Cost of owning and competing

[jessjc]

So, here goes - I have 2 horses (Crosby and Maja) at the moment. Will put down costs of both just as a comparison, as Crosby is on part livery and Maja out on grass, but shall just total Crosby's costs...

For a bit of background:
Crosby = rising 7yr old that I've had for 2 years. He is jumping BS Disco/1.05m and soon to go to Newcomers and will start eventing at BE90 this year (if the rain ever goes away!!).
Maja = rising 6 yr old late started who I've had for 3 months and is starting to school and jump really well. Will be out jumping BN soon and hope to take her to a few unaff events later in the year.

Current plan is to compete them both as much as poss over the Spring/Summer and sell Crosby at the end of the summer (even though it will break my heart for a while...he's such a gent who I've learned a lot from)

COSTS:

Crosby Livery - £84pw (part livery; includes bedding, feed, bringing in from field and mucking out everyday (except Sundays) )
Maja Livery - £42pm (lives out with one feed per day)

Crosby Shoes - £60 /6wks (with stud holes:try and keep them as long as possible, although he starts to overreach when too long)7

Teeth / massage / chiro / jabs / worming etc - £150pa per horse

Lessons - At the moment I have dressage lessons every 3 weeks or so @ £30 and jumping lessons less frequently @£40-50

Competitions - £30 entries and £20 fuel each comp; usually go SJ every 3 weeks or so. Hoping to event this year (argh!)

BS membership - £129 (full membership) and £75

Lorry maint - £250 insurance, allow £500 for servicing, tax etc and another £200 for other maintenance.

Misc costs e.g. vets bills, tack etc = £500

That brings the (conservative) total to = £8,354 for one horse (Crosby)

Crikey! Better finish these law exams and get on to having a proper career asap...Then, of course, I won't have time to ride :-/ despite already getting up at crack of dawn (6am) to ride before studying as it is. Enjoy the horsey fun whilst you can and be realistic about whether it is sustainable for the long term. I certainly get more than £1m enjoyment from the horses, but certainly wouldn't jeopardise financial future, relationships etc for it (especially as I am only a lowly amateur).

Hope that helps a little.

Tesco value "Rolos" to help ease the blow for anyone who needs it.... xxx

 

[Lolo]

Personally I would think two lessons a week is OTT...

I suppose it does depend on what your goals are- Al has a lesson a week pretty much on both her boys, and then if there's a XC or SJ clinic or she's been having a specific problem she has another lesson to try and address that too. But, those take priority over competing so overall it balances out.

 

[monte1]

Wow, bit scary to try and start adding it all up. but here goes, I work almost full time, finish a bit earlier each day so can sort out horses, dogs etc. We have two horses ( one is Daughters) keep both of mine on DIY livery and can choose to leave out full time or bring in, so often save on bedding etc. I think I am very good at budgeting and do everything on a shoestring most of the time. DIY Livery costs 100 each PM. insurance for both horses and trailer is £78 PM total. hay £20 per big bale last about 10 days at moment. bedding 2 x bales used per week so £12 ish per week if they are in.less if out full time. shoes £70 each every 7-8 weeks. Lessons, sadly, very infrequent, about every 2-3 months with couple of different trainers so cost from £20 to £45 per lesson. odd XC scholing session at £30ish a time. trailer servicing once a year £100 ish. jabs and teeth we do on vet free callout days so £35 jabs £40 teeth each PA.we compete UA Eventing , SJ and Dressage. get out about once a month sometimes more, so varied cost of entry fees from £70 for a ODE to £15 for Dressage or SJ. daughter does mostly PC stuff so rallies and competitioons are usually discounted anyway. we compete in pretty much one set of tack each for all three disciplines and i am an avid ebayer for bargains..! this year we are supposed to sell at least one or proabably both horses and get one better one we can both ride between us, as DD doing GCSEs and managing to look after, exercise and keep fit both is hard work on my own. that will reduce general costs, but at the moment still have both horses ) yikes writing it all down is scary, but like others have said it is lifestyle choice, we go without other things and i am always on the go, but certainly dont need to worry about my weight, go to the gym or do keep fit ..lol

 

[sportsmansB]

Can't believe how many horse-owning accountants are on here... we must be all 'do as I say, not as I do' with money, given how much we spend on a 'hobby'...
Livery £300
Shoes £30 (£45 every 6 wks)
Lessons £80 (Riding club lesson weekly, regular other lessons but don't pay for those... do the books of the instructor in return!)
Fuel £Couldn't even work out how much to yard and back daily etc
Entries £ current baby not at that stage really yet, but within next month or two would like to pop out somewhere weekly so even unaff £60/month
As my friends regularly point out, I could drive a VERY fancy car for the money I spend on horses
Thats why I always laugh when people say 'Oh you have horses you must be LOADED'....

 

[atlantis]

Mine is a lot lower amount about £300 plus a month. This is mostly because I am single, live on my own and have no support from anyone else, my wages are low so £700 would be most of my wages and not at all possible. Also I don't have my own transport but beg and borrow from friends in return for favours. We do a lot of bartering at our yard so money never actually passes hands. I also do BD which is considerably cheaper than doing BS or BE. I do sometimes have to make the decision between having a lesson and going out competing. It can be frustrating but we do get out at least twice a month. Oh and I have a Connie who is very low maintenance in the grand scheme of things

That's really encouraging, as I'm wanting to get myself something native to do BD on. I realised that it will work out a bit cheaper. I've budgeted £300 before comps and lessons so that really is encouraging. My old horse got up to about £500 a month, but that did include running a long wheel base 4 x 4.

 

[Laafet]

That's really encouraging, as I'm wanting to get myself something native to do BD on. I realised that it will work out a bit cheaper. I've budgeted £300 before comps and lessons so that really is encouraging. My old horse got up to about £500 a month, but that did include running a long wheel base 4 x 4.

My last three competition horses have been an ID x Arab, a Welsh D x TB and now an overheight Connemara, all have been very good doers and relatively sound in the grand scheme of things, the ID x Arab didn't see the vet for nearly 10 years apart from for his jabs. I was very lucky with him. I forgot to mention that I do have use of the work horse box after the breeding season. If I had to pay for transport that would easily add an £100 a month so about what your budget is. I have got competition savvy too, if there is something I want to qualify for I know the venues where my horse is likely to qualify on minimal times out. I have a lot of fun with him and wish we could go out more but even if I had more funds and transport, my work would stop me going out any more than I do. Having said that at the moment I am on nights so can get out as much as I want, I'm going hunting a week Saturday, the meet is free until a certain point so we are going to follow them until then, the week after we are doing an unaff dressage to warm up for the season (2 classes for £20 rather than one class for £20 which is would be affiliated) and then the week after that we are doing Keysoe ODE on a surface, which is very good value for what you get. After that I use my horse budget on training, then get out BD to qualify for Petplans. Once we have done that I can relax probably have more training and save up for the Petplans do.

 

[Prince33Sp4rkle]

i dare not add it up but all i know is that probably 90% of my take home salary and 100% of my teaching money goes on it.

i looked in to the cost of doing some CDI's in the future-500 to 800 euro a pop per time, excl diesel........................nearly died on the spot, but even if i have to sell my soul i will make it doable.

if you want it bad enough you will make it work-take a second job, live on toast etc.

you need a very understanding OH though.

 

[meardsall_millie]

you need a very understanding OH though.

This - in buckets full.

I compete 2 so I'm certainly not adding it up!

 

[vam]

Have no idea, i dont want to add it up!
Mine is broken at the moment and i have been saving about £200 a month from not competing and paying for extras that i would normally when he is on the road as such. That said he has cost me more in other ways as he has spent a long time on box rest and restricted turnout.
Livery round here isnt cheap even diy and im actully thinking of going part as it might more cost effective. Hard to say but it is a fair chunk of my wages.

I would love to say that i have saved and been good with the extra cash but with Christmas and too much time on my hands which is spent internet shopping buying nice things that he doesnt need (saddle cloths for a horse not in work?!), im not any better off!

 

[atlantis]

My last three competition horses have been an ID x Arab, a Welsh D x TB and now an overheight Connemara, all have been very good doers and relatively sound in the grand scheme of things, the ID x Arab didn't see the vet for nearly 10 years apart from for his jabs. I was very lucky with him. I forgot to mention that I do have use of the work horse box after the breeding season. If I had to pay for transport that would easily add an £100 a month so about what your budget is. I have got competition savvy too, if there is something I want to qualify for I know the venues where my horse is likely to qualify on minimal times out. I have a lot of fun with him and wish we could go out more but even if I had more funds and transport, my work would stop me going out any more than I do. Having said that at the moment I am on nights so can get out as much as I want, I'm going hunting a week Saturday, the meet is free until a certain point so we are going to follow them until then, the week after we are doing an unaff dressage to warm up for the season (2 classes for £20 rather than one class for £20 which is would be affiliated) and then the week after that we are doing Keysoe ODE on a surface, which is very good value for what you get. After that I use my horse budget on training, then get out BD to qualify for Petplans. Once we have done that I can relax probably have more training and save up for the Petplans do.

Gonna have to get savvy then lol. It's a balancing act isn't it. I'm very excited to just get another youngster and get riding. Hoping to do a little bit if everything. I've moved since I last had a horse from a wealthy area where there weren't many yards as everyone had their own land, so prices were higher on livery yards, to an area where there are loads if yards. Gonna start looking around for the right yard this summer so I can accurately budget, as that's where most if my money went last time around.

 

[kizmund]

I'm trying to do it on a budget but unfortunately only managing to do 6 away competitions a year which is not enough for most people.

£360 for part livery (hay and bedding including turnout 5 day week, livery so I just ride 3 days per week).
£10 for hard feed.
£40 for insurance
£15 for feet (she is barefoot).
£50 for lessons
£50 a month for competing - works out at £100 a comp as have to hire lorry.

So that's £545, I also have a sharer who does 3 days a week, they pay me £120 a month but I tend to spend that on 'extras' wormer, vet, saddler, teeth, equipment sometimes I'll have an extra lesson or fit in an extra comp.
I could reduce my livery to £260 (with hay and bedding but no turn out and no full livery days) but it would make everything a rush and I just want to enjoy my horse.

 

[Bedlam]

£8,806.59 for a 4 yr old doing BYEH and BE 4yr old qualifiers. That includes absolutely everything - diesel, insurance, feed, tack, rugs, flyspray even some cribox that I bought to stop her munching a particularly tasty stretch of un-electrified post and rail last winter! She's competed by a pro - so that's a bit more expensive I suppose, but when we sat down and worked out what we were going to spend we reckoned on it costing about £10K a year to run an eventer 'properly'.

 

[spookypony]

To keep my 3 (two in work and one companion) at home costs me roughly 300/month, including hay, feed, muck-heap removal, hoof trims, and routine vet visits. Add to that maintaining the 3.5t (which is my main mode of transport since the car died), lessons (at 30/hr +15 for arena hire), occasional separate arena hire, equipment replacement, saddler or physio, memberships, and competition fees (those probably average at about 25 a pop for two dressage classes or one Endurance class). So it's probably close to 600/month, to run two horses that will be competing about once a month each. I should really sit down and do a proper spreadsheet. I think it's the absolute shoe-string of what's possible. When I had the pony at livery, I calculated inclusive monthly costs for running him alone at about 300, but that was at a super-cheap grass livery with hay included.