What's the monthly cost of keeping your horse?

Erm... my boy is on full livery i would estimate the total amount at around £350 per month inlcuding full set of shoes, worming, back lady, insurance.
 
I don't like keeping track ha but;

£40 livery
£15 farrier
£25 feed supplements
£25 insurance

So around £100 a month which I don't think is bad!

He only has front shoes on ATM (was barefoot) and he's on a little calm and condition plus my livery includes unlimited haylage! Bargain(no just very lovely rich people!????);-)

X
 
it certainly eats away at your money!!
definatly depends on how you keep them i pay £19 a week livery and then i have hay, bedding, feeds, supplements, and the inevitable vets bills! but it is always cheaper in summer if they live out.
it also depends on how much gear you want to buy but i wouldnt dare factor that in i think it would add up to a scary amount! especially when you first get your horse :/
i think as long as you can find £100 pound a week that covers most of my expenses as well as leaving some extra for outings and a lesson every now and then
:) :) :)

good luck finding your share horse i hope it goes well :)
 
Summer (Rough guess, not been at current yard in summer yet! Only moved last September)

£70 for 2.5 acre field, shelter + tackroom per month
£37 inc VAT for 4 shoes (over 8 weeks so £75)
£6 for a bag of garlic chaff so he can get his supplements. Not sure how long this will last.. Maybe 2/3 months.
£7.50 + £6.50 for supplements, last 2 months each, normally £15 + £13.
£10 for wormer.

Roughly about £125ish a month.


Winter

£70 for field
£5 for round bale of straw which lasts 2 months.
£15 x 2 for round bale of good hay which lasts 2/3 weeks (Both hay and straw split between 2 horses in a shelter)
£30 roughly a month on feed.
£37 for shoes.
£7.5 + £6.50 for supps.
£10 for wormer.

Roughly £200 a month.
 
i have a 7 YO TB....

never worked this out before so here it goes eekkk:

Stable rent 96.00
Bedding 24.00
Haylege 30.00
hard feed 10.50
supps 7.50
Farrier 60.00
insurance 28.00

so 256.00 not bad :)

Extras 60.00 vet jab once a year and 18.00 worked 3 months? i think....never had to have the vet out up to now thanks goodness! :)

hes not the best doer but he looks pretty good for comming out of his 1st winter with me :)
 
I payout roughly £200 for a good doer native that lives out 365 24/7. Yard is private, just me and a friend and although no facilities we are slap bang on the open Forest so great hacking.
 
I posted this the other day, can't remmeber exact costs and too scary to add it up again! It wasn't actually that bad, more in winter, but as an average, £300 per month, for two, incl insurance, worming, jabs, farrier and 'running costs' not inc little 'extrass' like matchy matchy and shiney-winey (not that I actually buy much new stuff though!:cool:
 
Monthly cost per pony:
Livery (DIY) - £60
Feed - - £10 per 8 weeks.
Shoes - £70 full set per 6 weeks for one BUT £30 trim per 12 weeks for second
Insurance - £30 per month for ridden pony
Hay (the worst winter we had) - 4 bales per pony = £100 so £20 per month.

= £190 per pony for a worst month and one where
hay/shoes are not required: £100 per month.

I average £300 per month for 2 Native ponies :D

I do however have use of a massive outdoor arena, jumps, XC course, fab hacking and I have a stable for my own use - bedding is included.
 
I really hate these threads because I feel compelled to read them and then realise that I have 2 of the most expensive horses and live in the most expensive part of the country for everything - livery, shoeing, vets fees etc :mad: :mad:

I keep all my accounts on a software package, so know exactly what my boys cost me. Including almost everything, my 2 cost me an average of just over £1k/month (between them. not each!). That's on DIY, but does include lessons, competitions, rugs (repairs and washing, I rarely buy new ones), clothing for me, BHS membership, insurance, lorry servicing, tax etc etc.

When I had just the one and was on full livery, it averaged out about £650/month.
 
Jennbags, that's NOTHING! At least your's earn their keep - mine is totally retired. She is DIY, I see her twice a day every day. I live 17.5 miles from her and work a further 11 miles away so my petrol bill is more than £250 a month. Stable rent is about £100 a month, feed and hay is about £60 per month, insurance I can't remember, I deal with her hooves myself so no farrier bills, bedding is £15 month in the winter, almost nil in the summer although I do keep a bed down for her if she fancies a night in, and the big whammie, her drugs bill is not less than £530 a month. Most people forget to factor in the cost of wear and tear on their car when they have a horse - I do around 22K miles a year just commuting so you can imagine I get through tyres pretty quickly. My previous car had 166K miles on the clock when I part-exed it (it had 30K when I bought it 5 years before).

Needless to say all my clothes come from charity shops and I've had 1 weeks holiday since 1995 when I bought her.
 
Fatpiggy - £530 a month for drugs :eek: :eek: :eek: What's wrong with her?

My old boy is semi-retired, I did just start bringing him back into work, but he's so stiff I'm not sure if I'm doing the right thing by him :confused:

I agree - most people only factor in their fuel bills (if that), forgetting about wear & tear. I'm very lucky - my yard is less than 2 miles from my house (I couldn't do DIY if it were any further, I'm up at 4.45 to get them done before work).
 
Well its mostly for her epilepsy (2000 phenobarbitone tablets and a half kilo of potassium bromide per month costs around £340 so now you know why you can count the number of treated cases in the UK on the thumbs of your right hand! ), then as those block most other drugs she can only have Metacam for her arthritis, so thats another £165 a month, but at least her Cushings is cheap at around £26 a month :) She has cost me well in excess of £30000 just for drugs since 1998 - cue manic laughter

Sadly I've decided her arthritis is becoming too much of a burden for her, particularly in the winter months, so I'm planning to have her PTS at the end of the summer. As a work colleague pointed out, one month of saved drugs bill will pay for that :(
 
fatpiggy said:
Well its mostly for her epilepsy (2000 phenobarbitone tablets and a half kilo of potassium bromide per month costs around £340 so now you know why you can count the number of treated cases in the UK on the thumbs of your right hand! ), then as those block most other drugs she can only have Metacam for her arthritis, so thats another £165 a month, but at least her Cushings is cheap at around £26 a month :) She has cost me well in excess of £30000 just for drugs since 1998 - cue manic laughter

Sadly I've decided her arthritis is becoming too much of a burden for her, particularly in the winter months, so I'm planning to have her PTS at the end of the summer. As a work colleague pointed out, one month of saved drugs bill will pay for that :(
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Aw, how old is she FP? She sounds so well looked after, how selfless of you to have done all that for her and so sorry that you've had to reach that conclusion xx
 
fatpiggy said:
Well its mostly for her epilepsy (2000 phenobarbitone tablets and a half kilo of potassium bromide per month costs around £340 so now you know why you can count the number of treated cases in the UK on the thumbs of your right hand! ), then as those block most other drugs she can only have Metacam for her arthritis, so thats another £165 a month, but at least her Cushings is cheap at around £26 a month :) She has cost me well in excess of £30000 just for drugs since 1998 - cue manic laughter

Sadly I've decided her arthritis is becoming too much of a burden for her, particularly in the winter months, so I'm planning to have her PTS at the end of the summer. As a work colleague pointed out, one month of saved drugs bill will pay for that :(
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That is just so lovely of you - so many people say they love their horses and then ship them off as soon as they aren't able to be ridden.
 
minkymoo said:
Good god woman! Don't ever, ever add anything up. Just let it slowly haemorrhage out of your bank account whilst all your lovely glamourous friends swan about in delicious shoes and designer clothes.
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Absolutely agree!

And if you do add it up, don't feel guilty. Instead work out how much it would cost you per year to have a cigarette smoking habit of 20 a day (and provided you don't smoke 20 a day then you can feel virtuous that you are spending same/less on your horse as you would be on fags).

apologies to any smokers as they can't use this analogy to make them feel guilt-free about the cost of horseowning!
 
fatpiggy said:
Well its mostly for her epilepsy (2000 phenobarbitone tablets and a half kilo of potassium bromide per month costs around £340 so now you know why you can count the number of treated cases in the UK on the thumbs of your right hand! ), then as those block most other drugs she can only have Metacam for her arthritis, so thats another £165 a month, but at least her Cushings is cheap at around £26 a month :) She has cost me well in excess of £30000 just for drugs since 1998 - cue manic laughter

Sadly I've decided her arthritis is becoming too much of a burden for her, particularly in the winter months, so I'm planning to have her PTS at the end of the summer. As a work colleague pointed out, one month of saved drugs bill will pay for that :(
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Oh FP, you sound like someone who really truly cares for your horse. Seen her through while you can and knowing when it's fair to let her go. Out of interest do the drugs completely control the epilepsy or just lessen it?

Pan
 
Hi she's 29 and started on her anti-seizure treatment in 1998. I thought I might get a couple more years with her before her liver packed up due to them, but she was bloodtested at Christmas (when she was diagnosed with Cushings) and apparently her liver is in extremely good shape, even for a lady of very advanced years. The drugs have controlled her seizures about 99.9%. The odd lapse was simply because she had become immune to that amount of drug and needed more. She has had a busy working life all the time she has been on them including competing at local shows and her favourite bit about being ridden was galloping.

She seems happy enough pottering about and spends much of her day dozing in the field while waiting for the grass to grow, but she isn't always as steady on her old legs as I would like and fell down on her knees in the road a couple of weeks ago (she just slipped behind, but that's all it takes). I'm guessing from the way she stands with a hind leg forward and almost crossed under her that her lower back aches with arthritis too. I have arthritis and I know how the pain can make you very miserable. I'd rather she went with some dignity and with the sun on her back, than stuck in the mud and exhausted. Words can't describe how bad I feel because she is the most precious thing in the world to me, but we all have to face it sooner or later, so I shall just have to suck it up unfortunately :(

Fingers crossed for a nice sunny summer in the meantime for her.
 
I worked this out last night.

I have one retired and one semiretired on DIY in total they cost me (together) £335 a month.

Merlin is on part-livery and costs £420 a month after I take off the money my sharer pays :D

However this includes worming, shoes, routine teeth, vaccinations etc and also insurance averaged out over a year.
 
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2 Horses retired at DIY Livery who are stabled.

I budget about £600.00 per month for the two of them - which includes livery, hay, stable, field, feed, shoes.

Plus

One is on Danilon which is £60 every two months or so.

Costs above does not include insurance for them (about £250 per year), wormers, tack or rug replacements or petrol, car costs etc.

Nor does it include all the money I have just spent of electric fencing - 2 energisers, shed full of posts and electric tape, or the new gate I had to buy coz one of them kept rubbing it's bum on it and bent it all out of shape ! Hence why the field is now completely electric fenced round the perimeter.

Yard is 5 miles from home and I go up twice per day.

It is a lot of money for no riding pleasures ... but hey ho, they are with me for life
 
Stable and grazing £80.00
Feed and bedding £20
Feet £10
Insurance £30

Plus
Horsebox £30 (minus any fuel)
Petrol to get there £160

Total cost £330

Doesn’t seem too bad but then the first lot of figures are based on one horse and I have two! The total cost is frightening when you add on other stuff we all buy each month plus vet bills etc.

I really do need to get down to one horse. The price of fuel is beginning to be a serious issue as well.
 
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DIY Livery £115 a month
Hay £60 a month
Straw £35 a month
Farrier £20 every 6 weeks
I budget for Womer, yearly injections & dentist £20 a month
£20 a month on feed (only have speedibeet & Happy hoof!!)
£5 a month on carrots!!
£80 a month on fuel to get to and from the yard
Insurance £31 a month
Lessons £40 a month

Total £426 a month per horse (winter £468)

Not including the initial cost of things like yard equipment, rugs, tack, riding gear etc

This also doesn't include services like turn out or bring in charges at £1.50 a time. 50p rug changes etc which in the winter adds another £42 a month to my livery bill.
 
Part livery, including hay, straw, feed and garlic and seaweed is just about £280 per month. Shoes about £30, insurance £30, vets, teeth, back probably average £20 per month total, a couple of lessons a month at £20 each ... So that comes to about £400 per month, and I can probably add another £50 per month for bits of tack, etc.
 
my TB currently costs me

Livery - £120 PCM
Shoes - £75 6 weekly
Feed - £10 a month
Supplement - £27.95 for 3 months supply
Hay - £40 for about 3 months supply

She is currently living out and looks amazing (in my opinion anyway) Not all TB's are vet prone poor doers! I have had my mare 4 years and she has seen the vet for 3 ailments! only one was an injury, she bashed her eye in her stable in the night. She is so much cheaper to keep than my old TB x who was a vet prone poor doer!
 
I think the only thing you can learn from a thread like this is how much the costs vary - especially around the country!!

I think H is pretty 'cheap to run'! He's on working grass livery, which includes 2 feeds a day if needed, hay as required, rugs on and off as required etc for £180. Shoes are £75 per 6 weeks. Other expenses would be the usual jabs, dentist, wormers, insurance etc. I guess £250 to £300 a month would cover it.
 
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