Costs

[Threemusketeers80]

I'm exploring the idea of a horse, it's been something I've wanted ro do since a teen always ridden, daughter rides also.

But I wanted a realistic idea of cost, from people who actually do it. The Internet can be very conflicting. Would obviously include livery costs.

Thank you

It can vary hugely depending on where you are in the country and how you are going to be keeping it, diy, full livery etc.

DIY livery 220 per month inc hay
Bedding in winter 70 per month, summer £30 pm
Feed £30 pm
Supplements £20 pm
Insurance £60 pm
Lessons £70 pm
Farrier £95 every 6 weeks
Physio £65 every 3 months
Saddle fitter £70 every 4 months
Dentist £65 every 6 months
Vaccinations £40 per year
Tack £200 p year
Clothing for me £200 p year
Equipment for yard £200 per year

Total is 6-8K per year BUT I have 40 years of tack etc built up. To start from scratch with tack, equipment etc you would be looking at 3K on top of price of horse

Think of a figure and double it….
My livery is £100pw includes a bale of shavings and ad Lib hay, if they need more shavings it’s about £8 a pop
Barefoot so about £40 for a trim every 4/6 weeks.
Thoroughbreds so my food bill is eye watering.
Vaccines about £70.
I don’t insure.

The day to day stuff is fine. It’s the stuff going wrong that’s SO expensive. My friend has two mares who between them have cost her about £15k in vet bills last year.
Saddles that fit will one day not fit.

If you’re novicy (which realistically as first time horse owners you will be) you’ll be looking at about £8-10k at least for a suitable horse, and then probably another £1-1.5k to kit them out.

God I forgot the dentist/physio etc… I just pay the bill and don’t check my bank statement often haha

No that's hugely helpful. I would have have the honest break down. The initial cost isn't a problem I have money aside I could spend.

It's the monthly cost I needed a real break down of. I wouldn't want to commit to then realise it just too much. For my sake and my daughters

Yes they do say if you want to know what it's like to own a horse you may as well withdraw the entire contents of your bank account in cash, then stand under a cold shower shredding it and weeping . Can be a bit of a how long is a piece of string question, I'm in a pricey part of the SE so my livery is expensive (just went up to £650 a month, sobs) but that includes quite a lot, bedding, hay, basic feed and all care Monday -Friday (I muck out etc on weekends). I do end up spending loads extra though, insurance £75 (this is a quite basic policy, you could easily spend more if you want a high limit to cover surgeries or loss of use), farrier £120 every 6 weeks, dentist, physio, worming, saddle lady all about £50 a go. Despite in theory having everything covered by the yard Monday to Friday I somehow end up paying them at least £50 extra a month for 'extras' like clipping him, bringing in and holding for the farrier/vet/dentist, exercising him if I can't make it to the yard etc etc. He's a serial destroyer of rugs also so that's a regular £50-£150 extra for it to go to repair man to be mended or a brand new one if destroyed beyond repair. And that's before we get to the actual fun stuff like lessons, outings etc and what I spend at the tack shop on essentials like fly spray, saddle soap, supplements etc and somewhat less essentials like clothes, treats, saddle pads and gadgets etc. I think tell myself I spend about £1k a month average but it might well be more than that if I'm strictly honest and I'm not a big competitor, don't run my own box etc. There are some very very wealthy people on my yard who must spend the best part of £25k-£30k a year on one horse (and some have several) between full livery with schooling/exercising, running a lorry, lessons with top pros, competing every weekend in the season and full smart wardrobe for themselves plus horse - it's gob smacking really.

BUT, and I say this conscious my last post might be off putting, I have seen budgets from people on similar threads that are a lot lower. I do believe there are still parts of the country (Scotland and Wales particularly maybe) where you can find very basic grass DIY livery with minimal facilities for around £150pcm. If you buy a good-doer with no health issues who lines out 24/7/365 you won't need to buy expensive feed or bedding but you will need hay in winter so budget another say £25 ish pcm for that depending on how much and if you have a good relationship with the farmer. Insurance maybe you could get under £50 for a basic policy, farrier if you keep pony barefoot would just be a trim every 6-8 weeks say another £50, all extras maybe £25 pcm average if you don't have lessons or anything or replace your kit very often. I think an absolute bare bones budget would start at £300 a month but you'd be doing a lot of work yourself for that. So yeah, what can I say, anywhere from £300 - £3000 a month basically! Sorry that's no help!

SE England
Full livery £120 per week
barefoot trim £ 40 ish
Vaccines £ 70 ish
Dentist £50 + whatever else needs doing
supplements £ 25 per month ish
obviously there are the miscellaneous vet bills , pony is 30+ retired and not insured , she also has a full wardrobe as we’ve had her for about 25 years .

@Threemusketeers80 my expenses don't include competition, entry fees or travel. If I add those on then approx 2K per year so 8-10k per year inc competitions

Everything. They cost all your money 🤣🤣🤣

We have ours at home so no livery cost, but factoring part of mortgage/bills and all the other bits as mentioned above, around £500 per horse.

Then there is the additional like competing, lessons, lorry costs. These are around another £500 a month easily.

This question is a little bit like how longs a piece of string as every horse person has different aims.

It is so variable - we currently have two retirees at home (one’s on loan as a companion so I don’t pay for any extras as they’re down to his owner) plus a youngster. I have catastrophe insurance for my old boy plus the youngster which is about £30-ish each per month, they have a token feed of chaff which doesn’t cost much, farrier for barefoot trim every two months is £30 per horse, dentist once a year and vaccinations. I don’t pay anything for hay as I get it free from a local farmer in return for having sheep on my land for a few months a year. So the costs for the ones at home are fairly minimal. Costs for DD’s competition horse are a different order of magnitude… she gets free livery as part of her job but insurance, entry fees etc quickly add up. She’s getting a custom made jump saddle because she and her horse are a tricky combination to fit which is just over £5k (they’re throwing in a free numnah 😬) and she’s planning her first international events this year so will need a tailcoat 🤷‍♀️. So we have both ends of the cost spectrum!

SW. full livery at the stables we go to is £80 week, so £320 a month, plus bedding and feed additives if required is extra.

Its gotten so expensive the last few years. My current girl will be my last (hopefully a while yet)
livery 120 Pw plus extras, balancer, supplements, wormer, clip. So varies between about 600-720 a month.
shoes £110 per set every six weeks
Danilon 140 every 8 weeks.
Vet Bills astronomical now
insurance, i dont now as shes old.. have 3rd party though

It just varies so much depending on what type of livery and horse you have.

The pony I loan is on DIY. It's £49 per week which includes hay and straw. She doesn't have any hard feed so the only additional costs are her shoes (front feet only- I'm actually not sure what these cost as her owner pays) and vets if she ever needs it. Also obviously needs to occasional extra such as a new blanket or brushes. She's a hardy sort so she doesn't tend to be sick or sorry.

My owner does it very cheaply- she doesn't go in for expensive tack or equipment and has the same stuff she has been using for a lot of years.

In contrast there are others on our yard who are paying the same DIY but bring in their own bedding and hard feed and have expensive and sensitive dressage horses who seem to need the vet every other week.

For full livery you can expect to pay around £500 per month round here. Add an extra £100 or so for the other extras. A horse on full livery I wouldn't expect to get much leftover from £700 per month (at least that's what I'm budgeting for my fantasy horse in the future when I've stopped having babies!)

I'm £60 a week DIY livery (goes down a bit in summer) which includes ad lib haylage.
2 bales shavings a week, so about £70 a month
Feed, quality chaff + balancer, plus micronised linseed works out at about £50 a month.
Insurance £50.
Trims £40 every 6 weeks.
Wormer, we worm count and so don't worm if necessary, so £60 a year + the cost of worm counts.
Vets fees, book on a zone day so £50 for vaccs.
Dentist every 6 months or a year, £50 a time.

All this for a weanling that won't even be ridden for another 3 years 😶so it will be a very very valuable 4 year old 😂

Starts planning move from Essex to SW 😂

We're in North London paying £115 per week for 5-day full livery and DIY on weekends.

When you say that you have installed costs covered have you considered:

• prices of horses haven't really come down since Covid and it is hard to get a basic all-rounder for under 6K now. Cheap = health or behaviour issues
• cost of vetting at between 300-500 per horse and bear in mind you may need to get a few vetted as sales fall through/things are picked up at vetting etc
• paying instructor to look at potential horses and ride them to assess their suitability. This is essential for first time buyers especially if kids are involved in the riding of that horse
• cost of transporting new horse to your yard
• cost of setting yourselves up from scratch with: grooming kits, first aid kit, yard equipment, saddle + bridle, numnah girth, bit, head collar etc, rugs. This could easily add up to 3K as a minimum

So you need to factor in these costs on top of budget for purchase.

My livery is super cheap, even in a cheap area of the country- I feel incredibly lucky to get what I do for the price. However I'm currently paying:

DIY livery including use of school and hacking on their land- £95 a month.
Haylage from farm- £30 a month in winter (option to buy in hay for closer to £40 a month).
Bedding- £50 a month(ish) (this has really shot up this winter and I can't use straw because it makes my pony cough).
Insurance- £110 a month.
Feed inc supplements- £20ish a month in winter.
I try to set aside a further £30 a month to go towards less regular costs like dentist, vaccination, saddle fitting, worming etc.
Farrier- Fronts and a rear trim £48 6-7 weeks.

So let's say my base costs per month are about £370 a month. By the time you add in petrol to and from the yard + occasional paid for help, probably call it £400 a month as a round figure.

This is for a very cheap to keep cob type who mostly doesn't require expensive feed, regular vet visits etc.

However, on top of this I would say there are additional yearly costs.

I would say every year I easily spend £500 on "stuff"- this could be anything from a new rug, new saddle pad, various sprays, shampoos, grooming kit, replacing things he has broken... £500 is probably a very conservative estimate, and in the first year it was definitely more. Most of this is not essential, although some of it e.g. water buckets, fly spray, basic grooming kit probably are. However, if you are constantly having to pinch pennies and go for the cheapest of everything, it's no fun.

Add onto this probably at least one emergency vet visit a year, just because horses are like that.

I doubt I am realistically getting much change from £5,500 a year. And as I say, this is a cheap pony in a cheap area of the country. Yes, there are times when I could probably save a bit of cash- I pay for help with clipping for example, which isn't absolutely essential, but I'm bad at it, and it's nice to have someone else do a nice job! But I'm also genuinely not being extravagant, and a lot of my feed etc are cheaper options, and fed in small quantities, especially in summer.

And we haven't even really talked about additional spends to really enjoy your new horse/pony.

Obviously lessons etc aren't essential, but I like having them and going out and doing things where possible.

Currently, I probably have about two lessons at home a month from a lovely instructor who teaches a few of us at the yard. She charges £20 for a shared 45 minute lesson, which I think is very good value. I also am lucky enough to be able to go out to clinics occasionally, which usually cost £30-40 (or more depending on who is teaching) + petrol money for the driver.

I do think as a new horse owner, you have to factor in the cost of some professional help, although the actual amount you need will vary. Your teens may also want to compete etc which can get very expensive very quickly!

I do know people who do it more cheaply than me at basic grass livery with no facilities, horses living out all year round etc- which does save on costs a lot (no bedding and less hay to factor in usually, too) but equally it can be very miserable in the winter!

Around here, I would say if you can budget £6000 a year, you can afford it on DIY. I don't know if that would be possible in the SE or in a less rural area.

Livery is definitely a lot cheaper in the SW, particularly if you're not close to a major city, but equally try getting a decent saddle fitter for love or money...

Where I am in the SW you can definitely get bare bones livery for less than £150pcm- in fact that will get you a stable, school and turnout at quite a few yards around here. I think you would struggle to get hay for £25 a month this winter though- this summer was especially bad for hay.

I still don't think you can do it for less than £300 a month without cutting corners which I would personally consider a welfare issue for a ridden horse.

Probably manageable for an unclipped hill pony/native who's totally living out though.

Could you consider part loaning for a while. It'll give you experience of looking after a horse and you'd be able to judge what the costs are and if you'd be able to afford it.

@Postapocalypticcowgirl even with dirt cheap livery I think £300 per month would be cutting corners if you factor in farrier, lessons (which is essential for novice owner/rider) and regular health checks eg physio/saddle fitter.

I think there are some essentials - farrier costs for example, £85/90 every 6 weeks for a shod horse and £39 every 2 months to trim the unshod ponies. Dentist depends on whether your horse needs 1 or 2 a year, £60ish a time for routine treatment. I don’t regularly feed supplements but would to an older horse for example for joint care so that is not a cost for me at the moment. Mine live on our own land out so no livery but a lot of maintenance costs in stone/ fencing/ tree management as in a wooded area/ hedging/ muck heap sorted etc at hay at peak time is expensive, depending on what is available at the time. I only do regular bowl feeds in winter so winter is more expensive. It takes me an hour or 2 a day to cover the basics for 3 horses without riding. Physio/ horse massage is something I do twice a year usually at £60ish each. Wormers and tests mount up at around £12/18 every few months but easier to ignore. Vaccines as people have mentioned, I only have one call out and you might be able to share but if not budget about £100 once a year with a veterinary contingency of about £500 a year to cover minor injuries etc. I don’t insure but have once had a £4k bill for a condition which arrived out of the blue which I was lucky enough to have the money for at the time. Then lessons and help at first I agree is important combined with a supportive yard which will help you. Outings are always fun and when I am out and about that might be a small group lesson twice a month doing pole work/ jumping etc about £60 a month and I like a camp which can be around £280 here for a weekend. Then there are trailer/ lorry costs. If you fancy competing maybe a yard which has regular competitions might suit you to avoid transport costs? Might be busy though. In my opinion the less turnout you have the more expensive it gets in feed and bedding and many horses get uptight so that would be a big question for me looking at yards. This month my 3rd party charity insurance has renewed at £65 and I have an unexpected injury vet visit which might cost £350, don’t know yet, to budget into next month but that isn’t very common for me. I have a lot of tack/ yard equipment/ rugs etc now so those costs tend to be lower but an occasional spend of around £200 on new girths/ rugs wouldn’t be unusual. I am looking at 2 new saddles this year possibly, around £1(if lucky/2.5k would be what I would expect each. Might only be able to afford the one I really need. Hope that helps.