How much does it cost to keep a horse?

[Herat1986]

Idle curiosity.

How long is a piece of string. When I was eventing my horse cost me about £800 a month, stabling, exercising twice a week when I was at work, shoes, teeth, back, saddle check and all manner of other things.

The same horse cost me very little in her retirement. Feet trimming, hay, teeth/back check once a year. Probably £80 a month but I had ten acres of land behind my house.

Ditto LifeOfBox

Depends on the horse, where it's kept, where you are in the country.

Exactly -- what kind of horse and how? Does the owner have their own land or are they renting stabling and fields? If the latter are are they only paying for DIY livery or for someone else to feed/turn out/poo pick/exercise? Is the horse working or retired, in good health or needing vet intervention, a child's pony or a three-day-eventer? Etc Etc.

How much money have you got?

It'll cost that much and then some

As above, it very much depends on the horse and circumstances. Monthly breakdown below for our kids small pony:

DIY livery on small farm based yard with field, stable, outdoor school and offroad hacking £100
Hoof trim £30
Hay, feed and supplements £20 (less in summer, more in winter).
Insurance £20
Lesson and pony club entry costs £30
Vet costs £10 (average year to cover vaccinations and dental.work).
Replacing equipment £15 (average over the year)

It's not for me...
But curious if its one of those things you have to be very wealthy for.
Breakdown of costs above seems not too bad at all! - not as high as I was expecting.

My horse's monthly bills costs me much much less than my colleague's monthly childcare bills...

To answer questions I meant if you had to hire stables (so didn't have own land). Let's say South East - London/Essex/Kent

Yeah I can see why - we def pay a lot more than £250 per month in childcare!!

I've always wondered this, my ex-h claims he's "skint" but he and OW have managed to build their own yard, have loads of land and have about 10 horses. Given that neither of them appear to "work", I do wonder how they manage that. Our little boy gets a pittance in maintenance. Pisses me right off.

I'm looking at buying one in the near future. I know plenty of people with not a lot of money who have horses. Admittedly they don't have lots spare after the horse, but they always manage.

Ours is on full livery. With monthly shoes, supplements, dentist, vet, travel etc. It’s about 1000pcm.

That’s not including lessons, equipment and clothing for the rider.

If you have your own land you could do it much more cheaply. Also it depends where in the country you are, we are just outside London.

In the south east it will cost more- but Kent will probably be a lot cheaper than London. It's obviously got a lot to do with how much land is worth, and the costs the yard owner has to pass on. Say 100-150 a month for DIY livery outside of London.

Then on top of that, feed, hay and bedding- again in the south east, the hay and bedding are likely to cost more as the land can be used in more profitable ways, and you're probably not going to be able to have the horse/pony out 24/7- so say £30 for this as a rough estimate (some horses obviously need a lot more feed than others).

Say £60 every six weeks for the farrier- again a working average, some people will pay less, some people will pay more.

Then maybe £25 a month for insurance (obviously not everyone takes this out, but otherwise vet bill can run into £1000s). This can be a lot more depending on the history and value of the horse and exactly what it's insured for. Then maybe add another £100-150 on for vaccinations and dental treatments (this can be less or more depending on the vet and call out fees etc, and not everyone will bother with flu vacs/dental).

Then you have the one off/occasional costs of buying tack/rugs/other equipment.

And then lessons/competing/transport will be an additional cost.

So say £250 a month, but this is a massive average and some people will manage with a lot less and some people will spend a lot more- but that is doing all the work yourself and not really paying for any extras/non-essentials.

It's also worth bearing in mind that knowledgeable people with access to their own land, or maybe just renting a field can keep that cost down really low, whereas newer horse owners who maybe want a bit of support from external people and maybe need to call the vet more and want an instructor around every so often and maybe feel the need to buy more stuff (and have less stuff just lying around that they can use) will end up spending more.

And as others have said, it's very easy to end up spending every spare penny on a horse!

Forgot to say we are central belt of Scotland. And I omitted bedding costs which are minimal as pony lives out most of the time...So probably £5 A month for a bag of wood pellets.

It almost cost my dad his marriage on many occasions

If you have a horse then you'll never be rich, they can be absolute money pits. Even cheap to keep ponies can develop conditions that mean the costs increase dramatically (laminitis and cushings mostly.)

I rented land cheaply and I spent a couple of hundred a month with large native ponies.

I don't think you have to be very wealthy to own a horse (although you do have to be comfortably off and there's the initial purchase price too), but as you have more money, you end up spending more on the horse either in care (because you're working longer hours) or just in extras like lessons, competing, transport, equipment and so on.

And as others have said, you can end up with a horse that needs lifelong care/medication/supplements, or one that needs expensive veterinary treatment as a one off- and your only alternative to this is to put the horse down.

To add to what has already been said, experience and to a lesser extent who you know can make a big difference. Calling out experts or paying for on hand help isn’t cheap. Eg obviously people should be prepared to stump up for emergency out of hours vets, but it can significantly increase the costs if you’re having to do so for things someone with more experience could diagnose and treat themselves.

And even if you have experience and keep them cheaply at home, having friends to provide holiday/ emergency cover as a reciprocal agreement is lots cheaper than a casual groom or sitter. Ditto for sharing skills, equipment etc.

Mil has a horse, stabled on a small yard locally, DIY livery most of the time other than when they have plans or holiday and he goes on full livery, although her stable friends often do each other favours if it's just a day or two. Horse is old now though so costs more in vet bills, meds, insurance etc. She mentioned between £500-£600 a month and that's without large unexpected costs. That's in Suffolk

MIL. doesn't compete anymore, and has had horses since childhood so is quite knowledgeable. The horse is essentially a pet now, not sure she can even ride it far, I think it's nearly as old as DH....

@TrainspottingWelsh That's very true- having the confidence to treat minor things yourself, and to know when an out of hours vet is/isn't needed can save a lot of money- as well as being able to do things like clip, trim feet, take off shoes yourself and so on, which can save a lot! Some people also get sucked into the idea that their happy hacker needs every gadget and supplement going, which can cost a lot!

To add to this, people who've owned horses for a long time and maybe own multiple horses often have spares of things lying around, and can also judge a bargain second hand- whereas a one horse owner who's a bit less experienced may need to buy a replacement every time something breaks.

Having the time to do everything yourself is the biggest money saver, though- as soon as you start buying in help or paying part/full livery, the costs start to spiral.

The day to day running costs can be kept down, but it’s when things go wrong and you need to call the vet... that’s when things can spiral. Even putting a horse to sleep is not necessarily cheap, it can cost up to a grand or so, depending on the options for the actual euthanasia and then the carcase disposal available to you.

My dad's horse has just cost him nearly £10000 in vets fees (or would have if she wasn't insured....) to investigate and subsequently treat a suspensory ligament injury. Oh and it recently cost over £500 to have an old horse put down when it twisted its gut with colic (included disposal of the body by the hunt)

Mine costs about £7k a year on assisted livery in rural Leics, it was more when I was competing/hunting and running a lorry-nearer £10k. There are so many variables though!