I agree with all of the above. I also have a good horse and saddle I would sell if you are interested. You can baby them and dump a lot of money in them or realize that they lived on the open range with no human interaction just fine, and put them out to pasture. If not riding on rocks a good trim will be fine for the feet. 2.5 acres most likely will not hold them over summer without additional feed.

Boy, this thread brings back memories. My dad is a horse guy. When I was growing up he went to farrier school and became certified in corrective shoeing. We later moved to a farm and got our own horses. My dad has always enjoyed breaking and training horses too. Often times using me as a saddle dummy while working the horse on the end of a lead rope. Many of my memories are the reason I'm not a horse guy. If horses were so damn good, Henry Ford would've never invented the automobile. Good luck if you decide to go through with it. I'll just close by saying that undertaking such a commitment just because your kids want to do it may not be the best reason. It's one of the bigger commitments to make as far as pet ownership goes.

Don't eat anything unless your riding them, don't bite you while you're trying to feed em, won't step on you, won't poke their belly out while you saddle them, won't run through a fence on their own and poke a giant hole in their chest, won't run off in the middle of the night when the transformer blows up, won't constantly get out and go eat the neighbors damn herb garden. I could go on forever. My stepdad took a couple of real nice horses from a "friend". I felt sorry for him until he got rid of them. Ended up with a really nice barn though.

I need to put on a horse owner clinic. Y'all make this hard on yourself. Mine stay in the pasture all the time. I don't feed them or do anything other than go catch them when I need to ride one.

There are 2 kinds of horses! Performance horses and yard ornaments.

Performance horses are ridden at the very least every 3rd day and require constant attention. They are an absolute joy to be around and handle.

Yard ornaments stand in a pasture and eat. They require constant attention but rarely receive any and then are blamed for acting like fools when the fool who owns them expects them to be a performance horse.

Horses are a responsibility just like any other pet but they are expensive to maintain and require constant attention if you intend for them to be anything other than trouble.

shove money in one end and get all the chit you want out the other end.