How many horses is TOO many?

If I had all the money in the world, I would take retired performance horses and a few slaughter bound horses and put on them 100's of acres of green pasture to let them live and be HORSES.
I would just enjoy feeding and bathing horses cause that's what I like to do most =] I get tired of riding.

I am just talking for me here, only 2, as I like lean, clean riding machines. One horse is mine & one horse is hubby's, however he doesn't ride his horse enough to make him lean & I do all the the grooming, so the clean & lean part is usually left to me. I have enough to do in one day, riding a 3rd horse, nope, too many.

I like the 4 we are at right now and I just got my dream horse which is a mustang.

Now if I had unlimited resources and could do horses all day instead of working I think I would add a few mustangs and a couple rescues as training and rehab projects. Not to many though - there is still a limit on my time. Maybe 4-5 projects at most depending on how much time they needed dedicated to them for their particular issues.

As many horses has you have enough time and money for to keep them healthy and happy. If I had more land I would offer it out to some local horse rescues as I don't have enough time or money for more horses. If I had more time and money I would adopt as many rescue animals as I could. Right now with two horses, I'm really at my limit.

One is plenty for me, if I had a second one it would be a pony to keep Buck company. One horse is enough work!

In an ideal kid's world kind of way:
- my Morgan x, for dressage and trails, and cause he's my first and I love him
- a nice big easy going QH or draft x for my fiance and guests
- an arab for endurance
- a well bred warmblood for dressage and vaulting
- a cow-bred, well trained QH (or Appy) that I could learn cutting and team penning on.
- a little Welsh x or German Sport Pony for the kids
- the retired pony that I learned Vaulting on as a kid
- and a Fjord. There will always have to be a Fjord.

In the real world, one horse is plenty of work and sorrow. And I want to keep my SO, too.
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I have 12 and it is to many, I have the money and space to feed and house them. But I do not have the time to work with that many. Sure 2 are 20 y/o and one is 24 y/o and I don't ride them much (but they are totally sound and ridable). I have one that is so spooky that I do not enjoy riding and a nervous big Palomino project horse. I do have 5 good younger trained riding horses but keeping their riding skills polished up takes time. Lastly I have three yearlings that need ground manners and more halter time.
I have a full time job, a ranch to run, a family, pets, friends, the church, a art hobby and I am 60 years old. I wish I had more time in my day. I get up at 5 a,m. Now. I would not tade it though and I am happy.

I have 2 right now and there are days I can't keep up with the up keep since my place is a little older and I work full time with an hour drive one way. In a perfect world, where my time is not monopolized driving and working retail, I want 4: two riding horses and two broodmares. More than that and someone falls by the wayside.

I already joke that I have two "boyfriends", one being the horse. Seriously, if you have one that you work with a lot it's like being married. For me, two horses would feel like bigamy. I don't even enjoy riding other horses. It's like trying to wear someone else's shoes - broken in in all the wrong places.
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LOL! I remember doing the SAME thing when I was young. I wish I could find my old writings... would be interesting and fun reading!

One thing that's very important to consider is TIME. A friend of mine has what I consider to be a lot of horses. One thing I've always said to myself is I'll never have that many horses, because she is pretty much chained to her farm. I suppose if a person could afford to hire a "farm sitter," it wouldn't be as big of a deal, but there's still that "guilt factor" of not spending as much time with each horse as you feel you should.

A coworker just asked me this morning how many horses I have and I actually had to think about it... mostly because I just got three new ones. I feel like I'm definitely at my limit, especially considering four of my horses are at my parents' house and one is boarded near my workplace, which I have to split my time between two places. Two of my horses are retired and don't require much in terms of actually working them. Two are very young (weanling and yearling) ponies so they will require quite a bit of training very soon. My other horse is 7 but is very green so is going to require A LOT of time and effort. I'm having to sacrifice all my other hobbies because I just don't have time for them plus horses. But... I just had to decide where my priorities lie.