Costs of owning

[Cob Life]

I know this is a common thread and will be dependent on area but I’m just curious if you have worked out what it costs to keep you horse monthly?

My plan is to workout the monthly cost then put that away in savings each month (minus the cost of my lessons as that wouldn’t change if I owned) to 1. Start a vet fund (I’ll get insurance too but know that doesn’t cover everything) and 2. But the horse

I know diy livery here ranges from £130-£180 a month

I wouldn’t be looking to buy for at least another year

 

[Havital]

There was a recent thread about this that will help you if you search. Sure someone will come along with the link.

 

[teapot]

There was a recent thread about this that will help you if you search. Sure someone will come along with the link.

This one? https://forums.horseandhound.co.uk/threads/horse-costs.806327/

 

[Cob Life]

My other dilemma - do I save up and buy a trailer then a horse or a horse first?
Bearing in mind my instructor will only teach lessons at her yard or at clinics

 

[Cob Life]

Currently worked it out to
Livery £180
Lessons £180
Hay £100
Insurance £100
Feed £45
Bedding £45
Shoes £80
Physio £60
Total expenses £790

Including my petrol for the whole month it brings me to £1000

This obviously doesn’t include Fec, vax, dentist etc
Realistically my lessons could be reduced to one a fortnight and feed, bedding and hay will be cheaper in summer

 

[EmmaC78]

A very rough cost for mine (on DIY) is:-

£150 livery
£30 bedding
£40 shoes
£40 feed
£50 hay

Total - £310

I don't insure so just pay £6 a month for public liability. Feed, hay and bedding costs are minimal in summer as he lives out most of the summer. Extras like dentist, wormer and new tack is probably an extra £20 a month on average.

 

[Lady Jane]

It depends how you plan to keep the horse - out 24x7 all year, stabled overnight in winter, the type of horse-good doer or not -how long is a piece of string...

 

[Cob Life]

It depends how you plan to keep the horse - out 24x7 all year, stabled overnight in winter, the type of horse-good doer or not -how long is a piece of string...

Ideally out 24/7 summer, stabled overnight in winter (no yards here offer 24/7/365 sadly as that would be my choice)

I’m likely to be looking at cobs so the likelihood is it will be a good doer. I’m trying to over estimate slightly but know there will always be variations and unexpected costs

 

[spookypony]

£1000/month for one cob on DIY seems very steep to me! Whereabouts in the country are you located? I imagine the biggest variable, based on location, will be livery. I pay substantially less, all in including medication and competition and trailer insurance and other stuff you've not listed, for three together (although two of them aren't doing much, tbf). Add in saddle fitter to your list of necessary extras. That being said, better to budget too much, than too little.

 

[scruffyponies]

Blimey! How does one horse get through £100 of hay per month. A Bale per day? Really?

 

[HuskyFluff]

Blimey! How does one horse get through £100 of hay per month. A Bale per day? Really?

Mine gets through £100 hay a month - it's £5.25 per bale, and she eats just over 3/4 of a bale a day. She's not a porker either - her condition is pretty much spot on.

 

[atropa]

£1000/month for one cob on DIY seems very steep to me! That being said, better to budget too much, than too little.

Echo both of these. While it's definitely better to overestimate than underestimate, I budget a grand a month for my three on DIY (to be fair, my lessons/competing/fuel costs come out of a different budget).

 

[ihatework]

I would say that unless you live in London and the horse you buy is super high maintenance then £1000 a month is a significant over estimate.

Id say a healthy budget for a run of the mill RC horse on DIY would be around £600 a month.

Now if you can save £1000 a month for the next year you will find yourself with a budget that will get you a nice RC horse, vettings, tack and a good head start into horse ownership ?

 

[holeymoley]

I would say budget for £500 a month. I don’t think I come close to that, probably £350 but always better to have more until you get an average. Everything is also rising in price just now ?

 

[Smogul]

Don't underestimate the car costs! Our horse is on full livery, exercise not included. We go up about 4-5 times per week. If we went up twice a day, every day, the additional fuel costs would be about £40 per week, extra mileage would put our car into a higher insurance bracket. And unless you always run your car into the ground, resale value sinks much faster with the extra mileage.

 

[ycbm]

Blimey! How does one horse get through £100 of hay per month. A Bale per day? Really?

you can't buy hay in Cheshire in small volume at £3.33 a bale, I don't think. I have a friend paying £5 a bale for 30 bales delivered locally.
.

 

[Muddy unicorn]

When we had our gelding on assisted DIY I kept a spreadsheet of costs to work out what the money was going on. The cheapest it got was around £350, the most expensive months were about £550 and usually somewhere in between. That included bringing in/turning out at one end of the day as we could only get up once a day due to distance and as we’re Surrey/London borders everything is a bit more expensive. The yard was lovely but not suitable for competition horses so when my daughter got her mare we moved her to full livery which was surprisingly not much more (and no poo-picking!)

 

[Widgeon]

Id say a healthy budget for a run of the mill RC horse on DIY would be around £600 a month.

That sounds about right to me too - including the extra diesel and a proprtion of the extra servicing costs that come with towing. Although I was tempted to just laugh hysterically and say "ALL your money!"

 

[EnduroRider]

Don't underestimate the car costs! Our horse is on full livery, exercise not included. We go up about 4-5 times per week. If we went up twice a day, every day, the additional fuel costs would be about £40 per week, extra mileage would put our car into a higher insurance bracket. And unless you always run your car into the ground, resale value sinks much faster with the extra mileage.

Echo this! Just my diesel to and from the yard twice a day costs approx £100 per week.

 

[Otherwise]

I actually think you're sums are about right, taking out the lessons and physio you're looking at £550 a month which sounds about right to me during winter, depending on what you buy of course. You're very unlikely to need physio every month though, I'd scale that back a bit.

 

[MuddyMonster]

Your costs are pretty realistic but will you need almost £200 of lessons a month if you're riding your own? Clinics for example are often cheaper than 1-2-1 lessons and fun/sociable too. I doubt you'd need monthly physio either unless the horse has an issue.

I'd definitely buy the horse first and then trailer/transport - some horses don't like a trailer for example or don't like to face a certain way.

 

[Sossigpoker]

Will you need almost £200 of lessons a month if you're riding your own?

I'd definitely buy the horse first and then trailer/transport - some horses don't like a trailer for example or don't like to face a certain way.

That's roughly a lesson a week. If I could afford it I'd have a weekly lesson too.
Very sensible to plan it in the cost.

 

[Sossigpoker]

My other dilemma - do I save up and buy a trailer then a horse or a horse first?
Bearing in mind my instructor will only teach lessons at her yard or at clinics

Horse first. What you buy a horse that doesn't like the trailer? Or fall in love with a 17.2 that won't fit in the trailer ?
The time you need to get established with the horse I usually longer than you think ,.unless you're an established rider and buy an experienced horse , it will likely be 6 months plus before you're ready to go out and about.

 

[Red-1]

I actually applaud the way you have worked it out OP. Yes, I think you can make it cheaper, monthly physio is unlikely to be necessary, but then that money can go to dentist, wormer, saddle fitting, clipping etc. However, you are unlikely to come across any awful surprises.

I also can spend that much on lessons, btw. I like lessons!

Hay is £5 a bale here. Small bale haylage £7 a small bale, lasts under 2 days.

 

[AFB]

Livery £165
Lessons/entries £150-200
Hay inc in livery
Insurance - PL only £7
Feed £20
Bedding £20 (24/7 TO for 7 months of the year so averaged out over 12 months)
Farrier £30 (unshod)
Physio £60 every 3 months so £20 pm
Dentist £50 every 6 months so £8.50 pm
Jabs £40 annually so £3.50
Worming approx £60 py so £5 pm
Total expenses £429-479 per month

Well that's a depressing thought and inc. considerably since I last did the maths - I'm not going to add on costs of keeping my little lorry as it might tip me over the edge...

 

[dorsetladette]

Hay is my biggest variable. Mine are out 24/7/365 with adlib hay in winter. This year we are on our 4th round bale of the winter costing only £20 a bale as we had a good hay making year in Dorset. Last year I couldn't get round bales to start with so bought 100 small bales at £4 a bale in the autumn. By this time last year I had gone through about 70 bales. So, £280 worth of hay against this years £80 - the weather and prices make a huge difference.

 

[Annagain]

A few years ago (I think it was 2014) I kept a detailed record of every penny I spent on my horse and share horse. Mine was semi-retired so other than livery, hay, bedding and shoes (which my sharer paid) cost very little. Share horse and I did a fair bit of riding club, a couple of BE events on a ticket and some unaffiliated eventing. His owner paid for livery, bedding and hay and I paid all his ridden costs (shoes, saddle checks, back checks, extra food etc) so effectively the costs of the two worked out the same as costs for one horse owned entirely if you see what I mean.

It worked out at about £3500 for the year. They had everything he needed but I'm not a frivolous spender. They were on DIY in a fairly reasonable part of the country, out 24/7 in summer with no extra food and in overnight in winter with haylage and hard feed. I accounted for everything including insurance, trailer servicing etc. The only thing I didn't account for was fuel as I use my car for other things too. With inflation, I think you'd need to budget £5,000 for decent but basic care on DIY, with lessons and the odd bit of competing thrown in.

There are definitely ways to make things cheaper eg. In that year I spent about £40 a month on lessons (£10 group lesson with riding club every week) so unless you particularly want a private lesson every week, joining your local riding club is a great way to get cheaper lessons and make new horsey friends. Those same lessons are now £20 but if you had 3 of those and one private every month that would bring the lesson cost down to £100 a month for starters. Bedding is also a fair bit cheaper than you've budgeted for. I spend £30 on bedding a stable down at the start of winter and about £5 a week for the next 20 weeks. I doubt you'll need monthly physio. My farrier charges £70 a set so unless you're somewhere very expensive, shoeing will also be a bit cheaper I'd have thought.

My rough costs now (for Charlie as Archie is retired):
Livery: £163 (inc haylage for winter months)
Lessons / entries: £60-£80. (I'm not doing that much at the moment, a lesson at home once a fortnight and one riding club lesson a month roughly)
Insurance: £7 public liability (but I put £100 a month into savings for vet bills)
Bedding: £10ish a month evened out over the year
Feed: £5 (if that - they've been in a month and haven't yet got through half a bag of Re-Leve and half a bag of Fast-Fibre between 3 of them)
Farrier: £40 every 6 weeks (fronts only) Let's call it £30 a month.
Physio: If I think there's a problem - C had her 3 times in 6 weeks last spring but only once since. £65 a time so £260 in a year, £20 a month.
Dentist, Jabs, and worming part of healthy horse club with vet - £13 a month. Worm counts are low other than tape worm and wormers for tapeworm are included in the plan.
TRailer service £120 a year so £10 a month.

Total: £338 a month.

That's very basic though as we're not doing much work at the moment. Food, lessons / entries and shoeing would all go up if I started doing a bit more. He has had 4 saddle fittings in 16 months though at about £100 a pop so that works out at about another £25 a month evened out. Don't buy a still growing 6 year old!

 

[Regandal]

£45 per month on feed seems a bit excessive, that’s a lot of feed! I suppose you could put any money not spent on feed into your hay budget.

 

[MuddyMonster]

The other thing I'd think about, is the cost of any assisted services - either day to day or occasionally.

 

[flying_high]

£45 per month on feed seems a bit excessive, that’s a lot of feed! I suppose you could put any money not spent on feed into your hay budget.

Is it, I think it depends on the horse, and the time of year.

I feed micronised linseed, Readigrass, linseed oil, Saracen's Re-leve - the total cost in winter is easily over £45 a month. It is less in summer.

That is before supplements - vitamin and mineral balancer, vitamin E, salt etc.

He has as much hay as he can eat daytime in stable, and they get 6kg per horse in field overnight. I appreciate hay is the most cost effective way to maintain condition.