Horses in Alaska

[RayinAK]

Originally Posted by akpls

..and farther south they suffer with Coldfoot!.........You started it!

You two are just too funny. Coldfoot and Deadhorse...

Even in Livingood a horse with coldfoot could be dead

[BacktoAK]

There are a lot of horses in Alaska. If you have Facebook, I would advise to join groups - there are a lot in Anchorage, Fairbanks, where people in the horse community post valuable info.
F.

[6.7traveler]

Icelandic horses.

[mizzile]

Fair warning, the horse community in Alaska is corrupt and out of its collective mind crazy.

[6.7traveler]

I don't think it's fair to say the horse community as a whole is corrupt and crazy. I have met some very nice people up here with horses. We do have our fair share of crazy people up here though it's not just limited to the horse community.

[AKStafford]

For those looking into horses in Alaska: The maddening joy of keeping horses in Alaska during a cold snap | Alaska Dispatch News

[pittsflyer]

If I had to guess the horse community is much like the aviation community. The reason for this is the lack of real estate to actually board horses. I would imagine getting into horses in Alaska is very much like getting into aviation where there is a gross lack of boarding and what does exist is extremely expensive.


Those already into the hobby don't have to work with you because the supply and demand dynamic is strongly in favor of the existing establishment. Its not like you go down to horses r us and board your horse for 100$ a month or buy a horse on some kind of market. You likely have to know a guy who knows a guy that could squeeze you in if you jump through your own back side for them. Then once your horse is there if there is any sort of conflict what so ever your level of leverage as the customer is extremely limited. To me if I have to pander that hard to someone in the establishment to keep my horse healthy that's an extremely unhealthy relationship and not a very fun hobby at that point.


BUT at least with a horse you can go buy 5 or 10 acres and put up a barn and such where as in aviation you either find an airport or your screwed, its not like there is tons of linear acerage for sale to put in a nice long strip unless you get WAY off the road system in the middle of no where at which point its not a viable hobby anymore.


My advice would be to buy some land close to where you live and work and set up all the infrastructure to board your own horse before you even buy the horse. The last thing you want is someone threatening to kick you out of the boarding house with no where else to go because of some conflict or they raise prices on you indiscriminately because supply is so low and they can.

[GnomadAK]

been there, done that. It costs a fortune and to be honest the horses don't seem to enjoy it.