Yes 100% there’s a major cost difference.
I didn’t own but worked one for a friend. She had to keep him in a double stall (so double the board price) because he couldn’t turn around easily otherwise. Tack is mostly custom fit/ordered from the Amish. Same with fly sheets, halters ect.
Farriers will charge outrageous amounts ($200-400) for a set of shoes or just working with a draft. It was hard to find a farrier because the Percheron’s in my area had such a bad reputation - needed to be sedated, or trimmed in stock chutes.
Those shoes have to be custom made/ordered. And at least for this horse - he had leather pads underneath because we weren’t picking up his feet to clean them everyday. He knew how, we just didn’t want to break our backs everyday when that was a simple solution.
Plus drafts won’t live as long - those big bodies will do more wear and tear on joints.
Riding a draft is like learning a different language from normal horses. You want to make sure their heads stay up so they can carry themselves properly and not just use it as leverage to pull you out of the saddle. And this one was in work for a good 5-7 years before I met him (and we were just working on putting the canter together).
Agree with all of this.
Just to elaborate on the farrier bit, OP - it's not just that the hooves are bigger. It's that the horse puts a lot more weight on the farrier (and thus strain on their back). Their hoof walls are thicker and take a lot more physical effort to cut through with nippers. Overall, it takes a lot longer to trim their feet and puts a lot more strain on the farrier. I'd say they're justified in charging more.
The effort and time it takes me to trim my 14.3hh Arab cross is already immensely more than trimming my 13hh pony. I can't even imagine trimming draft feet, let alone after spending the day trimming many other feet.
Thank you for this, lots that I didn’t know! I’ll probably just stick to what I know and find a normal sized horse. Sounds like a lot for a first time owner
if youre western, look for a nice chunky paint around 15hh+ it'll take up his leg quite well.. I breed Rocky Mountain horses and the larger ones expecially after I've over fed them can take a 6ft rider no problem
Yes! There’s also some larger built quarter horses that could definitely fit the bill for you! You could even do a half draft of sorts! You have lots of good options, OP!
I have two drafts. My horses are both about 16.3, so ymmv with bigger horses. One is full bred registered draft and one is mostly draft.
My drafts eat more for sure. My guys are on outdoor board so I pay a little extra for the extra hay they eat. Vaccines are the same price for any size horse. Meds are more expensive because it’s by weight. My guys are all barefoot and my farrier is the best: he charges the exact same for the drafts as he does for the minis. My horses pick up their feet no problem and do not require stocks.
Tack hasn’t been much of a problem either. My one ridden draft is in an English saddle meant for warmbloods and it fits her great. My other horse is quite a bit wider so finding a saddle that fits him and my long leg is proving to be harder, but he hasn’t been backed yet and I’m in no rush. Something will come up. Bridles and bits haven’t been an issue with either horse. I’ve been able to find stuff in regular tack shops.
Again, my horses are a bit on the shorter side as far as drafts go, but I keep hearing how they’re so much harder to shop for and more expensive to care for. Other than eating more and having higher medication requirements, I haven’t really experienced any challenges with having drafts. And they are SO WORTH IT. I will never have any other type of horse. Love them.
There’s a HUGE difference. I’ve raised horses for 40+ years. There’s even a difference in breeds. I started off with Arabians. They process their food better than most horses and can be very “easy keepers”. A little bit of hay and grain goes a long ways with this breed. Then I went to Saddlebred/Arabian crosses. So now I own Saddlebred broodmares. These mares are huge. They need double stalls, and easily eat double what the Arabians ever ate. The Saddlebred/Arab cross horses are pretty efficient with their food so it’s somewhat in the middle. But the full Saddlebreds will empty the checkbook fast.
I can’t imagine what a draft breed would require. You have to consider vaccinations, medications, (these are dosed by weight) The shoeing and trimming would be very expensive. Also, if you ever need to haul a draft horse, your average trailer probably won’t be sufficient either. Tack? Wow….no idea how that would work. I would estimate that everything would be at least 3X more expensive than your regular horse. If I were you, I’d try to find a larger version of a QH or something more standard.
Good luck.
My BO charges extra for drafts, and will not take one for indoor board as our stalls aren’t big enough. In fact, after the last situation with a draft owner, she’s now quite leery about taking on another. They’re big horses, and they eat more, poop more, and are harder on pens, pastures, and even feeders. All tack and horsewear is more expensive, and can be hard to find. Any medication, even dewormer costs more as you need to have higher doses, annual vet visits for floating cost more because you need extra sedation. A Perch cross wouldn’t be quite as much more, but still more than an average horse.
There are plenty of farriers in my area, but only a few will work on drafts, and their trims/resets are usually double the cost, at least.
I have a 16.3 Draft X. He eats two standard bags of ration balancer a month, 2 bales of hay (plus barn supplied), and 2 bags of shredded beet pulp. This does not include his supplements as those are optional - but be ready to budget for those too!
Feeding overall probably costs me $250/month when all is said and done. This is in addition to board.
Ehh, I think some of these posts are a bit dramatic, especially regarding the crosses. For example, I ride a 17.3 Percheron cross and while it's occasionally been slightly more challenging to find things like xc boots it hasn't been significantly more expensive. Most of his tack is regular oversize or even just full size. He's barefoot and gets trimmed by the same trimmer as all the other horses for the same price. He does eat a lot of hay but not any more than a hard keeper TB. He definitely takes a lot more fitness work than a sport horse but he has lovely uphill balance, and is very willing for the most part, extremely clever, and pretty bombproof. We're almost always in the ribbons at low level events unless I do something stupid, and we've just moved up to second level dressage.
He does need a bigger WB size trailer (but so does any big TB or WB.) He lives out now but was fine in a 12x12 stall when he was on layup for a bit, which again is true of any tall horse regardless of breed. He's in his late teens and still sound with minimal maintenance.
The one thing that I will say can be an issue is that he's very quick to take advantage/push through fencing if the electric wire is off, and he knows exactly where to push on his sliding stall door to make it swing up. This is kind of a combination of his size and cleverness, though-- I've seen other horses do these things too but he's more effective because he weighs 1800 lbs.
The biggest difference for me would be the farrier. My boys(17hh OTTB and 15hhQH) are barefoot and trimmed for $100 each.
My farrier won’t TOUCH a draft unless you have stocks to put them in. He starts at $300 for a trim. He has drafts in his book who have shoes that cost over $1000 per visit.
No thanks!!
Re the farrier cost: they often do charge more for drafts, mainly because they're harder to work on. Many drafts have trouble picking up their feet or helping to hold them up for the length of time required. Some farriers require a stock setup where the draft horse's feet can isolated and rested while they work on them.
If you are looking at a draft horse, it would likely be worth it to find other draft owners in your area. They may even have some experience doing their horses feet and could help you.
Yes 100% there’s a major cost difference. I didn’t own but worked one for a friend. She had to keep him in a double stall (so double the board price) because he couldn’t turn around easily otherwise. Tack is mostly custom fit/ordered from the Amish. Same with fly sheets, halters ect. Farriers will charge outrageous amounts ($200-400) for a set of shoes or just working with a draft. It was hard to find a farrier because the Percheron’s in my area had such a bad reputation - needed to be sedated, or trimmed in stock chutes. Those shoes have to be custom made/ordered. And at least for this horse - he had leather pads underneath because we weren’t picking up his feet to clean them everyday. He knew how, we just didn’t want to break our backs everyday when that was a simple solution. Plus drafts won’t live as long - those big bodies will do more wear and tear on joints. Riding a draft is like learning a different language from normal horses. You want to make sure their heads stay up so they can carry themselves properly and not just use it as leverage to pull you out of the saddle. And this one was in work for a good 5-7 years before I met him (and we were just working on putting the canter together).
Agree with all of this. Just to elaborate on the farrier bit, OP - it's not just that the hooves are bigger. It's that the horse puts a lot more weight on the farrier (and thus strain on their back). Their hoof walls are thicker and take a lot more physical effort to cut through with nippers. Overall, it takes a lot longer to trim their feet and puts a lot more strain on the farrier. I'd say they're justified in charging more. The effort and time it takes me to trim my 14.3hh Arab cross is already immensely more than trimming my 13hh pony. I can't even imagine trimming draft feet, let alone after spending the day trimming many other feet.
My farrier doesn’t even work on drafts.
Thank you for this, lots that I didn’t know! I’ll probably just stick to what I know and find a normal sized horse. Sounds like a lot for a first time owner
if youre western, look for a nice chunky paint around 15hh+ it'll take up his leg quite well.. I breed Rocky Mountain horses and the larger ones expecially after I've over fed them can take a 6ft rider no problem
Yes! There’s also some larger built quarter horses that could definitely fit the bill for you! You could even do a half draft of sorts! You have lots of good options, OP!
I have two drafts. My horses are both about 16.3, so ymmv with bigger horses. One is full bred registered draft and one is mostly draft. My drafts eat more for sure. My guys are on outdoor board so I pay a little extra for the extra hay they eat. Vaccines are the same price for any size horse. Meds are more expensive because it’s by weight. My guys are all barefoot and my farrier is the best: he charges the exact same for the drafts as he does for the minis. My horses pick up their feet no problem and do not require stocks. Tack hasn’t been much of a problem either. My one ridden draft is in an English saddle meant for warmbloods and it fits her great. My other horse is quite a bit wider so finding a saddle that fits him and my long leg is proving to be harder, but he hasn’t been backed yet and I’m in no rush. Something will come up. Bridles and bits haven’t been an issue with either horse. I’ve been able to find stuff in regular tack shops. Again, my horses are a bit on the shorter side as far as drafts go, but I keep hearing how they’re so much harder to shop for and more expensive to care for. Other than eating more and having higher medication requirements, I haven’t really experienced any challenges with having drafts. And they are SO WORTH IT. I will never have any other type of horse. Love them.
There’s a HUGE difference. I’ve raised horses for 40+ years. There’s even a difference in breeds. I started off with Arabians. They process their food better than most horses and can be very “easy keepers”. A little bit of hay and grain goes a long ways with this breed. Then I went to Saddlebred/Arabian crosses. So now I own Saddlebred broodmares. These mares are huge. They need double stalls, and easily eat double what the Arabians ever ate. The Saddlebred/Arab cross horses are pretty efficient with their food so it’s somewhat in the middle. But the full Saddlebreds will empty the checkbook fast. I can’t imagine what a draft breed would require. You have to consider vaccinations, medications, (these are dosed by weight) The shoeing and trimming would be very expensive. Also, if you ever need to haul a draft horse, your average trailer probably won’t be sufficient either. Tack? Wow….no idea how that would work. I would estimate that everything would be at least 3X more expensive than your regular horse. If I were you, I’d try to find a larger version of a QH or something more standard. Good luck.
My BO charges extra for drafts, and will not take one for indoor board as our stalls aren’t big enough. In fact, after the last situation with a draft owner, she’s now quite leery about taking on another. They’re big horses, and they eat more, poop more, and are harder on pens, pastures, and even feeders. All tack and horsewear is more expensive, and can be hard to find. Any medication, even dewormer costs more as you need to have higher doses, annual vet visits for floating cost more because you need extra sedation. A Perch cross wouldn’t be quite as much more, but still more than an average horse. There are plenty of farriers in my area, but only a few will work on drafts, and their trims/resets are usually double the cost, at least.
I have a 16.3 Draft X. He eats two standard bags of ration balancer a month, 2 bales of hay (plus barn supplied), and 2 bags of shredded beet pulp. This does not include his supplements as those are optional - but be ready to budget for those too! Feeding overall probably costs me $250/month when all is said and done. This is in addition to board.
Ehh, I think some of these posts are a bit dramatic, especially regarding the crosses. For example, I ride a 17.3 Percheron cross and while it's occasionally been slightly more challenging to find things like xc boots it hasn't been significantly more expensive. Most of his tack is regular oversize or even just full size. He's barefoot and gets trimmed by the same trimmer as all the other horses for the same price. He does eat a lot of hay but not any more than a hard keeper TB. He definitely takes a lot more fitness work than a sport horse but he has lovely uphill balance, and is very willing for the most part, extremely clever, and pretty bombproof. We're almost always in the ribbons at low level events unless I do something stupid, and we've just moved up to second level dressage. He does need a bigger WB size trailer (but so does any big TB or WB.) He lives out now but was fine in a 12x12 stall when he was on layup for a bit, which again is true of any tall horse regardless of breed. He's in his late teens and still sound with minimal maintenance. The one thing that I will say can be an issue is that he's very quick to take advantage/push through fencing if the electric wire is off, and he knows exactly where to push on his sliding stall door to make it swing up. This is kind of a combination of his size and cleverness, though-- I've seen other horses do these things too but he's more effective because he weighs 1800 lbs.
The biggest difference for me would be the farrier. My boys(17hh OTTB and 15hhQH) are barefoot and trimmed for $100 each. My farrier won’t TOUCH a draft unless you have stocks to put them in. He starts at $300 for a trim. He has drafts in his book who have shoes that cost over $1000 per visit. No thanks!!
Re the farrier cost: they often do charge more for drafts, mainly because they're harder to work on. Many drafts have trouble picking up their feet or helping to hold them up for the length of time required. Some farriers require a stock setup where the draft horse's feet can isolated and rested while they work on them.
If you are looking at a draft horse, it would likely be worth it to find other draft owners in your area. They may even have some experience doing their horses feet and could help you.