Table of Content
It’s very important to have ways to get up and leave. Otherwise, you may begin to resent the very thing you love-your horse. Certainly, one of your most agonizing moments will be your first time away from home, trusting someone else to care for your beloved equine.
It can cost from $100 to $700 per month according to the location and the type of boarding. You should also allocate for one-time or infrequent expenses like tack, blankets, building housing and fencing , a horse trailer, and a vehicle to haul your trailer. Horses are a living breathing animal with needs, just like us. They need proper feed, housing, veterinary care, and farrier care to stay happy and healthy.
Horses at Home
Preventative vet care also helps to reduce unexpected medical costs, which is why keeping your horse up to date on vaccinations, teeth, and hoof care is important. Horse feed costs vary depending on your location and the individual horse. For our purposes, we estimated average grain and hay costs for one year. There are a lot of factors that can influence your equine bottom line. Purchasing your horse, buying a horse trailer, taking horseback riding lessons, and competing can all inflate your expenses . Liability insurance should be covered under the horse farm liability insurance.
This is a huge step for us ex-Los Angelenos, and we both work full-time about 30-miles from where we’re looking for property. Not only is it a big step to own some acreage, but also taking on more horses. I think for companions I’d look at finding some rescue horses that don’t necessarily need to be rideable, and possibly a mini-donkey (just cause they’re cute). I’d also consider a boarder or two to help offset cost of owning all my own, but worry about the ties that can come with that too.
How Much Does a Horse Cost? (2022 Update)
Our monthly cost for our horses is a couple hundred dollars LESS per horse than when we were boarding! Our expenses include hay, grain, shavings for bedding, water and electricity. Haven't had pasture expenses except for overseeding late last summer. They've held up extremely well due to the careful rotation we do. We found a property with 5 acres on a cul-de-sac (all the neighboring houses had 5-7 acre lots and 1 had horses as well).
You never know when an unexpected expense will arise, and even if there are no surprises, it can cost thousands of dollars each year just to meet the minimal needs of a horse. Horses should be provided with a deworming medication every two or three months, which costs about $15 each. Vaccinations are typically administered twice a year, which includes boosters for diseases such as influenza and tetanus. Vaccination booster visits can cost between $25 and $50 each. Here is what you should know about the annual expenses that come with owning a horse.
Bi-Yearly Horse Expenses
A horse can go their entire life without ever needing emergency care, while others may require such care several times before they become seniors. It all depends on the genes, diet, health, happiness, and quality of life that a horse experiences. Some emergency services cost only a couple hundred dollars, but others, like surgery, can cost upward of $10,000 or more. Buying a horse from a breeder is the costliest option but the most flexible. You will be paying for pedigree, showmanship, and breeder expertise.
Get ready to pull out the credit card because horse ownership can get pricey. Electric fencing, and the size of it can be changed if the weather is bad and I want to do a little riding inside. In 2005, I built a 60 x 36 steel pole barn with 12x20 shed "lean-to" additions on either side making the whole barn 60x60. One shed addition has three 10x12 stalls, one 10x12 wash stall , and a 20x12 tack room with cement floor, insulation, waterproof walls, sink, h/w heater. The barn roof is also all insulated with three sets of clear panels in the roof for light. Lee I was born in Dover NJ, and raised in Mine Hill about five minutes outside of Rockaway in north central NJ about 44 miles from the city.
I was doing laundry and kept smelling "horse"...I thought it was because it was damp out, and there were damp barn clothes in the muDrOom. Went in to fill a pot of water for spaghetti, and the water was coffee colored!! Turned out the well was pumping water from a surface fed water source.
Or, your horse may need more than one-half bale. Expect to pay around $400-$1000 a month for 2 horses at home. It used to be that horses were rotated on wormers every other month. There was a certain de-wormer you would use for that time of the year. You could even buy a package of six wormers which would last for the year. For your farm, you will want liability insurance, even if it is your own private barn.
I started riding at Seaton Hackney in Morristown as a nine year old but it was so expensive my mother persuaded me to take up skiing instead (which wasn't a whole lot cheaper). Fast forward 20 years I took up riding again in Montana and we got Demetrius a year later. Yes...and perhaps you can fence two separate areas so that you can rotate. It will be a stretch to support three horses on three acres without having to supplement with hay. But, I can run 4-6 horses, with proper pasture management, and intensive grazing, along with knowing I will need hay year round. Per horse, but this doesn't include allowing for major medical expenses or the farrier's bills.
The equipment and the clothes can get very expensive, but Craigslist and the clearance department at tack stores help out a lot. You really don’t have to go broke to let your kid ride a horse. If your horse is stabled, they will need bedding, this is usually straw or shavings but can also include paper, wood pellets, rubber stable matting or hemp. The cheapest of these is straw and will cost around £10- – £15 a week on top of your livery costs. One of the first things to consider is where your horse is going to stay, unless you are lucky enough to own a farm or land big enough to keep a horse on. Local farmers are a good option to investigate as they may have a field you can rent from them and tend to be on the lower side cost-wise.
Muffi, yes we got lucky--only took 2-days to sell our other house, one less thing to worry about. Our stalls were also built so that we could break down a wall quickly or convert the wash stall in a pinch. We haven't needed to with the indoor/outdoor paddocks and double doored stalls.
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