How much

[Phoenix12]

On average how much does it cost to keep a horse/pony per month/year?
How much does it roughly cost a month for...
Insurance
Feed
Hay
Livery
Also how often would you have a farrier and dentist out to your horse/pony and what does it cost?
And finally are vet bills as bad as everyone says or can most things be covered in the insurance?

 

[gnubee]

Too many variables on your first question. In or out, full or part livery, good doer, age etc will all impact. My 3 are ridiculously cheap as they live out at home. Hay in winter about £500 for the 3 of them. Maybe another £100 for straw for the few days they're in. C£20 per week on feed and supplements. Only one insured, £500 pa. Vet out twice a year (also does teeth) about £100 a time inc call out fees. Farrier every 8 weeks £20 per horse (no shoes).

Vets bills are worse than you think. In theory on a young horse insurance covers everything. So many silly rules and small print designed to stop you claiming though (e.g. My vet said one insurance company he dealt with wouldn't pay out for sarcoidosis because they hadn't been told within 3 weeks of first appearance. ) plus you have one case of colic (covered) but then they usually exclude it in future. One of mine had a (c£5000) insurance claim from a kick in the field. Her current (top end) insurance company has excluded 'issues related to that injury' so there is the potential that we get to argue down the line with them about whether anything that may happen to her was related to the old injury (eg would arthritis in that leg be covered? How about the other leg, or would they argue it has to compensate for the weak leg causing the issue?) Whave to stay with the very expensive one though because the cheaper ones want to exclude all legs for her.

As they get older they exclude more (hard to insure vets fees for veterans at all) and tbh by the time they get to that age the average horse would have so many exclusions there would be no bits left insured anyway.
I now only insure my loan horse (owners request) and the others I'm saving up so I can pay the bills myself when they incur them. Unless I had access to a minimum of £5000 as an emergency vet fall back find I wouldn't have horses as chances of them needing care you can't pay for is too high and I'm too attached to pets just because I couldn't pay for treatment. Lots of people seem to manage without though.

 

[Kylara]

My retired pony costs about 2.5k a year. He loves at home, is only in at night in depths of winter (not at all this winter!) and he has sweet itch so that includes his new boett every couple of years and a bit for field maintenance. He doesn't get fed but he does have haylage over winter and he is insured (he's 26,im not sure how much is covered but I think the only thing excluded is his SI as he's always been very good and had a single minor chest infection once and we got him when he was 6/7. (caught infection of my then comp pony who suddenly couldn't breathe, cue mass panic an endoscopy and biopsy and a tonne of bute ventapulmin and antibiotics and two weeks later all better but forever on haylage. Worth all the insurance payments for those three weeks when vet was out at all hours helping him breathe with injections and meds, a change from broad antibiotics to specific. Since he went I've kept with the haylage due to habit and how well retired boy does on it over the winter. Comp pony cost about 3k a year IIRC but this was a while back and we never affiliated due to his height)

 

[Shay]

It is possible to keep horses cheaply at home - but probably not entirely fair on OP to give her any false expectations.

Insurance - depends on what you insure for and how. BHS Gold membership carries third party liability cover - as does membership of the Pony Club. Thats about £70 per year.

Vets fees insurance - that depends on where you keep your horse, how old the horse is and what types of activities you plan on doing. I doubt you would end up with more than £50 per month. But there will be an excess to pay and no - it really will not cover everything!

Feed, hay etc - that is really too variable as it will depend on what you feed and what local hay prices are like. A bale of hay costs between £4 and £7 roughly. And you will need between 1 and 3 bales per week depending on time of year, how much grass and type of horse. Feed - a bag of basic nuts costs about £8 and will probably last you a month. Chaff about the same. A more specialist feed would be £10 - £15 per bag.

Livery - depends on what you go for. The BHS estimates grass livery at £70 - £150 per month, DIY at £110 -£250. Part at £240 - £550 and full at £300 -£800 per month.

Farrier - every 4 - 6 weeks depending on horse and £60 -£80 a time if the shoeing is basic. That can rise quite swiftly if you need special shoes.

Dentist - every 6 - 12 months. About £60.

Don't forget worming and vaccinations - about £200 per year depending on method etc.
And bedding - depending on what you bed on, size of stable etc plan on £4ish per bale. 5 bales to start and 2 per week roughly.

I costed out what it costs to keep my daughter's PC pony on DIY because he has sharers and I wanted to be fair to them - and me. I know that with everything included he costs me £750 per month. He is a good do-er - without insurance - and with no expensive tastes. (And because he is one of several I save on feed and bedding by buying in bulk) And that is also before tack, rugs, lessons, entry fees, etc.

If you Google "How much does it cost to keep a pony" you should end up with a pdf from the BHS (I can't seem to post the link or I would do) That is quite a good first time guide to the types of cost you can expect.

 

[caileag]

Nobody likes to add up what it really costs - can be a shocker! Last month then as a round up;
Livery £300 (everything)
Insurance £50
Shoes £65
Vet £85
Physio £95
Dentist £65

this doesn't include car running costs and we didn't go anywhere otherwise there could have been box hire on top of this (until I get a trailer sorted out)

Thankfully it's not always this bad, I'm not even going to add this up though