Can this really be right?

Achinghips

Achinghips

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The total monthly cost of having 1 horse, minus all the equipment on part time livery (approximations) = £311:

£100 Livery
£50 Hay
£25 Blacksmith
£34 Insurance
£40 wood pellet bedding (livery owner decides, not me)
£2 Hoof oil
£4 cleaning and care of leather work
£30 hard feed
£6 wormer

These are approximations, am I grossly wrong? Don't forget I haven't included rider or horse equipment, this is just monthly ongoing maintenance, shaved down to as low as I can get it.
 
I would say that's about right! mine is barefoot so the farrier is cheaper but the rest seems about average to me.
They're expensive aren't they!
 
hmm, i'd say you're underestimating that...is this for 1 month?
lets say:
if 6 weeks for farrier is a full set of shoes is £60, then 4 weeks is £40,
part livery per week between 30-50 a week, lets say £40 (and that's cheap, but lets presume as hay/bedding is not included then it is) then 4 weeks is £160
hay for 4 weeks at e.g. £3.5 a bale, 4 bales a week for 4 weeks,
£56
insurance - gah - I dunno,depends on providers & horse and cover, lets keep that at £34 per month
bedding at £7.00 a bale and 3 bales a week, is £84 (maybe a little expensive - but depends on the bedding provider etc..this would probably go down
hoof oil - if you can get a tub for £6 which'll last lets say 2 months, then thats about right for £2 a month,
cleaning and care of leather work, lets keep at £4 also gives Plus a wormer every 8 weeks is e.g. £12, 1 month £6,

thats giving a total of about £386, and you've not got -
-hard feed
-supplements
-vet treatments as and when you need them,
-petrol to and from yard
-dentist (£100 a year? two treatments of £50 each?)
-physio (£100 a year, lets say it was a check up and a treat, just a ball park)


ah crap - thats why owning horses is expensive (looks in papers for second job....glum....)

What do you think of those costings?fair?cheap?to OTT?
 
just added the hard feed and the wormer.

Bloody hell, I really can't afford two then!!!!!!!!!!!
The services I get is that YO gives breakfast, derugs and puts out in field in the morning, which I think is fantastic!
 
ha ha - no!
although - look at how you can make savings:
-type of bedding (rubber matting will almost half your bedding bill if you can get the yard to put it in)
-share big baled haylage? reduces costs and you can feed more of that than hardfeed- which is more expensive
-shoe only the front feet
-how much is your actually livery (have you been quoted?)
-what hardfeed do you need and can you source it from a cheaper place?

why not have one and look after someone elses and charge them for any riding/mucking out/etc... if you have the time to do two, then the second could help pay for the first, although current YO might not allow this which is fair enough...
 
Looking at these prices, which I know are underestimates, the only way to have more than one is to have your own land and stable (ie., a smallholding). Life change decision coming up for me, I think
Yes the livery is £25 per week.
I WANT MY OWN PLACE - DESPERATELY!!!!!!!!!!!AAARGHHH
 
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(just thought I'd join in in the general frustration of how much it costs to keep a horse and all the shenanigans which goes with it....)
 
I have a bit of a brainwave really. There are 2 acres of poor scub behind my house, which belongs to someone with a bungalow (old garden centre).
I wonder if he would let me rent it, fence it and pasture it.

I could even put a gate in my chain link fence that backs on to it. He has lots of old barn buildings too.
Any thoughts or would this be a headache project?
 
Don't we all lol - my lifetime goal is to get a small holding before I retire - likelihood is Im going to need all those years to save up
frown.gif
 
oo no sounds good - not a headache at all
smile.gif
go for it!
might take a year by the time you've re-seeded etc...
but could be worth it in the long run - would they sell it to you? (even better!)
 
Just to make you all feel really bad my monthly bill is....
£3 trim (mines barefoot)
£10.30 (For good doer feed)
£4 (carrots)
£10 (Hay for a large bale)
£30 (For insurance)

I think thats it.... my horse is at mother-in-laws and she's really nice (mother-in-law that is). She feeds in a morning and refits rugs then puts him back out. He lives out 24/7, but there is a stable if I want it.
 
I think they probably would sell it, only thing that worries me is that there is a public walkway alongside it as part of another field, not very busy, people walk their dogs along it, but it does leave it vulnerable to horse thieves. Is there an electric fence or some type of device that cuts off the legs or decapitates horse thieves, but leaves the horse intact? If not, I think theres a gap in the market - lol
 
as someone who moved house specifically to move somewhere to have horses at home... i can tell you it's not much cheaper!

ok, so you won't have to pay livery. but instead you have to maintain your land and stables (headache), get smaller quantities of hay/feed/wormer etc so that ends up more expensive. then, of course, you'll need transport because you'll be lonely (well, i did)... and then you'll miss the facilities so have to have a school made...
and if you go on holiday, you have to pay someone MUCH more than livery costs to housesit...

and when you're knee deep in mud (because the guttering has broken on the front of the stables), losing wellies... you'll wonder why you bothered!

can you tell i'm having a bad mud/stable/horse day?
grin.gif
 
ooo maybe you're onto something - however I thing promoting the use of tagged crims to set off booby traps might not be appropriate, however tempting it is!
I'm sure if would be fine for the walkway - if you have a good strong electric fence - and in time could plant up a big prickly hedge (mmmm hawthorn hedge
smile.gif
!!!)
then you'd probably discourage most - along with signs of BEWARE HORSES ARE TAGGED etc... (although NOT dangerous, as then the crims steal the horses, get hurt, and claim back money as they got hurt whilst stealing your horse - gah! the law sometimes doesn't have it's head screwed on the right way up...)
 
Aw, sweetie. I'm probably living in a makebelieve hedonistic world, I know - it's a nice life in my air-head - and mud doesn't exist!! There's honeysuckle over the door, hubby doesn't moan or watch football - and I'm 2 stone lighter!!
 
looking at those costs, and my short lived experience of being on livery for 6months at uni (subsidised as they were uni stables, so a lot cheaper than above) I am so glad my horses are kept at home.
 
My costs are as follows, this is for one in at night, out by day, on our own land.

£0 Livery
£24 Hay
£14 Blacksmith
£0 Insurance - but have to insure land and buildings, can't remember premium though
£29 COusin Jack bedding - one bale per week on rubber mats
£0 Hoof oil
£0 cleaning and care of leather work
£30 hard feed - we own a feed merchants, but if we didn't I would get through about one sack each of A&P Fast Fibre and one high fibre nuts each month, and one tub of Equivite.
£6 wormer - about the same.

£203 per month

Haven't taken into account costs for my new foal, or our two year old who is at grass livery with a friend!
 
[ QUOTE ]
as someone who moved house specifically to move somewhere to have horses at home... i can tell you it's not much cheaper!

ok, so you won't have to pay livery. but instead you have to maintain your land and stables (headache), get smaller quantities of hay/feed/wormer etc so that ends up more expensive. then, of course, you'll need transport because you'll be lonely (well, i did)... and then you'll miss the facilities so have to have a school made...
and if you go on holiday, you have to pay someone MUCH more than livery costs to housesit...

and when you're knee deep in mud (because the guttering has broken on the front of the stables), losing wellies... you'll wonder why you bothered!

can you tell i'm having a bad mud/stable/horse day?
grin.gif


[/ QUOTE ]

No, I agree with you. I'd always wanted to keep my horses at home and it took a lot of stress and hard work to be able to make it happen... and while it was brilliant to be able to see them out of the window, it was also really quite lonely and unsociable. I didn't even think I liked any of the people at my yard that much, but I missed them when they weren't there... and the maintenance etc was more work than I'd bargained for, plus I definitely found the lack of facilities a downer.
 
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