To think, people say horse riding is really expensive/posh, when actually a lot of other hobbies are just as or more expensive

[LardLizard]

Like dancing for example, I know people that spend far more on that

I think we used to pay about £25 for a lesson for riding fo dd, but that was to get dd to a rising trot.
However Drama classes were off puttingly expensive as the local school was really grabby, even charging to put cards on the noticeboard. Dd only went to a couple of holiday schemes and took it up again at school for gcse and a level. Current hobby is diving which is very reasonable for students.
Ds is a kayaker which can be expensive with kig and even to hire it all workz out £30 a session

I pay £25 for a group lesson for me (I'm 32 but in with the kids for lessons) or £30 for a half hour private lesson. This is standard where I am.

Initially I wore jeans and flat boots. Borrowed a hat. But I've probably spent around £200 on jodhpurs boots chaps hat whips in the past 3 years.

There are kids in my group who come once a month. But they are not progressing as quickly as others, or as quickly as their parents would like them to. One mother complained yesterday and our instructor just told her that it's because her dd isn't riding enough therefore not getting the practice.

Not read the whole thread.

We have three horses and all my dcs compete. It costs thousands. We could educate our children privately (or one of them!) if we didn't have horses. I can't imagine what hobbies are more expensive

We haven't had a holiday for five years and are permanently broke . Not sure it's totally worth it tbh.

I live in the country, so you don't have to be posh to have horses. But it can be very expensive. Like all hobbies, it varies wildly. A native pony to hack about on will be pretty cheap. A competition horse that you compete on regularly is very very expensive - shoes, feed, transport, specialist equipment, competition entries, accommodation at competitions, time off work. Honestly, a crack habit would be cheaper and take up less time

And more fun probably.

Bruffian I'm not totally sure it is worth it either but once you are in it is difficult to get out. For Dd2 and DH it is their absolute passion. Dd1 and DD3 both ride too. I did but had to stop recently for illness and find I don't really miss it. We are not posh. No holidays. Old car. No designer clothes. Careful budgeting at the supermarket. DH worried constantly about money but yet we spend £££ on the horses every month.

Yes impossible to get out. In fact I must get off mumsnet and go and muck out!

Historically I don't think riding was as expensive. My lessons as a child (well, actually hacks - we didn't really have lessons, just learnt out on hacks) were about £3.50 per hour in the mid 1980s. I've just looked at one of those online price inflation things and that is equivalent to about £6 today. Plus you could be a 'helper' and basically adopt one of the ponies, spend all your Saturday and Sundays there, taking customers out on hacks, riding the ponies back to their fields, for free.

The price now (£40 per hour here) is out of reach for all but the richest. I'm delighted my DS is not interested!

One son plays football, one plays hockey and our daughter has riding lessons. It's definitely more expensive for the riding lessons than it is for football and hockey club!!

My DD rides. It's £20 for an hour lesson, that is usually 1 to 1

She also helps in the yard on a Saturday and gets a hack in exchange

Owning a horse can be (relatively) cheap. I used to own a hardy breed that could stay outside all year. We clubbed together with several people to rent a bit of land and did all the work ourselves. Aside from Vet bills the monthly running costs are then pretty low.

Also a couple of riding lessons a month is very different to owning a horse or several horses
My dd used to do swimming and brownies every week and swapped to riding
And doing fortnightly horse riding is actually slightly cheaper

You are totally right about the inverted snobbery with some hobbies.
I'm an opera lover and hear CONSTANTLY from people about how posh/show off that is, non accessible for normal people etc. Yet you can do it so much cheaper then the £££ people spend on tickets to premiership football games (a friend has an Arsenal season ticket and seeing the price of it made my eyes water!)

Interestingly the inverted snobbery tends to be a U.K. thing in this area. Many of my European colleagues see opera as a 'normal treat' -compatible to a nice meal out - and regularly do outside opera festivals with friends and families in summer. I have also noticed that my colleagues with rural Irish backgrounds (health care role, most colleagues are from everywhere the world!) see horse riding as normal too, so maybe the snobbery here is UK based too...

Good point. Friends of my husband spend over £15k each for a football season ticket!

Oh yes, I know people that are season ticket holders, and the while family are season ticket holders, so then they feel they have to go to every single game then every single game also involves spends loads on booze and meals etc
Xx

Yes lessons are relatively inexpensive. You still need lessons if you own a horse though

DNeices do dance - and not in a crazy Dancemoms style. Not having kids we were shocked at how the costs added up - school insists on new outfits every year, cost of exams, cost of lessons, endless hanging about by parents to go to shows, expected commitment of parents to help in said show, likelihood child will spot extra dance style and want to do that etc etc.

We did suspect that horse riding - my childhood hobby - probably didn't come out too badly in comparison. Yes, lessons much more expensive but kit apart from hat can be v cheap and bought massive until you grow into it no expectation that parents are going to help in any form, possibility of dumping child at stables for hours on end and child blissfully happy, no exams, can alternate lessons and hacks to keep costs down.

Horse owning of course, is a completely different matter and equivalent to standing in the yard burning £10 notes.

The last time I went to the polo (I know) a very lovely woman was trying to persuade us how inclusive low goal polo is "because you only need three or four ponies altogether".

Meanwhile our junior football club does a fuckton of fundraising so we can keep subs around £2 a week including match kit and training tops.

Different worlds.

When I was playing Polo about 10 years ago, I had a discussion with one of the then England players (who was coaching me) about costs, he said:
"oh grass-roots polo is quite cheap, you only need two ponies and can pick them up for c. £8k - £10k each, then keeping them without your own land is probably about £5k-£6k ea. p/a - £1.20 per mile per pony to have them transported to matches, then playing membership* and match costs - not too bad..."

• • all horses in polo are called ponies and you need a minimum of two as a match is a minimum of four chukkas and one pony can only play in two chukkas per match - top players will probably turn up with 16+ ponies ** - at the time I was a member of Guards Polo Club in London - c. £500 p/a as a non-playing member - as a playing member the joining fee was £15,000 and the annual membership was over £5,000!

we worked out that it was a minimum of £30,000 - £40,000 p/a to play polo at grass roots level if you didn't have a farm to keep the horses etc. At low-medium goal (more serious) it was about £120,000 - £150,000 p/a and at High Goal, probably in the region of £1.5 million p/a to run the whole team (including bringing in Argentines and giving them a Ferrari to drive!

So, no, polo is not cheap which is why my stick is in the kitchen and I last fell off a polo pony 10 years ago!

However - comparing it to football as above... to watch a match...
polo: c. £10 per car to get 5 adults in for an afternoon of very exciting sport sitting right next to the action (£2 each!)
football: Arsenal non-member tickets range from £16 to £97 each - so £80 - £485 for a car of 5 adults...

In polo, the players pay all the costs - it is very cheap to watch and for those who haven't - go and watch a match - 8 ponies at c. 40mph galloping at each other is one of the most exciting sports I have ever played...

In football, the spectators are paying for the players to earn millions a year

I know which sport I would rather support...

Quite. No one seems to accuse football supporters of being elitist or snobs and they are not even getting any exercise ;-)

Akkakk
Is polo virtually free to go and watch ?

That sounds like a great day out

Yep, I paid the princely sum of £0 to watch that particular DAY of matches in the sunshine with a picnic. Big days of competition would be £10 per car and I have a seven-seater. Very friendly day out meeting all the ponies and players. Polo is a very accessible spectator sport (certainly at low goal).

Here it is £25 for a group lesson, that's half an hour.

Dance is £5.25 for 45 minutes, plus exams etc (costs are one or twice a year)
Swimming £5 30 minutes
Brownies £3 1hour30mins
Ice skating £8 30 minutes

So my daughter can do 4 different activities for the cost of one 30 minute lesson!

We did suspect that horse riding - my childhood hobby - probably didn't come out too badly in comparison. Yes, lessons much more expensive but kit apart from hat can be v cheap and bought massive until you grow into it no expectation that parents are going to help in any form, possibility of dumping child at stables for hours on end and child blissfully happy, no exams, can alternate lessons and hacks to keep costs down

Well, times have changed rather. You can't buy all the kit cheap and over-sized. Any decent RS will want kids in well fitting, suitable boots, a well fitting hat (yes, you can hire these, but standards and fit will vary in many establishments), and if jumping, a well fitting body protector. That's a lot of kit, and a lot of money, and you'd be mad to sacrifice fit, or quality, when it comes to PPE for a risk sport like riding.

As for exams, many kids will want to join PC (many RSs run branches) and do progressive exams. Many places simply will not allow you to "drop and run", other than on specified, paid, "own-a-pony" days because of insurance, which is already extortionate.

It's a brilliant hobby and a wonderful thing for kids to be involved it. But it's not a cheap option, and it is, ultimately, inaccessible for many (unless fortunate enough to be in hitting distance of one of the inner city accessibility programs).

As for spectator sports, most low to mid level competitions are free to enter (except BE, county level showing, racing etc), and there are more accessible "one horse" team sports like horseball and polocrosse. Horseball used to be played at Lee Valley in London, and is fast-paced and easy to follow as a spectator.