How much does it cost to feed your horse per month?

[Lou_Lou123]

I'm posting this in here because I was interested in feeding a horse that is competing.

I was trying to budget for next year (got my organised head on today

) and was trying to work out how much per month I spend on feed, but I wasn't sure if I'd worked it out right at all. So I was wondering how much you spend on hard feed per month when your horse is in full work/competing? And roughly what quantities they get?

I've left feed til last and it's the hardest one to work out

Thank you

 

[DellaMoon]

Roughly!

Two bags baileys No4: £20
Two bags high fibre cubes: £20
1 1/2 Alfa-A: £15
TopSpec calmer: £24.00

£79 a month

Plus extras e.g. electrolytes in the summer, mint if she's being fussy.

 

[TGM]

I would suggest that you ask people responding to give some idea of:

1. Their horse's size and type
2. Their horse's workload
3. Whether good doer/poor doer/special needs (ie get azoturia, laminitis etc)
4. What they feed apart from hard feed - ie hay/haylage, whether it is restricted or adlib, access to, and quality of, grazing

Because this will make a big difference to the amount they spend! A good-doer, part-pony 15.2hh on good grazing and adlib hay/haylage may be able to compete on little more than a few high fibre cubes or pony nuts, whereas a 17hh fully stabled, starch-sensitive poor doer will cost a fortune!

 

[Lou_Lou123]

Thanks TGM, that would be more helpful! I think I'm all out of common sense this evening!

 

[SpottedCat]

Manage my horse tells me that it costs me £2.74 a day to feed my horse which works out at £19.11 a week and £83.04 a month. Ouch.

He has settlex supplement, topspec balancer, mollichaff high fibre alfalfa and speedibeet twice a day. It's the settlex and the topspec which make it pricey, the other two only cost 76p a day combined!

 

[MegaBeast]

16.2hh TB x ID - looks and behaves like a TB (horse in sig). Not the greatest of doers, always looks well but you could never make her fat. Would say she has a medium/hard workoad - worked 6 days a week March-October, competing weekly and during the summer months was going xc schooling pretty much weekly as well or interval trained weekly.

From March through October she had:

2scoops of Cool Cubes am and 2 scoops pm
ad lib haylage

In August she started eating TopSpec balancer again at a rate of two cups a day and also had Alfa A - two scoops for lunch mixed with the balancer and magnitude

End of Oct decided she hated cool cubes so she now has:

½ scoop Allen and Page Calm and Condition
1 scoop Alfa A Oil
Morning and Night

Lunch:
2 scoops Alfa A Oil
150ml oil
2 cups TopSpec Balancer
5g Magnitude

So currently:

1 20kg Sack of A+P C+C fortnightly = £20 monthly
1 20kg sack of Dengie Alfa A Oil every ten days = £39
1 20kg Sack TopSpec Balancer = £36 every 40days
Oil (Lidl 95p per bottle) £4 monthly
Equine Americas Magnitude = £18.99 every 6 months

Will probably keep her on this when eventing next year although may change the A&P to the A&P Power and Performance which will be a couple of quid more per bag.

She's stabled over night, and turned out on okayish grass for 7-8hours. Will soon be in 24/7 until April - well, turned out in a pen with haylage but no grazing.

I do know horses who compete on just a scoop of alfa a per day, but these tend be cross breds rather than TBs

 

[spacefaer]

Haylage - approx £22.40/month (ad lib haylage, no grazing)
Straw - approx £21/month

Feed
Countrywide Conditioning Cubes @£8.29/bag -£33.61/month
Countrywide Horse & Pony Mix @£5.99/bag - £23.96/month

Total Feed: £57.57

Total Cost/month £80.18 per horse (excluding any supplements)

This is for a 17.2 ISH average doer, fit and currently hunting. Would be fed the same if eventing

 

[star]

i have 2. one costs virtually nothing as is a very good doer and virtually retired. the other costs a fortune, is in hard work and is not a good doer. both are 15.1hh Welsh Cobs.

nutty pony eats:
3 bags of topspec cool condition cubes £33
2 bags of topspec super conditioning flakes £24
2 bags of alfa-a oil £24
half a bag of Outshine £18
half a bag of TopSpec balancer £18
2 bags of Alfa-beet £20

£137!

the old one eats quarter bag of TopSpec £9 and a bag of Hi-Fi Senior £10
£19!

 

[Fiona]

Two mares one 16.2 IDx and one 15.3 TB....

Per month.

3 bags of coarse mix @ £6.00 = £18.00
6 bags of mollichaff @ £4.60 = £27.60
4 bags of D&H just grass @ £11 = £44.00
TOTAL = £89.60
Total per horse = £44.80
Total per week per horse = £11.20

Average hay used = 20 bales per month at £2.50 = £50
Per horse = £25
Per week per horse = £12.50

So each horse costs £12.50 + £11.20 = £23.70 per week to feed.

I also feed supplements on top of that (farrier's formula, benevit and magnitude (for the TB)) but that is optional I suppose in a way.

Fiona

 

[jennystreek]

OOhhh... suddenly feel better about the amount Im spending each month!!

I have two 15.3hh horses competing, but both get fed about the same so will just do it for one...

Hay - They have about 11-12lbs per day, so £30 per month
Haylage - tops up the hay, probably £30 per month

Hard feed - both are on winergy feeds - medium and conditioning. Each one uses 1.5 - 2 bags per week, so that means £70...

Oh god, so thats £160 per month, per horse....

 

[kit279]

2 full TBs, in light to medium work.

Hay in winter - £20 a week
Baileys No.4 - £10 a week
Speedibeet
Oil

So per horse per week, about £20 in winter. In summer, they just get grass!

 

[oli_lawrence2]

I can't remember how much ours where - it was pretty scary though..

But Dengie do an 'advice' service and they came out to us and do you loads of spreadsheets etc - they saved us quite a bit of money...

The other thing that saved us loads was WinningEdge as we only had to feed one supplement instead of zillions....

 

[druid]

€48.67 on hard feed a month - fed 2.5kg of Build Up Mix (2 round scoops) and 400g of Alfalfa (2 round scoops) split over two feeds.

Haylage is one large round bale (300kg-ish) every 21 days at €25 a bale - so €35 a month roughly

Total = €83.67 (£75.68)

ETA: Horse is a rising 4yo WB 17hh, lives out 24/7 with adlib haylage access and is ridden 4x per week

 

[seabiscuit]

Each horse goes through 1.5 bags of calm and condition a week so that is £18 a week= £72 a month

Plus 1 bag alfa oil a month= £13?

Hay- 12 bales a month @ £3.50 = £42

So total cost for one horse= £127/month

 

[kirstyl]

Mine (3/4 TB 1/4 WB) suddenly seems very cheap! Luckily my haylage and straw is unlimited in my DIY livery (£143 per month inc stable, field and facilities). He is worked at least 5 days a week in school or out hacking.
So, he has adlib haylage and 1/4 scoop a + p quiet pencils (£9 approx per sack) and 1/2 scoop hifi (£9 ish) twice a day. Thank goodness for good doers!

 

[KatB]

Hard feed wise, mine gets
1 bag of Quiet cubes=£7.90 (goes in her ball to keep her quiet when others are fed)
1.5 bags of Alfa Oil= £16.50
2/3 bag of Topspec= £24
1/3 a bag of Speedibeet= £4.50

Monthly= £52.90

When she is eventing, I will probably swap the quiet cubes and topspec for Power and performance, and reduce the amount of Alfa Oil she gets. She is fed ad lib hay along side this at about £35 a month, although she will soon be on Hayledge which will reduce the amount of feed she gets in general, though not sure by how much yet

 

[tabithakat64]

14.3hh Welsh Cob, hacking or schooling five times a week, 1 sack of Happy Hoof and a tub of Equibites every 8 weeks, so roughly £10 a month in hard feed and £36 in hay.

 

[Lou_Lou123]

Thanks everyone. My gelding, who is a wb that can be lazy some days and a bit sharp others was on 1/2 scoop hi fi lite (because the other horse is on a diet and it saves buying two bags), 1 scoop of d&h staypower cubes and 1/2 scoop of unmolassed sugar beet when the grazing was rubbish twice a day. I'm not very good at keeping track of how long a bag lasts, but had worked it out based roughly on how much a scoop of each weighs and how much is in a bag. It came out at roughly £55 a month.

Doing a budget is a little scary when I see exactly how much I spend on horses!

 

[Coffee_Bean]

Hhm along the lines of:
3 x baileys no.4= £30
1/2 x speedibeet= £4
3/4 bag alfa a oil= £10
1 bag mollichop= £5

Hard feed= £49 approx

Hay= 4 bales a week at £3.30= £13.20 x 4= £50 approx