Struggling to afford pony!

Theres a good site called Martin Lewis money saving Google it. on the board[forum] there is an Old Style section. there are dozens of tips. I now make my own bread cakes biscuits, yoghurt ad even Laundry Gloop for washing clothes. its all much cheaper and the foods delicious. OH takes packed lunches to work consisting of Home Made bread HM pate HM jam HM scones/cake etc etc. we have a veg plot and grow stuff too. its all very satisfying, I dont have to go out to paid work as am doing all this and we can afford to keep our horses. Take a look on the site, I think you will find it useful.
 
Faracat said:
I'm also having to keep to a tight budget at the moment. I now feed straights rather than mixes and the horses look just as good and it's about 25% less money. I've had the shoes taken off one of the horses and if they need anything, I ebay it. Infact I needed a new yard coat for me and I've just won one on ebay for £2.20 +p&p. I agree with everyone who's said look for savings in all areas, not just the horses. It might be worth trying your horse with front shoes only as that saving would add up quite quickly.
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what do you mean by straight?? (bran, barley etc??) also what ones do you find are good for your horse??
 
Straights are just that, straight oats ie a bag of rolled oats, barley, flaked maize etc as oppossed to mixes. we used to all feed straights only ie eith oats and chaff or do our own mix in the olde days LOL. Grain, ie oats, barley etc etc are out of balance mineral wise with too much phosporous to calcium ratio, so you need to add an appropriate amount of limestone flour or a straighta balancer. TBH for1 horse it aint worth it, just feed a few pony nuts or mix. Sugarbeet, is, however, a cheap and good feed, ordinary beet, you dont have to bother with non mollassed. just get a bag of beet shreds or pellets [nut] soak for 24 hrs in plenty of water. I've been feeding it for 40 years and all my horses have done well on it. it ontains lots of fibre and cacium too. and is cheap. just dont feed it dry.
 
Horsesforever1 said:
Straights are just that, straight oats ie a bag of rolled oats, barley, flaked maize etc as oppossed to mixes. we used to all feed straights only ie eith oats and chaff or do our own mix in the olde days LOL. Grain, ie oats, barley etc etc are out of balance mineral wise with too much phosporous to calcium ratio, so you need to add an appropriate amount of limestone flour or a straighta balancer. TBH for1 horse it aint worth it, just feed a few pony nuts or mix. Sugarbeet, is, however, a cheap and good feed, ordinary beet, you dont have to bother with non mollassed. just get a bag of beet shreds or pellets [nut] soak for 24 hrs in plenty of water. I've been feeding it for 40 years and all my horses have done well on it. it ontains lots of fibre and cacium too. and is cheap. just dont feed it dry.
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ok cheers does sound quite comlicated with the limestone flour and that lol, mine is fed spedi-beet, bran, nut and hi-fi original and all this isn't that expensive, cost me £24 not to bad to be honest.
 
touchstone said:
Re: the public liability insurance, you may well find that you are already covered on your household policy, so check this before forking out. Also the BSJA associate membership is £30 and includes public liability, so a chunk cheaper than the BHS.

I'd ditto the others on cutting costs by leaving out, removing shoes etc.
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Apologies if someone else has already pointed this out, but the excess on the BS(JA) policy is £1,000 - if someone is looking to save money, this is really not the insurance to have.
 
It would be worth phoning a feed company. They are very helpful and have nutritionists that can help you work out the correct feed for your horse. I'm lucky because oats don't make my mare hot, but other horses can't have them without going do-lally.
 
Just a few options that sprung in to my head, may be no use.

1. You could move to a cheaper DIY yard nearer to home/work - saving petrol?
2. Move onto grass livery with a school/hacking
3. Find a sharer and clearly outline was is/isn't allowed
4. Put her out on loan whilst you sort out your finances
5. Get another job for some extra cash
6. Strip down on all luxuries for both yourself and horse and prioritise.

Really hope this has helped and hope you sort out your situation ASAP.
 
Your livery bill does seem steep. Now that the spring is not too far away I would look for somewhere that has more grass, perhaps not as facilities but you seem to hack and try and get somewhere for £10-15 a week and you can have her out all year round.
Where I live land is very expensive but there are still people who would rather have a nice helpful livery than the money. There are sometimes odd pockets of land which you can rent for not a lot of money, these usually belong to churchs, town trusts, wild life trusts, it may pay to ask round the villages.
If you horse is normally healthy I would get rid of the vets fees insurace and and go for BHS or NPS 3rd party.
I would not buy bagged chaff, its mainly straw. Think about why you are feeding, is it for calories, token feed, or vitamins. If its the last two a cheap complete nut or vitamin supplement with a bit of extra hay may be better value.
Get rid of the horse dentist. A good eqiune vet will do your jabs and check the teeth usually for less than a horse dentist and if it really needs to have a tooth out the vet will probabely have to sedate and do it any way.
 
Your livery bill does seem huge! To give you an idea of costs here are mine!

DIY Livery yard, with a flood lit grass (fab ground) paddock £85 a month in winter (3 mares in 4 acre field, with 2 bales hay out a day) and £60 in summer

Farrier is £20 a trim, every 8 weeks

Has a MW turn out with neck, and a HW no neck i can put under if need be.

Insurance, PL and Vets bills £19 a month

Feed - bag of grass nuts £7.20 (lasted so far over a month and only half way through) bag of alfa a chaff £10 (had it so long cant remember how much exactly)

Dentist, £35, if i can get the time off when he does the other yard horses, otherwises its £50.
 
Know how you feel, 2 years ago my boy fell desperately ill after the YM infecting him. I got a bill for 880€ and it was at the worst possible time. I now have a wonderful sharer that pays for his shoes and 1 sack of horse food a month (can do a month with 3 sacks).
ALthough like you, I was very wary as poorly ned was just coming out of his touch and go stage I have not once had a problem and I completely trust my sharer with him. It helps financially and I have more ME time, Ned is ridden more so is fitter and healthier and ofcourse my sharer has a lovely horse to ride.
 
I save money by using the internet to buy things such as wormers and supplements. For example a tube of Equest wormer will cost me £23 from my local store but if I buy it from vetmeds on the internet it costs me £17. I buy Naf supplements from them too which saves me an average of £7 per tub and I also buy all my dog food and wormers from them too. Delivery is usually free depending on weight of parcel. They will also send you discount codes saving you even more money.

I buy Derby House rugs instead of expensive rugs and I usually use ebay for things like fencing tape, connectors and buying horsey clothing and boots for myself and the neds.

I agree with what others have said too. Look at what you are feeding and cut it back if you can.

Does your horse need the back man or is this just something that you do because you think you should? There are four horses on my yard and they all live out 24/7 with shelter and they have never had back issues etc. Yet my friends who part stable theirs have to have the back man out at least twice a year so maybe if you left your horse out 24/7 it would reduce your livery/bedding costs and you perhaps would not have to spend extras on things like the back man.

Hope it all works out.
 
Horsesforever1 said:
are you sure you need the dentist and the backman? they are very modern ideas. I've kept horses for over 40 years and sucessfully competed at county level and long distancce endurance. i dont use either, i get the vet to check teeth at annual vaccinatio time,rarely is anything necessary to be done. i've never had a physio or alternative type of stuff either.
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I Agree with this too, my two have teeth done once a year by vet when she does vacs.
 
Chestnut mare said:
Thank you to everyone for your supportive comments :D. Ok, I am on a small diy yard the YO horses and 3 other liveries. I share the chores with 1 other livery so I only go up once daily. I work shift work so is difficult to get a second job as my hours are varied so would only be able to do it on a Sunday :(. I have made cut backs and do not even go to the gym anymore and can't remember the last time I brought something for myself :p. I have thought about loosing her shoes or at least the back 1's but due to her injury we can only hack really so she does need her shoes on :(. The day the vet came was a zone day but still cost £20 for call out :eek:. Maybe I will shop around and see if I can get a free call out with another practice! I will also ship around for her insurance when that is due for renewal in July.
My costs are:
Livery £110 pcm.
Shoes £64 every 7 weeks.
Feed spillers lite and hi fi £40 lasts 8 weeks.
She is in nov - march I deep litter the bed so only put a new bale in every 4-6 weeks £8.
Hay 2 sections at night none in field £20 for the month.
My costs extra for bringing her in is £30 a month but suppose if she was out would still need hay so is not costing much more. She is a stress head and will fence walk at coming in time :mad:
Maybe I will give the sharer a bit more thought.

Thank you again xx
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is there no cheaper livery yards in the area?
have you looked for an alternative to spillers and try find a cheaper hay man?
for £140 a month in my area that is not bad but there is cheaper out there if you look. put ads in papers (free ads and other papers where you dont have to pay to advertise )
or you can leave her out , yes she may stress for a while but she will get the hang of it. and my filly has 2 sections a day and she lives out 24/7 i spend less on hay than other people on the yard, because theres come in on a night they have hay in field then a hay net for while in stable , so they are eating more hay than mine is.

do you not know if any of your friends want a horse but can not quite afford one.? if they suitable suggest they share yours? xxx
 
Hi Fi lite is mainly chopped straw and mollasses very little nutritional value, if you are feeding a balancer then you may not need the HI Fi lite? Does she really need the balancer or full ration, controversial I know but there are hacking horses on my yard on grass livery who do not get any hard feed and they are completely fine, have not needed the vet for anything other than routine vaccinations?

when the farrier comes are the shoes very worn down? If not could you take the back shoes off your horse most can cope with out back shoes even if hacking on the roads, or could you get away with refits if the shoes are not very worn down?

Could the vet do the dental work and back check? I use the vet to do my ponies jabs and get them to check his teeth at the same time, and his back, this year when the vet checked his teeth they did not need doing so he just had his jab.

Could you get your horse living out 24/7 and have a rota with another livery with regard to checking/feeding so that you only have to do one journey a day. Living out saves vasts amounts of money I find.

At one yard I was on some of the liveries went to a local furniture/wood mill and got free shavings from them for bedding of course not dust extracted but they did not see to suffer any allergies.

Any chance of car sharing with another livery or work colleague who lives near you to save on petrol costs?

Then of course there is cost cutting at home but that might depend on how willing your OH was to give up some things too.
 
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if you can get to hartlip then theres parish owned grazing there that is very very cheap.ischa on here is there.a lot cheaper than yards in area.they may have a space for one.
 
For the area Chestnut mare is in the livery is not expensive. Most yards locally would be the same. Grass livery obviously cheaper, but with the weather we have had over the past few months would def not want mine living out ! I would postpone the dentist and back man for a bit unless there are definite problems.
 
My sharer was so fab that now she has outgrown my little horses and my finances are less dire I am actually looking to take on a bigger horse for her so that we can continue to share the chores and ride out together. You may find a fab one too if you look carefully, advertise in pet shops, people without horses don't go to tack shops!

Alex is my fourth sharer though (over 2 horses so 2 each) so be prepared to get messed about a little. Be firm about money though, I had one that always 'forgot' her contribution to keep! If you do the chores you can ask for more contribution.
 
Agree with Alma.

If I could find DIY livery for £110 I would be ecstatic!!

OP I really feel for you. Thing is a sharer is unlikely to want to contribute a huge amount financially for a horse they can only lightly hack? Would it be enough to make it worthwhile? I know every little helps though! With the exception of perhaps feed (and vet) your horsey costs seem as low as you could get them (without her going barefoot which you've explained is not a possibility). Are there other areas of your life, non horsey, where you may be able to cut back on instead?
 
ooh and if other half prepared to help, explain how bad you feel letting him, then let him.

He cares and is trying to show you that. Besides, you only need so much help till about march, not long now, explain that to him and how bad it makes you feel but I'm sure he knows how important pony is to you.

At some point in future he may need your help.
 
Sorry to hear of your situation, I would definately be thinking seriously about getting a sharer as someone else has said maybe look for an adult and set out the rules about her tendon injury but most people will be fine about it if they are seriously interested aslong as they have known all along.
I would also ditch the back man unless there is a specific reason they are coming...it is a modern idea and to be honest until a few years ago most people didnt have one even when competing regularly!! The dentist maybe necessary but they only need to come once a year (to be honest we tend to do it 18months as ours have good teeth) if they showed signs of teeth probs we would get out at that point. Agree about trying to get vet to do at injections but you have had that so no point now!!
Good luck.
 
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