What sort of wage needed to have horses in London?

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Zoolander

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Hello,

Just wondering, those who have horses and keep them in or very close to London (more likely close too), taking into account your own rent etc, what sort of wage do you think one would need to be able to have a horse down there? I know this is a very speculative topic, depending on the livery, but for a pretty basic livery yard, without wanting to compete and for a native pony type.

Obviously I'm not asking how much you earn :p but just interested as to what you think you spend a month and so on.

Any thoughts or personal experiences much appreciated x
 
Depends on far too many factors to say! What part of London (this will make a huge difference), how far you're willing to travel to a yard, whether you have to use public transport to get there, whether you want decent grazing and hacking, whether you need floodlit schools to ride after work, if you need services etc etc.

As a rough guide, my rent is £1,500 pcm (one bed garden flat) and part livery (all chores, no riding) is normally around £560. I live SW London and keep horse in Surrey....
 
Zoolander said:
Hello,

Just wondering, those who have horses and keep them in or very close to London (more likely close too), taking into account your own rent etc, what sort of wage do you think one would need to be able to have a horse down there? I know this is a very speculative topic, depending on the livery, but for a pretty basic livery yard, without wanting to compete and for a native pony type.

Obviously I'm not asking how much you earn :p but just interested as to what you think you spend a month and so on.

Any thoughts or personal experiences much appreciated x
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Kent is cheaper than Surrey...don't know about north London, Essex side..and you need to think what sort of livery, ie grass, DIY, part you are looking at....then work it back from there. Travel in from eg, Clapham or Wimbledon is actually not a lot quicker than coming in from surburbia!!
 
trouble is, it depends massively on where you want to live in London, how big a house or flat you need, whether you want to buy or rent, where you want to keep your horse and whether you have a car and/or time to travel further out. Your biggest limitation is finding somewhere to keep them that doesn't cost a fortune as there are very limited grass livery/DIY options near the centre as land is in short supply.

In my experience, if you're prepared to live in the east it's cheaper. I live out east on the Central Line - it takes me 40 minutes from front door to my desk in the City. House prices are cheaper in the east so we bought a 3 bedroom house for less than friends have paid more centrally.

Horse lives over Harold Wood way. Since moving yard his livery costs me £300 a month for Monday to Friday full livery, with feed, shoeing and additional hay on top.

There are smaller yards out Loughton/Epping way where you can get DIY livery for £30 a week, but you'd need you own transport to get to them.

Sorry, not much help really...
 
There's always a trade to be done...

Yards in London will be expensive and may be lacking in certain things that I consider to be essential - turnout, for example.

Keeping a horse further out - better value but I spend about £200 a month in petrol getting to the yard. I'm on part livery (no chores, just riding / grooming / tack cleaning) - bit less expensive than other yards in the area because YO runs it as a sort of hobby.

Try not to think about costs of competing because what I spend on hiring transport is obscene!
 
Apologies, will try and elaborate. Living SW London, so Fulham, Putney, Wandsworth etc although this could be extended a little further south. No car so relying mostly on public transport. Can visit once a day so may need services I.E feed in morning, at night time. Do not require all singing all dancing livery, somewhere to school (with floodlights would be nice) and hack but not essential. Not wishing to compete, just for a native type pony, so potentially grass livery during summer months. Any other criteria required let me know! x
 
Twiglet said:
I'm in Clapham and it's 18 minutes to my office on the tube.....and much cheaper for taxis home after nights out ;)
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Your lucky...friend who works in the city and lives in Wimbledon takes nearly an hour, friend who lived in Clapham and worked inmthe west end had similiar journey times!
 
Zoolander said:
Apologies, will try and elaborate. Living SW London, so Fulham, Putney, Wandsworth etc although this could be extended a little further south. No car so relying mostly on public transport. Can visit once a day so may need services I.E feed in morning, at night time. Do not require all singing all dancing livery, somewhere to school (with floodlights would be nice) and hack but not essential. Not wishing to compete, just for a native type pony, so potentially grass livery during summer months. Any other criteria required let me know! x
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I think you may drive yourself nuts trying to do this on public transport...not saying it's impossible, just that it will limit your options... I live in Putney (and so do some others on here, just do a search).

Have a look on *******, perhaps? Lots of livery yards don't have websites, so you may dig up some hidden gems there.
 
Luci07 said:
Your lucky...friend who works in the city and lives in Wimbledon takes nearly an hour, friend who lived in Clapham and worked inmthe west end had similiar journey times!
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Not really lucky, I just did my research before I moved! Wimbledon can be a pain as it's the District Line, my friends in Southfields have the same issue - I wouldn't move there for that reason.
 
I used to live in Fulham and drive out to work and it would drive me nuts that I would physically take longer to get to the city then say, someone coming up from Dorking!

But back to original post...I would start listing costs and then take note of the hidden costs others have suggested. Ie petrol or travel costs to the yard for one.
 
Public transport out to Surrey will be pretty awful as most yards not near public transport routes! I was brought up in Putney and kept horses in Kent but generally needed lifts to get to yard once passed test, finished Uni and earning decent money moved to Surrey - agree with earlier post Surrey defo more expensive than Kent. But both have lots of very good yards to chose from. I'm at Sarah Fells yard in Cobham highly recommend!
 
IME you will struggle to find the sort of set up you want accessible by public transport from SW London. I have spent days and days of my life working out which yards are most accessibly by public transport and can list you a whole load in the east, and some in the north, but never found one that could be done in a sensible amount of time on public transport that didn't cost a fortune when I lived in Wimbledon.

Oddly you'll actually find it more difficult to find somewhere to keep a native type on good turnout than you would an all singing all dancing full livery yard. There is so little land that people can get away with charging a massive premium for it :)

Come to the east - it's great ;) After much searching my boy now has 24/7 turnout in the summer, and 8 hours a day in the winter. Yard is ten minute walk from a station that takes half an hour into the city.
 
It depends how determined you are. I did it on the outskirts of London on 5500 pounds a year. Grass kept horse, cheap car, rented room/housing benefit. Wouldn't recommend it though! To not live in fear of dropping the balls in my juggling act and to accomodate life's inevitable disasters, I'd have needed about 15000 I think. More if I wanted to rent a flat or stable the horse at night. Whatever you earn, you'll make it work somehow.
 
I have a native pony, don't have a car and I compete. However I don't live in SW London I live in Middlesex and commute into London on the tube.

The yard I have my pony at is accessible by public transport if you are able to walk for 20 minutes up hill (I know some people physically would find this difficult).

My pony is on grass livery but has his own stable and we have a nice floodlit school, hay and bedding can be bought on site and feed is ordered and delivered every week from the feed shop. There is also a lady that comes once a month and sells other horse products like fly spray, etc. I pay £140 in the summer £170 in winter which includes hay. However there are cheaper more basic yards in the area starting at about £46 per month for field only.

Most of my money goes on rent, bills and and travel into London. I also have regular lessons and am a member of two RC clubs which I can hack to from the yard. I am very lucky.

My salary is about £37,000 and the vast majority of that goes on rent £840 a month, council tax £100 and travel to work £220. In a good month I manage to save about £100.
 
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