Horses Are Expensive 3.0 - April

Not only are horses expensive, but so is everything else. For such a short month, this one nearly broke the bank. For the past year, I have incurred the most bizarre and unexpected bills. Need an example? My car, for which I have now made 37 payments, just went back to the body shop for its FOURTH repair/repaint. And every instance has been unrelated.

Unluckiest car ever - but still really cute!

First, I got hit in the rear quarter panel which bent the axel and did all sorts of body damage. Fortunately, the other driver was 100% at fault so their insurance company paid for all the repairs.

Then something splashed all-over my hood, eating through the paint. To repaint my hood was just slightly more than my deductible ($500), so I just paid for it without filing a claim.

Last fall, I was hit in the front quarter panel, and the other driver fled the scene. While I was declared not at fault, I still had to pay the $500 deductible.

And finally, last week, my garage door malfunctioned as I backed out, scraping the roof of my car and ripping off my antenna. As it was clearly my fault, I had to pay the $500 deductible again. The Juke is in the shop as we speak.

Every year ...

Even though we pay extra all year long AND claim zero exemptions, we still have a tax bill every year. April was tax month. The bill was paid, but we didn't like it. There have been more bills, of course, but what can I say? It's just life. The big bummer is that I haven't been able to pay nearly as much on Speedy's vet bill(s) as I would have liked.

A pretty boring month.

With show season now staring me in the face, I'm pretty glad that I only have one goal for the year.​ Knowing that my show budget is getting smaller and smaller, I've been busting both Speedy's butt as well as my own to get as good as we can so that we earn the scores we need without needing to do a bunch of shows to get them.

I can't guarantee that we'll get the scores in just two shows (I need two scores from two different judges), but being "poor" is a huge motivator!

I am glad today is payday.