| The cost of keeping horses is strongly related to land values so costs
are higher near big cities, of which Sydney is the largest in
Australia. Having said that during my trip to Australia I saw lots of
horses around Sydney and other places. Such information as I gleaned
from local papers, Oz horse magazines, etc:, implied that there were
many options available for keeping and riding horses and that prices
were somewhat lower than here in the Greater Maynard Area which are,
last time I checked, roughly equivalent to the prices in the Greater
Reading Area.
However, you will need to learn a new vocabulary since many Australian
horse terms are neither British nor American. Agistment was one that
threw me and you want to know. I never determined its scope but it
means livery/boarding/grazing to some degree of care.
What surprised me most was that the Saturday paper in Perth, Western
Australia, had a page and a half of classified ads relating to horse.
The paper had the page size of the Boston Herald or the Daily Mirror.
I hope this helps a little bit.
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| If "Angela from the Paint file" is reading this I'd be grateful if you
would answer a couple of questions for me please.
What are the costs of boarding around Sydney, how much is hay per bale
(that's if it's sold that way), the cost of shoeing/worming etc. Just
what the cost is in general of keeping a horse inear Sydney.
I look forward to you reply.
Liz
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| Hi Liz
I live about 1000km from Sydney between Brisbane and the Gold Coast
so I'll have to do some checking on facilities and prices for you.
Sydney is a fairly wide spread city of about 4 million people so it
will largely depend on which area you are focusing on.
The outskirts of the city are about an hours drive in non peak-hour traffic.
There are stabling facilities near the city centre but again I will have
to checkout the prices.
In general most people maintain their horses on their own properties,
or have them agisted (which means grazing). While there are plenty
of Equestrian centres and Stables which cater for full livery most
people opt for the other choices. Prices for acreage land can vary
greatly so I wont even attempt that issue execept to say that it
is possible to find properties within most budgets.
Hay prices vary from season to season but average between $5 and $12
a bale for lucerne, grassy hay can vary between $3 and $8.
Farriers range from $35 to $100 for specialist shoeing with the average
at about $50.
Sydney's climate is fairly temperate all year round so unless you are
showing you dont need to do a lot of rugging.
Let me know if you have any other questions and I will post some
stabling info when I track it down.
Angela
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