If you buy your wife a horse for a wedding anniversary gift, make it a gelding, not a mare!

Some years ago, after boarding our horses for a few years, it became evident that I was not going to stop breeding Lydia, the mare he bought me for our 19th wedding anniversary. My husband did the math and decided that it would be cheaper to buy me a house on some acreage and bring the horses home than it would be to continue living in town and boarding. Further math showed that it would be cheaper to buy me a house on some acreage than to live in town, period, without even adding in the board.

That was almost a decade ago. I had a wish list then for my perfect horse property, and I have one now. But they're not identical by any means; what I thought I needed from my experience of boarding and what it turns out is really most useful or desirable when I'm taking care of my own are two different things.

Here's a list of some of t ...