Budget over and above purchase price

[PlantyPotts]

Starting to think seriously about buying a house for me and DD to share. We have a share horse just now so know what we want / don't want.

I'm trying to see what my budget might be and wanted an idea of what I would need over and above the purchase price to get me started. So assuming house comes with nothing and needs vetting, transport, tack, rugs, feed, hay, bedding, buckets, nets etc. How much would you suggest keeping aside for this?

Likely sports horse type.

Thank you

Oh cripes. Horse. Not house.

A nice mother daughter spare sport horse type will probably be about 10k in this market

are usually a few hundred quid, unless you mean vet coming out to see the horse for XYZ issue. That could be £80 it could be thousands, my friends gelding racked up about £15k in 48 hours once.

Transporting a horse to a new yard depends on how far away they are, set aside a couple hundred again.

Tack depends on what you want. Realistically high three figures to about a grand for a saddle, then another couple hundred for bridle, bits (may find they need different for dressage/hacking/jumping/xc) and other bits and bobs

Rugs I have an addiction and the only thing that fits my mare are PE however shires are excellent and I buy a lot of rugs on eBay/Facebook groups. Again id say £300/400 odd. But you can buy these seasonally as you need them

Feed/hay depends on the horse. My mare despite being a TB is a good doer and is fine on grass while turned out and ad lib hay while in, she gets a handful of chop just to stop her shouting at the livery yard owner at feed times. If you are feeding mixes and balancers it gets expensive quickly

Bedding, straw will vary locally, shavings £6-10 a bale, probably need one a week, more if they are in a lot.

Buckets - a few quid from b&q

We recently bought a sports horse for dd - there was nothing that fit your description for less than £10,000 and most were a good deal more.

5 stage vetting including X-rays ranged from £700-£1000 (we’re in the south east so may be cheaper depending on where you are).

Transport was £280

Month’s deposit plus first month livery in advance £1200

Tack - if you’re starting from scratch, £800+ for saddle, £100-200 for bridle, £50-100 for girth, £50? for bit(s) (DD’s horse has gone through quite a few combinations and annoyingly goes best in a little-known (and therefore expensive) Dutch brand). £100+ for saddler to check saddle fit and reflock/adjust. £40+ for stirrups, £30+ for stirrup leathers (don’t get cheaper ones - dd had one snap as she was going over a jump which could have been really nasty)

Saddle pads/numnahs - £30 upwards depending on how matchy-matchy you want to be

DD’s horse only has XC boots which were about £100 for the set but some also have boots for jumping, turnout etc

Travel boots and tail guard - £50+

Head collars - £15+ and £40+ for a leather one for travelling

Rugs - vary enormously in price - anything from £20 for a fleece to several hundred pounds for a top of the range Rambo turnout with liner system. Rugs are very horse-dependent - some brands fit different horses much better than others (typically ours fits Rambo best but they are brilliant if eye wateringly expensive). Wait until you get the horse before buying any so you know what size you need.

Yard and feed stuff depends on how you’re planning to keep the horse - if it’s going to be on full livery, then you probably won’t need anything else. If it’s going to be on DIY or at home then budget for another £200-ish for mucking out tools, haynet, buckets etc

Good luck!

Thank you both. These are enormously helpful.

Really comprehensive answers above so I won't repeat. Only things I'll add to think about are:

-Insurance - cost will depend on if you want to ensure for loss of use (much more £££) or just vets bills, probably more a monthly cost but budget in the region of £40pcm for ordinary cover, you may save by buying a years cover upfront?

-Wormers, innocolutions etc - your yard may well specify what your horse needs to have when and hopefully horse will already be up to date with jabs when you buy, but it would probably be wise to budget some extra as top-ups - maybe another £100 worst case scenario?

-Initial visits from physio, dentist, farrier etc. Again hopefully horse will be healthy and up to date with all this (plus hopefully you've built all this in to your monthly budget) but I always find it reassuring to have horse seen by all my own trusted professionals asap when they arrive (if only so you don't worry that ordinary settling in niggles aren't a sign of pain) - maybe budget another £200 and hope to not use it all?

-Initial lessons/professional help - again it's a tricky time when you get any new horse, all the more so when it's your first. I'd like to budget to have maybe as many as 2-3 lessons a week for the first couple of weeks (or maybe 1 or 2 lessons and have instructor or yard staff school horse once) - feels a lot but it's so helpful to start things off the right way and can avoid a lot of problems down the line! You'll know how much your instructor charges and hopefully you've factored in regular lessons to your monthly budget anyway but maybe another £200- £250 extra on top?

-Deposit and 'holding weeks' livery - this may not be the case for you but round our way the best livery has waiting lists and even middling ones won't hold an empty stable for free so when you are close to buying its essential to pay your deposit down early and often you end up paying for a few weeks livery you don't use - my YO doesn't charge full livery for these weeks since she doesn't have 'hard' costs like bedding for an empty stable, but obviously still needs to pay staff wages so does charge a % until your horse actually arrives...

God it all adds up when you write it all down doesn't it . Basically, just prepare to have no money, ever again!

Most of these posts are focussed on the more expensive end of the market so for balance I will mention some of the ways I save money.
Insurance, I self insure (put £100 away each month and most years I end up better off) but I have BHS gold membership and child has pony club membership so we are covered for third party claims.
I buy EVERYTHING second hand. Sure you could spend £45 for a matchy saddle pad, or get a basic plain one off ebay for £5. Tack and rugs must fit and be kept clean but doesn’t need to be new or flashy.
Liveries vary greatly in cost so I do diy at a small friendly place. Not it’s not all shiny and new but we are relaxed and happy there. They also allow 24/7 turnout 365 days a year which saves on bedding.
Shoes, mine have barefoot trims 5x a year. This is mainly to balance their hooves as the hacking we do keeps them down. Shoes must be replaced every 6 weeks at £80 a pop so the £30 trim every 10 weeks saves loads.
Feed, I buy a sack of pony nuts every now and again and give them a handful once a day. Some horses benefit from specific nutrition, but there are lots of over fed horses out there pissing most of their supplements down the drain.
An above poster makes a good point about getting a new horse checked out, this is a good investment. Do budget for vetting, dentist, physio, farrier, worming and a couple of lessons within the first fortnight.
Hope no one is offended by my cost cutting, my horses are loved and well cared for but I believe there are ways to save money (ready for the rainy day when the vet comes a calling).

Thanks again for being so helpful. It's a great shout to get the dentist, physio, farrier asap. I'll start looking in to that. I've looked at insurance. Not included loss of use but public liability, personal injury and as high as I can on vet fees.

Next question: how do you go about settling a horse at a new yard when all the horses (small yard) are now out 24/7 for summer?

Plenty of good advice has been given already but I would reiterate that there is no need to buy loads of fancy stuff until you have the horse with you, apart from the basics of tack (and for a saddle I’d line up a saddle fitter who can bring some to try before buying one), head collar, buckets, hay nets & grooming kit. Rug wise, you might need a fly rug & mask now, and possibly a no fill but nothing else is urgent. I use Discount Equestrian for rugs if I need a new one, but FB is full of used stuff. No point buying a lovely expensive rug and finding out you have a rug wrecker!

Re settling in, I guess the yard will have their own policy - I would imagine the horse would need to be in some form of isolation for a bit, but will still need company. The yard manager, if there is one should be able to tell you what’s what.

I had great plans once to keep a new horse separate from my other until they were familiar with each other - within 2 hours it had jumped 2 electric fences to be with the other so I gave that one up!

Again don't want to repeat but other than a saddle fitter and then the saddle itself I wouldn't go mad on kit purely because they are nice purchases to upgrade over time! Basic bridle, girth, numnah etc hopefully with a clue as to what works from the seller, they'll also advise if the horse really needs boots (although never hurts to have some basic Woof sort of boots in the cupboard).
Oh actually good money on a leather headcollar is worth it as you'll be able to travel and turn out in it. I don't see the point in synthetic ones tbh as they only do one job, they used to be a cheap alternative but not so much now!
I agree with the others you'll probably do well with just a fly rug, no fill and fleece for now so you can see what brands fit well- my old TB best suited Weatherbeeta and they make a lovely range of layer system rugs too with a slightly nicer price point than the top end.
Don't forget your grooming kit etc but again don't go mad as you'll use the same few items to destruction of you're anything like me and have a box full of nearly new odd brushes and things.
I'd spend a bit more on buckets and buy the tub trug style ones for feed and water as I have horrors about plastic buckets.

On the settling in, you will want to worm or do a worm count, yard might insist on worming with a particular brand.
Buy decent buckets like the Stubbs ones for water, you can use cheap trugs but they won’t last. It’s worth getting a black rubber feed bowl, they are indestructible. One of mine always stands in hers so it ends up inside out but it pops back into shape. This is a feed bowl I bought 30 years ago! If she did this with a plastic bucket she’d probably injure herself.

Re introductions, I'd take your yard owner/manager's advice on this one as they will normally have established procedures - some will insist on a few days total isolation (usually stabled or turned out completely away from others) in case of infections etc (I understand why they do this but it's really hard on the horses to be kept totally isolated so I'd hope your hard isn't too strict on it). Then the normal process goes something like :

Step 1: Newcomer is turned out alone in an adjacent paddock to the herd they'll join, or in a fenced off pen within the main field (the latter not great as many horses not great respectors of taping).
Step 2: After a few days and once they've got to know one another over a fence, the quietest/easiest member of the main herd (often it's useful if you have a nice elderly small pony or similar to fulfill this role) is turned out with the newcomer in the adjacent paddock for another few days
Step 3: Introduce newcomer and their 'friend' back into main herd, hopefully after the initial excitement wears off newcomer integrates and all is well!

There usually is at least a bit of squealing/squabbling as the new herd dynamic sorts itself out and it's always a bit of a worrying time as kicks/bites can occur, but following the above process is usually the best way to minimize it - an experienced person can usually tell the signs of when its best to move onto the next step which can vary from a few hours to a few weeks (!), it slightly depends on the 'personalities' involved, two very dominant types are unlikely to ever get on well together and some fighting is inevitable until one gives way to the other, equally very submissive types can be a problem as the others may bully them (horses can be really horrible to one another!) so hopefully yours will be a nice middle and will slot in easily to the herd!

Lots of good advice already but when I get a new horse I like to ignore basically everything the previous owner has told me and get saddler, physio, EDT and farrier out as minimum. Almost like an MOT. See what I am starting with.

In terms of settling in I would see if there is a small paddock next to the field the horses are in where he can go in and meet over the fence and do that for a day then pop in with the herd.

I also like to get on pretty quick and establish routine but some horses do need more time to settle than others. Lots of grooming and getting to know one another!

How exciting. I'm not riding atm due to being pregnant and I'm itching to get back on mine, plus eyeing up a new youngster...

Lots of good advice already: just to add that you can buy many of the more expensive items used off Facebook groups or Ebay. I've rarely paid over £20 for a rug, for example, or over £10 for a bit: unless you know the horse needs something really weird and/or rare, used bits seem to be ca. £5--£20 on Facebook, and are easy to sell on for the same price if they turn out not to be right. I don't shoe, but instead use hoof boots on stony ground: those cost £90 each new, but again, I can often find them used for much less, and I get several years' use out of them, although I have several sets on the go at any given time. My trailer is a used old Ifor, but it's in good shape, and those hold their price well after the initial drop, because they last for ages if you look after them.

For me, the places not to compromise are: saddle and saddle fitting (where the complication is that many fitters just deal in a limited range of makes, so you might need to get several out before you find what works for both your horse AND you), training, hoof care, dentist/routine vet, 24/7 turnout in company with ad-lib forage access (managed as appropriate to the individual). Those just cost what they cost...