Horse costs

[WeddingSmedding]

I'm seriously considering buying a horse. Had one as a kid and started riding again a few years ago. DD rides and it would be primarily for her but I'd want to ride it too. This does mean erring on the bigger side as I'm tall but she rides bigger horses in her lessons. We had a loan horse until recently too.

Anyway, due to work etc it'd have to be on full livery which is around £75 a week here including bedding and hay. Other than insurance, farrier, vet, feed etc am I forgetting any costs?

[Kiwi32]

Have you thought about tack and rugs? What are you going to be doing? Will you need a trailer? Will your current car be ok?

[mando12345]

Regular teeth checks, back checks, saddle checks.
Regular lessons always worthwhile.

[WeddingSmedding]

I'm counting tack, rugs etc in the initial outlay. I know they'll need replacing over time but I just want to be sure I budget appropriately before diving in.

Would consider transport in the future and I think I can add a tow bar to my car. Not overly concerned about that though as there's plenty of transport companies where I am.

I worked out that the cost of my and DD's weekly lessons would pay for most of the livery, so just wanting an idea of the essentials. My pony as a kid was on working livery at a riding school so it cost us very little.

[Polkadotties]

I pay nearly £600 a month for full livery, this includes feed and bedding. He's a big, still maturing Irish draught and he eats a lot, it's his favourite hobby
I pay £45 every 6 weeks for front shoes and back trim.
I have lessons at least once a week which are £25 for an hour.
I seem to be going through a bit of a Le Mieux addication at the moment as well 😂

[Floralnomad]

Crikey ,where are you that you get full livery for £75 , we pay £520 per month for our pony , I obviously need to move !

[mummabearfoyrbabybears]

South Scotland here. If you have full livery and know the cost then that's great. Our additional costa are £65 full set of shoes. For our Connemara that's every 8-12 weeks. We don't show her in the winter as she doesn't compete much, has hard hooves and the grounded freezes to her shoes if she's shod. We pay £400 a year for her insurance and £35 a year injections. Dentist visit is around £40 but cost varies if I don't share the call out cost. Little hard feed in the summer but winter is roughly £30 a week. Hope that helps.

[Polkadotties]

Oh yes, insurance forgot about that, just over £50 a month with NFU.

[mummabearfoyrbabybears]

Just for comparison ours is DIY livery and costs £20 a week, additional hay is £25 for a large rolled bale and straw is £32 for a large bale.

[WellErrr]

£75 for full livery including everything is astonishingly cheap.

[frenchfancy]

Does this mean you would stop having lessons and the money saved would pay for livery? In my experience having your own horse does not mean you can stop lessons, you need to keep them up in order to improve and to make sure you and the horse doesn't get into bad habits.

[Lapinlapin]

£75 is very cheap for full livery including bedding and hay.

I would be a little concerned by your comment that the cost of your lessons would be about the same as the livery. Does that mean you don't intend taking any more lessons once you have the horse? In my experience, the more people do, the more lessons they have! So if you get into jumping, then maybe cross country lessons, showjumping lessons, training days, dressage lessons or pony club for your dd... It could work out quite expensive. Plus the cost of travelling to events etc.

Obviously, perhaps you're just planning to hack, in which case it would be cheaper. But I'd definitely put some thought into what you want to do, as one of the nice things about having your own horse is having the freedom to do what you want, but the downside is it works out expensive.

Also, if you don't have much time and therefore need full livery, will you have enough time to ride often enough to keep the horse fit?

[ImBrian]

I'm on diy which is £150 a month including hay and straw. £350 will get you full livery at my yard. Lessons are £15 a week with a great instructor who comes to yard. Pony is bare foot so £20 trim every couple of months and insurance is £30 a month. But then there's all the crap you end up buying! Plus we've started showing so transport, fees, tweed jackets! I'm up north which may be while we're cheap, the very posh riding centre that has a big indoor charges about £500 for full.

[Jonsnowsghost]

Think of every cost that you can then add on another couple of hundred! It never works out how you think it's going to and there's always extra costs, feed or supplements that my horse now has to have, fly spray that's super effective (so expensive) for the other horse, random bits like nose nets etc that ive just had to buy, new jods as ive got holes in mine, dentist, farrier, worming (although we do egg counts on our yard so not always too expensive).
Echo pp about lessons too. It's an expensive hobby!

[WeddingSmedding]

I've been riding for 30 years so would not have regular i.e. weekly lessons. I currently have a weekly lesson just to get to ride. DD would have lessons on her horse but probably not weekly. I meant that we would no longer be spending that money at a riding school.

You've all scared me but I've just looked again and full livery up here in my bit of the north defo starts from £75 a week. That may well end up being full for 5 days and DIY for the weekend, but that'd be perfect. The loan horse we had was £22 a week DIY, stabled at night.

Time constraints​ are that I work in London half the time hence no time to do morning turn out. Some places around us seem remarkably flexible so budgeting for full livery is the extreme of what we might need.

Anyway, no plans to rush into anything just yet. At the very least I want a few months to build up a healthy contingency fund for if we do get one.

[WifeyFish]

Echo PPs that £75p/w is incredibly cheap for full livery, even my one that was turned away due to injury was costing over £300 a month in livery and that was for full field livery.

I pay £600 p/m for full livery in the SE. The farrier costs £125 every 5 weeks as I have a wussy WB with thin soles so requires pads in front shoes. I train twice weekly with my coach which costs £70, so around £280 a month (have been riding for over 20 years but trying to make a big leap in the level I compete at and find having a trainer helps with that). Insurance costs £75 per month with a reputable company known to pay out if issues arise. We have the physio or chiro out fairly regularly for maintenance due to the level we compete at/age of horse, physio is £65 per visit and chiro is £95. Then there's the random things that crop up each month - supplements, ripped rugs, worm count kits, wormers etc. I rarely add it all up but I suspect I don't get much change out of £1000 a month.

[WifeyFish]

X-posted with your last post OP but I honestly consider factoring in lessons for yourself as well.

[WeddingSmedding]

I also have all my old kit from 20+ years ago so if vintage riding jackets are in vogue, we're good to go! DD uses my 25 year old whip already. Got a trunk full of vintage rugs, numnahs, travel boots etc too!

Will have to check what happen to our horse lorry. Last I saw it was in 1996 parked up in the riding school parking lot. Knowing my mother and her hoarding tendencies, there's a fair chance she still has it!

[HowCanThatNameAlreadyBeTaken]

Vet bills are hard to predict really as you never know what might come up, and if they end up needing regular medication or treatment. My boy was in a field with a biter once and came in with regularly ripped rugs etc so it's hard to predict if you will need to buy more in the future, plus you always need to replace or you'll just fancy buying new equipment for you or the horse - a new bit here, a new supplement there. There are other costs such a worming, fly spray etc.
Also, if you go away on holiday or for the weekend you may need to pay extra if you don't have someone willing to do it all for free.

[Jonsnowsghost]

Oh yes forgot about rugs, also had a month old fly rug tipped to shreds by another horse in the field that needed replacing

[Butkin1]

Our biggest expenditure would definitely be insurance for our 5. They are all undervalued for insurance as the premiums are so steep now.. Some are insured without vets fees as they would have restrictions anyway.

I can't see how any business can charge only 75 pounds for full livery including bedding and hay. How on earth can they pay decent staff at that level. We pay twice this and still think we get a bargain when I see how much they feed and supplements/products etc they use.

Vet costs would be out next most expensive outgoing and then the farrier.

Of course our horsebox is our biggest money pit - they all are - but you're not thinking of going that way yet anyway.

[WeddingSmedding]

One other question - what comes first, buying the horse or sorting a livery yard? I'd imagine there's little time between buying and needing to relocate the horse, but do livery yards hold places for a prospective new client?

[smu06set]

Yes livery yards will hold places open (tho they often have waiting lists for spaces). If they hold a stable for you they will charge for it, just not normally as much as a full livery charge, depending on demand though.

[mummabearfoyrbabybears]

We secured our livery first then found our horse

[Polkadotties]

I phoned up my yard owner and checked if they had any spaces, which they did. I was always 'horze shopping' well browsing, but made a proper effort once I knew there was a space.
I was really really lucky and bought the first I tried

[iveburntthetoast]

My local liveries charge around £80 pwr week for full livery inc bedding and hay. It's £20-30 per week for DIY grass livery.