Um, wow. A lot of people have just as much fun competing on their $800 OTTB; of course, I hang out more with the eventing crowd, but you don't have to win to have fun, at least in eventing. Maybe some of the dressage only types take themselves a little too seriously,
but there's more to the horse industry than the wealthy dressage queens and hunter princesses doing the show circuit with their zillion dollar horses.
In MD, the horse industry is booming. I'd argue that as a society, we moved past using horses to do work a long time ago and we are now moving towards middle class people who have some spare time and some spare money who take up riding -- trail riding, lower-level eventing, local hunters, lower-level dressage, foxhunting -- as a hobby, a way to unwind. They're not doing this to win big trophies or prize money, they're doing this because it's fun. No, they don't necessarily spend $50K+ on a fancy horse, they might spend $5-15K ($25K for the D.C. lawyers) to get something with enough training to keep them safe.
After that first safe horse has to be retired, a lot of eventers, if they don't have the money to move up to the $25K Training packer, will buy the aforementioned $800 OTTB to enjoy the challenge of training and hoping that this will be their Prelim horse. Most adult ammies don't have the time to condition a horse and themselves for Intermediate or Advanced, so they spend their lives jumping around Novice through Prelim and working on their dressage. The more intrepid adult ammies will compete that OTTB mare for 5-10 years, then retire her and breed her to a sporthorse stallion to start the cycle all over again with their own bundle of fuzz.
These people may not spend a zillion dollars at the outset for their horses, but a lot of them still are willing to put some money into keeping their friends as happy and healthy as medicine can make them. Hock injections, stifle-splitting surgery, mesotherapy, acupuncture/chiropractic, SI injections, shockwave therapy for tendon injuries, not to mention the internal medicine and colic care, plus laminitis management for the kids' ponies . . . There is certainly plenty of business for the equine vet that I can see.
