What does your horse cost you per month?

[Dream2own]

I've recently taken on a horse share and just know it's going to make me want my own horse in the future. What do you pay monthly in total on your horse?

Just a nosy question really as until I've progressed up the career ladder I won't be able to afford one, especially in Kent near the London border! Can hope and dream though

 

[BobbyMondeo]

This is what i pay

Assisted Livery £195
Bedding £40
Haylage £40
Feed £20
Insurance £50
Shoes £40 ( 60 every 6 weeks)

So thats £385 pcm


Thats all the basic costs then there is all the extras like physio, saddler, dentist, vet bills both routine and not, lessons competions, new pretty things for him. Basically too much! dont do it

 

[Bedlam]

About £500 a month all in I would say.

 

[Charmel]

OMG Where are you people based. I have my own land so per horse (taking out cost of land and maintenance cos I would have to do that anyway) mine costs about 8 per month feed, 5 bedding 75 every two months shoes or 30 trim every 3 months insurance is shared amoung 8 and anything else I spend on rugs shows etc....So average 60 per month inc jabs from vet back and teeth per horse. I cut my own hay and haylage and they mostly live out costs are shared between 5 horses and 3 ponies never spend more than 400 a month not including shows........BUT when on DIY livery averaged about £175-200 per horse (didn't have as many then!)

 

[Kikke]

Ignorance is bliss, so really don't want to know precisely.
£600-£700 a month I would say with livery, lessons, feet etc. all included

 

[blood_magik]

I added it all up once.. it was scary. :tongue3:

 

[JLD]

my horse was about £500/ month all in including his assisted livery/full livery depending on your criteria ( all care no riding ), my pony kept at home costs about £50 month max !

 

[Welshboy]

I have two, and one costss:
DIY Livery (including all haylage/straw) approx. £150
Insurance £40
Farrier £43 (£60 every 6 weeks)
Speedibeet, chaff, linseed, supps £30
Wormer/worm counts/vacs/back/teeth approx. £20
Rug leaning/shampoo/meds/other £20

So, roughly £300 each, plus lessons, outings etc

 

[LeannePip]

Part Livery - £390 per month
shoes - £65 every 7 weeks
then theres shows/supplements/rugs/lessons/petrol to and from yard probably totals about £500 per month!

 

[Double_choc_lab]

OMG Where are you people based. I have my own land so per horse (taking out cost of land and maintenance cos I would have to do that anyway) mine costs about 8 per month feed, 5 bedding 75 every two months shoes or 30 trim every 3 months insurance is shared amoung 8 and anything else I spend on rugs shows etc....So average 60 per month inc jabs from vet back and teeth per horse. I cut my own hay and haylage and they mostly live out costs are shared between 5 horses and 3 ponies never spend more than 400 a month not including shows........BUT when on DIY livery averaged about £175-200 per horse (didn't have as many then!)

Where I come from (S Gloucestershire) I'd get two bales of hay for £8 or one bag of cubes and one and a half bales of straw for £5. Couldn't possibly keep for that amount. Insurance is nearly £60 for our boy!

 

[Christmas Crumpet]

This current horse who is older and needs more management costs about £196 to be kept at home each month. Normally my horses are on hay and straw so far cheaper!!

£65 shoes (done every 5 weeks)
£20 food (C&C, oats, chaff)
£10 insurance
£40 supplements (Winergy Ventilate & Pro Hoof)
£33 Haylage
£28 Shavings

However, horses go out from April onwards and only have front shoes on, fed the bare minimum they need for supplements so not quite so expensive from April - October!!

 

[Abacus]

DIY livery £155, 5-day services £200, hay about £40, feed about £25, bedding £30, shoes £54, insurance £48. Total £552. I also pay for lorry parking, £40 extra.

Plus lessons (£40 each, approx fortnightly) and any stuff... thank god I have pretty much everything and have less need these days for loads of stuff!

Anyone who says their land maintenance doesn't count - if you wouldn't have the land without the horses, then it should count in your horse costs. My friends with horses at home reckon they cost as much as at a yard if you maintain properly.

 

[Solstar]

I'd like to think I spend about £300 a month on a 3yo TB and welsh A.
(Assisted DIY livery, adlib hay, hard feed, hemp bedding with rubber mats, no shoes, lesson every other week)

 

[Charmel]

I insure as a group. Feed wise ponies have handful happyhoof and horses have sugarbeet cubes and alfafa (bought in bulk).They mostly live out and all hay and haylage I cut myself, and I swapped some haybales for straw with local farmer. I have only had the land and stables since February and I cant believe the difference to my finances. DIY livery cost me about £200 per horse all in !

 

[NellRosk]

Livery (for 2) - £400
Feet trimming - about £30 every 8 weeks
Feed - £30
YO riding the youngster for me - £50

And then add on to that emergency spends when things break -rugs, buckets, tack, mucking out tools etc.

Scary :eek3:

eta forgot £30 a week for a lesson and also insurance on top of that. Oh my god why did I just add it all up..

 

[FestiveFuzz]

Too much! In all seriousness though I pay the following:

Part grass livery including feed = £216
BHS gold membership = £6
Insurance = £37
Farrier every 6 weeks = £80 new shoes/£65 if reusing shoes
Haylage = £40
Lessons = £50 - £70 (usually fortnightly)

On top of this I put aside an extra £100 - £200 for unexpected vets bills/saddler/physio etc.

 

[Sheep]

Hmm.. not sure I want to itemise this cos I rarely think about it (ignorance is bliss).

Livery: £38 per week- includes stable, morning feed & turn out (inc rug change if necessary), year round turnout, and hay / haylage
Bedding: Bought a pallet load in July- works out about £4.50 a bale (using one a week currently)
Insurance: £6.50 per month BHS Gold membership + £15ish for death/accident/straying/tack insurance (no vets fees)
Shoeing: £50-60 every 6 weeks depending on what is being done
Feed: Around £25 a month (Speedibeet & molasses free Hifi)
Supplements: Around £25 again
Competing/lessons: Don't do either much, but probably £20 a month or so depending on time of year etc

I would say it normally comes to around £220-250 per month. Then again I just had a vets bill of £500 and have recently bought a new saddle so some months are considerably more expensive than others!

 

[Megibo]

Oh jeez I added it all up once ... am never doing that again!

 

[Charmel]

As far as Land Maintenance I do find I am ploughing quite a lot of time and effort into it but have a lot more than I can use so farmer maintains fields in return for half first cut of hay and grazing of sheep. Which is amazing. It seems that its more favour for favour than actual cash. Local tree surgeons take care of all my trees and cut hedgerows in return I store all wood for them. I have taken care of 2 in foal ex eventers for the local timber merchant in exchange for posts and rails for my fencing. I allowed a contractor a small corner of a field to set up their welfare facilities for works they were carrying out on the highway and on the new housing site they in return rebuilt my falling down barn and laid my water supply...... You get the picture......but you are right if you didn't know the right people and be prepare to exchange favours you could spend a hell of a lot of money on maintaining the land.

 

[Annagain]

Back in 2010 I kept a really detailed record of everything I spent, out of curiosity more than anything. The only thing I didn't/couldn't calculate was fuel both for getting back and fore to the farm and for taking the trailer out as I used the car for other things. I would say my spending is relatively modest. I'm on DIY livery at £25 a week, my boy's a good doer so doesn't need a lot of food, I don't go overboard on rugs or numnahs or anything like that and I compete or go somewhere maybe once a month with a lesson every other week throughout the summer, less so in the winter. I spent about £3,700 in a year, so about £300 a month, which is less than I feared it was going to be!

 

[Nugget La Poneh]

Per Month, and I am not as scared as I thought I would be!

DIY Livery - £125
Bedding (currently shavings and one a week) - £35
Hay - £49
Feed - £8
Insurance - (effectively TPF&T for horses ) - £14
BHS - £6
Farrier (Barefoot) - £22

Total - £273

But this is baseline for winter and doesn't include the slush fund for vets/emergencies, yard services and competitions/lessons etc.

Will be going over to straw shortly though, not that I think it will make a huge difference. However as he eats the straw, I am hoping the need for nearly 3 bales of hay a week will reduce

Although just worked out it will save me £20/month swapping to straw. But in long term will save me a bill for ulcer treatment

 

[buddy's mummy]

£80 per week stable and t/o, hay £25 big bale, straw = free (o/h a farmer), shoes £25 a month, feed prob about £50 with supps, £17 insurance. so about = £197 a month

 

[Tally-lah]

I put £1200 aside each month and that means that i'm covered throughout the year as I spend less in the summer and more in the winter. I have two horses though, both good-doers and two shetlands. They all live out together.

 

[windand rain]

£260 per month for all four so £65 each in winter about £50 in summer all are trimmed, vaccinated and have all medical necessities. This doesnt include transport or show entries. They are on 24/7 turnout grass livery

 

[xgemmax]

Livery is £173.33
Feet trim £20 every 8 weeks
Feed - £10.00
Supplements - £15 every 8 weeks
Shavings - £33.25 (5 bags roughly)
Insurance - £33.50


Works out on average £270.00, scary!

eta: oops forgot hay, durr! thats prob around £15 a month as share a round bale

 

[kizmund]

a month..

£140 DIY livery
£40 assistance, pay yard £2 a day in winter to turn her out in the morning so I only do one end of the day - save that in petrol! (only in winter)
£36 on shavings (only in winter)
£40 on hay (only in winter)
£8 on feed
£15 on feet trimming
£52 on insurance ...... will be less next year as changing type of policy

That works out at £331! I normally budget for £400 so I have left over for lessons, jabs (when needed), saddler, dentist, wormer etc but obviously in the summer it's a lot cheaper.

 

[friesian76]

I added it up once and didnt like the answer but here goes.

Diy Livery £180
Hay £45 (more in winter)
Feed £26 (horse quite a good doer)
Bedding £60
Shoeing £35 (only shod on fronts)
Insurance £30
basic cost every month about £376 but of course theres always those litle extras that you must have or my boy really needs! Lessons, dentist, saddler, vacinations, need i go on

 

[CharlesMax]

£550 livery
£80 livery extras
£160 lessons
£60 insurance
£60 shoes
£150 extras (comp fees, etc)
Eeeeeeek!

 

[Fools Motto]

If my OH saw this, he'd have a heart attack! I always say I keep mine very cheap, which is true as I don't pay rent as horses are on our farm, nor any bedding costs nor any hay costs. I only shoe during the summer, and only feed during the winter.
Next outlay of money will be on annual vet check and jabs, and wormers. (I'll keep that quiet!)

Just a really rude request, if those who are paying, say more than £500pcm, may I ask how much (give a rough answer) are you earning each month. (and with that are you doing household bills too?)
Our rent alone comes to £650, not to mention bills ect.. and I really wouldn't be able to afford a hamster if I had to pay livery!!

 

[gingernut81]

My chap doesn't cost per month as much as I though:

DIY Livery - £97.50
Shoes - £30
Feed and supplements - £30 (alfa-a molasses free, speedibeet,365 complete and micronised linseed)
Hay - £35
Bedding - £50
Insurance - £8.52
Don't have lessons or go on any outings at the moment also have a sharer who pays £100 a month plus half shoes so say about £150 a month.