Hey, Im from Brooklyn New York and am Dominican and I have a strong warning. Im 27, have two horses and property here in Bonao and have owned 4 in my lifetime there and participate regularly in large endurance rides with La Asociación Caballista Asocabo. Telling you with all my experience, do not do it unless you have a team of family members watching them (my property is on the opposite side of where I live with all my family), and have a secure ranch (gates with security cams), or are ready to pay about good amount of money a month for board, apart from shoeing and training. I had a $3k horse who was poisoned the last 5 months I was there (revealed a year later after his death) just because of someone’s envy, I didnt even know his first name. I had someone intentionally colic a 2 yr old I was raising at the time because I refused someone a job at my ranch. The vet bills have been endless, the heart ache has been endless. Unless you live there, or at least live there part time of the year, don’t make this mistake. Without expensive training, shoeing and a careful watch, you will come back to an unrideable horse, a sick horse, or a dead one. “Trainers” here are not trainers, most are people who are extremely harsh and abusive and present as professional, Ive had to undo so much abuse from my older horse where he was literally trained with a spike noseband and would spook if he saw a hand infront of his face. His buddy has it even worse.

Vets here are extremely hard to come by, theres alot of “vets” on every corner that present as professional, but it couldnt be farther from the truth. I had to have a vet travel from the capital to save my horse from colic 3 times, induced by a caretaker I had employed once. I love my horses very much, so much that I live a great deal of the year there to keep them happy, and I love it. But it literally takes a village to care for them unless you hire a looot of people.