I want to buy a horse

[Kali]

21. planning to pasture or feed?

for pasture (both actually) the BEST place to get advice is from somebody LOCAL that has a good clean, humane, healthy operation. Ask around. THAT person should become your mentor. Offer to exchange some labor for the knowledge and advice you are wanting.

Horses are variable in terms of what they need - breed, age, type of use, quality of pasture, time of year, etc etc etc. I'm not in the south but I will tell you what I am doing. I have a riding horse, a bit older big and stout. Right now he gets free range on crappy dry pasture 3 or 4 days a week, gets ridden over rocky, hilly "trails" 3 or 4 days/week. Daily gets 10-12 lbs of "senior" formula pellets -@ $20/50 lb sack and free choice alfalfa @ close to $20/bale (about a third of a bale/day). He also gets about a pound daily of calf manna as a supplement. (runs about $30/bag if I recall, not going to look right now)

I'm in a very dry climate so most of the year fly control/manure clean up is of little concern but there are a few months that it gets bad (hopefully that means we have had rain) - your area is likely worse for flies and internal parasites.

I have about a dozen more bums that are on their own, they all look surprisingly good for this time of year and the condition of the range.

goats are a PITA in my opinion - they need staking out or really good pens. they will climb anything - vehicles, buildings, fences, walls. They will also browse any and all landscaping they have access to. They can be good for brush and weed control, but they can beat out an area as bad as a horse too.

Fencing for most horses should be wood with no exposed nails/bolts/etc although most any dedicated horse can find a way to injure itself (and the more they are worth the worse injuries and illnesses will be, trust me)

Make sure you have a large animal vet in the area - they are getting scarce and expensive. (a good large horse facility may have the requisite expertise for most situations but having a number to call for that one bizarre event is good insurance) speaking of insurance - some states may require some kind of liability coverage for either the horse or the property or both - check into that stuff before it is too late.

Horse are large, fast, herding, prey animals - learn their natural behaviors and work with that.

Consider adopting or rescue - especially if you are just looking for a large pet. For a using or riding horse be VERY careful, rescue animals may have serious behavioral problems and beyond that there are a LOT of dipshits trying to sell spoiled ruined animals - lots of scams. Worse than used car salesmen are used horse dealers. BEWARE.