Coping with rising costs

[Wishfilly]

I think I'm all out with money saving hacks. Our livery's gone up and we're really struggling to source hay this year without paying crazy prices. Although I did get a cracking deal on a brand new Amigo rug at a car boot sale the other day.

It is 100% getting harder, and hay is also definitely an issue this winter. We were lucky around here a lot of farmers got a late cut in that one dry week in September, or it would be even worse!

I do think there is only so far you can cut without compromising welfare- I'm lucky that mine doesn't need a lot of hard feed or expensive supplements, but for an older horse or a poor doer I know it would be a lot more difficult.

 

[santas_spotty_pony]

I’m lucky that mine are at home, there are some things that are impossible to save money on - for me shoes is one of them as he is remedially shod. My farrier has just put his prices up again, but I daren’t change as his feet look really good.

I have cut down on hard feed and am just feeding a diet mostly of grass and hay. All three are in light work and I’ll adjust accordingly if they start to lose weight. Two are currently getting a bit of happy hoof and my old boy gets some chaff and usually a balancer but there was none in stock when I went to the feed store so I bought some Pegasus pony cubes and am giving him two cups of that instead at the moment - doesn’t seem to be doing him any harm and has saved me some pennies.

 

[seriously festive equine]

My lot are getting Mole valley own brand feed. I buy my linseed online (free postage). My farrier is £30 a trim (Buckinghamshire) so maybe shop around? Also buy a lot of stuff second hand, sell whatever you don’t need etc

I get mollichaff as its only £6 a bag....I feed it with pony nuts (mole valleys own) £8.50 and that does my cob mare...otherwise no other hacks sorry......I think the cost of livery is probs the most expensive part of horse keeping....I am lucky I own a couple of acres!

 

[seriously festive equine]

I buy horse feed which has a discount. If feed reps are around locally I always ask for vouchers. I recently switched to Castle Horse Feeds which are 20kg sacks and had £5 off a sack which made it £10 a bag and bought loads of it which is stored in dustbins to keep it away from rodents. I hate 15kg sacks as expensive. I buy supplements from Feedmark and buy biggest tubs when 50% off like now and buy it in bulk. I buy shavings in bulk as well and pick them up. Everything is netted now in the massive haynets to save waste on haylage as used to be put in corner mangers but they drag it on their bed and waste it.
I only buy anything when discounted and out of season like rugs. Horses not in work have shoes removed ASAP. I sell anything which hasn’t been used for over a year. All my rugs are very good ones and washed professionally once a year and repaired so they tend to do 15 years on a non wrecker horse. I store them carefully out of season as well to save from any rodent/dust/light damage. I don’t use stable rugs. I buy 2nd hand a lot especially premium stuff. I love a used once type thing for stuff like Xc boots, tack like bridles and girths which will then be 50% cheaper. I buy all my breeches at 50% off and all premium. I also will buy extra if a real bargain out of season then sell for a profit when in season.

Agree here! i buy my rugs off FB marketplace repair the holes myself and water proof myself. It takes time but its worth it!

 

[Sossigpoker]

Consider if your horses really need those feeds /supplements.
A lot of people over complicate feeding and feed unnecessary things. Not saying you are doing this , just suggesting you consider the necessity.

 

[Barton Bounty]

I buy this linseed for £27.99 a bag so usually get two at a time if I cant the charnwood milling stuff above

 

[HollyWoozle]

Our grazing is quite poor and we were feeding a pelleted balancer but switched this for a powder mineral supplement as it worked out far cheaper when I did the maths. Grazing, hay and minerals in a basic chaff do the job for us for the most part.

Ours live out and don’t work anymore so we need limited things which helps of course. If we do need something, like a rug for example, then I always buy secondhand these days.

 

[Barton Bounty]

I buy Charnwood Micronised Linseed from Equi Supermaket https://www.equisupermarket.co.uk/products/charnwood-milling-micronised-full-fat-linseed-meal £29.99 free shipping.

Smells amazing doesnt it!

 

[JBM]

A lot of grass and a lot of land means my horses are pretty much free year round bar trims and vets
Haylage if the snow starts

 

[Patterdale]

Numbers: I’ve sold one really promising youngster.

Feed: I stopped feeding 2 years ago in favour of good haylage and field licks. They all look exactly the same as they did when they were eating £££ of bucket feeds and supplements.

Shoes: I’ve moved to fronts only on the shod ones and they’re doing fine.

Worming: I’m giving pramox in autumn then rotating another wormer to anything looking like it needs it each spring. I’m not worm counting as it’s just more expense.

Insurance: I’ve stopped completely and have a 0% credit card for emergencies.

Competing: I’ve cut back drastically.

Living: everything lives out on rented land and nobody is stabled.

All of the above have helped but they’re still expensive pets!

 

[twiggy2]

Numbers: I’ve sold one really promising youngster.

Feed: I stopped feeding 2 years ago in favour of good haylage and field licks. They all look exactly the same as they did when they were eating £££ of bucket feeds and supplements.

Shoes: I’ve moved to fronts only on the shod ones and they’re doing fine.

Worming: I’m giving pramox in autumn then rotating another wormer to anything looking like it needs it each spring. I’m not worm counting as it’s just more expense.

Insurance: I’ve stopped completely and have a 0% credit card for emergencies.

Competing: I’ve cut back drastically.

Living: everything lives out on rented land and nobody is stabled.

All of the above have helped but they’re still expensive pets!

What field licks are they that you use Patterdale?

 

[Patterdale]

What field licks are they that you use Patterdale?

After very extensive research and spreadsheets I use Dallas Keith hoof and hide. Works a treat. It would take an exceptional case for me to go back to bucket feeds.

 

[SpotsandBays]

For anybody looking, I buy Pureflax linseed meal for 19.99 a 15kg bag online. Free postage if you spend more than £25 I think. I also use a discount code from one of their ambassadors to get a little money off too. That’s the cheapest I’ve found

 

[PoppyAnderson]

Buy a hoof rasp and trim yourself. It can seem daunting at first but it's really not. It's hard work, so little and often is easiest. I only have the trimmer about once a year now, if that.

 

[criso]

My linseed costs £25 for Charnwood 20kg, there is a cheaper one, I think it's Marriages for £23 but I prefer the Charnwood specs

 

[expanding_horizon]

I buy this linseed for £27.99 a bag so usually get two at a time if I cant the charnwood milling stuff above View attachment 127123

It’s higher starch, and made differently to Charnwoods as is Marriages linseed. Places sell Charnwood for £28.99 collected and £29.99 delivered. Think others a false economy.

 

[expanding_horizon]

I’ve spent a scary amount in last 2 days (drove to cheapest stockist to stock up, as are £2-£5 cheaper per item than available locally). With what already have this should be mostly all top up need for winter.

3 bags aquamax**
3 bales Aubiose**
5 litres linseed oil
Hoof & Heel cream
Good saddle soap
3 gorilla feed trugs
3 bags Charnwood linseed
1 bag coolstance copra
1 bag grass nuts
1 bag agrobs mash

**Will last me the winter, as occasional use deep litter, so don’t buy in bulk.

 

[bubsqueaks]

Ive switched to all year night turnout - out 16 hours per day in 8 hours per day which means less messy bedding so Ive switched to straw - one bale at £2.50 a month.
Use heston bales of hay £45 per bale - less hay as in for less time & grass good this year.
Simple System haycare - small scoop soaked for Equimins balancer nothing else.
Trim £45 every 6 weeks.
I wont cut back on physio as youngster changing shape & muscles etc.
Nor saddler - I think if you start cutting back on both these it leads to bigger problems in the long run as would trimming.

 

[Jambarissa]

I am a terrible over - thinker and was analysing the pros and cons and cost-benefit of different bedding. Ideally you want a top layer that is relatively waterproof to stay dry and easy to seperate from the poo. Then you want a bottom layer than is really stable and mega absorbent.

Large flake shavings (megaspread) on top of wood pellets or sawdust meet this criteria so I've been trialling. It works really well, the pellets are smaller than the shavings so fall to the bottom even if they get mixed up (physics!). I throw away next to no shavings and only dig the bottom out once a week using 1-2 bags of woodpellets at £5.50 to top up. So far very good.

For hairy legs mixing melted coconut oil with pig oil is far superior to pig oil alone and better than the more expensive leg creams. You can vary the quantities to make thicker lotions, a 50/50 mix can be scooped up by hand.

With feeds there is so much human research that shows supplements are next to useless in improving health, they only tend to work for real deficiencies. If your horse is in on seed hay you may well have a deficiency but if he has reasonable grazing and meadow hay it's pretty unlikely. Unless you do blood tests you'll never know, a half dose of a cheap broad spectrum might be a reasonable compromise.

My horses have various conditions (CPL, FWS, arthritis) that do respond well to supplements but I've swapped over to herbs which work as well if not better and are about 1/4 of the price.

I buy good quality rugs and they last forever. I get 0g and 50g turnouts and quilted liners then can wash and reproof myself which saves a fortune.

 

[Ruftys mum]

Consider if your horses really need those feeds /supplements.
A lot of people over complicate feeding and feed unnecessary things. Not saying you are doing this , just suggesting you consider the necessity.

I used to ride a top endurance horse and all she had in the way of supplements was garlic. Her main diet was oats bran and mollichop. She won several 100 mile races

 

[marmalade76]

I used to ride a top endurance horse and all she had in the way of supplements was garlic. Her main diet was oats bran and mollichop. She won several 100 mile races

Ooh, I'd want to add some limestone flour to that!

 

[equinerebel]

I have a rising 18 year old mare who doesn’t get any feed or supplements. She also doesn’t have physio or chiro appointments. She’s shod in front only (tried barefoot but it’s not possible when she’s still hacking out) and I’ve switched to straw as it’s included in my livery.

I don’t have lessons or compete and buy absolutely everything I can second hand.

I appreciate my mare is very easy to keep in comparison to others, but I’m still struggling! She’s my last horse and I am anticipating she’ll cost more as she gets older.

 

[poiuytrewq]

they don't publish them. You have to ask Mole for them. I asked for one via E mail. They provided the info..I told them that it was no good for horse owners if they didn't detail the ingredients etc online but it was a waste of time telling them.

I’ve had to contact them for info too. It’s just stupid. You’d think a waste of their time to keep sending it out to people.

 

[criso]

I’ve had to contact them for info too. It’s just stupid. You’d think a waste of their time to keep sending it out to people.

Is it possible the ingredients change and they keep prices down by reacting to what's available at any one time? Trying to think of reasons why they are happy to share the info but won't publish.

 

[paddy555]

Is it possible the ingredients change and they keep prices down by reacting to what's available at any one time? Trying to think of reasons why they are happy to share the info but won't publish.

that in my experience is simply Mole and their outlook.
I find them unhelpful and inefficient. We had a monopoly of Mole in our area for a long time so little choice unless I wanted to travel a lot further and I buy a lot of feed so it would be a hassle

The staff are in general helpful but they seem to get little assistance or information from the top to pass down to customers. Most of it is rubbish and incorrect anyway

I have complained many times about their stocking levels. It is not unreasonable to be able to buy a plumbing fitting or basic tractor item as somewhere labelled as "farmers"

I have had endless struggles to get dengie grass pellets from them. I rang Dengie and found Mole were simply telling me rubbish.

IMO they simply cannot be bothered to take on board what customers want.

Rant over.

 

[SDMabel]

A few things i've done recently to keep the costs down :

-Hay : Also fed all year round as pony is on a bare fatty paddock and gets hay popped out , i put the hay out in nets tied to a post to stop the bits dropped on the floor from being weed on, trodden in etc.
I source my hay myself rather than through the yard, we go for large round bales as find these the cheapest, collect ourselves and store at home (appreciate not possible for everyone ).

-Feed: Swapped from fast fibre soak nuggets to a complete hi-fi chaff as lasts much longer , ill shop around we have a Mole country membership so find out when they are on offer and try to bulk buy.

-Bedding: She's on shavings as far too messy on anything else, i get bulk bags of sawdust from the local sawmill rather than paying for shavings. A cubic builders bag is £10 collected, highly absorbent and lasts bloody ages.

Everything else unfortunately cannot be helped, farrier costs (she's barefoot so that helps ) . As a yard we try to book dentist, physio etc at the same time to get a reduction on price.

I am very lucky that my livery fee is incredinly affordable, as liveries we help one another out to save extra turnout / bring in costs etc.

Each month is a scraping through on the bones of my ass, but if it means i can keep pony ill keep at it !

 

[poiuytrewq]

that in my experience is simply Mole and their outlook.
I find them unhelpful and inefficient. We had a monopoly of Mole in our area for a long time so little choice unless I wanted to travel a lot further and I buy a lot of feed so it would be a hassle

The staff are in general helpful but they seem to get little assistance or information from the top to pass down to customers. Most of it is rubbish and incorrect anyway

I have complained many times about their stocking levels. It is not unreasonable to be able to buy a plumbing fitting or basic tractor item as somewhere labelled as "farmers"

I have had endless struggles to get dengie grass pellets from them. I rang Dengie and found Mole were simply telling me rubbish.

IMO they simply cannot be bothered to take on board what customers want.

Rant over.

I went a few weeks ago to our local one, I’d run out of dog food and wanted something tempting to get an elderly pony eating better.
They had no power so no tills, I was told quite bluntly if it was a real emergency and I had cash I could go in. I did and it was pretty emergency like! (If you’re a dog!)
Anyway, the woman was just so incredibly rude! She asked what dog food I wanted and I said working instead of maintenance, or the other way round! Anyway she wrote the receipt while I went and got it. I’d said the wrong one and she got really snippy and made a big deal of tearing it up and having to start again! She then asked what horse food I wanted to which I replied I wasn’t sure, I’d hoped to have a look and see what I thought might work. She muttered something about no time to look and if I didn’t know she certainly didn’t.
Told her not to bother! Paid for the dog food and left.
Shockingly bad customer service.

I went further afield- anyone in my area Caswell equestrian supplies, a small independent retailer who couldn’t have been more helpful and friendly whilst happily leaving me to it to read bags and browse.
Highly highly recommend them

 

[Chuffy99]

I hate Mole Valley, I think the big problem is not the local stores but the supply hubs, our local branch order feed etc and then it’s not on the next delivery and you have to change to what they have, especially bad on dog food, having started the puppies on their puppy food they haven’t had any more in so have had to change which I don’t like doing

 

[paddy555]

I hate Mole Valley, I think the big problem is not the local stores but the supply hubs, our local branch order feed etc and then it’s not on the next delivery and you have to change to what they have, especially bad on dog food, having started the puppies on their puppy food they haven’t had any more in so have had to change which I don’t like doing

totally agree.

I went a few weeks ago to our local one, I’d run out of dog food and wanted something tempting to get an elderly pony eating better.
They had no power so no tills, I was told quite bluntly if it was a real emergency and I had cash I could go in. I did and it was pretty emergency like! (If you’re a dog!)
Anyway, the woman was just so incredibly rude! She asked what dog food I wanted and I said working instead of maintenance, or the other way round! Anyway she wrote the receipt while I went and got it. I’d said the wrong one and she got really snippy and made a big deal of tearing it up and having to start again! She then asked what horse food I wanted to which I replied I wasn’t sure, I’d hoped to have a look and see what I thought might work. She muttered something about no time to look and if I didn’t know she certainly didn’t.
Told her not to bother! Paid for the dog food and left.
Shockingly bad customer service.

I went further afield- anyone in my area Caswell equestrian supplies, a small independent retailer who couldn’t have been more helpful and friendly whilst happily leaving me to it to read bags and browse.
Highly highly recommend them

our staff were not too bad and I can see it was very difficult for them. What concerned me more about the lack of computer problem was how long it went on for. I think it was about 10 days. We were lucky we had an account but many people don't carry sufficient cash to pay for bags of feed at the current prices.

I cannot understand how a computer problem affecting such a large business could have taken so long to resolve. I could almost think it was typical Mole inefficiency but surely specialist computer repair bods should have got it under control a lot more quickly?

 

[poiuytrewq]

totally agree.


our staff were not too bad and I can see it was very difficult for them. What concerned me more about the lack of computer problem was how long it went on for. I think it was about 10 days. We were lucky we had an account but many people don't carry sufficient cash to pay for bags of feed at the current prices.

I cannot understand how a computer problem affecting such a large business could have taken so long to resolve. I could almost think it was typical Mole inefficiency but surely specialist computer repair bods should have got it under control a lot more quickly?

Ah was it across the board then rather than just my local store? I assumed a power supply issue.