How much do you pay for feed & bedding?

[alexomahony]

Mine varies throughout the year. See below (for two small horses):

Summer is a dream
- a bale of straw at £20 will last approx 3-4 months as they live out and only come in for a few hours before I ride for grass to settle
- bale of hay at £30 will last 2 months as only used for travel really

Winter is awful
- Hay @£30 every two weeks
- Straw @£20 every two weeks

All year round
- Baileys lo cal balancer (two small mugs a day) lasts about 3 weeks/a month - about £24
- Handful of Safe and sound chop lasts approx 6 weeks - about £15
- Bailey’s fibre plus nuggets as treats last about a month to 6 weeks at £14

 

[Teaboy]

We buy big round haylage bales at £32 a bale delivered and that lasts 9 horses about 2.5 days at this time of year.

The Straw is £20 a big round bale delivered which lasts about 5 days for 6 horses (big beds). Some horses are on shavings at £7 a bale of which they get 2 each per week (big beds).

I feed a complete feed but if they aren’t getting the required amounts (so ones in less work, good doers etc) get powder vit and mins supplement which costs £95 for 20kg bag and that lasts a good few months. The feed bill (excluding the supplement) comes to around £250 a month.

This is during the winter months, less is used during summer when they’re out for longer periods.
So just those things works out to around £106 per horse, average price though, some are a lot cheaper to keep than others and buying in bulk helps keep the cost down slightly.

 

[EnduroRider]

8 days?? Your three are amateurs....mine clear a round bale in 5-6 days in winter

Does that make you feel better

A little thanks! Out of interest is that with access 24/7? We're not allowed to hay in the fields so they only have it when in approx 3pm to 7am, suspect they'd get through much more if allowed field hay.

Not sure why you’re crying yours sound mega cheap. A small bale alone is now £6 here. Would get through about 3-4 a week per horse in winter. That’s £18-24 a week for one horse. Do you feel better now .

I do get a good deal on round bale I admit, far cheaper than buying the yards small bales at £5 each. It is more the hard feed that appears extortionate compared to others that have posted. God only knows what they'd need to eat to keep winter weight on if I rode more than a 20 minute stroll around the block once a week!!

 

[RHM]

i use white horse energy, i just buy whichever ones have the best price. i prefer platinum plus but got firepower the last couple of times.

if you're a new customer you could use my discount code JorRac16144 to get 5% off.

So glad I read this thread - just nabbed your code! Thank you!

 

[milliepops]

So glad I read this thread - just nabbed your code! Thank you!

every little helps

 

[Hallo2012]

mine are in at night year round (2 x 13hh ponies) one is on ad lib hay and other restricted. I use a 6ft bale every 10 days approx in winter and every 14 days approx in summer @ £40

bedding they each use 1 bale of carboard per week @ £5

hard feed is barely worth talking about, a bag of chaff(£14) and a bag of oats (£3) about every 3 months lol.

most expensive part is the joint supplement at £120 for 4 months and even that is good value.

much to be said for chubby natives......

 

[ihatework]

Over the years they have all been different - depends on the horse and the overall stabling set up.

Current youngsters cost approx £75/month to feed mid winter per head. That’s stud balancer and big bale haylage. Living out 24/7 so no bedding.

When I was doing the big horse myself he cost a bit. Mid winter approx £100/month on hard feed alone. He wasn’t a big hay/lage eater so that probably was only £50/month. Bedding wise the most economical was straw and wood pellet combo which was about £50/month for bedding but he then had to switch to dust free for his wind, I bulk bought chopped rape at £7/bale and he would get a new bale every 3-4 days. So overall, in the height of winter I’d probably be spending £200-250/month just on feed/bedding.

But then on the flip side I’ve competed horses off straw, limited hay and a handful off chaff for <80/month.

 

[Annagain]

Ours are in for about 12 hours a night in winter and out 24/7 in summer so these are winter only costs.

I buy pellets by the pallet, they work out at about £4 a bag. Archie gets through a bag a week. I'm still trying to work out the best way of managing Charlie - he's getting through 3-4 bags a week at the moment but I'm trying to semi-deep litter him to see if that helps cut down. So far, it's working fairly well. I've added two bags this week but that's mainly to bulk up his bed before I try the deep litter.

Feed-wise they're both pretty cheap. Arch has a handful of high fibre cubes to get his supplements down him, Charlie has a few more cubes and Happy Hoof Molasses-free (Arch won't eat anything chaffy these days or he'd have it too). They share their feed with Monty (who eats the same as they do put together) so his owner and I take it in turns to buy feed. A bag of chaff and two bags of cubes costs £27 and lasts us two months (but I only buy every other lot so £27 every 4 months!)

They have ad-lib haylage for which we pay £15 per horse per week in winter. As they're on good grazing (even now there's still a decent amount out there) I doubt they eat enough to get real value out of it (the 11 horses on the yard get through 2 bales a week max) but we have no option and I suppose we're paying for the convenience of not having to find it ourselves and storage within that.

 

[spotty_pony]

Astonished at how cheap some of these are!

Mine is variable depending on how many days I keep them in if weather is appalling and how much hay I have to use depending on this too. Hay and straw I have four horses on (share with a friend who has one)

Straw is £20 for half a big bale and I use one every 2-3 weeks in the winter. Don't use much at all in the summer because they live out.

Hay I use one big round bale per week for four in the winter at £25 per bale. Only just moved here but In the summer I can't see me using more than one a month.

Feed (for 3 fed twice per day) currently using a 20kg bag of chaff every week at £18 a bag of balancer every 2-3 weeks at £23 a bag and a bag of conditioning cubes about every week at £9 per bag. Again, in the summer this will drop down to just the balancer and a bit of chaff only if needed.

 

[Friesianfoal1999]

I am crying inside a bit at just how little some of the horses mentioned above eat!

My three are currently getting through a £25 round bale of hay every 8 days so a little over £7 each per week for hay. One also has a couple of kilos of Fast Fibre a day so he is an additional £8 per week.

Feedwise they are going through a bag of A&P Soothe & Gain every two days, plus a bag of Graze On a week, so almost £17 each per week. Then joint supplement is £12 a week each in addition.

Bedding wise, I use Snowflake Softchip Plus, do not have mats down and like big clean beds. They are all quite clean so I get through an average of 6 bales per month each equating to about £9 each per week.

I started to work out how much this all costs in total but stopped as I don't want to know the answer
The only plus is that most of those costs (excl joint supp.) pretty much halve in summer...

i cant work out if a read this right, is it 6 bales between all of them?

 

[FDLady]

Mine varies quite drastically, for the ISH (the minature doesnt use enough to worry about):

Summer (out 7am in at 5pm)
@£4 a bale works out about £10 a week
1 bale of megaspread (£10) and 2 pellets (£6 each) at the beginning of the month, i top up with 1 more bag of pellets mid month... so £28 a month
Feed wise she goes onto rations just for supplements so a £14 sack lasts me 5 weeks, bag of Hifi lasts a three months.

Winter (out 7am and in at lunch though it is restricted to less if the fields are really struggling)
Last month i went through 20 small bales so £80 for the month
cant really say i put bedding in at set intervals.. just as and when. went through 3xmega spread and 6 pellets so £66
feed wise 1 bag of mix @£14 lasts 3 weeks, Hifi @£14 lasts 6 weeks?, 2 bags of beet last the winter

 

[EnduroRider]

i cant work out if a read this right, is it 6 bales between all of them?

Unfortunately not, 6 per horse per month

 

[Shysmum]

I live in France, and a bale of shavings is €20 ? That said, the horse feed is ok, apart from Happy Hooves, which I use to give my 31 year old fibre...€25 a go !

 

[castella]

I use a round bale for 1 pony and 1 horse every 10 days at £40 bale (I win the depressing prize of most expensive hay here in herts) and as they live out on a hardcore yard area with the stables open in winter I use very little in shavings, maybe one bale every 2 weeks at £8 bale. Feedwise pony has very little, a handful chaff and a handful comp mix for oomph, horse eats alot, large scoop chaff and 2 scoops cheap ponynuts probably around £30 month feed not including supplements (tummy calmer and joint both ££££)

 

[Lipglosspukka]

Cheap. Sugar beet and chaff, not that I've fed any yet this winter. Perhaps works out about £14 a month but is only fed around three months of the year.

Hay I'm getting through a small bale every four days or so. There is still enough grass out there. This will increase shortly to around a bale every two days. My hay was £3.25 a bale this year.

 

[nikkimariet]

Well I’ve got two poor doers so my feed bill tends to be higher than most! I buy my supplements and my main complete feed in bulk (every 4 months) which really helps. Per horse it works out at £110 per horse. Bruce is only £35 a month bless him but I remember the days when he used to be £15 a month!

Haylage my 2 are on ad lib but neither eat huge amounts and Bruce is almost there but not quite as he would literally eat a whole bale if you offered it up. I use the 180kg bales which are £26 each and I use one a month roughly. They’re out during the day 4.30/5am and in overnight from about 2/2.30pm. Fig isn’t out that much atm due to the frosts and being careful etc but the biggest difference is when I’m out a fair bit for lessons, hacking and competing as then I’ve got haylage on the lorry too.

My bedding is pretty cheap it works out at £6 per cardboard bale and the boys share one per week. Over summer with it being dryer I was using 1 bale a month! With Fig being in a bit more currently I am using more at the moment too.

 

[AShetlandBitMeOnce]

I use a round bale for 1 pony and 1 horse every 10 days at £40 bale (I win the depressing prize of most expensive hay here in herts) and as they live out on a hardcore yard area with the stables open in winter I use very little in shavings, maybe one bale every 2 weeks at £8 bale. Feedwise pony has very little, a handful chaff and a handful comp mix for oomph, horse eats alot, large scoop chaff and 2 scoops cheap ponynuts probably around £30 month feed not including supplements (tummy calmer and joint both ££££)

Not quite, ours is £50 a large rectangle bale and we have to buy from the YO....