Low Horse Prices Cause Hardship

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Story Published: Jan 31, 2010 at 7:55 PM PDT

By Ryan Simms

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ELLENSBURG -- As more people scale-back on buying pets, horses are being stung the most.

As one of Ellensburg's only horse boarders, Jim Swayze is having more luck at luring animals than customers.

In the past year, Swayze has seen a 60 percent drop in clients. Like a lot of people in the horse industry, he blames overbreeding, along with the bad economy.

These days, the average cost of owning a horse is more than $5,000 every year. And for most people, that's just too much to afford.

Without enough sales, horse prices have plunged across the country. Only a few years ago, horses were auctioned-off at thousands of dollars, but today, they're selling for less than $500.

Horse sellers don't expect prices to rise for another three years.

That's not soon enough for Swayze. Many of his horses are almost 30-years-old.

"They'll spend their years here until they die...we won't get any more of them," he says.

For now, Swayze plans to keep his boarding business. But soon, there may not be very many horses left on his ranch.

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