How much does it cost to keep your horse?

Ahahahaha.

How about:
All my disposable income and my sanity??

On a serious note, people always forget to account for things like medical treatments. My costs have sky rocketed because my pony needs specialist shoeing, has to have haylage not hay, and requires supplements for his breathing. It’s the unexpected expenses that start to stack up!
 
Livery £105 x 2 = £210
Services - don't ask at the moment :eek::mad: but usually £80
Large bale of hay - £35
Bale of haylage - £30
Bedding - £40
Supplement - £25
Feed - grass nuts, alfalfa, pink mash and oats £40
Wormers - £10
Vaccinations - £12
Insurance - £50
Trimming - £35
Physio - £25

£562 in winter :eek:
£382 in summer which sounds much better :D

Averaged out its about £470 a month, and if I'd had to pull a figure from the air I'd have said £450 so not far off
 
I didn't quite realize how expensive it was, have never added it all up as been to scared too.. and owned my gelding for 5 years now. I also didn't add all the one off vet fees and insurance excesses I've paid within the last year which is £420 alone as hes had 3 claims!

When I think back to having 2 horses. Double it, looking at over £800 a month. :eek:
No wonder why I was always so so skint!
 
deb_l222 said:
Too much, that's why I won't be having another anytime soon :oops:
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This!! And there always seems to be at least one extra expensive cost each month if it's not prascend itll be wood pellets or a full load of 22 ba

les at hay at 80 quid or even he will need both super flex or rig calm at the same time. If I'm super lucky I'll have 2 in one month eg vet to sedate for dentist plus be due prascend

I don't think I ever truly understood why I was never allowed a horse until I could pay for it myself now I definitely do!!

I'd also never added up all the costs until recently going with the ignorance is bliss approach until I had to itemise all my costs when applying for a credit ccrd it actually made me feel I'll seeing it all written down and thinking what i could have instead!
 
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Ugh... here goes....

Monthly
Livery - DIY: £165
Horsebox parking - £20
Horsebox Tax - £20
Horsebox insurance - £40
Hay - £100 (summer will be less)
Bedding: £48
Insurance: £30
Shoes: £60
Jabs: £8
Physio: £10
Dentist: £7
Feed: £2.50
Saddler: £12
Lessons: £120 (£30 a week)

Total: £642.50

That's without any of the things that come up out of the blue that need to be fixed/ purchased (and also the things that don't!)
 
On top of usual costs, livery and shoes etc, I budget £20 a month for wormers or fly spray or shampoo etc, so odds and sods really.
Then I work out what my annual costs are for irregular spends - so £65 pa for the dentist, £330 pa on saddler/physio, £130 pa chiro, £140 pa vaccinations, £240 pa for my hacking pass etc.
Then I split it into 12 to get an average monthly amount, and tend to find I have enough each month to cover those costs as they come along as I spread them out over the year so they don't all happen at once!
And if there's any left I either treat myself to an extra lesson (my vice) or to go to a demo etc, or roll it over if I need it in the next month or two.
So in Feb I will have £150 'spare' but in March I will be about £100 short on my budget - mostly as I planned things bad and have cat vaccs, blood tests and meds and horse vaccs all due at once!

I do spend far more than I would like to really. So I work/earn more to do the things I like!
 
Luckily I’ve got no livery costs as ponies are at home. Got 13 acres for two ponies so loads of grass and won’t have to feed hay in field. Ponies are currently in at night as so wet but will be out 24/7 ASAP when ground dries up!

So one ridden 14.2 and a 13hh companion.
Monthly/ Winter
12 small bales of hay - £45
6 bales of shavings - £42
Feed/ chaff/ balancer - £40
Farrier - £66 (only ridden one is shod)
Lessons -£100
Trailer insurance -£30
£333

Summer - Only feed - £40
Farrier - £86 as have gel pads on front.
Lessons - £100
Competing/ Clinics/ Camps etc £100
Trailer insurance- £30
£256

yearly
Vaccinations - £160
Teeth - £110
Physio - £200 (visit every 3 months)
Saddle fitting - £50
Worming/ counts -£100
Horse insurance- £800 but looking at cancelling that and putting money away.

Then there is maintenance of land etc but not counting that!

We also rent our property but rent out our house that we own so there is a £600 difference! However I run a childcare/ Forest School business from here so I count the ponies as being here for free?
 
Nope. Not adding it up. Just paid 1 x £300 vet bill when the other horse got a swollen leg from an infection. It's fine - didn't want a summer holiday anyway.
 
I thought I budgeted for things religiously, yet working this out is a bit of an eye-opener... I've played with the weekly/annual costs to create a monthly total.

DIY livery (with brilliant yard-mates and YOs who help each other out so there's no add-ons) £130
Haylage/Hay (2 round bales a month) £70
Clipping x2 yearly (Inc sedation - he's a wuss) £25
Vaccs x2 yearly £13
Hard feed £45
Insurance £30
Physio £10
BSJA reg fees £20
Shavings £45
Shoes £60
Incidentals/Treats £70

£514 a month - which incidentally is more than we pay on our mortgage. Harry > House
 
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Officially or unofficially?

Officially the answer is "oh not very much at all"
"no, that box is not a delivery for the horses, it is just dog food"
"the new shelter? Very cheap. The guy was bored so he built it almost for free"
"Shoes? Oh no, they have not needed the farrier for months"

Unofficially:

Livery 2 x 300 euro per month
Extra hay to my paddock 50 euro per month
Rug changing 25 euro per month
Extra tips to keep the groom sweet 50 euro per month
Shoes every 5 weeks 2 x 90 euros
Special feeds 200 euros per month (oats included in livery)
Supplements I think around 100 per month
Extra bedding (it is included in livery but they are on thin beds if I don't buy extra) 50 euro per month
Wormers 2 x 50 euros every 3 months
Vaccines - can't remember
Vet ..........................

Plus extras such as a new field shelter (had to be a removable one as not on my own land), 3 weeks in the hospital for tooth removal, special boots after a hoof infection (250 euros), special socks to go inside the boots (100 euros). Rugs to replace the ones that get trashed ????

But on the bright side I have no interest in buying new clothes / handbags or anything else, after doing the horses I am too tired to go out, so overall it is probably not too bad!
 
I once added it up and it came to around £3,000 per year.. haven't made that mistake since! :D

Ironically the horse was free.. so I keep reminding him that anything spent on him is worth more than he is!!
 
I have 4, only 2 are shod and are happy hackers. Other 2 are field ornaments. I am £35 wk for all 4 and thats for everything! Well, thats what I tell my hubby, but I dont think he believes me!
 
A couple of years ago when I had a tb on full loan it was £400 a month. I know as I had a separate account for him. Now I prefer to share partly due to costs and time.
 
Nobody's added in all those little bits that add up over the year. Fly spray, treats, apples and carrots, first aid, replacing rugs, feed bowls (just lost one in the wind), tack cleaning.
 
I don't buy fly spray and I only feed apples and carrots that are surplus from home. I do buy polos from time to time but doubt that averages over £1/month. Haven't bought a feed bucket in years. Rugs, I might buy a couple a year (across 3 horses), or none. I don't buy expensive rugs so even if I do buy them it might add £5-10/month, or nothing at all some years. I suppose my rug cleaning/repair bill adds another £2/month (averaged). I'm not going to jinx myself by talking about first aid supplies. The year Fergs had ongoing abscess issues, I wanted to have shares in vetwrap. Other years I've spent nothing at all. Swings and roundabouts!

It's hard to account for things which vary year to year! Technically this year I bought Skye a saddle which, at a grand, would add another £80pcm if I averaged it. But I don't intend to buy another for a while, so it would make more sense to average it over its working life, and I can't easily predict what that will be till it's happened. I could say Dae's saddle, which was just under £1000 over 3 years ago has added £27/month so far to his keep, or 80 pence a day. And when I think of it like that, 80p/day for a saddle I use more than once a day is a bloody steal :D
 
Chianti said:
Nobody's added in all those little bits that add up over the year. Fly spray, treats, apples and carrots, first aid, replacing rugs, feed bowls (just lost one in the wind), tack cleaning.
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Apart from livery all my figures are rounded up a couple of quid to give a contingency fund that covers stuff like this. I'm still using a £16 tub of fly cream from 2 years ago though, and I sold all my old rugs and bought an Optimo and actually came out in credit. I also didnt include lessons, the tow car or buying the trailer, but if I start that then I need to add fuel, wear and tear on the car, clothes for the yard, the carriage, etc, etc. It would never end and would not be good for my blood pressure to work out :oops:
 
I reckon on £100 per month per pony plus field rent. I should add that competeing and fuel for the lorry are also extras, Hay is roughly £15 per month feet are £15 month wormer about £4 per month, feed is the biggest outlay at about £25 vaccinations £3 extras make up the rest.
I am lucky in that after 50 years I have most of the stuff they need I dont buy stuff unless they need it
One thing that costs a lot is the fact we have to go 8 miles to them so fuel in the car is our biggest expense
Costs are averaged out over the year so between £1000 and £1200 per year each plus field rent
 
I dread to add it all up tbh!!
I have four horses but have a very good deal on a private yard so am lucky but the basics are currently...

Stable rent - £280 per month for two stables, around 7 acres of grazing and the other two live out.

Hay - £75 every ten days so £225 per month approx

Straw - 2 big bales per month - £50

Grass pellets - £16 for 2 bags
Topspec Balancer - £20 (ish) for two horses so buy one about every three weeks
Fast fibre - 1 bag (£9 approx)
ConditioningCubes - approx 4 bags per months so around £28

farrier - either £178 for the two shod ones or £250 including the two barefoot ones which are trimmed every other time. Farrier comes every six - eight weeks depending on how much work they have been doing.

insurance - £87 per month

think that’s it... except for you occasional extras like vaccinations, treats, carrots etc. Oh and my older gelding is on Danilon one watcher per day so I get him a 60 day box at approx £70 so £35 per month.
So roughly £1225 per month - but it will decrease in the summer.
 
I have included all those things in my £400 a month as I used that bank account for all horse related stuff. I just haven't itemized as I didn't need to.
Chianti said:
Nobody's added in all those little bits that add up over the year. Fly spray, treats, apples and carrots, first aid, replacing rugs, feed bowls (just lost one in the wind), tack cleaning.
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Adding everything other than shows as those as subjective I’m £200 every four weeks (paid four weekly)

I buy my feed in bulk at discount days so I’m averaging that out as well as insurance, jabs and teeth. He’s only two so isn’t exactly high maintenance :)
 
I notice that most people aren't listing their travel costs to and from their yards lol.
I'm lucky that mine live within walking distance if need be (I have Fibromyalgia so walking alot isn't really in my remit if I can avoid it but it's doable if needed).
I have one of my own and a friend and I loan another between us and we own a Mini Shetland between us.
Grass livery on private property costs us 150 pcm for all 3.
 
Reacher said:
I’m too scared to ignore trimmers advice and not feed the vits/mins in case their feet drop off.
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Mine wouldn't eat the vitamins and minerals so I gave up and now neither gets them. Feet still intact and looking as good as ever ;)
I feed Vitamin Vitality to my oldie now she doesn't keep the weight on as well and she looks super on it. The other one gets Fast Fibre. Too lazy to feed straights!

Mine probably averaged out to about £200 per month each for the last few years, averaging out hay/ jabs/ teeth/ feed etc. No insurance other than 3rd party. But my livery went up recently (same place but she but her prices up), but it's 100% worth it as it's a great set up for two retired horses and full grass livery so I don't mind :)
 
Had the saddle fitter last month and the physio due for a check next week. That's another £110 gone. Mine has sweet itch so what I don't spend over the summer on feed goes on fly sprays and lotions and potions. I have to replace a couple of sweet itch rugs every year. Forgot washing liquid. He wears a clean sweet itch rug every week.
 
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