Comment on If you think you look cool in your pickup truck or ford mustang just look at this guy

ivanafterall@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

• frightful_hobgoblin@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  the very rich and the very poor

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  • Samskara@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    The rural population. If you own a piece of land and a small farm, keeping a horse is much cheaper. If you have a stable with a few animals anyway, adding a horse isn’t much extra work.

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    • frightful_hobgoblin@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      It does cost a lot when you factor in opportunity costs of pasture.

      There’s a reason we have the phrase “eats like a horse”. Horses ate 63% more than moocows in this study: …wiley.com/…/j.1365-2664.2002.00693.x

      (Mules fix this.)

      Irish Equine Centre recommends 2 horses per 3 hectares: irishequinecentre.ie/…/Grassland-for-Horses.pdf

      I could be grazing 6 cows if I have 3 hectares, giving me 32,000 litres of milk or more. Only rich people can afford to turn pasture over to horses and turn down that money.

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      • Samskara@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        It depends a lot on circumstances. Rural people often own land they aren’t using optimally. Cows also mean extra labor with milking and such. You might not want to do that. Keeping three cows is small time in the first place and not very efficient.

        Rural living, agriculture, and forestry usually means you have a surplus of something and those around you do as well.

        I know rural people. They might work a job in a shop, office, or contractor, but have some small time agriculture on the side. A lot of that is done in direct exchanges in the community as well. Like, Ben gets to take some firewood from my forest and in return he houses my horse in his stable. Gertrude can use my unused pasture to graze her sheep. Or I might be growing oats, so feeding a horse is basically free for me. Joe owns a ranch with a few horses where the wealthy keep theirs for a fee. I can trade him oats for a horse directly.

        These types of arrangements can be very good (tax free) business and also strengthen social bonds.

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