What do you sacrifice to ride/keep horses

[Becominghorsey]

We see so many threads on here about what people sacrifice in order to send their children to private school (or similar). But where are all the horse-sacrifice threads

So tell me, what do you sacrifice to ride/let your children ride/keep horses? For me, our cleaner has moved to a new role so instead of finding someone new we are doing our own cleaning and I’m notionally allocating the cost saved to our riding budget! Sadly only covers a half hour lesson weekly but it’s something!

Pretty much everything plus my time. I'm a lone parent on minimum wage. We live in a city where the traffic is terrible. I pay monthly for our share ponies, make sure 2 constantly growing girls have all the gear, spend hours in traffic and money for petrol getting there then hours while they groom/ride, trudging out on muddy hacks with them, teaching them, helping them muck out lol pick etc. I last had my hair done last February 😆

Oh and my own opportunity to ride - it's even them or me.

@midnightstar66 That sounds like a lot! But I guess you must consider it to be worth it to keep doing it

Holidays, nice cars, nice clothes, haircuts, manicures, meals and nights out.
I go to work just to earn money to keep my horse.
He has a new ‘coat’ every Winter, which he doesn’t appreciate, rolls in and trashes, I buy myself a second hand coat off EBay.
But he’s worth it....

I know exactly what it's like to be a pony mad kid without the opportunity, definitely worth it! I enjoy spending time with with the ponies too. The sharing works out far cheaper than lessons when you compare what you get out of it but obviously it's a much bigger investment of time and you need to be experienced yourself or you'd need to pay for lessons on top.

I don’t actually feel like I sacrifice anything but from a cost POV our pony is on full livery at approx £6 k per year excluding vet / supplements / rugs etc which is probably another £3-400 per year . I ride twice a week usually at a local riding school which is between £70-90 per week depending on what I am doing so another £4K per year . Therefore just over 10k per year on horse related activity which I suppose could be spent elsewhere , it’s a bit scary when you look at it like that !

@Floralnomad that's more than I earn in a year 😆

We're on-a-budget horsey people, but I'd say holiday costs. We used to keep ponies at home (which is very cheap, no shoes, low insurance costs, and £5-6K that a friend said covered a family holiday for 4 all-in covered 2 ponies keep and feed, lessons and pony club activities for daughter.

She pays for her own now! (£240 livery incl hay and straw per month, feed about £40/month, shoes once every 6-8 weeks, etc)

@midnightstar66 I’m lucky really , both of my dc gave up riding at around age 6 and are now adults , hence the pony on full livery . If they had stayed interested we could have a mini herd as we don’t sell on or loan out . I only started riding myself again about 18 months ago as I had stopped when I retired our last riding horse 20 yrs ago , I won’t buy another horse for me though .

What I sacrifice in the way of holidays, new (er) cars, clothes, expensive outings I gain in my physical and mental well being. Owning horses is stressful, I’m forever worrying about them for various reasons but the pleasure they give me in return is priceless.

I drive a battered old car. I don't go out much. A lot of my clothes come from ebay. I could have taken early retirement last year at 61 but have carried on working .

I love these replies! It shows what’s achievable if you really want horses in your life

Like others I suppose if I didn't have the horses I could have a bigger house, not drive a tiny ancient banger of a car, go on fancy holidays etc, but I don't really think of those as 'sacrifices' per se - I don't care about cars or status symbols etc and I don't really like holidays other than the odd camping weekend, as I don't like leaving the horses and my other pets anyway . I recognize that I am incredibly lucky and privileged to be able to have what I do and my horses as well, so it would be churlish in the extreme to bang on about what I don't have. Although this time of year it would be nice to have them on 5 star full livery so I didn't have to go out in the snow and mud to poo pick and muck out etc, but that's definitely fair game for moaning (to other horsey people only of course!)

I guess the major difference is that I chose a career, and worked hard to get my professional qualifications in a field that I knew would reliably provide me with both a stable enough income to afford the horses, and enough flexibility in working hours to be able to actually ride and care for them - that is certainly a magic sweet spot which not all jobs give you. Perhaps if I hadn't been horsey I would have made different choices, who knows, or maybe I would have chosen to reduce working hours or perhaps change jobs for something more interesting/fun but lower paid by now, as it is I definitely can't wind down or retire while I still have pony bills to pay, but then again I do enjoy my work on the whole so that's not really a huge sacrifice either - I am just very very lucky I guess!

I have three horse on full livery (approx cost £1400 per month), one is retired. So cost of that, shoes every 6 weeks, vaccinations, 2 need dentals every 6 months, plus tack and other gear and lessons is very high! On top of that we’re the unluckiest horse owners in the UK, had over £20k insurance claims in last 18 months! Covered by insurance but it was approx 10 separate claims so almost £2k in excesses.

Our business does well at the moment so I don’t consider anything a sacrifice, apart from Covid putting a spanner in the works we still have lovely holidays, dinners out, nice cars, etc. We could probably have a bigger house if we didn’t have them but they’re my world and they’ve been more important than ever this year when we’ve had little else to do, I’ve been so so grateful for them.

Honestly nothing major. I gave up a few years ago and said I wouldn’t do it again until I could afford full livery comfortably.

Meant to add, now I’m back to it the only thing I do sacrifice is my general appearance! I always go to the shops etc straight from the yard and look at smell dreadful

@lastqueenofscotland

Meant to add, now I’m back to it the only thing I do sacrifice is my general appearance! I always go to the shops etc straight from the yard and look at smell dreadful

Yes I always stink too 😳😂

do you ever get comments? I once went to IKEA straight from a run in a muddy park and got a right telling off from the cleaners for bringing dirt in

I seem to have given up riding to own horses... No one told me they were two different hobbies 😂

I once tried to add up what I had spent on my first horse - I stopped when I was reaching house deposit numbers and realised that's why I've never owned a house and probably never will. I don't go on holidays, have never bought a new car, or even a decent 2nd hand one, don't go out much, have avoided other hobbies due to money and time and am frequently very tired.

But I have an amazing relationship with a beautiful animal. My mental health is better than it ever would be without horses. I'm fit and toned, I have a reason to get out of bed in the morning, my life has a purpose to it, I have great friends, I'm learning all the time and even my OH now has a stunning framed photograph of me and the current horse hanging on his wall. So I'm broke, but anything worth having comes at some sort of price.

Mysa:-
You have it in a nutshell!

I would say holidays is my main sacrifice, although possibly some "nice to have" things like new clothes etc too!

The thing with having a holiday is I would have to pay someone else to do the pony on top of the holiday cost (which would probably work out at about £100 for a week's holiday)- so quite a lot on top of even a cheap holiday. And anything I could save for a holiday I would rather spend on horse stuff!

What I'm probably really sacrificing is my ability to save- I do have some savings, but I'd be more financially comfortable without my pony!

You nutters! What lucky horses, this warms my heart. I almost bought last year. Still think about him every day and wonder how he is. But my not horsey dh was very against it and we have two sets of uni bills looming.
I still dream although at almost 60, I have to accept that it will most likely m ver happen: lottery win excepted.

Yup , definitely holidays .... last time we went on holiday was 2004 . Moved away from family to afford somewhere we could keep them at home, although tbf we were going to have to move anyway because we needed a bigger house and the next level was more than we could afford in the area we were living at the time .

Also, footwear ( they get new shoes every six weeks , I get mine every two years ) carpets ( no use having any of those when the stables are ten yards from your back door) but it’s all worth it .. even when the little beggars are begging at the kitchen door ..

I work unpaid on our farm to 'pay' for our ponies keep. When we start lambing next month, I'll work two jobs ( I run two other businesses as well) and won't have a day off until the end of May. But,I don't mind and I have unlimited hay and straw,plus a secure place to keep my trailer and the joy of having them at home with no livery yard politics or yard expert telling me what to do. But I am responsible for land management,fencing,repairing any damage caused ect. I've laid hedges,cut them and re fenced almost all winter and in still not finished.
I drove a 14 year old car,( until it failed it's MOT fairly dramatically last week),DH's car is 16 years old. We lived in a caravan and last had a holiday 3 years ago,but we were saving to build a new house,so can't blame the ponies for that.