Uh oh! Cost of my horse is spiralling out of Control!

Wow - your horse must have the most expensive pooh on H and H!!!!!;) He doesn't need all that - you may as well throw your money on the muckheap.
Don't want to sound unsympathetic as I have made this mistake myself, but your feeding routine needs simplifying.

I'd advise mollichop calmer, additional oil and speedibeet for hard feed - forget supplements if you're trying to keep costs down.(cortaflex is a luxury I add - but mine has spavin).
Have the back shoes off too, if you're tb hasn't got rubbish feet, like mine.

I sympathise about the price of hay, btw.
 
amymay said:
I don't take the diet he's on as one that is correct for a horse in hard work. You're basically feeding chaff with oil in.

Why not look at feeding him a correct / balanced diet that reflects correctly the amount of work and type of work he is in? That alone should cut costs.....
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Agree with this the diet is all to pot and don't make sence
 
firewell said:
Thanks everyone, am shocked by all the replies!

I was talking to my mum about it this morning and my mum was remembering back 15/20 years ago when our horses were kept on chaff, pony nuts and sugar beet in the winter and they were fine.
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I struggled to keep weight on mine last winter despite D&H build up mix, sugar beet, barley, chaff etcetc and it was costing me a fortune.

I'm not sure what sort of competing you do - prob more hectic than us (riding 5 days a week, RC activites/fun ride twice a month), but I now feed him mollichaff and half a scoop of bog standard nuts with 2 scoops of pink powder in the evening. He is looking fantastic with not a rib in sight - and he drops weight extremely easily!

Highly reccommend the pink poweder - it's fab.
 
Feed: Why are you feeding Alfa A oil and a lo-cal balancer?
According to Dengies website 'ALFA-A OIL provides 12.5MJ/kg of slow-release energy which is equivalent to a conditioning or competition mix.' and 'The addition of oil makes this product excellent for promoting weight gain or fuelling hard work'

Whereas Baileys Lo-Cal balancer (not sure if you are using this one) states 'if your horse requires few, if any calories, because of reduced work load, or simply because he is a good doer, feeding Lo-Cal balancer to maintain nutrient levels without additional energy will help keep his body healthy'

It appears your feed is contradicting one other and I think you need to have a complete re think of what you want from your hard feed.


Saddler/back/teeth

Your horse is 9 and so should be pretty well developed. Horses only need to see a dentist every 12 months unless the horse has a particular problem. What does your EDT say when they come to do your horses teeth?

Saddler: Again they only really need doing every 12 months, you should yourself be able to observe your horse changing shape and be able to feel and see if your saddle is needing adjusting.

I think it has now become very easy for horse owners to be fooled into thinking that things needs to be checked every so many months as we percieve the individual as an expert and so trust their opinion. In reality they know who they can fool into thinking their horse needs more visits and thus gain more income. If the horse has no issues then why does a back person need to come out every 3 months?

However if you are happy spending £700 a month then it's your money and you can spend it how you wish.
 
Wow, my boy seems really cheap in comparison!!!

Over the year the average is 260, pm including allowing for living in 6months of the year!!! (which usually doesn't happen- normally about 3months)

Apart from the 2500 vets bills this year (1st in 8 years tbf) I feel a lot better LOL!!!!

Oh, and I can't recommend winergy equilibrium enough- it works wonders both for my mums broodmares and competition foals, the old girl, and my horse no matter what level of work (6days a week hard work in summer he's on the high, no work in winter he's just on medium mixed with water)
 
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CadfaelSportHorse said:
Wow, my boy seems really cheap in comparison!!!

Over the year the average is 260, pm including allowing for living in 6months of the year!!! (which usually doesn't happen- normally about 3months)

Apart from the 2500 vets bills this year (1st in 8 years tbf) I feel a lot better LOL!!!!

Oh, and I can't recommend winergy equilibrium enough- it works wonders both for my mums broodmares and competition foals, the old girl, and my horse no matter what level of work (6days a week hard work in summer he's on the high, no work in winter he's just on medium mixed with water)
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Whats your horse wearing in the left pic?! grazing muzzle? off topic sorry never seen this before lol
 
nona1 said:
Hi


you are probably going to think I'm an old fogey, but

I have been out of the horsey world for 20 years or so for various reasons, and just started to get back into it in the last couple of years. Boy, are there huge changes. I'm just stunned by a lot of modern horse ownership practise. I'm not a luddite, and I'm all for improvements, but I can't help thinking a lot of what is happening and what I see discussed here is pure exploitation. Yep, that's the word for it.

So..for my old fashioned view, based on genuine proven for decades old-fashioned honest horsemanship I learned, combined with an honest attitude for improvement and learning new things....


Feed. Hmmmm. Balancers, calmers, supplements, this and that. This is one of the areas that amazes me the most. Horses have been fit, healthy, happy and working on simpler diets for centuries. I truly believe all these other things are a triumph of marketing and nothing else! the cheapest way to feed your horse is in basic straights. Mix your own feeds. It's cheaper, it takes a little bit of research to get a good balance, but it's not that hard, we were all managing it as 10 year olds. Balancers - forget them. Calmers - forget them, you admit your horse is perfectly manageable, so why fuss about it? Supplements - a straightforward mineral lick does the job and costs hardly anything.


, the exploitation is disgraceful.
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quoted text = NAIL ON HEAD! :)
 
Cripes what you pay for one each month I pay less than that for two!!!

£200 for livery
£25 for hayledg
£15 for straw
£45 for shoes
£40 for feed
£50 for lessons and travel to lessons
£100 Competitions including diesel (I never go far) are extra but I do one comp per horse per month so probs no more in the summer.

So what without the comps I am looking at £380 with comps £480. SO I think your paying way over the odds

And thats a Welsh D x TB (poor doer) and a WBxTB again poor doer.
 
Hi. I havent read all the replies but just thought Id say I was feeding my similar version of your horse lots of expensive feeds (build up nuts, alpha a, calm and condition etc) About 2 or 3 months ago I decided enough was enough and swapped her onto cheapy pony nuts, sugar beet and lots of oil from tescos! It probably costs me £10-£15 a week, she looks amazing, really really good and the biggest change was she went from being rather sharp to being much more sensible to ride. She really is alot less of a hot person.

I also took her shoes off about 2 months ago, she is super tough and didnt even notice, but having other TBs I understand that shes a bit unusual being a tough bird without her shoes!!

I was going to work out how much it would cost me to keep mine, decided against it!!!
 
Sorry, haven't read of all the replies, but I would suggest you contact one of the feed suppliers (like TopSpec) to see what they say about feeding a balancer and (say) AlfaA. Always found them to be extremely helpful. I have a TB mare who gets one cup of TS balancer and 1/2 scoop of Alfa A twice a day, with adlib hay, and the bag of balancer costs around £33 but lasts her SIX weeks! She looks fab. The only "extra" she gets is Cortavet for her joints (on veterinary advice). She's a competition horse (Nov BE eventer), and is stabled in winter and out as much as possible in summer when the feed is halved even though she's competing. I would think that by seriously considering your feed you could make substantial savings.
 
Gosh that is a hell of alot...

Mine are all now at a small livery Its £35 per week that includes as much Hay/ haylage and barley straw as i want ( take advantage of corse ) hehe

My farrier is super and cost £60 per set every 7 -8 weeks.
My feed place is the cheapest Is properly around £25 a week that is for 3 horse.
And additional is garlic powder which last about a month and that £3.99 a tub

so that about £205 per horse per month.
And wormer every 4 months and vacs annually.
 
I've just worked out my costs for two ISHs and one cob, living in mostly in winter, with few hours in field each day, and out much more in summer. I have my own yard, so don't pay livery, but do pay for fields to be topped/muckheap removal/maintenance etc, which I've included.

£130/month shoes (done 6 weekly)
£364 hay and straw (use 2 hay/day and 1 straw/day) Expensive this year!
£30 hard feed (dengie lite and pasture mix, but not much)
£100/month insurance for all 3 and trailer.
£30/month maintenance - fences/stables, land maintnance (spraying/topping)
£20 misc - back/teeth checks, rug maintenance etc...

Total £704 for the three.

Not added anything in for lessons - don't have regular, just now and again.
Not added anything for competing costs - would probably spend what I save per month in summer on competing, so it stays the same monthly. Generally do 4 BE/yr on tickets, don't bother affiliating anymore - saves money! Otherwise do plenty of local, which doesn't cost too much.
 
Not surprisingly I haven't read through all of these, so all of this may have been said, but if the grazing is high in Calcium, maybe feed something like Mollichaff calmer = magnesium already in there :) I'm not far from you (I presume, from your sig you are near Merrist Wood :)) and I bulk buy haylage, feed, supplements (oil etc) and bedding from a local feed company (PM me if you'd like some details :)) who, offer concessions on bulk orders and deliver for free :D I pay £5.75 (I think) a bale of really good shavings, they sell own brand and branded (Dengie etc) feed, straights etc, and it really has saved a lot!

I know how you feel though, feeding my TB was a nightmare, 24 hour turnout, 4 slices of hay and two feeds of two scoops chaff, 1 scoop build up mix, 1 scoop build up cubes, 1 1/2 scoop beet and still a ruddy hat-rack! :rolleyes:
 
lizzie_liz said:
Feed: Why are you feeding Alfa A oil and a lo-cal balancer?
According to Dengies website 'ALFA-A OIL provides 12.5MJ/kg of slow-release energy which is equivalent to a conditioning or competition mix.' and 'The addition of oil makes this product excellent for promoting weight gain or fuelling hard work'

Whereas Baileys Lo-Cal balancer (not sure if you are using this one) states 'if your horse requires few, if any calories, because of reduced work load, or simply because he is a good doer, feeding Lo-Cal balancer to maintain nutrient levels without additional energy will help keep his body healthy'

It appears your feed is contradicting one other and I think you need to have a complete re think of what you want from your hard feed.


Saddler/back/teeth

Your horse is 9 and so should be pretty well developed. Horses only need to see a dentist every 12 months unless the horse has a particular problem. What does your EDT say when they come to do your horses teeth?

Saddler: Again they only really need doing every 12 months, you should yourself be able to observe your horse changing shape and be able to feel and see if your saddle is needing adjusting.

I think it has now become very easy for horse owners to be fooled into thinking that things needs to be checked every so many months as we percieve the individual as an expert and so trust their opinion. In reality they know who they can fool into thinking their horse needs more visits and thus gain more income. If the horse has no issues then why does a back person need to come out every 3 months?


However if you are happy spending £700 a month then it's your money and you can spend it how you wish.
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Horse is 5, not 9 :)

Low cal can also be used for horses who are used for comps/need condition as a LOW STARCH alternative to other balancers and as my horse is on a low cereal diet and gets his energy and calories from Alfa and oil, the balancer is not used for weight gain but nutrients/prebiotics that sort of thing so it's not a strange choice at all but a sensible one.
It is however fairly expensive and on reflection I think pink powder will do just the same job for less. I'm fed up with feeding buckets of the Alfa Oil though to keep the weight on so I'm going to use linseed :)

Thanks for your thoughts though.
 
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