Tar Sands coming to Utah

[auroraglacialis]

Re community gardens - well the more the better - this will then give you also some good food for yourself and save money. Or even better - do pasture rotation with horses, chicken and grassland, that way, one does not need to fertilize the pastures and gets some additional eggs. I doubt that organic fertilizer from grazing animals is something the world has too much of - Replace some of that mineral fertilizer with it.

Re the BEVAT figures - honestly I think these are mad. It seems a bit like that brochure is set out to scare people away from getting a horse. I could ask my sister, but I think a lot of these costs are happening mostly if you live e.g. in a city and have to rent and buy everything. If you have lets say a 2 acre lot somewhere, you can easily feed the horse with that, if you live in an area with rainfall, you can collect rainwater for watering, if you know a blacksmith, he can put on the shoes in exchange for taking part in the sunday barbecue - or ideally if the horse does not need to go on long distances or on hard surfaces, you may not even need shoes (barefoot horses yay).
Some of the costs are very optional like transport in a trailer with a truck (!) or fees for competitions. Others are investments for a lifetime and for several people (e.g. shelter, fences - these can be used for several decades and also for several horseowners at the same time. I think my sister pays something like 100€ a month for pasture and stable use plus some money so that someone cares for the horse and extra money for winter food (maybe about 500€ for a winter) and some vet/blacksmith costs once a year, maybe another 100€. A car here is about 100€ in insurance a month plus gasoline and repairs.
So they are not different by an order of magnitude, but a horse would probably be a bit cheaper - and of course it is carbon neutral - and of course it is a living being that you can like and care for as well.
Oh and if you find some little girls - you instantly have free personnel to care for the horse and clean it and all that.