Cost of Keeping at Home Vs Livery 2022

[windswoo]

My dogs cost me more each month than the horses and one of the biggest reasons is I don't pay any livery, we've had the field for over 10 years and it has saved us a fortune - but the horses aren't high maintenance. Just trying to keep on top of fencing, weeds and and too much grass is a nightmare, but wouldn't go back to renting.
Muck removal that's what I need at mo but really struggling!!

 

[Landcruiser]

We have 3 at home, on 3 acres. My biggest expense is hay/haylage in winter. We have invested quite a lot in the property - fencing, a tractor, roofing and repairing the stables, and just spent a large chunk of my inheritance on an arena (finally, after 8 years without realistic access to one). The biggest advantage for me is that my old retired boy can potter about costing me almost nothing, and my semi retired boy, who doesn't owe me a thing, can fully retire when he needs to as well. There is no way on earth I could afford 3 at livery.
It's a hard slog sometimes, and the jobs never stop, but it keeps us outside and busy, which I reckon keeps us young.

 

[Squeak]

I think it costs less to have them at home. I save a fortune on bedding and feed by keeping them out 24/7. In the summer I don't need any hay and only a token feed because we have so much grass. Hay is free as we give over half the crop to the farmer.

If you add things like arenas etc then you're adding value to your property - it's not completely lost money. I also really enjoy pottering around at the weekends and holidays maintaining the place so I don't really see it as a cost. We try and do as much as we can ourselves, which helps too.

I think the most dangerous thing about keeping horses at home is that it's not that much more expensive to have multiple rather than just one. Hence they can just magically accumulate....

 

[MereChristmas]

Of course even if the value of your home is increased by the addition of stables, arena etc how many of us realise that a mortgage, insurance, rates, water and electricity are all more too if your horse is at home.

 

[teapot]

I think it depends on how well you want to keep them at home.

If you're wanting decent yard levels of maintenance, an arena, grazing, facilities et all, it won't be any cheaper than livery. That's without mention of the impact on your rates, or your time...

 

[catembi]

I have only ever been at livery for the odd month here and there when between properties etc. The cheapest was when they were on my grandad's farm - free hay, free straw, free muck heap removal, free fencing maintenance, free field maintenance...! OMG I didn't know I was born!

Here, I have 4 acres, 6 stables, an arena & a large area of hardstanding. Pro's - so easy to pop out repeatedly if someone is unwell, zero travel, I can do whatever the hell I like, no other people, no yard rules. Financial cons - we did have a considerable mortgage, but it will be paid off within 5 years, every spare moment is spent repairing things that have been broken, grading the school, painting the stables, creosoting the fence... There are expenses for things like keeping the wretched quad in running order, creosote, more creosote, we are about to pay for a ton of stock fencing (free range Shetland...), the school cost £60k, weed spraying (I do it but have to buy the stuff)... When one of mine was in full livery a few years ago, it was £600/month. Is it more expensive to have at home? Who knows! For me, all the expense & all the considerable effort of maintaining the place is worth it to have the horses literally outside the back door and to have my own totally private space.

 

[SEL]

I think the most dangerous thing about keeping horses at home is that it's not that much more expensive to have multiple rather than just one. Hence they can just magically accumulate....

As if ????

Oops.

 

[TheMule]

I certainly wouldn’t be able to afford to have 5 at livery! Yes, land costs to maintain nicely and it does take a fair chunk of time, but I love doing it and it means I can keep my horses how I want

 

[milliepops]

I think the most dangerous thing about keeping horses at home is that it's not that much more expensive to have multiple rather than just one. Hence they can just magically accumulate....

very much this! when i just had my livery spaces i was limited to 2 then there were also 2 in the field, and then suddenly there were 5 in the field...
The ones at home cost peanuts to ME but are heavily subsidised by OH who has all the kit to look after the land etc and also supplies my hay. Without his help i wouldn't be able to have my little herd of retirees and also 2 at the yard. It's allowed me to realise a lifelong dream of breeding my own and also give my oldies the lifestyle that they need to thrive... without making sacrifices wrt my riding ambitions.

I do wish we had all the livery facilities at home as well because i really did like having it all at home in a previous life, but i think firstly planning is an issue and secondly my livery is not so £££ that it would add up financially tbh.

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

Thanks for all of your responses everyone. It sounds like overall it can be just as if not more expensive to keep at home, with the chores being very time consuming. But the big positives are being able to have full control of how you manage the land, the amount of turnout the horses get etc. And being able to see them 'in the garden' must be fabulous.

Sums it up perfectly imo.

 

[blitznbobs]

Massively cheaper at home to keep
My 4 (soon to be 6) but then i dont have a mortgage and have invested in extra land when our grazing wasnt enough so actually over all really expensive in totality but cheap month on month

 

[Cocorules]

I have my own land but was on livery before. My land is not next to my home so I have fuel costs to get there, plus cost of fencing, field shelters and general maintenance so have a tractor plus roller, harrow, trailer etc. and various stuff for weed control and hedge and tree trimming, plus I have electric fencing. There was also the cost of buying it plus paying for water. All of this is much more expensive than livery.

However, they only need hay if there is snow on the ground so virtually no food cost so the only direct horse cost is farrier, vet and cleaning stuff. Also I will sell the land when I retire so will get back the money I spent including hopefully the interest on the money I borrowed to buy it.

I would have been financially better off staying on livery, but being able to keep them my way and out 24/7 with high quality fencing and field shelters and the location itself means I would definitely make the same decision if had my time over.

 

[Squeak]

To all those with significant water costs - just in case it helps. I have every field shelter roof draining in to a water trough and water butts on stable and barn roofs and rarely have to use a tap for the horses. I know it wouldn't work for everyone but I was surprised what a difference it made

 

[Bikerchickone]

Realised I forgot to mention the gator style Kubota UTV we bought, the old grey fergie tractor my dad bought, the topper, the roller and the chain harrow I’m about to buy.

Plus the fact that I’ve also acquired another 2.5 horses since we got here. The half being a Shetland pony! I wouldn’t change it though, I’m so excited to have the opportunity to breed my own foal that all the rest is worth it and my hubby is a total superstar about it all. New arena surface notwithstanding! ?

 

[queenarmadillo]

Mine are at home, and we were fortunate to be able to buy sine extra land a couple of years ago, so this year for the first time Ive been able to leave them out most of winter as well, which has significantly reduced keep costs.
HOWEVER:
The price of wood has shot up and fence posts are costing a small fortune for the new land, plus the ones we put on the existing land when we moved in have now started to reach a point where they need replacing;
Maintenance of the stables isnt terrible compared to livery, but does definitely add up
Having the school refurbished last year (old one was a complete state so pricing was probably not different to building from scratch) was over £30k - the new one is beautiful, but it would have bought me a lot of livery!
Doing the maintenance of the land (weeding, spraying, harrowing, managing water to troughs, refencing, poo management etc) takes a lot of time - Im lucky to have a lot of support from my parents who have adopted a lot of my land maintenance as a bit of a hobby over the last few years, but I honestly don't think my partner and I could both work full time and stay on top of it if we didn't have so much help. Buying the quad/harrow/roller/sprayer was also an upfront cost, and keeping the quad in running order is another big time drain and comparatively minor expense. If we were paid even minimum wage for the time spent improving/ maintaining the facilities here, the maths wouldnt even be close. If I picked up an extra days work at a professional salary for every 8 hours spent doing yard management jobs (not normal horse keeping jobs), livery would work out significantly cheaper.
On top of the maintenance time, not having people at the yard to hold horses for farrier/vet/chiropractor/dentist etc means one of us *has* to be there, which translates to a degree of flexibility that I have as an absolute requirement in job roles I will consider, so I don't know if its driving a net cost in my life right now, but I'm fully expecting that at some point my earning potential will be impacted by it.
If I want to do a bit of a competition/ farm ride etc, I either have to own transport or rent it. There arent yard shows I can attend or people I can share transport with.

The biggest financial factor though is that to be able to afford a house where we could keep horses at home, we had to move significantly out into the countryside. A potential say max 20 minute daily commute to livery has become a best case a 20 mile 40 minute and in morning rush hour over 90 minute commute to the places where most jobs are in the industries we work in. If you have a role that is more accessible in the country or where long term remote working is an option this might not be a factor, but for a lot of working professionals the impact will be significant.

I wouldn't change it because I love the flexibility of having them at home and I dont think I could cope with yard politics, but except for in a very limited number of scenarios, if you think its cheaper to keep them at home you're probably not taking a broad enough view of the impact.

 

[MagicMelon]

Its a hard one and depends on so many factors. If home, you need to buy the property WITH the land in the first place which obviously isnt cheap. Land is generally £5k an acre where I am (although farmers will always charge more if its a few acres to a horsey person if buying separately), this is probably cheap compared to much of the UK. But you might want a house with land anyway - we like having some as we have 3 boys so they have masses of space to run about. I cant imagine ever having a house without land. We dont have much though, we have a particularly large garden and only about 1.5 acres for my 2 horses but I make it work. The land is important, ours is very free draining which helps massively and its never churned up badly. Because I dont have enough grass, I do have to feed hay 24/7 and right now this is expensive. I was paying £25 a round bale delivered, now its £25 but I have to collect from 18 miles away and once this runs out I'll have to source more, which is £30+ a bale. Id always had a long term supplier of hay until literally a few months ago and now its massively stressing me out trying to find a new reliable supplier with enough to keep for me to take as I need. If you need to collect hay you need a trailer too We have a horse trailer anyway so no issues. On livery you dont have to worry about those sourcing those things, its done for you! My field needs new fencing, thats a few grand - fencing is always more than you think, we may try to do it ourselves but its one of those things its far better to pay a pro to do a good job. Fencing doesnt need done often though, we've been here 10 years now and have only replaced 1/3 of it so far. It does the job, just starting to lean a bit! We run electric round ours too, mainly to stop the neighbouring cows jumping in, so I dont know what that costs yearly to keep on. You should have costs for maintaining the ground too. We dont if Im honest, ours doesnt look great, I just DIY it by hand weedkilling (and fencing sections off) and strimming weekly to keep the docks under control. We just dont have enough land to rotate and get the horses off so we could get proper machinery in to seed/lime/roll/weed kill properly etc. but that again costs money if you get people in to do it. Also facilities, depends what it has when you buy but you might need to put in water, electric, stabling etc.? We spent £8k- £10k putting in a hardcore yard and a stable block with water and electric when we moved in.

At the end of the day, I would always choose to have my horses at home as Ive never had it different. I can do my horses whenever I want, I can feed them breakfast in my PJ's, have no drama's/dont have to talk to anyone and have full control over my horses. My only draw to livery is facilities like a school. No way we have space to put one in here and couldnt afford one anyway. Id also love someone to hack out with, especially with a young horse. But Id still prefer home every time...!!