Can I buy/keep a horse with a £28.5k salary in 2025?

A

amelia_megan

Member
Joined
12 April 2025
Messages
15
Visit site
I earn about £2k a month and my mortgage & bills comes to £970 pcm. Rounding that up to £1.4k to account for living a life & savings, is £600 per month enough to comfortably afford to keep a horse?

I live in North Yorkshire, and the cost at my local riding school for part livery (4 days a week full care, no riding) is around £270 pcm. What other costs should be accounted for & roughly how much are they for you?
 
webble said:
Sadly it's probably not, £430 isn't a lot to have a life, you only need an unexpected car bill or a couple of birthdays and it's eaten a chunk of it
Click to expand...
Where are you getting £430 from? Maybe I misread the post but isn’t the op saying they have accounted for bills and “life” and has £600 a month that can be spent on a horse ?
 
I think this massively depends on the type of horse. I could not keep my current horse for < £600 a month on DIY livery including forage, hard feed and assistance as and when required (that does not include shoes, insurance or instruction).

However, a few years back I had a PBA pony who really did live on fresh air. She had no requirement to be shod, only had token hard feed and didn't require supplementation, etc. She probably cost me < £450 a month, all in (including some assistance on DIY livery and insurance as she was cheap to purchase).

So yes, you could do this on a shoestring if you cannot find a suitable share, however, bear in mind your budget does not allow for emergency veterinary treatment which may be less than your insurance excess.
 
lizziebell said:
Where are you getting £430 from? Maybe I misread the post but isn’t the op saying they have accounted for bills and “life” and has £600 a month that can be spent on a horse ?
Click to expand...
She has allowed 1400 for bills and life, of that 970 is bills so that leaves 430 for things like clothes, meals out, car service, gifts etc etc and that isn't a lot these days

As above though what about emergencies. My last horse went lame and wasn't insured, I paid 2k in vets fees (which I could afford) but it could easily have been a lot more, we all know how expensive horses can be
 
teddy_ said:
I think this massively depends on the type of horse. I could not keep my current horse for < £600 a month on DIY livery including forage, hard feed and assistance as and when required (that does not include shoes, insurance or instruction).

However, a few years back I had a PBA pony who really did live on fresh air. She had no requirement to be shod, only had token hard feed and didn't require supplementation, etc. She probably cost me < £450 a month, all in (including some assistance on DIY livery and insurance as she was cheap to purchase).

So yes, you could do this on a shoestring if you cannot find a suitable share, however, bear in mind your budget does not allow for emergency veterinary treatment which may be less than your insurance excess.
Click to expand...
The problem is you can plan to keep a horse on a shoestring but they may have other ideas. Eg. Need shoes, poor doer, rug destroyer, extra training, medical conditions, insurance excess etc then what do you do?
 
Vodkagirly said:
The problem is you can plan to keep a horse on a shoestring but they may have other ideas. Eg. Need shoes, poor doer, rug destroyer, extra training, medical conditions, insurance excess etc then what do you do?
Click to expand...
Well yes, I did make reference to all of those points bar rug destroying.

As I said, it all boils down to the individual horse. Some horses don't require much in the way of maintenance. Some do.

I personally would not feel comfortable stretching my finances to the limit every month, however, I know plenty who do, and if it means enough to them, they make it work. Whether that's finding a supplementary income, or forgoing some luxuries themselves.
 
I think you could with the right horse. But with my sensible head on, I'd want to know I had extra funds in an emergency & still priorise saving every month for non-horse life.

I'm in the SE so possibly a bit more expensive but my native costs me about £450-500 a month on DIY with (but with paid assistance) currently - I'm not extravagant but could also do some things more cheaply (I could source cheaper hay but I like the farmer I use & he stacks it for me so zero effort on my part, I use an expensive barefoot trimmer but again I like them so happy to pay more are two examples that immediately spring to mind and I don't really shop around for cheapest things, I'll prioritise brands or shops I like & convenience over buying the cheapest option of whatever I need).

I've copied and pasted my costs below from another recent thread and nothing has changed cost-wise.

Monthly Essentials:
£200 DIY livery
£55 -75 on assistance services (on average, some months higher but some months less)
£48 insurance
£45 hay - I buy in bulk so not a monthly expense but I've averaged it out.
£20 bedding - ditto
£19 feed - ditto
£30 supplements - ditto
Misc. spending - could be anything from £0 to a few hundred depending on what I need or need to replace. This month my misc. items have been a new to me saddle pad via Ebay and a new leadrope as I liked the colour so have spent less than £40 but I've spent £300 just on replacing turn out rugs in one month, so it can really vary!

Monthly extra's or nice to have:
£60 for a lesson with regular trainer
£0-80(ish) on average on extra lessons, arena hires or competition entries.

More than once a month to every 3 months basics:
£9 for worm egg counts (plus additional cost of wormer when required)
£60 barefoot trimmer
£35 sports massage

More than every three months to annual basics:
£120 Vaccinations
£65 Dentist
£70 Saddle fitter
£200 riding permits to access further off road hacking

The important thing that gives me peace of mind, is that although mine is fairly low cost currently (he's been much higher cost in the past - when on full livery for example) I have a decent amount of wiggle room and spare income to fund emegencies which I appreciate I'm fortunate to do. I'm fairly financially risk adverse though, so wouldn't want to stretch myself each month but appreciate everyone is different.
 
Last edited:
It's possible. Would you use your savings to dip into for things such as unexpected bills if needed, whatever they may be for, equine or not?
Could you consider grass livery which could help lower the monthly cost a little.
You could consider someone part loaning your horse.
Or you could part loan someone else's horse.
 
webble said:
She has allowed 1400 for bills and life, of that 970 is bills so that leaves 430 for things like clothes, meals out, car service, gifts etc etc and that isn't a lot these days
Click to expand...
It's not much for those things at all and needs to also cover household things that can break like cooker, boiler, washing machine etc etc.

I keep mine at home and it costs me about £400pm on average for just the absolute essentials for my horses. Food, bedding, farrier, vet, worming. One is not ridden and only one has shoes, fronts only. When I start adding in the cost of lessons, travel to lessons, competitions, physio, saddle fitter, destroyed and worn out stuff like fencing, tack and rugs it will come to at least £600 per horse. That's with no livery costs and no fuel costs to travel to see my horses.

If I was going to keep a horse on a shoe string budget I'd make sure that I had a reasonable amount of savings like £2k so that you can cover an unexpected vet bill that insurance won't cover.
 
MuddyMonster said:
I think you could with the right horse. But with my sensible head on, I'd want to know I had extra funds in an emergency & still priorise saving every month for non-horse life.

I'm in the SE so possibly a bit more expensive but my native costs me about £450-500 a month on DIY with (but with paid assistance) currently - I'm not extravagant but could also do some things more cheaply (I could source cheaper hay but I like the farmer I use & he stacks it for me so zero effort on my part, I use an expensive barefoot trimmer but again I like them so happy to pay more are two examples that immediately spring to mind and I don't really shop around for cheapest things, I'll prioritise brands or shops I like & convenience over buying the cheapest option of whatever I need).

I've copied and pasted my costs below from another recent thread and nothing has changed cost-wise.

Monthly Essentials:
£200 DIY livery
£55 -75 on assistance services (on average, some months higher but some months less)
£48 insurance
£45 hay - I buy in bulk so not a monthly expense but I've averaged it out.
£20 bedding - ditto
£19 feed - ditto
£30 supplements - ditto
Misc. spending - could be anything from £0 to a few hundred depending on what I need or need to replace. This month my misc. items have been a new to me saddle pad via Ebay and a new leadrope as I liked the colour so have spent less than £40 but I've spent £300 just on replacing turn out rugs in one month, so it can really vary!

Monthly extra's or nice to have:
£60 for a lesson with regular trainer
£0-80(ish) on average on extra lessons, arena hires or competition entries.

More than once a month to every 3 months basics:
£9 for worm egg counts (plus additional cost of wormer when required)
£60 barefoot trimmer
£35 sports massage

More than every three months to annual basics:
£120 Vaccinations
£65 Dentist
£70 Saddle fitter
£200 riding permits to access further off road hacking

The important thing that gives me peace of mind, is that although mine is fairly low cost currently (he's been much higher cost in the past - when on full livery for example) I have a decent amount of wiggle room and spare income to fund emegencies which I appreciate I'm fortunate to do. I'm fairly financially risk adverse though, so wouldn't want to stretch myself each month but appreciate everyone is different.
Click to expand...
What bedding do use or is your horse super clean? I'm 80/month for shavings for 1 horse lol 😆
 
amelia_megan said:
I earn about £2k a month and my mortgage & bills comes to £970 pcm. Rounding that up to £1.4k to account for living a life & savings, is £600 per month enough to comfortably afford to keep a horse?

I live in North Yorkshire, and the cost at my local riding school for part livery (4 days a week full care, no riding) is around £270 pcm. What other costs should be accounted for & roughly how much are they for you?
Click to expand...
I know I'm younger than most, but no 600 a month is probably not enough. Mainly because of horses being horses which always tends to involve a massive bill. Eg say your horse rips his rug and needs a new one, that could easily be atleast a hundred (I have a shetland so his rugs cost alot less). Or you could also have a vet emergency, say your horse goes lame or it gets stomach ulcers. And maybe your horse will need vaccines.
 
amelia_megan said:
I earn about £2k a month and my mortgage & bills comes to £970 pcm. Rounding that up to £1.4k to account for living a life & savings, is £600 per month enough to comfortably afford to keep a horse?

I live in North Yorkshire, and the cost at my local riding school for part livery (4 days a week full care, no riding) is around £270 pcm. What other costs should be accounted for & roughly how much are they for you?
Click to expand...
If you’re saying you’ll have £600 a month available for the horse then depending on the type of horse and how it’s kept l would think so. But ….you’ll need a cobby good dooer type that doesn’t need shoes. Everyone seems to budget for lessons these days and obviously that’s great BUT there are ways around paying £60 or more a month for them. I suppose it depends what you want to do with the horse/pony once you’ve bought it. You definitely need a ‘backup’ account in case things go wrong but many items viewed as essential aren’t really that essential unless you’re thinking of competing regularly. As well as the day to day costs you’ll have to consider the cost of buying the horse and it’s tack and that’s likely to set you back at least 8k for a basically schooled cob.
 
I was on roughly that salary when I got my first horse, but there are more factors to consider such as whether you have a decent sized emergency fund for vet bills or other unexpected issues, do you have any other large outgoings e.g. children, are you prepared to forgo holidays or other luxuries to make sure you always have money put aside for an emergency?

Horses do eat money, but a lot of people are able to keep them on a small budget on the basis that horses are their everything so they don't go on holiday, buy expensive clothes etc. They do have a knack of consuming your entire life and swallowing all of your money!
 
If I routinely needed £600 a month for my native bred on grass livery we would be in serious trouble! You're being really responsible OP but the bottom line is the compromises you can accept for your lifestyle. The holiday fund spent on vet bills cliche is very real! However I guarantee almost nobody could afford to keep a horse (or children!) if it was all about the maths. It isn't, and if having a horse is your passion you'll find a way x
 
I have 2 horses on diy and am roughly 450/ month for basics livery,hay,bedding. Then anything up to 100 for shoes, supplements,rugs etc as and when needed . I would say 600 for one horse is easily doable x
 
Well, as everyone says - it all depends. Some horses, particularly the smaller ones, larger native ponies, anything around 15.00 do seem to live on fresh air, but even these are going to need somewhere to live (livery), insurance, their feet done, annual vaccinations, feed, hay and bedding.

What would you want to do with the horse when you got it - if its hacking (which is fine and lots of people do that) then you will want it to live where the hacking is good, off road and not much traffic and with a variety of routes - so that might mean more travelling to a suitable place. You probably would want lessons, certainly to start with.

Doing anything more would mean horse transport, it really isn't possible to hack everywhere as we used to do, due to the amount of traffic.

As for type - well TBs are cheap to buy but expensive to keep. Cobs, the coloured kind, (some of them are vanners rather than riding animals) and I've heard of a few with hock problems. Pure native ponies are expensive (if not ask why???), Welsh cobs are not quiet cobs, they are fine with a convenient Welsh mountain to ride up, they need lots of work. OK, this is a generalisation, but something to bear in mind.

If you could possibly find a share horse to start with, it would give you experience of keeping a horse, and the type that you might want to eventually buy.
 
Completely depends on how you keep your horse - I have two natives kept at a very basic DIY yard where we have access to stables, but they tend to be out 24/7 most the time, and it costs me much less than that per month to keep them.

One I have managed to afford to do a lot with over the years.

I do like to have a second job for ‘fun money’ though which adds approx £250 per month after tax to my income, meaning i don’t have to dip into main salary for things like arena hire, fun rides or competitions etc. Bar job on a Saturday evening meaning i get to ‘go out’ and get paid for it :)

if I were you, I’d put aside the full £600 every month for your horse and while you probably won’t spend it all every month, you will also begin to build a bit of a cushion too for unexpected/expected extra bills.

A good shout too is always overpay by a tenner or so at the vets which will mean they’ll have some money to take off any big bills :)
 
Any are you just keeping the horse, or are you wanting to do riding +/- training +/- shows? A fitted saddle that gets checked? Regular back lady of sorts to see it? Maintenance vetting as needed? I couldn’t do it and enjoy it on that budget.
Ps. Your vets are not usually allowed to keep you in credit these days!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top