Cost of keeping a horse at home

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My boyfriend has just moved into one of the farmhouses, and it has a paddock at the front of the house and a large field at the back which has a track down the middle to get to the arable fields. This larger field could be split into three with strategic electric fencing. I'd need some sort of stable/storage shed/tackroom combo so have pretend budgeted £3000 for this. I can get straw from farm but not hay as they feed the cows silage

The plan is that once I've finished at uni (One year to go!) I'll move in with him.

I was just wondering how much you spend a month on your ponies at home?
 
without taking into account livery it costs about £1000 per year to raise a foal from birth to adult and I assume without any tack and extras that would be the same for an adult horse add in things like tack rugs and other extras and competing I guess how long is a piece of string
 
I have got one horse and two ponies at home and it doesn't cost much once the infrastructure is in place. We started pretty much from scratch, so two stables plus hay/feed store on concrete pad was about £6k. Also have large field shelter, piped water troughs in fields, and a mixture of electric and stock fencing. So would probably guess about £10k in total to set it up. Monthly costs are really cheap as have plenty of storage to buy hay in bulk from the market, then just usual costs of feed, trims, vaccs etc.
It probably is a bit harder to budget as costs can vary from month to month, but i have never been on livery so don't know any different!!
 
Same as DIY livery, plus more ££'s on top.

Obviously on DIY you are paying for your feed, bedding, shoeing, worming, hay, vet, replacement tack/kit etc.
Yoy are also paying to 'rent space'.

In your own place, you will (usually) also have to factor in costings for:
Ground, fence & building maintenance (inc topping/spraying etc)
Water
Electric (if you have it)
Muck removal
Holiday/sickness cover for groom to come in if required.

Thats after you have probably made capital outlay on putting in fences & adding the odd stable, buying water tanks etc etc.... :)

However, for most, the benefits of being on your own with 2 equines outweighs being in a mixed yard :)
 
Thanks all for replies!
Luckily all the fencing, water, eclectic etc is already in place as boyfriends grandmother used to keep a retired racehorse and 2 shetties. Just need a replacement stable or field shelter as they took the original one down after it was badly damaged in a storm a few years ago.

Mortgage etc isn't an issue as his parents own the farm and house and someone has to live in each house to ensure the machinery and livestock at each site is safe. So only have our bills to pay. At the moment I share a horse, but once I've moved in and I'm financially stable I'm looking at buying a Connemara or welsh x and rehoming an oldie as a companion. Also looking into being a foster home for blue cross.

It won't happen for a while yet but just want to get my head round the figures so I know what to expect and so I can start saving :)
 
Well I find it much cheaper than any yard and much more pleasant. Taking out startup costs, fencing, etc, I probably spend PER HORSE:

£20/trim every 8-10 weeks
£45 vaccinations (annual)
£80 teeth (annual)
£20 sugar beet and nuts to mix, every 2-3 months
£75 hay (annual)
£30 Pro Balance + (annual)

I probably go through another £100 a year on rugs and tack depends completely on what they are doing. But in total, running costs really aren't that much if you have the land, fencing and shelter.

Far better than a yard imo!
 
Forgetting the normal costs you'd have wherever it was kept I keep four at home on 5 acres. They eat a round bale (costing 30 this year), in about ten days. They live out. Only one gets hard feed if in hard work, three are natives and are fat on hay alone. I only started feeding hay last week as its been mild and had grass until then. That depends on the year of course last year was a nightmare as so wet and we had a lot of snow as well as a very late spring so had to feed hay into May. Mine are 14hh, 13hh, 12hh and a mini Shet. You might find its better to have a livery then you have company for you as well as horse. Or a ridden companion. It can be lonely if you are used to a yard. I've a trailer now so can get out and about.
 
Its so much cheaper at home than in a livery. For my pony its only:
2 bales of hay a month
4 bags of shavings a month
1 bag of chaff for a month and a half
1 bag of carrots per month
Water is free due to the water source we use
Once a year feet trim which costs £22
Much prefer being at home! :)
 
Mine are at home and cost not nearly as much as some of the others above have stated, it really depends on how much you want to spend. I bought loads of posts and 3 strand electric fenced off paddocks to the size I wanted, the posts were bought cheaply as they were seconds there was nothing wrong with them at all.
My stable and adjoining feed/hay store cost me just over £1200, I had yet again the economy brand although prices will have gone up since then. It still looks like new as we wood preserve it regually and not rot has begun even after 7 years of daily use. We put it on an hardcore base of road plainings which is much cheaper than concrete bases, the rest of the cost of keeping the horse is the usual farrier, vets, feed, dentist type of bills which you would pay no matter where you kept your horse.
 
We have five at home - one thoroughbred, two cobs and two natives - and they cost me around £750 per year each. We grow our own hay which saves a lot but I buy bespoke minerals which probably makes my feed costs quite a bit higher than most!
 
Im going to go against the grain and say you dont have to double your costs getting a companion. I had my welsh d X on his own on a farm for five years and he didnt bother his backside. He had periodic cows and sheep as company.

So I would say try before you buy/rehome when you eventually take your horse home as when there are just two the separation anxiety problems can be immense and highly inconvenient and sometimes more dangerous than the 'potential' and not proved to me damage of keeping a horse on its own.
 
Why not see about keeping a bit of the field aside for hay? Assuming he maybe has a round baler if they do straw it may be worth paying someone to do it for you or assuming they have tractors buy yourself a small baler as an investment! I know I rested half of my small field all summer because horse is a fatty.
 
Christmas Kia said:
So I would say try before you buy/rehome when you eventually take your horse home as when there are just two the separation anxiety problems can be immense and highly inconvenient and sometimes more dangerous than the 'potential' and not proved to me damage of keeping a horse on its own.
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I would agree. My mare has been kept on her own for nearly 10 years and is quite content, apart from a year where I had my other horse at home as well. When I had both at home they both suffered terrible separation anxiety when I took one away to ride - unavoidable, they both had to be ridden but I could only exercise one at a time. I would say it would be better to have three than two.
 
OP you don't know how lucky you are that the family have had horses before. Unless horse owners themselves farmers regard horses as the work of the devil as they cost money, not make money and a hoofprint in the wrong place can be a major issue.

If you have a free hand in designing where the shelter will go, consider if you can incorporate a sort of corral, and a method of being able to let them out into a different field from the corral, this makes life a lot easier, and makes it easier to manage the grazing to. See if you can get hold of a copy of Paddock Paradise for some layout ideas which advocates the track system of grazing, so they are on the move all the time. Not suitable for very heavy land in the winter though.


If you are looking to keep a pony, the biggest danger will be what sort of grass is growing in the field and how much fertiliser has been applied. I look out on un-naturally green grass at the moment, as except for my paddock all the grass gets a good application of fertiliser every spring.

Making hay could be done, but if it is in a big round bale the grass has to be extra dry and leave it out in the field for quite a time to cool down.

An electric fence system is vital, so you can vary the amount of grass they can eat. You feed costs are likely to be pretty low, if you are careful with the hay and don't let it get wasted. Other than that, it will be just the normal costs of keeping a pony - insurance in case of accidents, worming, annual vaccinations, dentist, farrier visits. Our vet will do an all in vacination/teeth visit and will do a worming programme as well. A pony might not even need a rug if there is shelter of some sort and the land is free-draining so they can live out.

All the extras - lessons, going to competitions, hunting, are just that. It is very useful to have a trailer or transport of some sort, but if the local hacking is good and that is what you are interested in then that isn't classed as an essential.
 
Hungey said:
Once a year feet trim which costs £22
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Once a year trim?!

I would think its generally cheaper than keeping a horse on livery. Ive always kept my horses at my mums literally until today where 2 have joined me at home for the first time ever. I've just had 3 large stables built - I'd say with a hardcore base, the stables (joiner built), lighting, water connection, digger man for digging out etc. its come to roughly £7k for lovely ones. Its cheaper if you can keep your horse out 24/7, mine are coming in at night so I have to pay for wood chip. Hay is the killer in my opinion, I just paid a bargain £2 a small square hay bale but its not good enough quality IMO so will be looking at £3.50 a bale round here which is pricey if you have big / hungry horses (I have a 17.1hh who eats like an elephant!). Obviously you've got hard feed to pay for too if you feed any. Fencing costs - maintenence etc. although that's not much if its decent in the first place. You can save money on stuff like electric tape and posts, I bought a heap of my fencing stuff off Ebay brand new. Our water is free as we get it from a well but you might have to pay for that. Otherwise, just the usual sorts of costs involved with horses (farriery, vet, comp fees, equipment etc.). You dont say if your horse will have company, if not, you might have to get another one or a different type of animal.
 
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Love having our own land with our 5. Yes it cheaper but set up costs are huge! Just fenced 8 acres and gulp! 3 sets of stables plus mats! However its fab!
 
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