Cost of a horse?

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giggles mum

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I'm trying to seriously explore the options horse-owning/loaning wise with the parents, and am realising that I don't really know how much it all costs - it's things like insurance, wormers, vet's bills I'm not sure of. So, can people give me and indication of how much it costs them to keep a horse on

a)DIY livery (would have to have a sharer)
b)Working livery in a riding school
c)full livery

It would be close to London so definately upper end of the price range.
 
Well, I am a sharer on DIY livery and I am supposed to pay half costs except vets bills, and competitions etc. I pay £135 a month in the winter, so that makes DIY livery £270 a month including feed, shoeing, insurance, worming.
 
Working Livery in a RS in east sussex (expensive!)

is around £62 a week roughly, with all feed/haylage included and full livery monday-friday we have a good deal I think
 
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scholing livery for one- around £100 a week
part for another usually-£65 a week

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would add another £50 quid onto the schooling/full livery, because of the area around London.
 
Costs me £300 a month DIY and thats everything included e.g. feed, wormers, shoeing etc and competitions and lessons.
 
Cost of a horse is never ending!!!!

- DIY £250 per month
- Worming every six weeks £10-15
- Farrier every six weeks £50 (and for the times they pull a shoe off)
- Vaccinations every 6 months £60
- Lessons £30 per hour per week
- Insurance (depends how much your horse is worth)
currently i pay £90 a month
- Teeth rasping every 6 months £30-40
- Back man/physio every 6 months £40
- Entry fees shows £0-100 per month
- Unexpected injuries £0 - 250 (rest insurance would cover)
- Extra tack,bits and bobs per month £50?
- Feed £30 per month (not including supplements)

Feel free to add to this, but I think i am going to go away and think what else i could have spent that money on....a mercedes me thinks!!!!
 
I keep my mare DIY in south glos North Bristol and it costs about £180 month in summer and £280 a month in winter to keep hr, this is without unexpected vets bills
Basic livery is £25 a week for my stable and use of field
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Not cheap is my answer, well not for a pauper like me
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OMG!! I pay £60 per week livery for 5 horses on DIY, then £30 per week (ish) for haylege and £25.50 in shavings. My insurance is £100 per month and shoeing is about £60 per month but I only have 2 with shoes. Gosh how lucky am I?!!
 
£80 per set of shoes for me! pickles latest vets bill which was for 2 blood tests, 2 vaccinations (one pickles one sisters horse henry) then 3 different types of drugs, all done on routine visits which is cheaper came to £340!
 
£150 a month for DIY livery, that includes shavings and haylage.

Then there's the cost of rugs and things... And tack! How about approaching local yards and asking around to see if anyone wants a sharer? Working livery at a RS, they usually only want bombproof horses.
 
This is how much that stuff costs me:

- DIY £150 per month (per horse)
- Worming every six weeks £10
- Farrier every six weeks £50 (and for the times they pull a shoe off)
- Vaccinations every 6 months £60
- Lessons £20 per hour per week
- Insurance £90 a month
- Teeth rasping every 6 months £30-40
- Back man/physio every 6 months £40
- Unexpected injuries £0 - 150 (rest insurance would cover)
- Extra tack,bits and bobs per month £20?
- Feed £10 per month (including supplements, they last ages)

Your best bet is a hardy horse who can be out 24/7 and doesn't need feeding
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To be honest, I've been horrified by some of the costs that people have posted.

Vaccinations are annual so I don't understand why people have quoted for every six months.

Worming does not need to be done every six weeks - the proprietary brands are efficient for between 8 and 13 weeks depending on which one you buy.

You don't need the "back man/physio" unless your horse is damaged.

£50 for shoes is on the conservative side - my farrier currently charges £74 a set.

Insurance is approximately 10% of the horse's sum insured value (e.g £3000 value is approx £30 a month premium) - well, with NFU for mine, anyway.
 
It's difficult to say how much it costs as some people spend more and others less!

If you get a native type then they should be generally cheaper to keep (ie. won't need to be rugged or fed hard feed so much, if at all. Can live out 24/7 which reduces your livery bill etc.). You don't have to get insurance. I don't insure any of mine, we'd just fork out if we had to! (am about to insure one of mine, but only because I believe he's worth a bit nowadays!). Worming costs about £15 a time (again, depends on size of horse obviously). Vaccinations cost me (per horse anually) about £20. Obviously other vets bills you cant guess at! A full set of shoes costs me £40 (again this varies a lot!), but you may not even need shoes. Depending on the horse you may be able to keep it barefoot which is cheaper. On top of this, you'll need to buy anything the horse doesn't come with (tack, rugs, general equipment).

'fraid I can't give you any info on livery prices as I keep mine at home in Scotland! But I would assume London is the most expensive. Best thing to do would be to look on the internet for your local livery yards and see if they have prices on there. Otherwise, give them a call?
 
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To be honest, I've been horrified by some of the costs that people have posted.

Vaccinations are annual so I don't understand why people have quoted for every six months.

Worming does not need to be done every six weeks - the proprietary brands are efficient for between 8 and 13 weeks depending on which one you buy.

You don't need the "back man/physio" unless your horse is damaged.

£50 for shoes is on the conservative side - my farrier currently charges £74 a set.

Insurance is approximately 10% of the horse's sum insured value (e.g £3000 value is approx £30 a month premium) - well, with NFU for mine, anyway.

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Have to agree with the worming and vaccinations part you have said! and my horses shoes are certainly not \£50 a set, and the OP is london way which means shoes will be very expensive
 
if you are looking into geting a horse but know you could only do it by having a sharer then you shouldn't be looking. I have had sharers, but they were to keep me company (I have 3 horses) not so I could afford to have my horses. How would you cope if your sharer stopped paying suddenly?

If you cannot afford everything yourself then maybe you should look into sharing someone elses horse rather than buying your own. There are loads of folk like me who would love a hand with their horses.

My 2 Tbs cost me £350 a month combined... thats DIY just outside Guildford but they are not insured.
 
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if you are looking into geting a horse but know you could only do it by having a sharer then you shouldn't be looking. I have had sharers, but they were to keep me company (I have 3 horses) not so I could afford to have my horses. How would you cope if your sharer stopped paying suddenly?

If you cannot afford everything yourself then maybe you should look into sharing someone elses horse rather than buying your own. There are loads of folk like me who would love a hand with their horses.

My 2 Tbs cost me £350 a month combined... thats DIY just outside Guildford but they are not insured.

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Tehy might be havinga sharer because they can not get up there in the morning or certain days etc.
 
yup - I understand that could be why, just saying that if it is because they may not be able to afford it otherwise then it may be better to look into different options...
 
Mine is

DIY livery- £100/£125 a mnth, (dependant on whether a 5wk mnth!)
Bedding- £20 a mnth
Hayledge-£20 a mnth
Shoeing- £56 a mnth
Feed- £40 a mnth
Worming is not alot, about £10 every 10 wks on average
Insurance is £26 a mnth, comp horse insurance for only about 2.5k though
That is prob more winter prices as get through less bedding/feed/hayledge in summer. Also shoeing goes to £50 a mnth in winter as has stud holes in summer, and he gets shod every 4-5wks.
 
I don't think it's wise to be getting a horse if you "need" a sharer; whether it is for financial or time reasons. If you have to rely on someone else then you leave yourself wide open as if I've learnt anything it's that people aren't reliable!

You don't want to get a horse and then not be able to pay for next week's livery/turn out in the mornings because your sharer isn't well/lost job/left town!

I'm in Scotland so my prices will be much cheaper but I'm:

DIY - £25pw
Hay - £3.50 for small bale
Straw - £1.50 for small bale
Chaff- £5 every 4wks
Hard feed - £10 every fortnight
Shoes - £56 per set
Vacc - £20/35 + visit (£26)
Back person - £40
Massage - £30
Wormer - around £20, but we do worm counts (£5) so only worm 4x a year
They are not insured
A never ending supply of rugs - £60 at least a pop
Supplements - £15 per month
Misc - at least an extra £50 a month

Scared myself writing it all out! I'm fortunate that my two are good doers so don't take much feeding but I've just got a £500 vet bill for the new one so you need to have some savings for "just in case"

Good luck whatever you decide.
 
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