Set up budget?

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EdYouKateShaun

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So I'm beginning to think about buying my own horse in the next year or so so I'm researching.

Horse is likely to be a Highland that I will keep on grass livery. I have a budget for week to week / month to month costs. What I need is an idea of a set up budget?

Tack
Turn out rugs ×2
Buckets
Headcollar and lead rope x2
Grooming kit

What have I missed and what is a realistic budget for good quality but not over the top?
 
Yes a good torch is essential. I like a head torch with a red light option (doesn't blind the horse if you point the torch at the horse's head) is great for checking horses in the field in the dark.
 
A stash of hay for over winter, daft stuff like food bins, sponges, treats... I forgot to factor in mucking out tools which was a bit ouchy, but if you are going for grass livery you shouldn't need that :)

Agree with first aid kit, hi viz, torch, haynets - I use a head torch which is bloody brilliant!!
 
Thanks for the extra ideas! First aid kit especially.

What I really meant was: can you look at my last and give me an idea of how much I'd need to but all these start up things?

Sorry I don't think I was very clear.
 
Tack ....... saddle ,girths, irons, leathers ,numnahs, bridles, possible other stuff - bits, martingale, breastplate , cleaning kit, ... depending where you shop, upwards of £300 at a guess
Turn out rugs ×2 - .... you might not need them with a native horse, but if you did, price depends on the quality and brand .... upwards of £70
Buckets ... you can find cheap ones at a pound each, but they do not last very long or hold much. £20 would buy you 2 reasonable feedbins.
Headcollar and lead rope x2 .... £25 middle range
Grooming kit ..... you can find complete kit for around £40 middle range

add your wellies, paddock cleaning barrow,bin & fork, water trough , first aid etc already mentioned ....- might be around a £1,000 so far ?

Don't forget to allow for regular farrier, vet worming, travel, competition entries, your clothes, insurance, riding clubs, unforeseen . It is good you are doing research before buying your horse. :)
Happy horse hunting,
Teg

Read more at http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?703698-Set-up-budget#f3t3f3s8vmhYXazC.99
 
Super that's a great help.

I won't need tools or troughs etc as that's all taken care of by the yard on grass livery.

Also no show entries etc. I'm definitely not a show person! ;-)

Yeah I figured I might not need the rugs but I'd rather have them than not.

The one thing I'd spend a lot of money on is a properly fitted saddle.

Thanks for your help.
 
The tack bit and saddles are a bit how long is a piece of string really.
We've bought saddles from £250 had them fitted for around £30 (this was about 10 years ago) and its all been happy. We've bought some at around the £500-£700 for a quality second hand branded saddle fitted more recently for more like the £40-£50 mark, and finally just bought one for a lot lot more as it was a perfect fit for me and the horse.
Saddles will ultimately depend on getting a good fit for you both and if you are normal sizes and shapes you might get lucky with an off the peg standard saddle. However if you are more tricky I've found the zero's add on lol, you mention a Highland not a breed I've owned myself, but I imagine they are quite short backed and if you are long legged could see you having the classic seat size vs horse's back length struggle.

The rest of the tack you can really do quite cheaply, stirrups, leathers, bridle, reins etc, though bits could be another expensive point that is easy not to factor in. We've always had normal standard bits which second hand are fairly cheap and even new aren't expensive (£20), but just bought a myler bit for the fussy pants horse who also needed the very expensive saddle which new are around the £60 so a bit of a difference in price! I struck lucky and got the right bit in the size I wanted second hand from E-Bay for £30.

Also don't forget things like saddle pads (a couple so that one can be cleaned and you have another to use), any boots for the horse such as brushing boots or over-reach boots. I like to boot particually for fast rides just incase they catch themselves.

I think if you look on the main horse retailers websites (Derby House, Robinsons, Ride-Away, Hope Valley Saddllery) this will give you a good idea of the cost of things new and then you can re-search the second hand cost on the likes of ebay, preloved, local facebook horsey pages, etc.

Good luck, so exciting to be planning you first horse!

x x
 
Thanks that's so helpful.

I've had a long break from horses and am now back having some lessons and I'm lucky enough to have found a fabulous share horse. I'm so rusty but things are coming back to me now! ;-)

I can fit a rug, bridle etc quite confidently but feel like a fish out of water when it comes to saddles. I'm freaked out that I'd do damage to the horse if it's not fitted right. I'm not especially long legged so hoping I fare ok.

Right so I'm going to set aside £1000 for getting set up. Next stop is to research a realistic budget to buy a sane Higland that I can hack and school on but that my daughter can ride too from time to time.

Oh a quick rug question. Would it be ok to rug with a very lightweight rug for the purposes of keeping them cleaner and drier i.e. easier for me. Or would that upset the magic of a Highlands hardy coat?
 
If your horse is living out 24/7 definitely avoid cheap rugs as its a false economy - Rambo are always my first choice, my youngster lived out 24/7 last year and didnt manage to break either Rambo he had and he was only 1. I bought them second hand and were about £50/£60 each (one MW one HW). Preloved and ebay will become your best friend!

Good saddle will cost you anything between £300 and £2000 depending on what you want. Good saddle fitter will cost about £45-£80 per visit (factor in at least 2 at first). Bridle again can be anything from £30-£500 depending on what you want. Bits are sold separately and you might need to try a few to see what suits the horse best, so allow £20-£50 per bit depending on what style you go for. Stirrup irons and stirrup leathers are normally sold separately to the saddle, as is the girth - so girth allow £20 if you want a synthetic one, up to £100 if you want leather. Or if you are going super fancy you can get some girths costing around £300-£500! Stirrup irons you can go cheap second hand about £10 or fancy ones up to £200. Stirrup leathers £10 second hand, up to £100 new nice ones.

I'd always do a few health things before buying any horse (even a native!) - get the horse vetted before purchase to highlight any health issues that the seller may be hiding/unaware of. Call a few local vets to find out how much a stage 5 vetting would be but I believe they are around £200 maybe a bit more. Once they've passed the vetting and you've got them home, you need teeth checking from a dentist (and will probably need a rasp) about £40-£50. Farrier to trim (around £20-£30), shoes probably unnecessary if living out but you might want to think about that if you are hacking on roads a lot. Back checked before doing any serious ridden work, another £50 ish.

Buckets you can get dead cheap anything from £2 to £20 depending on size of bucket. Headcollar and lead rope you can go dead cheap and get both probably for around £10 or go fancy and spend anything up to £200 on a nice leather one. Grooming kit £30-£50 on average.

You'll probably need extra hay if the horse is living out through winter when the grass goes, allow £30 ish every month through winter (thats on the high side but you are better to over-estimate now rather than be caught short if winter is particularly bad). Insurance costs anything from £25 per month upwards, even if you dont get insurance I'd set aside at least £30 per month for unexpected vets bills as you can get huge bills at any time with horses! My youngster injured himself in the field after owning him for 2 weeks, £2.5k vets bill - thank god I had insurance!

You also need vaccinations (around £40-£50 depending on call out fees), worming (some yards have worming programmes, otherwise you'll need to sort it yourself - worm count method is probably the best and least wasteful in terms of cost). If the horse is doing ridden work (not just a field ornament) you'll probably need to give it a little hard feed maybe once a day depending on the quality of grass, how long the grass lasts for and the type of horse you buy. But again best to budget for feed and then if you dont need it great - around £20-£50 every 6 weeks or so depending on how much you are feeding.

This article is quite helpful:
http://www.equine-world.co.uk/buying_horses/cost_horse.asp

With horses you can spend infinite amounts of money so you need to be clear on what you want to do with the horse (i.e. if you are doing a lot of jumping you may need extra tack and boots etc) and then budget accordingly. If you just want a horse for a bit of fun and hacking then I think I've covered most things above. Just dont skimp on the health part, better to buy second hand rugs/tack etc if you need to save money rather than trying to cut corners with the horse's health. Regular checks for teeth, feet, back etc are all very important and will stop small issues becoming more serious.
 
I am no expert, but I think the latter. Once rugs start being used, you will have to keep using them.... 'though I believe I read somewhere about natural rugs ... sales hype or no ... I don't remember. It might be worth googling whether to rug or not to rug. I am the latter. I believe the close to natural the better (unless the horse tells you otherwis) :)
 
EdYouKateShaun said:
Thanks that's so helpful.

I've had a long break from horses and am now back having some lessons and I'm lucky enough to have found a fabulous share horse. I'm so rusty but things are coming back to me now! ;-)

I can fit a rug, bridle etc quite confidently but feel like a fish out of water when it comes to saddles. I'm freaked out that I'd do damage to the horse if it's not fitted right. I'm not especially long legged so hoping I fare ok.

Right so I'm going to set aside £1000 for getting set up. Next stop is to research a realistic budget to buy a sane Higland that I can hack and school on but that my daughter can ride too from time to time.

Oh a quick rug question. Would it be ok to rug with a very lightweight rug for the purposes of keeping them cleaner and drier i.e. easier for me. Or would that upset the magic of a Highlands hardy coat?
Click to expand...

If you are getting a native/highland type then I wouldnt rug unless really necessary - problem with sticking a lightweight on is that it will flatten the coat and stop it growing to its full extent so when a bad spell comes during winter the coat wont be as good as it should be. I'd always suggest avoiding rugs unless it turns out your horse desperately needs one, not only will you end up spending money replacing them and washing them all the time, they can get caught on things and cause injuries, they dont help the growth of the coat in winter and stop the horse from self regulating their own temperature. Unless you are down there changing rugs a couple of times a day its not fair to leave the horse out in the same rug for both day and night, really you should be changing it frequently depending on weather conditions in order to help their temperature control. Without a rug they can run around to warm up and remain still when they need to cool down - with a rug they dont have this option and if its warm they just overheat unless you're around to take it off.

If you want to rug for your own personal ease then having a horse living out 24/7 wont be right for you - even with a rug on you'll still have mud EVERYWHERE and spend hours getting the mud off the legs, you cant cover the legs with anything out in the field so you wont save yourself much extra effort by having a rug on. If you dont have much time and want less hassle then some sort of livery with a stable will be a much better option, horses living out are dirty, messy and take hours to clean up regardless of rugs.
 
EdYouKateShaun said:
So I'm beginning to think about buying my own horse in the next year or so so I'm researching.

Horse is likely to be a Highland that I will keep on grass livery. I have a budget for week to week / month to month costs. What I need is an idea of a set up budget?

Tack
Turn out rugs ×2
Buckets
Headcollar and lead rope x2
Grooming kit

What have I missed and what is a realistic budget for good quality but not over the top?
Click to expand...

Wheelbarrow, poo picking scoop and fork, water carriers maybe? insurance, hivis,
 
Or you could just do what i do and just groom where the tack goes (so the head, saddle and girth area) and leave the rest of the horse muddy. It takes me abut 30 mins to bring in, properly groom those areas and tack up.

Mine do live out (bar abnormally awful weather) and are rugged as required, but aren't as hardy or fluffy as a highland.

You may find that you need to clip your highland in winter and that of course means that you will need to rug. If you do rug, then getting the make of rug that fits your horse/pony really well is essential. Ask other highland owners what they use and that should give you a good starting point. I like rugs with shiny/silky linings (eg nylon) as I found that they don't rub my horses' shoulders. I also don't use winter rugs with neck covers as I found that they just rubbed the bottom of the mane out.
 
Insurance, high viz added to my list now.

Won't need tools etc or hay as that's all included in the price.

I see your point about mud everywhere! I'd rather deal with mud and have them live out. I like them au natural!

Highlands don't tend to have white legs do they?
 
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