Keeping a horse in Costa Rica

Guanacaste is a large province, so you would need to decide where you intend to live. Yes, it is drier in some areas and there may be no precipitation for months at a time, so the cost of hay will soon mount up, plus you will require a vehicle to pick it up.
Costa Ricans 'love' horses, and so seeing one on its own in a field, may be a temptation too good to miss...  It should be kept very close the residence, overnight. We learnt that lesson the hard way.
Vets are usually  reasonable but that will vary with location. As for the availability and costs of blacksmiths, I have no idea, but again it will depend on location.

Thanks so much for the response! Do you know how much hay costs there? Could you estimate the cost to feed a horse hay for a month? I have no idea.

Thanks again!

I will contact a friend to ask about pricing for feed, hay etc. Unfortunately, as a 'gringo' the price may be a lot higher than it would be to a local.

Ephiz67 wrote:

Hi,

I am thinking of retiring to Costa Rica eventually. I am leaning towards Guanacaste since it is the warmest and driest part of the country.  My dream is to finally have a horse when I do if I can afford it and logistically it makes sense. I won't have a ton of money. I am wondering if it is expensive to keep a horse there? Are vet bills high? Can one find 1-2 acres of reasonably priced land and like a two bedroom house near any of the places I mentioned? Like within a half hour from the cities or towns?  Is it hard to find relatively cheap trustworthy labor to help care for a horse especially when I am away?  and hay to buy? What kind of costs can I expect? Are there local people who are knowledgeable and offer services like blacksmiths and horse vets etc? Or if too hard to keep a horse myself is there horse boarding nearby those places and how expensive is that likely to be? I would buy the horse in Costa Rica? Any info on that? Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks a lot!

Finding a house with 1-2 acres in Guanacaste near a town shouldn't be hard, nor would it be in any part of Costa Rica (other than San Jose where I doubt one could afford 1-2 acres, or even find them, LOL.)

"Reasonably priced" is relative. Best thing to do is figure out approximately where you would land, here, and look up prices on the internet.

Labor is cheap here, usually $3-5/hour depending on who you get and how much you want to pay. Many of us gringos pay more, by choice, when a worker is responsible, reliable, loyal, trustworthy, etc. But $3-5 for most workers is a fair estimate. Certainly you can find a local who will care for your horse when you're gone although if you live far from him (i.e. he's not a neighbor) he may ask for gas money. Gas is around $5/gallon here. (Can't remember exactly how much but just know it's way more than in the U.S. as are cars. Figure almost DOUBLE the price to buy a car or truck. Yes, you'd buy a horse in Costa Rica. Where/ how much, I have no idea. I'm sure in most areas you could fine one though.

"Horse boarding" might be just a neighbor with some land who has a horse or two? In that case, yes.

Anyway, the most important point to all this is:
Figure out 2-3 areas you are interested in, get to know prices in the area, and by all means RENT there for awhile before deciding to buy or move here permanently.

One other point is that it's not substantially cheaper to live here than it is to live in most areas of the USA. Food evens out to about the same for me, owning a car is a bit more expensive here (gas is way higher but mechanics are way cheaper), but the cost of the car is about double. Especially if you rent and don't buy your home, it's about the same cost here as in the USA, for cost of living, as rents are usually pretty high unless you just luck out or rent a room or something like that. You can also see examples of rent in most areas on the internet and some realty web sites also rent houses.

Just spoke with my Costa Rican friend, who knows about farms and horses. He reckons it could cost between US$300-350 per month for hay, to feed them both morning and night. Not all areas will sell hay.

kohlerias wrote:

Just spoke with my Costa Rican friend, who knows about farms and horses. He reckons it could cost between US$300-350 per month for hay, to feed them both morning and night. Not all areas will sell hay.

Your post reminded me that someone also once told me it was "fairly expensive" to have a horse unless you live in a place where there's a lot of available grass or whatever it is for them to eat.

A neighbor had a really cool horse that we used to pass by all the time on the road and we'd stop and say hi to it by the road. He told us one day he was going to get rid of it and asked if we'd like to have it.
That's when I found out that "brizantha" grass which is most of what there is around here, horses will not eat. (Only cows will eat it! Not even goats will!)
So I asked about getting food for it and I don't remember how much he said but I think it was between $200-300 a month so I said "Oh well... No way!"z
And that was a couple years ago so it could well be more $ now.

Thanks so much for your detailed reply. I really appreciate it. Didn't realize prices were that high in Costa Rica. Food for example I thought would be cheaper minus the fancy imported expat food. But I would be buying not renting after a trial run.

Thanks again!
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Thanks for the information. That is disappointing! I really thought it would be so much cheaper to feed a horse there. Oh well. I guess my horse dream is not to be