How much does it really cost to own a horse?

[mama24]

Give it to me; the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Oh, btw, I mean having horses on a few acres in your backyard, not boarding anywhere.

 

[Glenmar]

Grain about $55 a month.

Hay $20-30 about a month

Feet trim maybe $25-30 every 6-8 weeks.

Bedding- depends.

 

[debilorrah]

I'll tell ya, our 2 horses cost us around $400-500 a month. The price of alfalfa hay is through the roof right now, and our picky horses would rather starve themselves that eat 3-way or bermuda, which is pricey itself right now. Then the farrier cost of $80-$100 every few months for hoof trims, shoes, etc. Now figure in the cost of the vaccinations. Even when we did it ourselves, it was about $40 a month. Except when all they needed was Ivermectin.

Do I wish we still had them? Yes. Unfortunately we just cannot afford their upkeep at the level it should be.

 

[debilorrah]

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Here a bale of alfalfa is $25 a small, 90 lb bale.

 

[Glenmar]

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Wow. Your cost of living out there is way more then in Virginia.

 

[Glenmar]

I don't use alfalfa. Just $3-7 a bale orchard grass hay in addition to pasture.

 

[Pebbles]

I'm in Arizona and we have our horses here at our home. A horse eats a bale of hay a week. I feed heavy-my favorite color for a horse is fat I don't supplement my horses unless they are really burning the calories. I use my horses for riding and driving. I do not supplement as a rule. I feed good quality alfalfa/grass mix hay. Our bales weight about 110 lbs each and are running about $16.00 per bale if you buy your hay at the local feed store. We buy hay by the truck load and right now it is not much cheaper than the feed store. Our horses are bare foot which requires a trim every couple of months. My bare foot trimmer taught me how to trim the right way so I don't have to call her out as often as most people would.

I am not a big vaccine person except for tetanous because our horses do not enteract with other horses. If they were at a boarding stable I probable would have the standard vaccines. If you have horses who live outside 24/7 with room to move around, horse friends to keep them company and fresh hay and water and excirsize on a regular basis your vet bill will be very low if not zero.

Now, that is the bare bones of it. If you don't look at anything when you go in the feed store and don't look at anything horsey on line and for goodness sakes don't talk to your horsey friends about what they feed their horse and what fly spray they use and if they use fly predators or fly bags or both and what color halter they got for Christmas you can get by on the cheap but don't count on it. But in the long run my horses and chickens are worth every single cent, every sacrifice, every sleepless night, every tear, every scratch, blister and bruise for the last 40 years

 

[yinepu]

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X2
the only time i needed to call the vet was for coggins test when i went to sell mine and to geld a young stud
we had 9 horses at one time.. sold them and now only have our little mini stud and a mini donkey
I do miss my bigger horses.. but my back said they had to go

 

[michickenwrangler]

I board

I pay $225/month for pasture board on my 19 yr old mare.

She also gets rice bran on top of the grain that the stable provides. +$40/month.

Board for Pony is $150.

Trim every 8 weeks is $60 for the two of them

Routine vet visit for shots, coggins, teeth in spring was $450 (that was a split farm call too)

Grand total of $5,890 a year

This does NOT include any emergency vet care, maintenance on truck and trailer and competing expenses.

 

[mama24]

Well, I'm asking b/c we are moving to the country. I said something about getting horses and my husband got all upset and insisted there was no way we could ever afford horses. Here's where we differ. He's a city boy from the suburbs of Philadelphia. The very very expensive suburbs. I'm sure only rich people can afford horses there for sure! But I'm from SW PA and grew up with neighbors and friends who were just as poor as my family (I'm the 2nd of 5 kids, my dad was a coal miner and my mom stayed at home) having horses out in their fields getting fat all summer and eating hay all winter. They only fed their horses feed as a treat, not even a daily ration, at least in the summer, not sure about the winter feed schedule. Obviously, I would not do this myself without reading up on proper horse care, etc. But I am of a mind that horses are only expensive if you let them be. How long have people had horses without all this fancy stuff? I don't need all the fancy equipment. If I can't find a good used saddle, I rode bareback all the time with just a halter, no bit, as a kid and my kids can learn the same way until we find stuff. There are plenty of horses for sale cheap in our area right now on Craigslist, and a lot of them come with their own tack. Most of them show pics of the horses being ridden and go on and on about how much they love the horse, what a great horse it is, but they just can't afford it due to job loss or are moving away due to job, etc, etc. It's sad! A couple of the horses I've seen listed looked way skinny! So sad! It's not like we're poor like I was as a kid (and like all my friends who lived on farms were and had horses!) And it's not like I want to buy 10. Just 1 or 2. And a pony or mini for the littles. lol. Btw, I checked on Craigslist for the price of hay, too. Horse hay goes for $4-6 a square bale $25 for a roll, alfalfa goes for $7-9 a bale. Doesn't seem too bad to me. And I'm a do-it-yourself-er. I give our cat her vaccines, can't see why I couldn't do the same for a horse. I built our chicken coop by myself from scratch, starting with graphing paper when I couldn't find plans that were "just right." Just today I saw an ad for 2 nice looking young broke quarter horses that came with everything (tack, blankets, buckets) wanting to sell them both together for $800, just "please keep them together."

The property we're moving to has 2 large pastures, and a small paddock where the horse building is. Not sure what to call it, it's not a barn or a stable. Has 1 really big open stall, about the size of 3-4 regular horse stalls, a tack room with kitchen type counters and a nice vinyl floor, looks nicer than the rooms in the house!

guess you'd store feed in there, too, and a sheltered outdoor area that looks like it was used to store hay, or maybe just has hay spread out to be used as an outdoor shelter. It also has a smaller building that looks like it was used to house goats, and a complete large chicken house, big enough for at least 20 birds with roosts, light, and everything! Already there!