What's the true cost of owning a horse?

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MrsJ

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I currently loan a horse from a riding school, which costs me £110 a month. I'm now thinking of buying my own.

Based on it going on working livery at £59 a month, what would you say is going to be my true cost per month?
 
The true cost is..........erm, well, er....hmm...how long is a piece of string ?

Everyone on this forum will spend vastly different amounts, all I know is that we are broke, broke, broke and every spare bit of cash manages to be spent on my boy ;)
 
I have no idea what it costs as I am too frightened to sit down and add it all up! As Shysmum says though, no matter how much you spend, they will bankrupt you!
 
£59 per month... Are you sure it's not £59 a week?

If it's £59 a month I don't think you will get to see a lot of your horse!
 
Agree with wench, check the contract very carefully! I had a brilliant working livery deal, but there are absolute horror stories out there.

WRT working out costs, there are so many variables. You need to add up:

Shoes (needed more often if also working in the school) - £50 month/average?
Insurance - £25 - £50?
Hay
Bedding
Feed
Teeth checks
Back checks
Worming
Annual vaccinations plus other vet bills as they arise

Lots of other things might be "optional" but unless you have a will of iron you need to budget for those too:
BHS / riding club membership
Lessons
Entry fees if competing
Travel costs
Cost of necessary rugs, tack, other kit (fly spray, saddle soap etc)
Cost of unnecessary kit

Don't forget to add in travel to the yard as well - this can very quickly get very expensive!

To be honest the actual basic cost of livery is only a fraction of the costs involved, so although the livery is cheap you might still find it adds up to a fair bit. I'd work out the costs on DIY / part livery as well in order to decide if working livery is going to be worth the hassle of sharing him with the school. Alternatively, look at DIY plus a sharer with a financial contribution as a way of covering costs.
 
If it's £59 a month check very carefully what you get for your money. You would be looking at paying that amount for a basic DIY yard, so I am not sure how that works out feeding horse etc for that amount.
 
MrsJ said:
Definately £59 a month and they can use it for 7 hours a week....
Click to expand...

That's a fair bit. Assuming the horse gets one day off a week, they'll be using it for one or two hours every single day. There's no reason at all why the horse can't work twice, but you need to be comfortable with coming up to ride after it has already been ridden that day, or having your own "days" and knowing the horse will be doing two or maybe even three hours on other days with the riding school on "their" days. There isn't anything wrong with this system necessarily, but lots of people would really struggle with it.

You also need to be clear on which days are whose - they're more likely to want it at weekends, when you will also want to ride - and what happens if you want to go to a show?
 
Agree with all the above, especially the sanity, add into that any social life you may want to have that doesn't involve other horse people, hands that normal people would expect to have, etc etc :D
 
About 15k a year I reckon. Livery is £180 a week thou. Then shoes, vets fees, cost of running and maintaing lorry, money for hunting and shows, insurance etc etc etc ..... Oh and my tack shop addiction to feed too :0
 
Well my monthly costs are:

Livery- £117
Farrier- £50
Feed- £8.50
Hay- £22
Shavings- £20
Insurance- £40

Total- £257.50

That's for a 14.2 pony on DIY livery.

Then you have the additional costs of saddle fittings, vaccinations, dentists, back check (physio or chiropractor- at least once a year) and worming.

I *think* that I remembered everything.

Oh and none of that includes start up fee's such as saddles, tack, rugs, boots, grooming supplies etc.
Oh, and the price of the horse! :rolleyes:
 
Thank God to hear from other people who say it's a lot. I got shot down in flames and told I was being conned on this forum the other day for saying my winter costs are about £560 / month for everything including livery, feed, bedding, shoes and insurance. Seems a lot of people manage to do it for half that but I can't see how, unless they have their horses at home. Since then I have been practically counting the individual pieces of woodchip to try and save some money... help! Am I being conned?
 
I pay in the winter:
Livery- 100 a month with as much hay n straw as i want. (25 a week)
Shoes-60
Feed- 20
Insurance- 30
Box insurance- 19

Then obviously the extras r competeing etc jeezzzzzz i couldnt afford 500+ id die. our yards nice is all diy we have an all weather school n plenty of hacking. the most expensive yard in my areas only 35 a week with your hay n straw included diy - i feel lucky now :)
 
My break down is
Livery £380
Haylage £40
Shoes £84+ normally another £50 on lost shoes :-(
Insurance £91
Feed £50
Lessons £250
Fuel bill for towing and yard visit daily £450

In other words - a small fortune :-(
 
My horse has her own bank account and receives an "allowance" of £400 per month. Diy livery is £80 per month. She is unshod so farrier is only £20 per trim rather than £75 per shoeing. Insurance is around £65 per month. The rest covers feed, vaccinations, winter haylage and bedding - She has full turnout in summer and is in at night in the winter. The account accrues a surplus which pays for tack and rug replacements and emergancy vet fees not covered on the insurance. I pay for lessons, competition entry fees etc from "my own" account so these costs are not included.
 
DIY livery 80 pcm
farrier 60 every 5-6 wks
insurance 40/mth
shavings winter 26 month summer a bale lasts a month summer (on rubber matting)
Hay 40 lge bale lasts 5 wks winter
ifeed 21/month
supplement 18/3mth
plus saddle check yrly, dentist every 9 months, yearly clipper service & sharpen blades as req, rug cleaning & repairs 80/ yr.
 
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