General Cost of caring for a Heavy? (Shire, Clyde, Suffolk, etc)

C

CyberShibe

New User
Joined
20 April 2018
Messages
1
Visit site
Hopefully this belongs here. My friends owns a Shettie and a small Welsh cross. She wondered the other day what the average cost of caring for a heavy is (feed, hay, etc.) in comparison to her easy keeping littles and admittedly it has me intrigued too! With my dogs a 12kg bag of food lasts my little terrier 2-3 months but my 30kg Curly Coated Retriever it lasts around 26 days. So how much is the average cost of a month of Heavy care these days?

Thank you!
 
CyberShibe said:
Hopefully this belongs here. My friends owns a Shettie and a small Welsh cross. She wondered the other day what the average cost of caring for a heavy is (feed, hay, etc.) in comparison to her easy keeping littles and admittedly it has me intrigued too! With my dogs a 12kg bag of food lasts my little terrier 2-3 months but my 30kg Curly Coated Retriever it lasts around 26 days. So how much is the average cost of a month of Heavy care these days?

Thank you!
Click to expand...
Expensive I shouldn't wonder. I've been looking at a lovely Shire x TB on Horsequest. 5 yr old (thinking about something younger now for budget).

But thinking by the time he's another 2 yrs and filled out and got topline he could end up 17.3hh/18hh. Extra money for rugs, shoes, drugs, supplements (as they all seem to be the 500kg typical horse size calculations). Then there's the fact I'd have to buy a lorry and everything would cost extra from feeding hay/hard feed to bedding (bigger horse more urine and excrement output).

And poo picking paddock 🫣😬
 
Last edited:
Depends on the horse. I don’t think my Clyde x cob is any more expensive really but he is a good doer, naturally hot (so less rugs) and an extreme fussy eater so barely gets a handful 😂

His CPL is his biggest outgoing, feed is £40 (but as said he gets a handful for supplements as he won’t eat any more) his m&c is £35 and his joint is £35 pcm. Other than that he costs the same as any other horse on the yard.
 
I haven't owned a heavy, but I did have a 16.3hh Freisian and although she didn't need very much hard feed, she ate a lot of hay! I had those black and red Shires ones and she'd eat one of those, full up, twice a day in winter. I had a wheelbarrow especially for transporting them as they were so heavy! I used round bales and 1 would last her a week at most. I don't miss the elephanr sized dung that she produced!
 
They eat more hay and require larger stables which means you have a bigger cost to start a stable but then it depends on the horse. Mine is very clean and I deep litter so cheaper than a light horse who is dirty or even average.

I use a powder balancer which lasts long enough. I feed it in a small amount of mash and chaff so I use fibre beet and chaff a lot slower than a 'normal' horse.

Shoes (if you need them) may cost more depending on your farrier. My heavy gets a trim every 5 weeks. It takes the farrier a max of 10mins. Another local farrier always charges double for heavies because 'it takes longer'. How long it takes depends on the quality of the hoof, not the size of the horse.

Heavies rarely need rugs and certainly not a range of weights. Fly rugs are the most likely to be required.

Wormers cost more because you always need one and a third. I buddy up with other HH owners and we share the extra one to keep costs down. Medication from the vet can cost more because you need larger doses. Insurance costs are roughly the same as light horses.

At the end of the day, it costs roughly the same as a normal horse but you'll spend less on rugs, headcollers etc.
 
I had a Shire x TB for 22 years (from age 6-28) and honestly wouldn’t say he cost any more than my warmblood. They were 16.2hh and 17hh so maybe this is why I don’t feel he was more expensive. Maybe vs a 15.2hh he would have.

I didn’t need to upgrade transport as he travelled absolutely fine in my HB511 (with a sufficient truck to pull it). I never noticed I was paying more for 6’9 or 7’ rugs and he was a good doer and clean in his stable. Farrier didn’t charge a premium.

The point about increased cost of drugs is spot on though.

I see the point about fields but in my experience heavies can be quite sensible so I don’t notice much different between having had big ones on wet ground compared with an 11hh and 13hh now. My fields are more likely to get churned up by the ponies having a mad half hour!
 
My heavy is on a permanent diet. Bucket feed is oat chaff and Gain Opti Care balancer. 20kg bag of balancer lasts 20 days and costs £28, chaff is £10. Shoes £110 every 6 weeks and he does a lot of road work. He is fully clipped including legs 12 months of the year and goes through several sets of blades. I worm count and haven't had to worm him for a long time, but when doing essential worming he is more expensive than the others who are 650 and 750kg, he is a fair bit heavier. On the plus side he is a proper lightweight for sedation, one sniff and he is away with the fairies.

Lovely clean horse in the stables so bedding is no different to others. His hay ration is the same as the others and he is not a piggy type so often as some left, unlike his girlfriends.

Where you can get rid of money is if you buy a lot of supplements as, for them to be of any use, you have to feed at gram to kg correctly. Your costs can also sky rocket if your heavy is a thug and does diy on your buildings and fencings.
 
Peglo said:
My biggest consideration for not getting a heavy would be the damage their enormous hooves would do to my already wet fields in winter. The fields just wouldn’t stand up to big hooves. But they are magnificent horses.
Click to expand...
A previous yard owner used to put my heavy out on fields which had been cut up by the silly, small bouncy ponies... my boys large flat feet and steady behaviour meant he was able to repair some of the damage done by the ponies.
 
My Ardennes needed a lot of hay. Livery yards were always a bit shocked when I'd be chucking 2 big bale slices in. In his later years he also needed hard feed over winter.

Farriers charged me a bit more (he was barefoot). Rugs weren't bad but never anything discounted. Bridles, headcollars were my biggest problems because off the shelf just didn't cut it.

Agree on hoof damage but 2 out of my remaining 3 aren't exactly twinkle toes lightweights either!
 
SEL said:
My Ardennes needed a lot of hay. Livery yards were always a bit shocked when I'd be chucking 2 big bale slices in. In his later years he also needed hard feed over winter.

Farriers charged me a bit more (he was barefoot). Rugs weren't bad but never anything discounted. Bridles, headcollars were my biggest problems because off the shelf just didn't cut it.

Agree on hoof damage but 2 out of my remaining 3 aren't exactly twinkle toes lightweights either!
Click to expand...
Yes, I had to have a m2m bridle for my 1st Clydesdale mare, then a bigger browband still for my next Clydie (17hh), which I then used for the 16hh Westphalian Kaltblut because the bridle she came with pinched her ears. No wonder she threatened to bite when the seller tacked her up at the viewing.
 
Hay hay hay. My big lad is over 970kg. He will eat a round bale by himself in 4-6 days. Easily. I got an XL heavy horse bridle, still have to get a noseband custom made. 😏 shoes are £150 a set, transport to shows has been more as he wouldn’t fit in a 3.5 hire, or the lorry I have access to and I currently haven’t a tow vehicle so I have to get transported.

It’s the more sneaky costs that get me. He injured his leg and dressing it was a fortune. When the vet or I did if. A little scrawny tb or pony leg is a vet wrap or two, but his was at least 3 a dressing change, multiple soft bandages cotton wraps as layers. And drugs. Antibiotics/bute your looking at twice the normal horse.

I will say this though. 💯 worth it. I’m considering selling my boy for other reasons but wouldn’t hesitate to have another. The size of his brain and heart compensates me for the drain on my bank account. Mine has been fit as a fiddle aside from and injury and a few years ago an abscess so long term cheaper then my TB was 😇 he’s also chronically fussy about hard feed so his diet is simple sugar beet and chaff and a bit of mix to entice him. He doesn’t get much either (I certainly don’t feed what the bag says I should for his weight 🤪)
 
And you do save money on lack of impulse buys. I can no longer be enticed with sales, or sparkles. He’s 7’6. Nothing for sale that isn’t edible in normal shops fits him so I save a fortune when I go to the feed shop! He has his head collar and the spare he came with. No matchy matchy!
 
I've had heavies for 15 years, mostly on livery but now at home. I currently have 2 clydesdales (and a 14.2 mini-clydesdale).
I keep them out 24/7/365 and found during the depths of winter they were getting through 2 - 2.5 bales of hay every day. The young one was on a handful of chaff and a carrot as he's a good doer and the older one was on 1 stubbs scoop of high calorie feed. To feed both probably cost £1 per day in hard feed and £10-12.50 per day in hay. Now we're into summer they're both just on the grazing and I haven't put hay out since March.
Shoeing/trimming as mentioned about is more than smaller horses. I haven't shod in 4 years but last time I did it was £125 a set and that was quite cheap compared to others I know.
Worming is one to be wary of. Most wormers are limited to 600-700kg per tube so you need more than 1 tube! On livery I used to befriend small pony owners to get their leftovers but at home I have to buy an extra one and split it between the boys.
I found bedding to be no worse than light horse owners as the bigger stables I have always used have kept my horses fairly clean, now I don't stable so that's not an issue anymore.
I do find it great that you can't just splurge in a tack shop. Now i have the cob I could buy a new piece of gear every time I walk into the tack shop. I have never had that luxury/temptation before. The buying of giant stuff can be very expensive and that off sets this saving. I've got very good at sales shopping though.
 
I have a shire x 17.2hh feed and feet are really the only expense that’s more noticeable . His weight is approx 750/800kg
He eats a small bale of hay a day in winter. He has 1 & 1/2 scoops veteran vitality, 1 scoop grass chaff ,1/2 scoop grass nuts , 2 mugs linseed and boswellia

Bedding when he was stabled was expensive when on shavings , I bag per day so we changed to huge straw bed on rubber matting , he’s out 24/7 these days .

He’s 26 and have had him all his life
I find rugs cheap as there’s always 7.3/7.6 in the sales . I got him a Rambo supreme reduced from £330 to £100 a few years ago .

Bridles we had handmade and they weren’t much dearer than off the rack. Shoes he only had fronts £75 with a trim.

They do probably make more mess than others in the winter due to their huge feet but he doesn’t run around as much as the other loonies.
 
Mine eats a bale a day, needs a bigger stable so more bedding and has a bag of chaff and bag of sugar beet a month. Depending on weight you may need two boxes of wormers. As a guide I'd say one big heavy costs about the same as four small welshies.
 
I had a ShireX for a short time, huge head and feet, about 17hh. Shoeing was going to twice the cost of a normal set, and only some farriers do them. Finding extra large anything was hard, fortunately because he was a cross his body was the size of a normal 17hh.
He ate a lot, but was out at grass with acres of grass. I think the main thing was he could break anything just by pulling or leaning, no malice but he could bend walls in a normal wooden stable and pull off doors. Highlands are a bit the same, placid but unknowingly destructive, just a rub and it's bust.
He was a lovely horse temperament wise and my fourteen year old daughter could ride him in a 30 acre field with no problem.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top