There's some extreme competition and big money in some of these horse events. Raising and training a horse who can place well in shows can bring big bucks.

I have one friend who raised a colt, trained it and sold him as a 3year old for 60K. That's a lot of money. She knows what she's doing and she knows how to train for success.

That was the down payment on their house.

I know most people who get involved with horses never attain that kind of skill set. But I live in an area where there are thousands of very high dollar horses and it's a huge industry.