New horse, How do you afford to buy?!

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Hi All!

Strange question but Its always bugged me. How do people afford to put so much money down for a horse? I bought my lad for £2k on a payment plan because me and his old owner could see we were a perfect match. But how do people afford 5-10k horses?! Do you take out loans? save up for a very long time? How do you people do it?! :')
 
I have just paid in that bracket for my new boy, only stretched to that much as he seems perfect - time will tell
50% was money I had saved from working a second job the rest I have borrowed from other half and I now paying him back from second job rather than saving
 
For the average person, the easiest way to do it is buy smart, produce and then sell.
2-3 of those and you have a nice lump sum for your more expensive keeper.
 
Depends on how old you are and what you do for a living. If you have a good job and earn the money then you can spend it on what you like. How I did it and how I do it is, I worked hard at school, got good qualifications, got a good well paid job and saved my money to buy what I wanted. I also do not really do holidays. Most people in my position and time of life have disposable income. I choose horses to spend mine on.
 
I saved. But really, I think it comes down to your personal taste for financial (in)security.
I spent years as a student where the most money I could ever accumulate was somewhere around £1500 before some unforeseen expenditure (car breakdown) or travel (had to travel transatlantic to see family) would wipe most of it out. I rode other people's horses and didn't see myself in a position to own, given that I was living fairly close to the edge, financially.
When I bought my horse I was earning enough to save up his purchase price within about 3 months. I wouldn't have wanted the responsibility of owning without earning enough to have some ready cash for emergencies, and by the time I got to that place, the purchase price really wasn't that big a deal anymore.
In short, I would not have considered buying a horse if it hadn't been relatively easy to save up for the purchase price.
 
I got a low cost loan from my bank to buy my first, for two reasons. The purchase was totally unplanned and spur of the moment so therefore I hadn't had time to save up beforehand - my mum had just been diagnosed with cancer 4 weeks before I bought my girl and I needed something to get me out of bed in the morning. The second reason is that I find it much easier to pay off than to save up. I wouldn't have done it if I couldn't easily have afforded the repayments and overpayments.
 
Thank-you all! Basically what i expected :) I am 25 and have a decent full time job, I've been trying so hard to save but each time I seem to be getting somewhere a massive bill comes my way! ( I do own an ex-racehorse for my sins!!)
 
I saved, for a very long time (and I saved double the cost of the horse before I started looking)
Cheap mortgage on a low value house helped a lot.
 
I buy cheap, meat money or thereabouts. I'd rather take on a cheap project and make it my own than spend 10k on something and still have to put the work in. I'd feel that way even if I won the lottery.
 
Bought my first with cashback from my first mortgage. This was back in the days when you could take out a 100% mortgage AND be given cash by the mortgage lender to say thanks! I appreciate younger forum members are in a polar opposite situation now with huge deposits needed.

Sale of 1 funded 2 etc. We borrowed/saved for the children's ponies and I made a bit of money on a couple of projects along the way which paid for Amber.
 
Low cost loan from the bank for the 1st, both times I bought her lmao
2nd was only £250 as a 6mo filly. And amusingly enough has cost me way more than the 1st over the past 3 years (sweet itch, atopic dermatitis, sarcoids, a false nostril cyst and badly gashed a hind leg open). Thank god for insurance!
 
At the risk of sounding spoilt I was bought my boy by my parents for 1k. Little WHW was a donation to the charity and if(realistically when!) I buy my next I hope for it to be a project to sell.
I also enjoy saving so hoping one day I will buy my beautiful black warmblood type with savings but for now I need to save for more boring things- like a new kitchen!
 
I got a small bank loan out (£2k) for my first boy and paid back over 5 years when I was 19 with a part-time secure job. When I moved to a full-time position at an even more secure job (university) I bought cheap (£850 on a 15 month old sports horse.... who now has cost me well over £6k in vets fees but that's a different discussion!) and when the first boy was PTS I bought cheap again for my new girl (17yo Section D for £1)

My personal philosophy is with enough dedication, patience and time then you're 'cheap-bought' horse will be worth just as much (if not more in your own eyes) as the £5-10k horse you might have been coveting beforehand!
 
Bought mine with our first ever dividend payment from the company that hubby and I now own! It was a looooong slog to pay off the company loan, mind you.

Next dividend payment (whenever that may be) is going on a trailer/box/lorry, unless the hubby has his way and we end up with yet another all singing and dancing road bike...

Mortgage, pension, kids savings can all wait till we have all the toys... Responsible parents? Pah!
 
I bought our boy as i sold my share of a business i'd jointly set up.

He was £3750 five years ago. He was a complete bargain and worth every single penny. Been told he's worth almost double that now... but he's twelve so I guess that'll start to drop over the next few years.

I don't think we'll sell him, sometimes i swing into thinking something a bit bigger would be so much better (mum and son share and now 14 year old son keeps growing like a weed- likely to make 6'3 like his dad)... but i don't think we'd ever find another like him... or at least not without a colossal price tag. I just don't have a several thousand pounds sitting around.
 
Ditto SukiStokes2. I have always worked v hard, done lots of qualifications, dragged myself up the career ladder - always with horses in mind. Although I also once spent an entire redundancy package on a horse...which turned out to have EPSM...

I am not a natural at this whole corporate ladder thing, but if I want to have a nice horse, house with land, lorry, school, lessons, compete etc, the only thing to do is earn, and then some!
 
Out of all the horses we’ve had, I’ve actually only fully purchased 2 myself. One I paid outright for because it was cheap, the other I extended a loan.

The others- one was gifted to me for free, 2 were birthday presents, 3 were purchased for me by my parents and 1 I jointly owned with my Dad.
 
But then, if you're maxed out on the horse, what do you do when the inevitable happens & you get a 4-figure vet bill? I know there's insurance, but it doesn't always pay out...?
 
First horse I bought with savings, I actually had saved to go to Oz for a month and when I got back I had loads left so bought my horse! Although my Nana very kindly bought me my saddle as I had nothing left lol!
Second horse had a bit saved but borrowed off the 'bank of dad' and paid him back as found horse a bit earlier than planned :)

I admit I'm rubbish at saving...
 
ihatework said:
For the average person, the easiest way to do it is buy smart, produce and then sell.
2-3 of those and you have a nice lump sum for your more expensive keeper.
Click to expand...

It's a risky strategy, though. You only need to be not as good at producing as you thought you were, or something uninsured to go wrong with the horse (too many possibilities to list), and your lump sum could be wiped out overnight.






First horse borrowed from OH. All the rest paid for out of savings but usually bought cheap and sold at a profit, so some of the savings were from selling other horses. My current main horse cost £1,200, and my lovely prospect in training cost £2,000. My days of spending ten grand on a horse ended with the bullet that ended the life of the physical wreck of a highly bred warmblood I spent the ten grand on.
 
ycbm said:
It's a risky strategy, though. You only need to be not as good at producing as you thought you were, or something uninsured to go wrong with the horse (too many possibilities to list), and your lump sum could be wiped out overnight.
Click to expand...

For sure.
But I’d argue it’s risky buying horses full stop!
You could spend years saving, buy on credit, blow an inheritance and the same risks would still apply .... only this time you would have spent out more initially.

Buy what you are prepared to loose, put the graft in and you will generally either make some money, find yourself with the horse you wanted in the first place, or cut your losses and chalk it up to life learning!

But of course you do need sufficient experience to buy wisely in the first place
 
I bought mine out of inheritance money. She wasn’t crazy money but I did spend a bit more than on previous horses.
 
Anything <£1.5K I've bought cash, I did get a loan for current boy...not ideal but it is what it is and I can afford unexpected vet fees etc. Good job really after we've been caught out with lami! Not the most expensive of issues but definitely unexpected :(
 
First I got when I was a teenager and my Dad bought. I took over her bills when I left uni. Ridden horse I bought from my YO and paid monthly with my livery.

If I were to get a new horse now, it would be because I didn't have my current 2, so I guess I'd be saving the £100s I spend on them a month, plus additional savings in order to save, to then buy. Depending on what I wanted would dictate how long I was saving for!
 
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