How much do you spend buying a horse...

[Frazer]

Just working out the amount of money I will have in the spring, to see wether buying a pony is even possible. And am amazed by the amount of money, you spend extra (Eg.. vetting, transport, tack etc..)
How much do you spend in all this?
For me to buy a pony to break in over the spring, im looking at 1000-1500 for the pony, and then about 200 with all transport and vetting etc...! And then tack is just so expensive to?
When you buy a horse, do you have a certain budjet which has to include all this?

 

[TheBlackMoth]

I bought a horse for my daughter last month. Set a budget of £2k. What a joke.

Horse £2200
Vetting x 2 (first horse failed) £240
Saddle £450
Trip to Robinsons (for essential - according to children - rugs, buckets etc) £300
And that doesn't include the big dent I put in the trailer when i crashed picking him up or the cost of keeping him!

Still he's gorgeous, stops them arguing about the pony, and it keeps them fit. (Biggest fear is that they will be fat like me.)

 

[KatB]

You should add at least £500 on top of what you want to spend on the pony just for vetting/transport depending how local you are looking! Alot of ponies are sold with tack/rugs which can be helpful!!
I paid x amount for G, plus £250 for transport, and managed to negotiate with the owner I brought him from to pay for vetting etc as she wouldnt drop price, so i just increased what i wanted for the price!

You then add rugs, saddle, bridle, mucking out gear etc etc etc, it IS expensive. Try and negotiate equp[ into sale if your going for a private seller, but I think tbh you'll need a bigger budget than you have got currently!

 

[Frazer]

Heheeh! Expensive things!! I think I worded my budget wrong, I have about 2k to spend including everything! But never thought I would need to use all that! However now after vetting, transport, tack, I think I will need near about 1k more

 

[Toby_Zaphod]

On top of whatever you buy your horse for you will need, depending on the quality of tack you buy around £1000 to buy the basics. Vetting & transport probably around £300-500 depending on distance. Of course you will need insurance at least for 3rd Party liability & vets bills. As for keeping the horse, if you can afford to run another car then you should be able afford to keep a horse.

I know people on this forun have been asked in the past about how much they spend keeping their horse & like me alot are too afraid to work it all out.

Good Luck in saving...but you'll need money coming in all the time.

 

[Cobland]

Im lucky enough to have found a very good livery yard, my cob mare is in a very large stable, she is given haylage every morning and evening, and cleaned out too, her hard feed is included in this. All for £35 a week! The YO even puts her out in the v large arena during the week (shes his favourite lol).

He is a riding instructor and gives 2 lessons a month for free! He gave me a saddle, headcollar, leadrope, lunge rein for my mare! Hes v sweet.

In return i will help him, as im worried that some people would walk all over him!

 

[Halfpass]

I bought a horse about a month ago here is what I spent

£3000 - horse
£60 - rugs
£50 transport
£50 vaccinations

Have yet to buy saddle bridle etc as she is not backed but i'm expecting that to be around the £500 mark. It soon adds up doesn't it!!!

 

[JoBo]

It certainly isn’t cheap!
I’m quite lucky in that I don’t have to pay for transport as the new boy is local and we have the trailer. I’m not getting him vetted (he isn’t broken yet), but just having eyes and heart checked which is costing me nothing as the vet was coming out anyway. Saddles, well I hoping Otto’s will fit (Wintecs) but if not then I have 2 to trade in or sell. Bridle will be Ella/Otto’s old bridle. So it’s just rugs really, so £300 max I’m hoping.

 

[Mid]

Why not buy a new-forest foaly or some wild ponies that the council sells off? They usually go for £50 - £100, and are very good looking and well-formed. The only problem is that they have had little or no contact with humans. Apart from dartmoors, mind you. So many roads run through their moors that people are constantly stopping and approaching them. When we stopped to look out the window, this little colt came running, and stood and stared at us before trotting over to be patted.

 

[Theresa_F]

When I bought Chancer I also had

Vetting, gelding and microchip - £280
Insurance - £220
Cheap rugs x 3, headcollar, feed bowls - £150
Freezemark - £70 (personal mark)

Then

Very cheap bridle and 2 bits

£80

Saddle is going to be about £700

And that's just the start.........

 

[spotty_pony]

we paid £4000 for my pony and then had a full 5 star vetting but luckily we didn't have to arrange for transport because we bought him from the yard we are still at.

 

[xxcharlottexx]

I got a fabby deal and theres no way i would be able to afford what my horse is worth being at college and looking at going to uni

Got my 16.0 TB for £800 -lucky bargin as owner had to many horses

£85 for vetting which he failed but still bought him anyway
£90 for thorogood griffin saddle
£0.00 for bridle as friend who i was sharng horse with gave me her old bridle that was too big

probs lots on rugs but he needs spoiling got them all for very good prices... just too many of them

 

[GatefieldHorses]

I wouldnt spend £1500 on an unbroken pony. We have just sold a coloured gelding, qual puk last 4 years won numerous championships. Hacked, does dressage, pc, xc, sj. Jumped 1.25m at home. for £1500. So for a decent unrboken pony id be looking at about £750 max. I dont bother with vettings as they only are valid for the day of the vetting. So if the horse goes crippled lame the next day so long as there is no bute in the horses blood you still dont have a leg to stand on. As for tack if you are buying a youngster to break you want really old tack as 1. the horse might go into orbit and brak tack and 2. the pony will change shape once he is worked.

 

[vicijp]

I never speand any more than £1000 on a horse, however if someone elses money I will go up to £6k. If buying from a sale there will be buyers premium on that, and I always account for VAT just in case.
I have my own transport so £20 max for fuel. Then allow for £200 for teeth, physio, farrier, worm counts, worming and blood test.
Bets horse I ever brought was for £900, no vat. Transported another horse just half an hour on from my place and earnt £200. That paid for everything else then I sold him a month later and more than doubled my money.
Never have a horse vetted. There is nothing a vet can tell me that I cant see for myself. That is unless I have a doubt about his wind, then I will get my vet there to scope it - which is about £50.

 

[Lou2006]

I've got a budget of 2500 to buy a pony in the new year. I don't really want to spend more than 1300 on the pony in case the first fails the vet. Then I've worked out tack, buckets, rugs etc etc will come to around 700, then there's dentist, back man, vaccinations etc that it might need.
So it's tight.
Good luck.

Lou.x

 

[dozzie]

It sounds like this is your first horse. Think really carefully about buying an unbroken youngster. You will need a lot of very experienced help on a daily basis. You might be better saving up for a more experienced horse or pony.

If you are not that experienced then make sure you have it vetted, and go to see it more than once!! Ive had horses for 30 years and would still have a horse checked by the vet.The best horses are usually sold by word of mouth so keep your ear to the ground!

You will need to budget for the basics, I would always suggest a basic first aid kit as an essential first purchase. Also buckets, grooming kit etc. You could ask for these for christmas!!! Rugs will depend on whether the horse is clipped or hairy/living in or out. You could wait until next winter for turnout rugs or buy one in the spring sales!

 

[Snowberry]

A couple of years ago I had a £5k budget for buying Becci a 148cm SJ pony. I thought this would be more than enough but after 3 failed vettings (3 different ponies), travelling all over the UK looking at over 30 ponies we'd spent over £1k before even buying anything!
Then we bought one for £3.5k, another vetting, teeth, back, shoes, tack etc....then PC membership/BSJA membership/Hunting subs/shows etc....
6months later the bloody thing got MRSA during an op and bloody died after leaving a £6k vet bill!!

Fortunately thats a one off - you can save money by buying second hand tack from a saddler. Not using gadgets and gizmos, not buying pink/purple everthing. Black is fine and they all do the same job!
I actually think its impossible to budget for everything, you just dont know whats gonna happen. I would definitely recommend taking someone with you if its your first pony, get it vetted and ask for tack to be thrown in.

 

[SouthWestWhippet]

I bought mine in the Spring for #2750 - this included tack and two turnout rugs.

Didn't get her vetted cos I knew her history and had had her on loan for a couple of months prior to buying. I borrowed a trailer from a friend and my dad picked her up. So apart from petrol she just cost me that. I was lucky though - I had the contacts (and the kind parents

) to do it relatively cheaply.

Having said that, I just spent the best part of 1000 on a new saddle and some stable rugs etc for winter.

 

[WelshRareBit]

This is how much Murphy (the horse in my pic cost me)
£1250 Murphy
£250 transport from Cheshire to Wales
£150 saddle and bridle (synthetic saddle and leather bridle)
£100 odds and ends to keep him going.

That was the initial cost...once youve got them obviously insurance: £10 per month
shoes: £50 per set
rugs: £100 for 2 mediums and one heavy
feed: £10 a month approx
livery:£28 a month
Ive probs missed something too!

Once you see it all like that it feels daunting-but you can spread the cost of most things and get your stuff in the JAN sales!!! I managed to get Murph on a budget and only now I am spending money on him

 

[druid]

Most recent one - flexible 10k budget for horse itself, horse chosen cost 11k, 2x vetting (first choice failed) 200, teeth etc. 125, no transport costs. Sold on 6 months later for 15k

 

[amandaco2]

if its the first horse get one who is already settled into work.more money but less stress for you!youngsters are always more trouble than one who is sensible and about 8 years old.in all ways.

on top of the horse-vetting,transport,worming,vaccinations if not done,teeth check, tack.
livery is about 3k per year, plus vets,wormers,feed,farrier,insurance etc.
the initial outlay for the horse is hardly anything comapred to what it costs to keep it!even if you payed 30k for a horse the livery and insurance and cost of competing would be high.

my first pony cost me 1500 to buy. she was 26 and i had had her on loan for about 8 years.she was excellent(although i would usually say buy one thats about 9years old plus as first horse as the much older horses 18plus can cost more in vets bills, although they are usually cheaper to buy) and she never has any problems, she was still jumping with my little sister when she was 36, which is exception.she had excellent feet, i knew her whole history, she was already at the yard i kept her on and her tack and rugs came with her.she has got cushings now and we watch her like a hawk for lami(she had it once before i bought her) and shes now 48 and pottering round the field!
take someone knowledgeable with you to help you
i would budget for around 3k for the first pony if you have to buy all the gear to go with it, plus your 3k livery upkeep costs per year thereafter.