:O At BE costs! How do you eventers manage?!

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Cruiseonamiro

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Am aiming to enter my lad for three/four BE events at the tail end of this season, just started to get organised, but obvioulsy i'm going to need four day tickets at £27 each, and then entry fees at £51 for each class, plus starting fees, plus diesel... Jesus, it's a lot of money! Am thinking now we will just do one or two and become members next season, it's a very expensive hobby!
 
I have no life
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It is expensive.
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Yep, its an expensive sport. I reckon by the time I include entry, start fee, deisel etc each even costs on average £110 (without membership etc).
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Thankfully my boys owner helps out considerably for which i am VERY grateful
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Having a very generous OH who funds 'real' life so I can pump everything into horses.
 
La la la la la la ****I'm not listening to you lot**** I don't want to scare myself by adding up what each event costs
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I too have a very lovely generous OH and supportive Mum
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My OH pays nearly all the bills. He says he will keep me but not the horses! My mum also helps with entries if i need it as she says its her hobby too.
Yesterday it was our anniversary and OH came home and said 'I was going to buy you flowers, but i bought these for you instead' He then produced two hub caps for my lorry! Personally i would rather have the hub caps cos it saves me buying them
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I would have done, if i'd thought about it, but we thought that it wasn't worth it for a few events at the tail end, as depending on how he goes, it may only be one.
 
I pay my half for "real" life and the whole lot for the eventing - and it adds up. I do add up from time to time how much it all costs and although I think I do a good job of not overspending, it is alarming what proportion of income goes on eventing. I wouldn't bother eventing if I didn't have a reasonable shot at getting placed because it's just too expensive. Much worse since BE reduced prize money from 10th to 6th place.
 
I don't think we do manage...its just a case of scraping by, doing it on a shoestring...well in my case anyway!!
Wish my OH was that generous, its the other way round at the moment, he doesn't have a job..and I am crippled. Good job I havent evented for over a yr!
 
I work my butt off to keep a horse I only get to ride twice a week - he lives in Shrops & I live in London (pay all my own rent and bills!!)- on the plus side I get to ride out with the Blues and Royals/Household Cavalry mid week.
But means getting on and going eventing - I will never get above PN living/working in the situation im in.
For the forseeable future it wont change as salarys back home are rubbish and horses live at home for free.
 
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Yesterday it was our anniversary and OH came home and said 'I was going to buy you flowers, but i bought these for you instead' He then produced two hub caps for my lorry! Personally i would rather have the hub caps cos it saves me buying them
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Brilliant!
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Happy Anniversary
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I have developed an incredibly sharp skill of denial. I simply refuse to look at the figures, and ignore my bank account. Oh, and the horse lives out 24/7 in the summer and I don't event for two months in the middle to allow for a small amount of recovery. OH pays for real life stuff like holidays otherwise I would never go!

I try to sell things on ebay but my dressage saddle has just failed to sell despite being v nice
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I event at Novice and it costs me £5k a year. I keep a book of all my spending it is shocking. Last month I did hardly anything and it still cost me £335 mind you that is because I paid to run at events and had to withdraw and did not get a penny back.
 
I am a bit more realistic and because money is so tight I have to budget for every penny. Some years it ends up less some year slightly more


A 3de for example £500 on entry , stabling another 250 on diesel depending where it is some help at hom eto cover me and OH not being there 250 plus a lost weeks income brings that total to around 1500 as I am self employed

That said I would rather not eat than not go eventing !


Also if you write all of your costs down you will not be in for any surprises
 
gosh I really need to be that organised! But I do prefer SC's approach to it with strict denial.
I haven't evented for a while but still don't seem to be any better off
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Its definitely a rich mans sport!
 
Actually, being totally honest, I have seperate accounts for the horse - when I get paid a set amount goes into that account and that is supposed to pay for everything. I know it will cover livery and shoeing, and it used to cover competing too, but diesel costs have overtaken me this year and I am seriously considering selling the lot at the end of the season as realistically I can no longer afford to compete, and for me a horse is too much work and commitment to not compete. If I get a pay rise then things will probably even themselves out, but that looks pretty unlikely, so I am looking at getting a few more runs on his record then making a decision at the end of the season/beginning of next season. This time last year my bank account was in the black, this year it isn't and being brutal, the situation cannot continue, especially as I am not competing at the moment.
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i wrote down my entire costs for one year a few years ago, eventing one or two, keeping youngsters, etc etc. i nearly had a heart attack at the figure... and diesel costs were much lower then.
SC, that's awful, sincerely hope you get a pay rise.
 
Cheers K, so do I! Trouble is our competitors are laying people off left right and centre and I have to be realistic - my appraisal was very positive and I'd love to think I'll find a way to do it, but it's just impossible to 'downsize' - eg horse won't travel in a trailer (as in destroyed one last time he was in it) so I have to run a lorry (I also don't have my trailer licence), I do a 40 mile round trip to the yard, I have to pay for part livery in the winter due to work. I don't begrudge the money but I won't get myself into serious debt over it all, and it is beginning to tip past the point at which I feel comfortable. It's fuel which is the real issue for me - last year each event cost me in the region of about £60 in fuel, this year I rarely put less than £100 in the lorry. Add that to the cost of a tank for the car having gone up to about £45 from about £35 and I can see where it is all going!
 
absolutely. and i can't ever see the fuel prices going down again, it's just a case of how steep the rise is.
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the French or Americans would be rioting in the streets if they were expected to pay as much as we do!
 
Me either - there is no way fuel prices will fall. I have already taken to using a website to work out cheaper places to fill the lorry up en route to events as the local garage I used to use was only a couple of pence a litre more expensive - it's now nearly 10p a litre more expensive than the average and I refuse to use it anymore - it was when it hit 136.9 I nearly had heart failure - I find supermarkets usually have high enough canopies and are averaging between 129.9 and 131 now, which is a big difference.

Such is life, it's the same for everyone and horses are for sure a luxury not a right or necessity. I know lots of people would be happy to just have a horse and never leave the yard, which I'm not knocking, but I wouldn't, I'd rather give up entirely.
 
Hmm, i manage by doing as much over time as it possible - i think if i added the cost up it be scary. Im now living in the central belt of scotland so it saves heaps of diesel money travelling about 100 miles plus to our nearest event before that when i lived up north!

But thats all forgotten when you belt through the finish of the xc!!
 
I was over in the states a couple of weeks ago and they are not happy about the price of petrol however the prediction with oil prices is that it will eventually hit $2 a barrel , That said even if it doubled in price it would only add another £15k to a £10pa bill

In reality they could quadruple prize money and it would still have little effect at the lower levels , my budget is based on about a dozen events pa so even if I won £200 per event it would not make much of a dent ( and I would have spent that on lessons to get close to being competitive )

I am sure there are a lot of people doing this on less of a budget and some on more
 
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