How much £££ would you expect to pay for a horse share (2 days per week)?

[Annewilkinson]

I am going to view a few ponies for share this weekend.

I have said that I will make a financial contribution, but the amounts of money the owners are asking for varies a lot. The cheapest one is only asking for £12 per week but others are asking for £40 and £60 per week (based on me having the pony for two days per week). In all cases I think I would be responsible for the stable duties on my 2 days. All of the ponies are stabled not at grass. I am only going to be using the ponies for happy hacking, not taking them to shows or anything.

I know it obviously depends on where the horse is kept, and the more expensive one does seem to be kept at a very nice livery yard, whereas the cheapest one is at a more basic farm yard (it still has a school though, and good hacking, which is all I need really). However I am just surprised in the variation in costs.

Is it just me or is £60 per week over the top? That would be £240 per month, then I am intending on a weekly half hour lesson (£20) so that would be £320 per month including lessons which seems a lot to me, as I would only have the horse 2 days per week so would probably ride 8 times per month maximum and I am sure there would be days when I would end up not riding for example if weather is really bad. For £320 I could get 9 hour long lessons at my local riding school (£35 per hour) and I would not have to do the stable duties!!

I know there is no set amount, and owners can choose to charge what they want and I imagine some owners are out to make a profit whereas others are just grateful for the help so they are charging a more realistic amount.

Taking all this into account, how much would you say is the maximum I should be prepared to pay for a 2 day per week share?

Thanks

I should also add I am in the south not the north.

Just really concious that I want to find the right horse, and don't want to be swayed by the cost into getting one that's not really right.

Also makes me think, is the cheap horse cheap because it's got issues (I know my friend does not charge her sharer anything, as her horse is so nasty no one wants to ride it and she sees it that her sharer is doing her the favour by riding her horse and not the other way round!!)

To give you an idea of whether you think it's a lot or not... rough DIY livery prices around here (South Wales)

Stable/field + unlimited haylage = £20 - £25/week
Straw £2.50- £3 bale (work on 3 bales week so £9)
hard feed, maybe £10-£15 week (depending on what it is being fed to)

Shoes £10 week if shod every 7 weeks (@£70/time)
Wormer £2 week (if wormed every 6-8 weeks)

So, £55-£60/week roughly for basic costs. And that would be a yard with good facilities and a nice floodlit school.

And then what ever "livery" the yard owner helps with - varying between £0 for no additional help and £12 day for full muckout/care. So anywhere from £0 - £80 week. :)

I would suggest on that basis, if you were responsible for all care on the days you do the horse i.e. turnout etc, then you are looking at roughly £10/day. If it's on full livery then £20/day.

HTH. :)

I'm in the south and the going rate round here seems to be around £10 per day. That's for DIY as I don't know anyone on full livery. My friend charges £8 plus a small contribution when the farrier comes.

I wouldn't even consider taking on the ones that want £60 per week. I think that's way too much for a two day share. I think about £10 per day is reasonable.

£240 a month for 2 days a week? You could keep your own for that! (In most areas, anyway.) I'd have thought 10-15 a day.

I'm in Surrey, my sharer pays £40pcm for 2 days, just hacking my mare who is very sensible and easy to handle. She gets a pretty good deal but it came about because her daughter was loaning my other horse so she paid a lower rate.
She's also a fantastic sharer and never lets me down.
Around here, sharers tend to pay £100-120pcm for 1 weekday and 1 weekend day on average. Thats with the sharer doing the mucking out on their days.
£240pcm is steep.
DIY costs around here are about £120-£150pcm for just the field and stable on a basic non flashy yard.
All in for my 16.2 in winter, includeing shoes, feed, bedding etc she costs around £350pcm on DIY.

My sharer pays £10 a day. When she remembers lol

DH had a horse for £100pcm 2/3 days a week (one weekday and all weekend) - the owner's daughter used to compete on the horse but went away to university so this was for term time only when she was unable to ride as she was not in the area. He did stable duties, but could have rearranged or 'got away with' not doing it as the owner owned the whole yard and was there all day every day with her own 4 horses anyway. It was a fantastic horse too, worth a lot of £££ (which made DH a bit nervous!) He has had to give it up now as we're having a second baby, which is a shame. We're in the north west, but a very heavily 'horsed' area (the most heavily horsed area in the country in fact... So they say!)

We're in the South and keep a warmblood on full-livery. When we were looking to share him earlier this year, we were repeatedly told the going rate for shares was £10/day. This is less than our livery fee for the day, let alone gaining any contribution towards other costs. We were after £45 for four days, including the option to compete but although lots of people contacted us, everyone said it was too expensive. We now have a friend helping for free as we felt anyone after 'cheap rides' might not really value our horse.

I can understand people wanting more than £10//day, but even on full, £60 for 2 days is a lot. At full-livery in SE we pay £110week, £80 farrier (6 weekly) £22 insurance/mth, £25/mth supplements, which results in costs of about £135-140 per week, before tacks, rugs, extras etc, but suggests you's be paying almost half costs for well under half the time.

Maybe people are asking for so much ass they're struggling with costs. If this'd is the case and you really like the horse, perhaps try to negotiate for more days rather than lower costs