How much per year to comfortably afford a horse...

FlyingCircus

FlyingCircus

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I'm sorry if this is terribly rude. You're not required to answer :)

I'm just wondering a rough figure of how much you get paid per year which makes horse ownership is easily affordable.

If anyone would like to be lovely and give a bracket (say 20 - 30k) of what they earn, how many horses they pay for with that and maybe if you have money to compete regularly to a high ish level.

Hope no one thinks i'm being too rude :P Just looking into the future (still doing my degree at the mo) and wondering how much people who own horses actually make. Most of the people I know have parents that pay for their horses, otherwise I wouldn't be asking on a public forum :o
 
My total income is under 10k and I have a horse and pony living out, both good doers, I can't afford to compete or do much with them really but I am at uni so that can come later :-)
 
Two horses, last year one was showing and the other doing driving trials, this year one is non-competitive, the other training and doing some showing and driving... I'm tight on a £25500 salary with them on DIY- but I live alone/have a mortgage, bills etc etc.
 
When I graduated and started work I bought a horse asap (4 years at Uni cold turkey caught up with me) I was on £23k and had my boy on full livery as work involved travel - didn't spend much on anything else!!! but possible.
 
mandwhy said:
My total income is under 10k and I have a horse and pony living out, both good doers, I can't afford to compete or do much with them really but I am at uni so that can come later :-)
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Gotta say, i'm quite envious! I'm at uni and not getting any riding :( The riding schools nearby cost a fortune for..not so great lessons and no one seems to loan down here xD Would love to buy but i'd barely be able to afford it and would have to travel 4 hours home with it every few months :o
 
Polos Mum said:
When I graduated and started work I bought a horse asap (4 years at Uni cold turkey caught up with me) I was on £23k and had my boy on full livery as work involved travel - didn't spend much on anything else!!! but possible.
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Sounds like what i'm planning :P
Though not the cold turkey part - hopefully! Looking for a loan here and have a horsey to play with in summer when I go home, courtesy of lovely friend :')
Planning on buying pretty much as soon as I get a flat and job once done with uni. Not sure I could stomach the eye-watering costs of full livery though, haha.
 
By the way, your living costs will make a huge difference - 30k in Surrey is very different to 30k in the NE.
 
Yeah, that's true. Sadly for me the majority of jobs for what i'm studying tend to be in London, so I'll probably end up living in the expensive commuters belt, aha.
 
I'll start. I couldn't afford a horse until I got my first job after my phd, which was about 13 years ago. I was paid £21k then. My salary has gone up but beware: the more you earn, the more time you are expected to put into your job... I can afford the horse (actually two) now without a struggle but don't have as much time with him as I would like... especially since having children...

If it helps the costs for me are like this:
DIY livery: £24 / week
Hay: about £15 / week
Bedding: £12 / week
Feed: £10 / week
Services (weekdays turn in and out, muck out and feed): £40 / week

Insurance: £48 / month
Shoes: £75 every 6 weeks

It's cheaper in summer as we turn out 24/7, so the cost of hay, feed, bedding and services goes down. On average over the year I pay just over £400 / month. Some will find this expensive but that's mostly because I need a reasonable amount of help with him - on DIY it would be a lot less.
 
I'm in the midlands, in the 15-20k bracket, horse on DIY livery. I pay for rent bills car ect too. We're hoping to do a bit more this summer, it's finding transport more than the cost!! Nightmare.
 
I think it depends on what else you want to do. I've managed to do lots of expensive things, allthough not horse ownership (yet), on limited budgets because its the one thing I do and I do it with single minded determination.
I ride alot on not quite 11k a year, but I dont buy coffee out or drink much and live in a mini flat. My friend erns slightly more than twice as much as me and makes out I'm loaded 'cus I ride. She thinks she'd love to, but that she can't afford it. She eats much nicer food than me, drinks in pubs and clubs and beeing slightly older than me is saving to buy a house. We've made our choices and we spend our cash.
I'd love to earn enough to own a nice house in the country, have kids, lots of horses and ponys, eat loads of top quality meat and have regular holidays. If thats your idea of comfortable you need mega bucks. If your happy to live with your parents (and they'll have you) wear old cloaths, vaugly remember a thing called booze, dont have a car and eat your way round the Morrisons value range and dont want kids you can do it on way less money.
 
I'm at uni at the moment but I reckon to keep mine and stay eventing at a decent level once I leave I need to be on 25k a year to be just about comfortable. Dad reckons to live as I do at home, with the horse, eventing, lorry, going out a couple of times a week socially, nice holiday etc etc I would need to be on 35-40k to be comfortable. Which is both depressing and scary. So I'm not thinking too much about being a grown up at the moment :D
 
I live in Cambridge, not cheap (rent on our two bed flat is 800pcm), so just know that it can be done :-) I rent land which works out less than half of what I would pay on a DIY yard. That makes the biggest difference and was lucky with it.
 
I think by comfortably I mean more, you're living by yourself (no longer with parents) so supporting yourself in terms of your own living costs, transport costs (public or your own) and not necessarily skimping but not splurging on going out every weekend/new clothes all the time/big holidays every year. I love horses and have wanted one for years but if that means living with my parents, then no thanks, i'd rather loan aha.
 
I'm on less than 10k hence sharing a part loan with a friend, we pay £80 a month so £40 each. There is no way I could afford to own on my own atm
 
less than £20k

2 horses + 1 mini Shetland. Livery is £200 a month, plus hay and bedding in the winter! so I'm saving £50 a month to over the extra costs in the winter! horses are all pretty good doers, have always lived out on one feed a day + hay but have to be brought in from nov to feb at my new yard!

at the mo the mare has front shoes, the boy has a trim until I back him and he needs shoes and the mini will have a trim when I can catch him so is £80 every 8 weeks.

Insurance is about £45 a month for them all but will go up when the boy is backed.

I have a care plan with the vets for £16.90 a month, which covers their vac's, teeth + sedation, a wormer each once a year, worm count + 50% off any additional call outs and 10% off any further teeth appointments!

I keep a spreadsheet of all of my money that comes in and everything that I pay out for, so I can keep on top of what I am spending each month. last year I spent £5653.86 on the horses but that did include buying the boy for £700

so far this year I have spent £3178.17
 
kerrieberry2 said:
less than £20k

2 horses + 1 mini Shetland. Livery is £200 a month, plus hay and bedding in the winter! so I'm saving £50 a month to over the extra costs in the winter! horses are all pretty good doers, have always lived out on one feed a day + hay but have to be brought in from nov to feb at my new yard!

at the mo the mare has front shoes, the boy has a trim until I back him and he needs shoes and the mini will have a trim when I can catch him so is £80 every 8 weeks.

Insurance is about £45 a month for them all but will go up when the boy is backed.

I have a care plan with the vets for £16.90 a month, which covers their vac's, teeth + sedation, a wormer each once a year, worm count + 50% off any additional call outs and 10% off any further teeth appointments!

I keep a spreadsheet of all of my money that comes in and everything that I pay out for, so I can keep on top of what I am spending each month. last year I spent £5653.86 on the horses but that did include buying the boy for £700

so far this year I have spent £3178.17
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You're very brave to keep a spreadsheet of all outgoings!
 
FlyingCircus said:
You're very brave to keep a spreadsheet of all outgoings!
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I started in a few years go because I gave up full time work to go back to college, and I've just got into the habit, I earn much less now than I did before so I need to keep track of what im spending, plus I have a habit to just buying things but doing this makes me think twice about whether or not I really need to buy these things haha!
 
Hi,

I don't compete (not yet anyway ;)) , my lad is purely a leisure/hack for me and lead out for my daughters/nieces/friends/friends kids etc.

My costs are approx 1/5th of my monthly income (after tax) - he's on full livery and the yard charges by height - if I had a 16hh + it would be 1/4th of my monthly income.

Notts area.

:)
 
I think the more you earn, the more you spend. I managed to keep my horse fine when I earned 18k a year, but she was on a cheap yard and I didn't have many lessons or compete much. Now I earn a lot more, but have her on a nicer yard, have bought a lorry, have weekly lessons etc, so as a proportion of my earnings probably spend the same.......it is all relative.
 
If you live anywhere near London, it is many ££s. Say, £650 for part livery a month. DIY cheaper, but if you work, which you will have to pay for it all, additional jobs will soon jack price up near enough to that. Then rent/mortgage/travel. Oh and food! I would say £40k minimum, £50k if you have children. Actually, with a mortgage round here, make that £100k. It is depressingly expensive.
 
I think it really depends if you mean live completely independently with no financial or other contributions from your family or a partner or not and what part of the country you live in.s w

I earn in the 30-40k bracket and near to 40K than 30k and I have one native pony living out 24/7 on DIY, I still can't afford holidays and don't run a car. However I am independent and rent my own flat and pay for everything myself. I work in London and it is an expensive commute nearly £350 in just getting to work. I rent a one bed flat again this is really expensive because I am within commuting distance of London costs £875 a month, then on top of that is council tax £100 a month and then water, electric, heating ect it soon adds up.

There are not many people on our yard that live completely independently most are married or living with parents which at least means the cost of living are shared.

If you are looking at working in central London you will find it hard to be on stabled DIY as you will be reliant on public transport to get to and from work due to parking restrictions and the congestion charge and public transport is not always reliable so it can be easy to get delayed so if you need to catch in by a certain time it might be tricky.

If you are not on part or full livery and you want to go on holiday or go out in the evenings after work then you will also be looking at paying for someone to look after your horse, then you need to take into consideration vet bills if your horse gets sick/injured as even with insurance there is still an excess to pay.
 
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...Soooo looks like ima be living as far away from London as possible whilst still being able to work there. Atleast I don't want kids...? *crying at 100k figure* Haha
 
It depends on what else you are paying for if you have mortgage/ rent, student debts, Childcare etc.. I was on about £26,000 when bought my first horse which was comfortable even with paying my half of the mortgage bills etc. However I did have a company car. Now I earn more than 10k more than that and with Childcare and a loan for my car since I gave up my company one, car running costs I am probably in about the same position.
 
The problem with that is then the cost of commuting goes up and if you are going to be travelling for more than an hour a day you will be tired and you will probably be needing full livery. There are people at my work that are commuting for 4 hours a day and not only is it not cheap but they are tired, commuting is quite tiring. Anything in the commuter belt is going to be expensive though.

The costs I quoted are for middlesex and I have an hours' commute to work.

FlyingCircus said:
...Soooo looks like ima be living as far away from London as possible whilst still being able to work there. Atleast I don't want kids...? *crying at 100k figure* Haha
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Trouble is if you live a long way from London, commuting is very expensive, long and unreliable. Horses need a lot of time, jobs do, too. There are not enough hours in the day or pounds in the pot to do both without outside help (So1's post is a good one). Don't mean to be depressing, but I've worked for longer than any woman should, and can afford only a share in a horse. I'm lucky in that I bought my house during a recession. No way could I afford to buy here now. Renting is equally dear. If you want to combine a horse with a career, and you don't have others to help you financially, I would seriously consider avoiding London - much as I love my home town.
 
depends on your outgoings!!

i afforded a horse (and extensive vet bills..)! on a student wage, paid for my car/outings etc and rent....(small amount)

same again but on a fairly ok wage (not over the 15k bracket though)! but cant afford to move out - so renting a flat in a pub (and working in said pub) to upp my pay and move out!...

so depends on your circumstances as to HOW you afford it :)


where theres a will.........!

i have one horse now on DIY :)
 
I ended up moving out of london precisely because of the time/money/cost conundrum it entails.

I have to say I agree with the previous poster who says that the more you earn the more you spend- every time I've got a pay rise, I've ended up feeling as stretched as I did before within a matter of months!

horses are damned expensive.
 
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