Foundational Care Part 2: The Formula and how to use it

  The Formula and how to use it to sustain a specific living horse.

And how to make sure it isn’t used for any other purpose except care of the specific living horse.

First lets run some numbers:Lets say you are living in the East.
Full board in these areas runs about $300 in bigger barns in the country and $600 plus in the city or suburban areas.  So to set up this foundation for your horse you will need to adjust your figures according to the location.  Lets say  in a 50 mile radius from you Full board runs about $450 a month.
$450 x 12 months = $5,400.00 for a year at full board.  This money either needs to be in an escrow savings account or in a special foundation account where the money will be invested wisely and interest generated.

The average mustang running on good quality pasture is going to cost less than $50 a month to sustain. In the three winter months in the south or south east you might want to add Hay depending on the conditions of the pasture in winter. So that might add another $15 to $35 a month for grass hay depending on hay prices.

So the total amount for keeping a healthy mustang at grass is about $705 a year or spread over a year about: $59.00 a month.

So the interest on the $5,400 needs to cover a minimum of $59 a month just for basic, no frills ,horse care. However, you need to pay someone to check the horses ever day, to rent a locations and the horse’s up keep. Add $30 a month for an employee per horse and $109.00 for facility and maintenance.  

So basically out of that the interest needs to be $200 a month per horse to sustain each horse’s basic quality of life. Some months that will be a larger amount and some a smaller amount.

The hard cruel fact is you need to have the “full board for a year” amount of money in the bank to sustain that horse before it ever comes on the property. And as long as that horse is on the property the money designated for it should not be used on any other horse. Putting the money in a foundation or escrow account will prevent it from being used to over fill your operation. Over filling is how sanctuaries and rescues fail.

The rule of thumb is: Don’t do it if you can’t sustain it! The amount of foundation money of course is going to vary from location to location so here is the formula again.
The Formula for Foundational Care
 
(Full board x 12) + $10,000 per horse x Number of years you need to keep the horse = monthly sustained life time care for one horse
*A Rescue Horse on average will stay with the organization non longer than 3 years on average.

*A Sanctuary horse to live out its life might be anywhere from 7 to 15 years  on average depending on the health and age of the horse.


This means you will have a suggested amount  somewhere between $15,000 and $20,000 per horse  per year in residence in escrow to sustain one horse once you have raised the money. The horse will live on the interest for its lifetime and the money will be designated to that specific horse for as long as it is in your organization and cannot be used for any other purpose. Once the horse leaves the organization that money can be assigned to another horse. You also cannot barrow against the money, nor can your creditors take it as an asset.

You can talk to your bank about the details of how to set up such a foundation so it can benefit a number of horses, how your state and federal laws will apply to it and how it can be best managed to the benefit of incoming horses as well as established horses. Each state is a bit different so be sure to do your homework on how to make this work. Be sure to ask about the Specifics of what it will cost to set it up and maintain it.



Next blog: The Argument for the $10K