How much does your horse cost you a month?

I find these posts interesting, so here's my findings after I recently decided to move and was deciding between three options. I decided to go with the DIY grass livery and both me and the horse are very happy there so far. Prices below were me trying to be realistic about everything including vets, tack and even extra clothing for me.

My old place was assisted DIY, total cost about £375pm
5 day livery at nice yard good facilities. £625pm
Retire livery, £275pm
DIY grass livery, basic yard facilities, £250-£275pm (I'm not sure yet how much hay/feed will be necessary over winter but I'm guessing closer to £275)

If I went with the 5 day livery I'd have found a sharer to help offset the costs, I could technically 'afford' it but I'm not prepared to spend that much! Having my own horse is lovely and he is hard to put a price on, but for £625pm I could easily ride 3 or 4x a week at a riding school, which is more riding than I do at the minute anyway and I'd not have to do any of the chores or have any of the worry of owning!
 
When on full livery was spending about £600 per month, now on assisted spending about £400 on livery and hay. Then lessons ( lot at the moment !) , insurance and farrier on top and we're talking kidney sales. ?
Why on earth would you even ask such a question ? What if there's a husband reading this?
 
When i realised last winter to get decent forage to my door cost roughly 10 euro’s a day JUST for forage for 2 of them, my mind broke and i couldn’t find the motivation to add up the rest of the costs!
 
Am now sadly horseless following horrible accident in May but I worked out that my boy was costing me in excess of 600 quid a month and that was on DIY. Unfortunately he had Cushings so medication was a large chunk but add in fuel, feed, hay, bedding, supplements etc let alone blood, sweat and tears and there we have it.
 
So this was my original reply 5 years ago:

mairiwick said:
DIY livery, hay, worming and services cost me about £270pm.
Feed £25pm
Trimming is £20 (£25 every 5 weeks)
Insurance is £45pm
Trips out/lessons/competitions about £50pm - they vary depending on finances each month!

Still cheaper than my kids combined nursery fees!
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Although the kids are now in school so nursery fees are saved, I've now got 2 horses... one on part and one assisted DIY:

£585 for both livery (includes bedding for one)
£90 a month for shoeing/trimming
£70 a month for feed
£100 a month for insurance
Lessons/competitions.. guessing around £200pm depending on lockdown??

So overall - ridden horse costs me approx £700pm and retired horse approx £350pm? Yikes...
 
When I was competing it was much higher than it is now, obviously.

Depends on what compromises you're prepared to make.

My costs roughly come to £3000 per horse/year. I have included vets this year which has cost me £1000 already.

Is it a lot in the grand scheme of things? Probs.
 
About 600pcm
350 livery
120 shavings
Farrier every 6 weeks at 75£ so about 50£ pcm
Feed
1 bag balancer 22£
2 bags chop 20£
Dentist twice a year 100£ per year approx £10 pcm
Physio several times a year at 60£pcm

I think I've exceeded 600£ now and I want to lay down in a quiet room and recover from how much I actually spend and I've not even got to vet bills, supplements and insurance :eek::eek:
 
I’m in awe at how cheaply some people keep their horses , on a non schooling month my horse costs around £600 ok for full ( non ridden ) livery at the best facility and care livery in the area. And on a schooling/breaking livery month ( she’s only 3 so is newly backed but is having lots of breaks , £850 a month including shoes and stud balancer ( again the same best in the area with very high quality schooling ) .

That’s before any competing extras or lessons lol, that will be next years extras .
Oh andI don’t have insurance, just BE membership an additional cost which covers for 3rd party liability , and haven’t included Wormers or vaccinations or vets bills but that’s small fry in comparison.

And of course haven’t included the cost of keeping my trailer and trailer pulling 4x4 on the road .

Also now I think of it haven’t included the cost of my field ornament the retired one , at retirement livery cost £195 a month plus vets bills and Wormers .
And off course I haven’t included the price for rugs and equipment.

thank goodness I have never added it all up how wealthy would I be without horses.
 
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sarahann1 said:
Too flipping much, when the time comes for me to have only one horse I will remain with only one horse!
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I now only have one horse, I hate it, I wish I could have had longer with my old boys. :(
Since I’ve moved yards, my livery costs have decreased by £100 a month, a second horse will be along in the next couple of years.

I still don’t add up exactly how much it costs. :D
 
I've been asked many times & I just say think of how much it costs to run your car & multiply by how many horses you have & I think that's about how much it costs.
 
My ponies are at our home, here in France, but it still adds up to a lot! Shavings are £€15 a bale, but that said, I get organic small bales of hay for €2. Farrier is €30 each, barefoot, every 8 weeks. Feed is on a par with the UK but little choice, though my shettie, 31, is on Happy Hooves at €25 a pop. The vet is A LOT cheaper than in the UK, both with horses and dogs. ?
 
My costs are a bit lower than others as my 3 year old is unbroken, unshod and lives out the majority of the time so it helps to keep costs down. I'd say approx £200-£250 a month.

£30pw DIY livery (including stable, 24/7 turnout and small sand school)
£25 every 6 weeks for trim (he's barefoot)
£35 every 2 months for big round bale of hay (likely to increase in winter)
£25pm insurance
£50 every 6 months for dentist
Vaccinations yearly (I can't remember how much they were last time!)
£20 approx every 3 months for worm count and wormer
£60 every 2-3 months for chaff and balancer

This year before summer I've bought 10 bales of shavings ready for winter and I think that'll just about see me through, which cost about £90.

Luckily we're moving house this month and will be 5 mins from yard so petrol costs will decrease.
 
I don't think mine are too bad. My livery cost varies slightly as I usually pay for them to be checked once a day but sometimes this is twice a day due to work. Usually it works out to around £370 for two including services. They live out but have stables too and come in if the weather is really bad. With extras on top, I reckon I probably pay about £230 to £250 per month per horse. The oldie has Danilon and Prascend so she is a bit more expensive, and the Welsh currently isn't having any hard feed so his only extra cost is having his feet trimmed.
 
How much dot the horses cost? More than they did last year, the horse we bought my youngest is a Standardbred x and she has just bought herself a pure bred filly.
She also went to uni and there were times when we did her horse for her, as she was revising.
 
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Billyandme said:
Am now sadly horseless following horrible accident in May but I worked out that my boy was costing me in excess of 600 quid a month and that was on DIY. Unfortunately he had Cushings so medication was a large chunk but add in fuel, feed, hay, bedding, supplements etc let alone blood, sweat and tears and there we have it.
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Sorry to hear about you losing your horse.
It must feel odd to find yourself £600 per month better off.
 
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