Dragon Stables Equine Center but are we 2 or 4? We like 4 better but technically by IRS standards we are 2.

On March 27th our organization will be “officially” 2 years old, unofficially we are closer to 4.

This year we have some very lofty goals, we would absolutely love to have most of our horses under full or partial sponsorship. Sponsorship is very important for our organization as it allows us the ability to stay on top of price inflation because we are able to build a small slush fund with our personal funds since most of the day to day funds are covered by our sponsors. 

Anyone can be a sponsor, it’s very easy to do, and any amount will help.

Just Text DSECSWOK to 53-555 to get started. There is one-time and monthly option slide over to monthly to set and forget.

$10 buys the herd a square bale of hay, that’s about the cost of a dining out meal at most restaurants.

$18.50 is cheaper than a date at the movies and it buys a bag of grain or alfalfa pellets.

All tiers are explained below:

Givebutter Giving Tiers

We have several suggested amounts on our Givebutter fundraisers, many of them have little short statements next to them.

$10 – A Square Bale of HAY
We use a lot of hay here at the center, we elect to feed what is considered a forage first diet. This diet we feel is overall healthier for many horses and works well in a pasture setting. Our horses, unless instructed by our care team, have access to hay 24 hours a day, horses are natural foragers. In the wild they will eat and roam for about 17 hours a day, eating 1.5 – 2% of their individual body weight daily, for an average 1250 pound horse this is about 24-25 pounds of hay a day, we have 5 horses in our care. We use a square bale a day for the 2 horses in the rehabilitation unit, they need hay year round. The Pasture utilizes round bales, one round bale will last the pasture about 10-14 days, we are looking into hay nets to help minimize the waste. The pasture uses hay from “Turkey and Lights” (around Thanksgiving weekend) to when the grass starts to green up, which is about Spring Break. A round bale costs $80 plus a $25 delivery fee, feeding round bales save us time and money when we have volunteers who can pick them up and we don’t need to have them delivered.

$18.50 – One Bag of Grain
We actually feed a mix of different feeds so this is an average, one of the main feeds we use is a ration balancer. The ration balancer we use is Triple Crown 30%, it has a low feed rate and a bag lasts us 2 weeks, this allows us to ensure that our horses are getting the minimum vitamins and minerals in a low feed rate encouraging the consumption of more natural forage. The second grain we use is Dynamic 12%. We recently switched to this after our other feed was discontinued, we use this feed as “fluff” it allows us to adjust our feed rates based on body score since all the vitamins and mineral requirements are being met by the TC30. Using a mix of grains has allowed us to keep our horses at healthier weights, we have some who when given 6 pounds of feed ballon up to morbidly obese sizes, we also have some who can’t have the amount of sugar/startch found in many commercially prepared concentrated feeds due to metabolic issues.

$35 – Farrier Visit
All of our horses in the community pasture are barefoot, we understand that not every horse can go barefoot. This is a decision we made with our care team many years ago, it cut down on injuries from rambunctious youngsters as they regained weight and recovered from trauma. We like to keep our horses in a herd setting and actually find it easier to gain the trust of new additions, because they see our longer term residents trusting us. We do have one horse who needs shoes off and on in the spring and one who will need them for the foreseeable future, these shoes are special clog type wedges for laminitis, and cost about $300/set.

$100 – Stall Rental/Vet Visit
Our horses not located in the pasture are located at the adjacent boarding facility, we currently have 2 in runs/stalls, these are our rehabbers. They are also the ones who will eat hay year round. These runs confine their movement to allow tendons and bones to heal. We have one with a set bowed tendon but he cracked his skull, and one with bad laminitic issues.
Our annual Spring Vet visit averages out to $100 per a horse to get full shots as well as coggins (annually required test)

$150 – Dental Visit
Our horses receive a dental check every year, this check helps smooth out sharp points and allows us to see what their diet is doing to their teeth. This visit is important for our younger horses in retraining, many head issues are from the teeth hitting the bit and causing a pain response. The visit is also important for our older horses who could be suffering from a dental wave (uneven wearing causing a wave across the teeth) and also for those who are missing teeth so we can check the condition of surrounding teeth. This visit is often within the first month of admission into our program, as most horses will limit eating if it hurts to eat.

$200 – Pasture lease
We currently pay $20/acre each month for a pasture lease, our current lease is $10 acres. We are looking for a long term home but with the rising costs of property we might be leasing for a while.