Equihab | Auction Prices vs Adoption

1. Quarantine: You may get more than you bargained for if the auction horse gives your whole barn Strangles or Rhino (EHV-1)

Our horses are kept in a 3-week quarantine minimum before they can leave our farms, except for some horses already kept isolated at small private farms where no horses have gone in/out.

2. Time: You can come back with a vet, farrier, or trainer to look the horse over carefully. You can visit the horse more than once. Or you can just have peace of mind that you aren't rushed to decide within an hour or two. Also be aware most cheaper auctions are not set up for you to ride freely & safely, and you're lucky if you're allowed to get on most of the horses at the huge regional auction near our area.

3. Disclosure: We happily share with you the vet's findings any anything else we know about the horse. You can see our vet's notes. If our vet finds a horse is a little unsound, we will tell you. Because we're not a for-profit dealer, it isn't in our (or your or the horse's) best interest to hide anything.

4. Risk: At an auction the horse may look good, but get him home and you find out he has no training, temperament problems, or hidden health problems. Then you're stuck! We take on all the risk by taking on the horse, keeping him awhile to evaluate him, and having a vet look him over. If he turns out to be unsound,he becomes our problem not yours.

5. Maintenance: All maintenance needed for a horse will be up to date at the time you adopt: vaccinations, farrier care, worming, dental check (flotation done if needed). Saves you the hassle and expense of having to do this as soon as the horse gets home.

6. ID: All of our horses are microchipped. We also record any tattoos or brands, and we take color photos. This means if a storm takes down your fence or he runs off during a trail event, he is now uniquely and easily identifiable. We also own our own chip scanner to see if this is someone else's missing (stolen) horse.

7. Ongoing farrier care is currently FREE to horses adopted through our program and kept within our farrier's normal working area (Cecil County and neighboring areas) except those needing shoes. This can save you $25 or more every 4-6 weeks.

8. Drugs: We do not drug our horses to hide anything. Of the few medications we use bute is probably the only one that might mask discomfort. We never tranquilize or otherwise drug horses that are to be shown for adoption. We try not to keep the horses on bute indefinitely, and any horse on bute will be done so with our vet's supervision. We do not tranquilize our stalled horses (except when our vet absolutely requires it for medical lay-up, which has yet to happen).

9. Return Policy: Any of our horses can be brought back to us at any time for any reason. And should your new adopted horse just not work out at all, we'll give you a credit of the adoption fee if he's returned in 30 days in the same or better condition.

10. Cost: When you add up all these things, plus the risk, uncertainty, and possible disease spread, you're saving yourself hundreds if not more by going through a good rescue program such as ours versus an auction.

From an economics point of view:

Cost of horse at auction - no written guarantee of soundness:	let's say $400
Add in first set of shots, vet exam, vet farm call:	$100 - $150
Coggins	$30
Microchipping and registration in HorseTrac	$50
Add farrier visit (or visits if the horse is neglected and needs repeated trims before he's ready to go)	$25 and up
Ongoing farrier trims would've been free for Equihab horse adopted locally	$200/yr
At least one deworming (up it to $50 if he needs a Panacur Powerpak)	$5-10
Cost of isolation boarding and not using him for the first 3 weeks to ensure disease control (separate buckets, lead ropes, brushes, food bowls/scoops, etc)	$100, $200, more
Transport expense to ship him from auction to your home (or your own gas pulling a trailer & your time). We include transport in some of our local adoptions.	???
Treat for any problems, even little common ones like rain-rot	???
Test him under saddle and work on his bad habits	???
Cost, both in resale commission and emotional cost, of having to take to auction the horse if he doesn't work out	???
Cost to retire him to a good home years from now when he does go unsound. For example, the popular Ayerss Retirement Farm charges $4,000 per incoming horse. Or donation & transport to another Rescue.	???

How Can an Rescue Horse Be Cheaper & Better

Than an Auction?

Or: Why should I pay you $800 to adopt a horse when I can pick one up from auction for $400?

From an economics point of view:

Total cost of that auction "bargain" is really

$1000 and up for a horse with NO guarantees.