Let it Keep Snowing

 


Today brought more snow and ugly roads, at least in the morning. The snow that came down was heavy and wet. Considering that we are considered extreme drought conditions, we'll take it and any inconvenience it might bring. Luckily, it ended up being a reasonably warm and mild day. All in all not too bad.

The drought here hasn't been as extreme as in some areas of the country, but it has made itself felt. The main issue, for so many horse people, was and still is cost of hay. Our hay this year had a 30% increase. Drought contributed, for sure, but so did gas prices and production costs (fertilizer, etc.). I'm not in a position to elaborate on the details of hay price, but that was my uneducated observation. Because hay increased in price and grazing was scarce, board rates increased. There are, of course, many more factors, but feed costs are inevitably a large expense with horses.

Gas prices helped, as well, by increasing the prices of trims, vet visits, hauling to shows or events, etc. Simply hauling between our properties almost doubled. It meant that we had to have full trips both directions as often as possible to make the trip worth it. The increased prices didn't have quite the effect on the horse market that I had expected, but that's not a bad thing. I had expected a sharp increase in the sale of horses and steep decline in prices.

What ended up happening was more or less business as usual, other than different grass management. It has paid off, so far, in the reduced usage of hay, but we will see once we are through the winter and into the spring. Today's snow should help us come spring, but we shall see.

There are indeed horses in the photo. They even seemed to think today was nice once the sun came out.

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