(Excerpted from the August 2012 Cost Savings Special Issue)

As a young woman in her 20s, my sister is learning about the full spectrum of horse-owning responsibilities, a rite of passage I also experienced in my early 20s (my ramen-noodle-eating years). While we grew up owning, caring for, and riding horses at our family’s farmette, Mom and Dad shouldered the burden of planning and paying for veterinary appointments, hay deliveries, and vehicle/equipment maintenance, among the many other details involved with ownership. And while Sarah still keeps her horses at our parents’ place, she’s taken on a much larger portion of these responsibilities