I am extremely close to getting the horse of my dreams (which is basically ANY horse). Long story short, the woman I work for has TWH show horses, and she’s giving me her young (younger than 7) stallion (she’s going to geld him before giving him to me) who just doesn’t cut it. I plan on re-training him (I’ve been riding for eleven years, and this will be the second time I will have retrained a TWH show horse to be a western trail horse), and turning him into my pleasure horse. I need no aid in the training department.. my question is.. I am afraid that money will be EXTREMELY tight (this will be my second horse, but the first one I will have ever owned on my own). I can afford him without much issue no matter what, but what advice can you give me to help cut costs ?

He’ll be getting full veterinary care (is there a way I can get training to do my own sheath cleaning ? I’ve never done one before and would like to learn so I can cut $30 out of my annual budget), farrier care every six weeks (barefoot), grain and hay in the winter (it’s a toss-up as to what he’ll get in the summer — most likely he’ll just be kept without hay or grain, depending on how well he holds his weight), and whatever is left over will go into a separate savings account designated for just in case I run short on money one month and need some supplementary cash flow. I have about $1600 backed up for emergencies only. There is no boarding costs because he’ll be staying where I work, so that’s a nice perk. I want to cut costs without cutting quality of life.. any tips ?