you the shirt of their back, let their own problems sit while they help you with yours and never expect a thing in return.

 

[Rafter S]

If you're a good cowboy or horse lover don't be offended but there is a large group of these folks that give the really good ones a really big black eye. Seems the only ones I've ever know were also those that had to have the best of everything, truck, trailer, horses, tack, beer cooler, hat, boots etc. and had absolutely no idea how they would ever get any of it completely paid for....and probably never worried about it. Wouldn't buy a $800 horse from you but price the same horse at $1800 and they would buy it in a heartbeat. Most do have jobs of some form or fashion doing something 5 days a week but usually stay just one step ahead of the bill collectors.

When one would walk in the door of the bank with the big hat, fancy boots, long sleeve shirt year round, laundered jeans, wallet always in his front pocket and Skoal can imprint on the back pocket the red light went off in every office.

Then there were the good ones....hard workers, give you the shirt of their back, let their own problems sit while they help you with yours and never expect a thing in return.

That syndrome of buying everything you can get credit for afflicts a lot of people besides horse people, but they do seem to be more susceptible to it than some.

 

[John SD]

I'm convinced all horsie people have a very serious mental illness. EVERYTHING in their whole life is dedicated to the horses, to the detriment of everything else in their lives, and ultimately themselves.

Neighbor lady here about 70 years old passed away in the late '90s. She died in a mud hole trying to rescue a colt that was stuck in the mud. She was on crutches because of bad hips she wouldn't go to get fixed.

Anyone with a lick of common sense in that condition should have called for help. She knew what she was getting in to. She left her watch on the dash of the pickup and went in to the mudhole with the colt. Neither of them came out alive.

Neighbor went looking for her when he couldn't get ahold of her on the phone. He discovered her dead in the mudhole. Not in real good shape himself, he called the county deputy sheriff who is the guy who actually fished her out.

She had no immediate family in the area. I and a couple other neighbors tried to oversee her livestock until arrangements could be made to disperse them.

I didn't get in on the wild horsie roundup itself. A neighbor and his sons actually arranged for trucks and did the work to haul the horses to the livestock auction. That was back when at least you could sell a horse.

They rounded up 399 horses. I shot one of the horses that was down and couldn't get up while I was overseeing things. One young stud must have been run off into hiding by the other studs. After all the horses were gone, this lone stud shows up with the cattle. So he made the official horse count 401

. At the end, this lady was up to her ears in debt and had less than 100 cattle paying the bills on a 5000 acre ranch that was infested with over 400 horses and at least a section of prairie dogs.

I don't know how to describe it. Calling it insanity does not do it justice. But the lady died doing what she loved to do, so I guess that is the comforting thought. I don't know why anyone would choose to live that way :???:

 

[Angus Cowman]

If you're a good cowboy or horse lover don't be offended but there is a large group of these folks that give the really good ones a really big black eye. Seems the only ones I've ever know were also those that had to have the best of everything, truck, trailer, horses, tack, beer cooler, hat, boots etc. and had absolutely no idea how they would ever get any of it completely paid for....and probably never worried about it. Wouldn't buy a $800 horse from you but price the same horse at $1800 and they would buy it in a heartbeat. Most do have jobs of some form or fashion doing something 5 days a week but usually stay just one step ahead of the bill collectors.

When one would walk in the door of the bank with the big hat, fancy boots, long sleeve shirt year round, laundered jeans, wallet always in his front pocket and Skoal can imprint on the back pocket the red light went off in every office.

Then there were the good ones....hard workers, give you the shirt of their back, let their own problems sit while they help you with yours and never expect a thing in return.

I take offense to this statement I wear a long sleeve shirt yr round, my copenhagen can is in my front shirt pocket, my jeans are starched and have been since I was 12, i dont own a $800 or $1800 horse, but I do own a horse but he cost a little more than that, I have carried my wallet in my front pocket for yrs either there or on the dash of my truck , haven't been able to stand anything in my back pocket for as long as I remember, i drive a 12 model truck the wife drives a dually cause I have had a dually almost as long as I have been driving ( my first truck was a dually before anyone had Duallies but construction workers) I dont own a horse trailer sold my last one yrs ago sold my last stock trailer 4 yrs ago now I use the bosses 1973 gooseneck stock trailer
I used horses to make my living for several yrs and have used them to play longer than that
I own a horse because I enjoy them but have never let a horse own me
Wish I had more time to use mine now but that is just how it goes. And no TB I didn't take offense :lol:

 

[Nesikep]

I have definitely noticed these kind of 'horse people', as well as ranchers that operate in a similar fashion.
Tim/South, You're totally right, they pull into your place in a $100,000 setup and will try every trick in the book to weasel you out of money for your hay, and complain about it anyhow.

Dog people are afflicted the same way.. and expect you to put up the misbehaved beasts when they come over to see you.. they jump on you, chase your hens, your cattle, or whatever. I have no tolerance for that. This isn't ALL of them, but a whole lot.

 

[John SD]

I won't make the grade as a cowboy or a horseman, because I've never owned a horse

Never wore a hat either except sometimes a straw hat in the hayfield in summer. Otherwise a ball cap or Scotch cap.

I do always wear long sleeve snap western shirts with my checkbook in one pocket and phone in the other. My billfold is in my rear jeans pocket. I quit chew over 20 yrs ago :roll:

Wear black 13MWZ Wranglers for dressup, but for everyday I have Dickies or my favorite this time of year, insulated Carhardt jeans.

And I wear velcro strap tennie shoes instead of boots

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

I own a horse because I enjoy them but have never let a horse own me
Wish I had more time to use mine now but that is just how it goes. And no TB I didn't take offense :lol:

Right there is the problem, people allow the horse to own them! When the market was good, we kept a QH stud and bred mares. When the slaughter houses closed, I saw the writing on the wall and quickly changed my stock from horses to cattle, and never looked back! Gelded the stud and traded him for some work on our new home, sold all the foals, and kept just a few mares that were descendants of the first mare I ever owned (at 10).
Got one of 5 leaving for Arizona in two weeks (gave her to one of my old high school students), and would like to drop one or two more and I would be happy. All they do is eat hay and ruin pasture. We do ride some, but our place is too small to justify saddling up a horse to bring the cows in. So they are pasture ornaments, confined to a 5 acre pasture that is the worst on my land (because of them). They have great pedigrees, but that does not matter if they are not used in some capacity.
This mare is a Playgun granddaughter. The palomino mare on the left is the one going to AZ in two weeks.

The girls playing with the cows... bringing them up from the back pasture

The palomino paint mare my daughter is riding (19 years old) is the dam to the two paint mares (in the top pic, 9 and 10 years old) and the black mare my other daughter is riding (20 years) is the dam to the grey mare above (7 years old). So they have been around a long time! I am hoping when the oldest daughter is done with college, she takes her two horses with her (the black and grey mare).

 

[Bigfoot]

They ruin grass, ain't no doubt about that. I rotate mine, before they can kill it. I see alot of pasture ornament horses in my travels. I wonder of all the horses in the United States, what percentage are ridden with some degree of regularity. My son and I were talking about this subject over the weekend.

 

[John SD]

I wonder of all the horses in the United States, what percentage are ridden with some degree of regularity. My son and I were talking about this subject over the weekend.

The neighbor lady had one old mare that was broke to ride. A very good cowhorse. But the lady couldn't get on a horse anymore and the old mare (Angel Baby) had a big rupture the size of a basketball.

In this case, 1 out of 400 with even that 1 being disqualifed sure brings down the percentage :bang:

 

[highgrit]

My wife was a horse person at one time. And when I was young and wanting to be a cowboy I had a couple of horses. But now we just don't have the time to waste on a horse. At one time my daughter wanted a horse, so I sent her to a riding instructor. She would be one of the last student's for the day. And it didn't even take her 2 weeks before she new horses weren't for her.
If we're ever blessed with grandkids, you never know what might be in our pastures.

 

[jedstivers]

If you're a good cowboy or horse lover don't be offended but there is a large group of these folks that give the really good ones a really big black eye. Seems the only ones I've ever know were also those that had to have the best of everything, truck, trailer, horses, tack, beer cooler, hat, boots etc. and had absolutely no idea how they would ever get any of it completely paid for....and probably never worried about it. Wouldn't buy a $800 horse from you but price the same horse at $1800 and they would buy it in a heartbeat. Most do have jobs of some form or fashion doing something 5 days a week but usually stay just one step ahead of the bill collectors.

When one would walk in the door of the bank with the big hat, fancy boots, long sleeve shirt year round, laundered jeans, wallet always in his front pocket and Skoal can imprint on the back pocket the red light went off in every office.

Then there were the good ones....hard workers, give you the shirt of their back, let their own problems sit while they help you with yours and never expect a thing in return.

I take offense to this statement I wear a long sleeve shirt yr round, my copenhagen can is in my front shirt pocket, my jeans are starched and have been since I was 12, i dont own a $800 or $1800 horse, but I do own a horse but he cost a little more than that, I have carried my wallet in my front pocket for yrs either there or on the dash of my truck , haven't been able to stand anything in my back pocket for as long as I remember, i drive a 12 model truck the wife drives a dually cause I have had a dually almost as long as I have been driving ( my first truck was a dually before anyone had Duallies but construction workers) I dont own a horse trailer sold my last one yrs ago sold my last stock trailer 4 yrs ago now I use the bosses 1973 gooseneck stock trailer
I used horses to make my living for several yrs and have used them to play longer than that
I own a horse because I enjoy them but have never let a horse own me
Wish I had more time to use mine now but that is just how it goes. And no TB I didn't take offense :lol:

I have a 800 dollar horse and he's a dang good one but he sure is ugly.
The gooseneck AC is talking about rolled out of Bryan TX in Jan of 74.