The Ferrara family boards all three horses — Cookie, Teddy and Rubio — at Echo Farm in South Salem, N.Y., which charges $1,300 a month per horse. That includes hay and grain, cleaning the stall and turning the horse out into the field every day.

Image Amanda Ferrara spends six days a week at the barn that houses Cookie. Credit... Michael Falco for The New York Times

At least the animals make the expense of boat ownership look reasonable.

Still, despite the cost, parents say the experience is worth it. They typically insist that horses provide deep life lessons in being responsible and caring for something that goes beyond themselves — or how well the animal can jump a fence.

“They’re learning a lot of responsibility at a young age,” said Callie Kuntz-Bauer, owner of Echo Farm. “You have to give up a lot of your social life. You can’t go out and party if you have a 6 a.m. horse show.”

So when children ask for a pony, what are parents to do? They would save a lot of money by steering the child toward another sport. But those parents who want to cultivate their children’s interest need to consider recurring costs that can continue for 30 years or more, long past the time when a child will be riding the horse.

Owners should expect the total spending for the animal’s upkeep to be far greater than the cost to buy it. “The real price is the monthly expenses,” said Carleton Henrich, a mother of four who grew up on 250 acres in southern Virginia.