monthly cost guidelines

[loulou1972]

I am thinking about buying my own horse.

Can anybody tell me what i should be looking at paying per month for livery and farriers, feed etc as im not sure thing seem to have changed alot in the last 5-10 years.

What would be an average cost for livery per week so i can guage if its a good one or rubbish yard?

Any ideas?
:rolleyes:

[NoviceNic]

I will be paying the following for a 14 2 hh hw cob:

DIY livery £25 pw
Bed £5 pw
Hay £10 pw. 3/4 bale a day in the Winter. May end up putting 1 bale a day in
Feed £20 pm. Not 100% on this but expect I will soon find out.
Worm £15 every 13 weeks.
Farrier £50 full set every 7 weeks.
Vacc £70 pa
Lessons £20 ph per week
Teeth £25 every 6 months

[Jakes Mum]

Difficult one to cost as there are so many variations, and it depends on what area you are looking in as well. I don't think you can gauge how good/bad a yard is by the price, some cheaper yards are far better than some dearer yards. :)

DIY livery in the area i'm in varies between £15 - £35 / week.

My horses, on average, are currently costing me just over £50 / week each, they are both barefoot (nothing to do with cost cutting) so I haven't got the additional cost of shoes.

Good luck if you do go down the horse ownership route, and best of luck :)

[acw295]

Hi, I've been trying to work this out myself. There are loads of old threads on here that discuss livery costs etc, just do a search.

All depends on what sort of livery you want, DIY around me seems to be £25 per week but that is just for stable and grazing, part livery £80-£99, not looked at full livery as I don't want that.

I'm working on the following as monthly costs, but as it is hypothetical I don't know how accurate it is yet!

Part Livery (inc. shavings, basic feed (no supplements etc) and ad lib hay/haylage) £380
Farrier £48 (based on roughly £70 set every 6 weeks, it might be a bit cheaper than that)
Worming £5 (based on Equest/Equitape year pack!)
Vaccinations/Teeth/Chiro/Saddle Fit £25 (a bit of guesswork really, depends how often needed)
Insurance £50
Riding Lessons £40 (I can get group lessons for £10 per hour on 'own' horse)
Emergency Fund £50 for vets fees etc
Tack/Equipment £25
Supplements £30 (another shot in the dark really, depends on what they need)

Which comes to a whopping £663 per month! :eek:

I'm hoping to find slightly cheaper livery (although I don't think assisted DIY works out much cheaper unless I find a horse that is a very good doer and doesn't need much hay or feed) and hope I've over estimated some costs. I can afford £600 per month so just hope I can squeeze it down to that!

I'll be interested to hear what you estimate your costs to be!

[NoviceNic]

OMG thank goodness I live in Lincolnshire. There would be no way I could afford the cost to keep a horse in Milton Keynes. :eek:

[acw295]

I know NoviceNic - it's really depressing! I am hoping I am completely mistaken and actual costs will be half what I've predicted but as I've researched it quite well I think I'd be kidding myself :(

5 day assisted DIY works out at about £75 per week inc, shavings, feed, stable, grazing, 5 day am turnout/feed/muck out so there's not much between that and 7 day part livery :(

I'll just have to look for a job that pays the same but is somewhere cheap for horses - ideas anyone :D

[NoviceNic]

Full livery costs £75 pw here and that includes either a lesson or schooling your horse.

[acw295]

Job search in Lincolnshire begins now then :D

I wish! Got too much 'life' going on here to leave for the time being :(

[BeachRiding]

This is in U.S dollars, so don't know if this will be any help:

Per horse:

- $60 a month for hay

- $60 every 2 months for shoes

-$10 misc.

In boarding I paid:

- $175 for full care boarding

-$85 every 2 months shoeing

-$20-60 misc.

[Skib]

I dont have a horse, acw, because my figures worked out much like yours.

But to be honest I did not add in quite so much in the way of extras.
I am surprised it comes quite so high in Milton Keynes.
These are my figures. If I want a horse near to my home in London the basic full livery is about £30 per day. i.e. c £11,000 p.a. And shoeing and insurance etc and lessons on top of that.
But if I were to go out into Surrey like where Dee keeps Cooper the cost would come right down. Depending on where I kept my horse the cost would come down to (guesstimate) £5,500 - £8,000.
OH wants my horse to be near home. Whereas I think that £11,000 is a disproportionate amount to use for my riding.

Compare that to what I have enjoyed this summer. I can ride for three hours near my home plus have an excellent lesson for £158 a week (equivalent to £8,216 p.a.). I began to ride "ad lib" last Christmas, but over a year I wont have spent nearly as much as that. Sometimes I ride more hours and sometimes less. But if I am away or ill, I have no overheads.

I looked at my costs last week. If I were to ride all year as much as I rode while the weather was good it would come to £6,800 p.a. But my actual expenditure over the 12 months to the end of August came to £4,370. I could afford to share a horse out in Surrey as well.

[Selle Francais]

Hi there, well I'm in Surrey, which is much the same as Hampshire, and my costs are:

Full livery - £530 per month
Shoes - vary, but £30 a pair, so about £45 per month
Insurance - £300 p.a. (NFU Mutual - super company!)
Dentist - £45 twice a year
Injections - £40 a year

So that's just about £600 a month, before any odd things like tack repair, or vet's fees. But that is for full livery, so not all bad.

Hope that's helpful

SF

[Wobblydeb]

:eek: Arghhhh!!! It's horrific when you put it into annual terms isn't it? :eek:

I have to say I am very lucky living in Northumberland. The three places I looked at charge between £54-£70 full livery per week. Nothing mega-posh, but offer all year turnout, a decent sized airy stable, and somewhere floodlit to ride. :)

[*Sez*]

I pay (per week)

£16 DIY livery, which includes:- Stable, grazing, straw, use of schools and jumps (2x outdoor, 1 indoor in winter), personal tackroom.

£5 a week in summer for haylage, £10 in winter (for as much as he needs)
OR
£3.00 per bale of hay (which works out at around £9.00 a week)

Feed works out at about £5.00 a week (that's Alfa A, Calm & Condition, Speedibeet, Steady Up, Garlic and Seaweed) as some things (i.e. Alfa-A, Speedibeet and Steady Up) last me for a good few months.

Farrier is £54 every seven-eight weeks

Then you have other regular costs like worming, lessons, vaccinations, saddle fitter, insurance, club memberships, and irregular costs like physiotherapy, other vets fees, rug cleaning/reproofing/repair/replacements, etc... I recently had to work out Salsa's costs as a set monthly figure (when is it ever set?? :rolleyes: ) for purposes of working out my budget with a debt counsellor and when you broke it all down, it came to £206 a month! :eek: :eek: :eek: However, in reality, some months it costs me nearer to £120, which is not quite so scary!

[Imp]

DIY Livery in Kent: £80 pm - £20 pw. for stable, 2 acre turnout, outdoor school and jumps.

Farrier: £30 - £60 every 8 weeks

Worming programme: £6 - Westgate labs test every 2 months £12

Insurance: £35 pm with Petplan

Vet: £6.25 p.m - £75 per year

Tack shop spend: £10 roughly

Feed: £36 hay - happyhoof £7 per bag which lasts months and pony nuts at £5ish again lasts months as she's such a good doer (lasts roughly 2 months in winter)

Again, training, lessons, saddler, back check, equine dentist etc etc... no wonder I'm broke :( (wouldn't change her for the world though :D )

[CrisO]

Interesting. I too have been looking at costs as I am thinking of getting a horse.

Research so far ( this is in london)
One with excellent facilities is £17 per day. That I understood was for everything except exercise, grooming and tack cleaning.
Another charges £100 for the same per week but gives you the option of 5 day full for £65. So you do all the chores at the weekend.

The farrier is £55 per visit. I would probably add a bit more to your vets figures as the horse I have shared since march has had 2 visits in that time for injuries out in the field. However would only have a lesson once a month at £15 for a private.

My plan is that I need to be able to do the money side on my own but I will still get a sharer to help out with exercise and the extra money will be a nice extra not essential.

[carrimclaren]

Part livery per month - £100 Winter £250 (my hay and straw is in with livery)
Farrier per month - £60

But then on top you have;

Dentist - £17 every 6 months
Backman - £30 every 6 months (roughly)
Wormer - £10 every (2-3 months)
Feed - roughly £15 every 3 months
Horse insurance - £300


So roughly about £3500 basic costs. This is without the cost of tack, rugs, bits and bobs etc. Oh and the odd £300 vets bill when your horse is lame :rolleyes:

[carrimclaren]

One with excellent facilities is £17 per day. That I understood was for everything except exercise, grooming and tack cleaning.




Blimey, £120 a week !!! What does that cover?

[EmmaRotherham]

loving this thread.. giving me a good idea of what i need to be able to have for 'if i get my own'

I know i'm hoping to save up a decent backup some before taking the plunge.. then I want to spend a year just me and horse, before looking for a suitable sharer/part loan. One to help with time and costs a little but actually mainly in repayment to all those wonderful people who have given ME the chance to share over the years. Without them I'd not even be considering buying my own at all

[Skib]

Criso.
Have you really found livery at that price in London? Or outside? And if so is it to the north?

[chickflick1066]

£68 per month grass livery
£20 a month feed (chaff, cubes and speedi-beet)
£15 a wormer every 13 weeks
£15 per week 1hr lesson
£60 shoes every 6 weeks
£30 a month on supplements
£25 on a huge bale of hay

I think that's it.

[CrisO]

Skib

North london. Are you still coming to the london meet tonight - if so can tell you details of who.
I pay £38 per week for a 1/3 share that is £33 for livery and £5 towards the shoeing. The facilities are 2 outdoor schools, 1 pretty small indoor school. Jumps etc. Fields you can ride in if the ground is OK. Full turnout in summer if required but in winter there may only be alternate day turnout (mares and geldings alternate) depending on the ground. Limited hacking and what there is involves roadwork. Lockable tackrooms either individual or shared with 1 or 2 others. Unless they've changed their policy it is the same place that also offers a 5 day full livery which is a great idea for those of us that work but are free at weekends.
The £17 per day one has better hacking and cross country and this price was told to me for a smaller horse (15:1). It is much posher that the first one. However from my point of view more difficult to get to from public transport though still very doable.

Also know of riding schools which full livery is about £500 a month but personally I would not want to be at a riding school as their busy evening periods coincide with when I want to ride.


Carrimclaren
That would include hay and hard feed, bedding, mucking out turn out\catching including changing rugs. Present for visits from vets\ farrier\ dentists etc. It's not a bad price for london where land is at a premium.

[Skib]

Yes. It will be nice to meet you. But I am south London. And one of the yards close to us seems to have closed down this summer.

[CrisO]

And by the time you have crossed south to north london, you would be better to go further south and get better hacking