The actual costs

[GingerLiberalFeminist]

Hey all, I'm hoping for some anon advice.

I'm an adult returner/broadly a happy hacker. However I've been breaking in and bringing on a couple of horses for a friend and of course I've fallen in love.

While I can continue to work her horses, there's always a risk the agreement will end. So, I could afford to buy or loan a horse, I wondered what the likely costs of keeping one would be.

I used to have horses on loan as a teen, but my parents had land and stables. Now I'm a "grown up" it's a more serious consideration!

I'd need livery, probably part, ideally with access to a school and hacking. Then there's hay and bedding costs, feed, shoes and insurance. What could I estimate on this?

I guess I'm trying to work out if I can up my hours at work and either buy one of hers or get my own!

Thanks in advance!

Don't forget to budget for lessons - it's worth it for all riders, but especially when you are going it alone with a new horse.

So on DIY livery I budget for £500-600 per month:
240 livery Inc hay per month
40 feed per month
40 supplements per month
35 insurance per month
90 lessons per month ie every 2 weeks
90 every 6 weeks for shoeing
70 every 3 months physio
70 every 3 months saddle fitting
80 per year dentist
40 per year vaccinations
60 per year worm count + worming
400 per year tack/equipment for horse
Miscellaneous costs of first aid top ups etc approx £200 per year

Then add on: competition fees, vet call outs (not routine ones) etc

6-7K per year on DIY not including emergency vet call outs + competition

However if buying then you also need to factor in start up costs: yard equipment, tack, rugs etc which can easily come to 3K+ considering cost of a good quality, well fitted saddle + tack.

I'd allow as an absolute bare minimum about £500 a month for a horse on DIY. On part/full you're looking more the £750 mark
Without lessons/competing.
That's assuming nothing goes wrong. A woman on my yard had a £6k vet bill in December

Thanks so much, that helps tremendously. It's not as bad as I thought it might be!

I pay £90 each week for DIY which includes feeds putting in each morning, unlimited hayledge and 3 bales of shavings (very dirty horse).
Insurance is £57 a month which includes vet fees up to 5k
Feet trim £30 every 7 weeks
Feed £40 a month
Dentist £100 per year
Then lessons £60 a month
Horse box insurance and tax £60 a month
Pony camp twice a year £50 a month
Hoping to show this year so that'll be on top.
Miscellaneous things like rugs etc I just don't add up and hide receipts 🤣

I budget around £700 a month in the winter for DIY - includes feed, hay, bedding, shoes, insurance, and around £50-100 of incidental spending that I pretty much always use (new boots, new rug, dentist, saddler etc.) This is for a big TB, so he eats a massive amount of hay and can't survive on fresh air. Would probably be a bit cheaper with a different type of horse.

It can vary enormously depending on the area you live in. Someoy who was on a yard we used to be at has a project comparing costs of keeping a horse Equestrian money diaries

Essentially it will be more than you think .. there are always unexpected costs which pop up at inconvenient times.

I reckon if I'm being honest with myself I spend about £1000 per month all in on average. That's for 5 day livery on a not especially fancy yard but in an expensive part of the country and with a horse that's a pretty good do-er and healthy so not lots of expensive extras like supplements, extra feed and big vet bills. I could at a push reduce that to more like £750 for the essentials, livery, insurance, farrier/dentist/insurance/dentist, feed and so on.

I don't really compete any more but by the time you account for regular lessons plus sharing hire of a box and diesel occasionally for outings which I still like to do for more interesting hacking (ours is a bit limited) or to go to a clinic or farm ride, plus repairing or replacing essential kit for him and me, that extra £250 does get used up.

Bear in mind also holidays can get a lot more expensive particularly if you have a high needs horse, mine copes fine just being turned out 24/7 and checked regularly for a week or two, and I have reciprocal arrangements with friends on the yard where I'll look after their horses when they go away in exchange for the same with mine (we don't go away regularly anymore mainly because we spend all our money on the horse ) but others on the yard with more delicate or highly strung animals that need feeding twice a day and to be ridden daily or they go mad end up paying the yard ££££ for full livery and riding/exercise as holiday cover. Also yards can be sneaky with what they charge as extras, even though in theory all Mon-Fri care is covered under 5 day livery, because I work and can't easily get to the yard 8-5 there's rarely a week that goes by I don't end up paying them something extra- bringing in or turning out anytime other than their regular field runs, that's £5. Holding for the vet/farrier, that's £10. Giving wormers, clipping or pulling mane/tail, changing rugs or putting boots on/off for the field, any different bedding or not standard feed you want used, the little £10s here and there do add up. I don't begrudge it, yards are struggling financially like everyone else and if they didn't charge people absolutely would take the piss, but our livery bills have gone up by something like 25% since the pandemic which is quite wild really and something to be aware of before you take the plunge...

I also reckon on about a grand a month. Summer is cheaper, but winter is expensive, and there are ALWAYS unexpected costs 🥴

Some of these costs!! i spend less on three on DIY than so many spend on one....

about 1k, that's full livery with regular lessons and clips/baths as needed, shoes insurance teeth physio plus having trailer and competing costs put it up more. but it is hobby I share with my DD and it makes us both happy; she is final year vet student I am full time in NHS, paying the extra for full livery reduces time pressures and more time to enjoy him

I own my own yard so no livery fees but do have repair costs.

Hoof trim £35 roughly 6 times per year ( they wear down with road work)
Saddler £30 to check/alter roughly 3 x year
Dentist £55 every 9 months
Heel mite treatment and worming/worm count £50 4 x year
Physio £65 4 x year
Small amount of hard feed and bedding as out 24/7 £10 a month
Haylage for winter £300
Happy hacker so no lessons or competitions and no transport
No insurance but about £200 average vet bills

I buy very little equipment now but there is always the odd things so I will round that up to £120 per month. You would obviously have to add on livery fees.

Out of interest, what part of the country are you in? The professional costs are a lot less than what I pay...I might need to move!

@Whatabouthow we’re in the northeast and we’re paying a lot more for farrier/saddle fit/physio/dentist etc 🤷‍♀️

It costs all of your money, your time, your soul and your sanity.

That's all.

I am in Cheshire and there are horses everywhere. I mean literally in every other field I drive past and we are rural so lots of fields. Then there are large yards like riding schools or liveries nearby. Most of these professionals book their time so they go from one customer to the next and generally come to me after they have done a nearby yard. I guess I am benefitting from economies of scale and a choice of people to use.

Me too, and they want for nothing!

I've just seen on another post livery costs alone of 1600 pm 😅. I pay 200 and that includes hay/haylage, chaff and any beet components of feeds. I'm sure they have luxury facilities etc but still.... Wild!

Depending on the type of livery, the facilities available and the area you live in it can be possible to keep a horse on a shoestring but it’s really not advisable to go into owning your first horse thinking that that’s the norm. The only yard we’ve been on that was under £200 a month was when dd’s first horse was turned away on grass livery for 18 months to recover from a series of illnesses and injuries. Even then he managed to impale his foot on something sharp which was a £1500 vet bill plus he developed sweet itch and had an asthma flare up when he was there which meant extra care and expense. We now have the horses at home so day to day costs per horse are lower but there’s still the cost of bedding (£260 for a pallet delivered), chaff and balancer, couple of supplements for the older ones, farrier every six weeks, annual vaccinations and dental, 3 monthly physio for the competition horses, saddle checks, cleaning and repairing rugs, lessons, occasional freelance cover etc etc etc. And that’s not taking into account the capital needed to buy a place with land, fixing the fencing (££££), finding out the stables were riddled with woodworm so needed expensive repairs, buying a quad for field maintenance, putting in an arena - livery yards have to absorb all of those costs. Thankfully we don’t have to buy hay, pay for muck heap removal or most field maintenance as we have a reciprocal arrangement with a friendly local farmer but if we didn’t then those costs too would mount up.

I’m on full livery (East Midlands) and pay £600 pcm, which includes all hay, feed and bedding. It’s fairly basic, farm based yard with a school and good hacking but no additional facilities. In addition I pay £60 per month insurance, £65 every 6 weeks for farrier (front shoes only), £45pcm for a hoof supplement, £30 every 2 weeks for lessons (mates rates!). I also live very close to the yard (same village) so can walk there but remember to factor in travel costs, time etc.

Looking at some of the responses here, that’s pretty good!